The lasting effects of ‘bad paper’ discharges on military veterans

Wednesday, September 11, 2019

7:30 p.m. 8:45 p.m.

USC Town and Gown Ballroom


Since 2001, tens of thousands of service members have been forced out of the military with “bad paper” or a less-than-honorable discharge that prevents them from accessing V.A. health care and other veterans benefits. Often these administrative discharges for misconduct are the result of PTSD or traumatic brain injury, as service members seeks ways to cope with the invisible wounds they endured in the military. For these veterans, a bad paper discharge may have lifelong consequences, as research shows it can lead to higher rates of unemployment, homelessness and suicide.

On Sept. 11, Pulitzer Prize-winning Times journalist and Marine veteran C. J. Chivers will moderate a discussion of the issue. The panel will include national correspondent and Pulitzer Prize winner Dave Philipps; Rose Carmen Goldberg, a lecturer at U.C. Berkeley School of Law who represented veterans with bad paper as a supervising staff attorney at Swords to Plowshares, a veterans rights organization in San Francisco; as well as Monique Jenea, a Navy veterans who was discharged with bad paper. Mr. Chivers and Mr. Philipps are both contributors to At War, The Times’s channel for exploring the experiences and costs of war.

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