How "Honorable" a discharge?

[Atman]

Use this next time a pubbie whines "But W got an honorable discharge!" So...he probably had a burning discharge, too...

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From "The New Republic"

<snip>

A cursory survey shows plenty of examples of servicemen with questionable--and occasionally criminal--histories who have nonetheless collected honorable discharges from the military. Far from being a mark of exemplar service, the honorable discharge is better thought of as a standard severance, something every soldier receives unless there's significant evidence of misconduct and a commanding officer eager to brave the paperwork, panels, and disciplinary hearings required to send the soldier home with anything less. Like any number of other officers, Bush could have ducked out of his service for months and still received an honorable discharge.

Going missing from military service and then squeaking out with an honorable discharge has a rich history among politicians. Current U.S. Representative Bobby Rush, a Democrat from Illinois, served in the army through the mid-1960s, becoming progressively more involved with radical antiwar groups. In 1968, after Martin Luther King's assassination, he went AWOL from his unit to help found the Illinois chapter of the Black Panthers. Weeks later, he was honorably discharged.

In 1999, a Texas sheriff up for reelection saw his candidacy unravel after local newspapers reported that, despite a subsequent honorable discharge, he'd skipped out on Army service for several months in 1976 to "patch things up with his ex-wife." (He lost badly in a primary shortly after the revelations broke.)

The list of people who've pulled the AWOL-followed-by-honorable-discharge stunt almost makes it sound chic: A co-star of "Sex and the City"; Igor Stravinsky's biographer and sidekick (later arrested for his desertion in a New Orleans brothel). A few years ago, a guest columnist for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch ruminated on going AWOL from his unit routinely with a "case of beer" to drink himself "into oblivion." "I don't know how, but I did manage to get an honorable discharge."

There's a simple reason these stories are so common: In the military, the status quo presumption is that all soldiers will receive an honorable discharge; if the government wants to change that, "it has to put together a case to overcome that presumption," according to Michael Noone...<snip>

http://www.tnr.com/doc.mhtml?i=express&s=benson021204

[HawkerHurricane]

1. Absolutely true

I could stories (anecdotal evidence, not suitable for real debates) of many sailors who were allowed to leave with thier Honorable rather than go through the trouble of busting them. "Promise you won't try to reenlist, and keep your nose clean for the next 3 weeks, and you walk. Anything else goes down, and we hammer you for it." is a common quote in Captain's masts (Non-Judicial Punishment). I even heard it at a court martial. And it's much more common for officers; the Navy seems to have a active program to 'hush up' anything a officer does in return for them leaving quietly.

[ComerPerro]

2. Add to that the fact that they keep repeating

He was honorably discharged...


Hmm.

That is like cheating on a test to get a D minus in a class, and responding with "I passed, didn't I?" when someone calls you on it.

[Insider]

3. honorable service

honorable service trumps honorable discharge any day. he should have both.