Advice

[Garibay]

The Army can turn around IPEB decisions quickly, but you should be aware that they are now scheduling formal hearings for April, May, and June of next year for people who request a formal hearings- this is as of the past three weeks. They have hit a backlog, but it is at the FPEB level. Regular Air Force cases are processing well on the IPEB level, but Guard and Reserve cases are stagnating at that level right now. And, another reason why Air Force cases move faster is that they have eliminated the SAFPC level of appeal, a post-FPEB level of appeal still afforded to Army, Navy, and Coast Guard members. Thus, there are trade-offs. With the Navy PEB, it has been a staffing issue- they had a shortage of medical officers and were the only DOD branch that did not hire civilian adjudicators- retired medical and line officers- to avoid such issues. That is changing now, thanks to John Fitzpatrick, and the first civilian adjudicator has been brought on board. Hopefully, more will follow. Note- members in all DOD branches should also expect delays next spring and summer as PEB members will likely be tasked with collateral duties as Discharge Review Board members to deal with the current Army class settlement as well as the pending Navy class action settlement. The Air Force is starting to get immersed in this litigation too. These decisions will afford an avenue of relief to tens of thousands of veterans who were unjustly given general or OTH discharge. However, you should expect that PEB members will be detailed to many of these cases as the various Discharge Review Boards just do not have the personnel to process the number of appeals that are expected within the next year. It was never a COVID issue with the Navy PEB or its supervisory agency- the CORB- it was a manpower issue. The same was true of the Coast Guard PDES process for many months, but that is being slowly resolved too.

As someone who has worked their way through every avenue of approach to get information (IG complaint, ICE, Congressional Complaint, Request Mast) and still get stonewalled it's very hard to take either side.

We are in an organization that clearly defines timelines and expectations for 90% of everything we do. Most of the time those black and white words define if something has been successfully executed and the slightest deviation or exception deems it a failure. The PEB is not excluded from this same standard (DoDM 1332.18 Volume 2). Not shifting blame to the individuals at the PEB because it was a manpower issue. However, there needs to be an evaluation of some sort to figure out what went wrong. How did the PEB continuously fall deeper and deeper into this issue to the point where LINE OFFICERS had to be pushed into the workload of MOs. Where was the point where someone made the call up to big Navy and said "we're not accomplishing mission with the current manpower. Can we get some Medical Officers TAD'd or PCS'd to fill manpower deficiencies?"

I do agree with you that it's probably not for the benefit of anybody to blow up Mr. Fitzpatrick's phone/email distracting him form his daily duties. However, how are individuals supposed to get information with the current system?
PEBLOs? LOL
IDES Lawyers? Typically pretty good at giving you pieces of info on where your case is at.
Command Limited duty Coordinator? Typically an incompetent SNCO from the S-4 who just got thrown into the position and is lost in the sauce.

We have 5,000 Marines and sailors along with their families being thrown for a loop trying to figure out what they are going to do with their lives. unable to plan for anything (reenlistments, jobs, school, extending or getting out of leases, moving family members, Spouses not being able to plan their careers). Of course there are going to be people who go around the broken system for the slightest bit of information.

 

[JoeUSMC]

The Army can turn around IPEB decisions quickly, but you should be aware that they are now scheduling formal hearings for April, May, and June of next year for people who request a formal hearings- this is as of the past three weeks. They have hit a backlog, but it is at the FPEB level. Regular Air Force cases are processing well on the IPEB level, but Guard and Reserve cases are stagnating at that level right now. And, another reason why Air Force cases move faster is that they have eliminated the SAFPC level of appeal, a post-FPEB level of appeal still afforded to Army, Navy, and Coast Guard members. Thus, there are trade-offs. With the Navy PEB, it has been a staffing issue- they had a shortage of medical officers and were the only DOD branch that did not hire civilian adjudicators- retired medical and line officers- to avoid such issues. That is changing now, thanks to John Fitzpatrick, and the first civilian adjudicator has been brought on board. Hopefully, more will follow. Note- members in all DOD branches should also expect delays next spring and summer as PEB members will likely be tasked with collateral duties as Discharge Review Board members to deal with the current Army class settlement as well as the pending Navy class action settlement. The Air Force is starting to get immersed in this litigation too. These decisions will afford an avenue of relief to tens of thousands of veterans who were unjustly given general or OTH discharge. However, you should expect that PEB members will be detailed to many of these cases as the various Discharge Review Boards just do not have the personnel to process the number of appeals that are expected within the next year. It was never a COVID issue with the Navy PEB or its supervisory agency- the CORB- it was a manpower issue. The same was true of the Coast Guard PDES process for many months, but that is being slowly resolved too.

Amazing background information. Always helps to know what is going on but some of us were most definitely told by the PEB via our PEBLOs that COVID played a big part in the backlog. The PEB also said unprecedented delays in adjudicating cases were a result of delays caused by COVID. (words of the PEB to Congress)

How the sausage is made is never pretty but those going through the process shouldn't be kept in the dark. Several of us have been in the IPEB stage for 6 months and IDES for 400+ days with nothing more than a "it's because of COVID, we just have to keep waiting"

 

[Max21]

Hopefully today is the day

 

[RonG]

This is exceptionally bad advice on several different levels: 1. John Fitzpatrick is the Policy Director of the PEB. I have known him for 15 years- including when he was a Marine 0-6 board member and was one of the most pro-service member panelists during his time there. He has been working long hours for the past several months to bring additional staff on board, train them, and seek exceptions to policy from the ASEC to eliminate the backlog. 2. Posting his number publicly is likely to result in many individuals on this forum calling and distracting him from the task at hand- reducing the backlog. 3. In exceptional cases, it is reasonable to have Command POC reach out to him, but you are more well-advised to have your MEB counsel initially do so via email as it is often easier for him to reply that way in a timely manner. 4. While this is a free and open forum, it is associated with Jason Perry as its founder and this suggestion has the potential to cause disruption of John Fitzpatrick's workload that will cost Jason some of the goodwill that he has built up over the past decade with the Navy PEB. Thus, if you value Jason and this forum, you will recognize the potential for harm caused by your recommendation and remove this post. Summary- this advice is based upon 30+ years of representing clients in this system and doing it well, as Jason will confirm. This is very bad advice and members of this forum would be ill-advised to follow it.

Hello @johnbgately

Thank you for posting the important information above.

Ron