People Get Different Discharges in Apparently Similar Circumstances

As part of GAO's work on the military justice system, we obtained information on the practices followed by the services in permitting bargaining when people may be administratively discharged for unfitness and misconduct. GAO met with senior OSD and service officials and summarized for them our observations on the lack of consistency in the bargaining process. Some bargaining was conditional and some unconditional, resulting in individuals receiving different types of discharges (general or undesirable) for what seemed to be comparable types of offenses.