Punitive Discharge with Retirement Pay

When retirement-eligible military members are court-martialed for any offense and are punitively discharged, by operation of law they forfeit retirement pay—an amount sometimes more than one million dollars. This forfeiture is a collateral consequence of receiving a punitive dis-charge— it is not a specific punishment imposed by the court-martial sentencing authority or by the convening authority who approved the court-martial’s action. In some cases the loss of retirement pay is appropriate and reasonable; in other cases it is harsh and inappropriately severe. My thesis is that the court-martial members and the convening authority, not the operation of law, should deprive a member of retirement pay. This paper explores the implications of a new punishment, Punitive Discharge with Retirement Pay (PD&R).