Captain Brad Schwan, the Army officer who was told he couldn’t resign his commission, is finally being allowed to do so.
He writes:
I just wanted to send out a quick note to let you know that the Army has reversed its previous decision and accepted my second resignation. In a letter from LTG Jack Stultz, the new Chief of the Army reserve, he said that “based on recent changes [he has] directed concerning the processing of unqualified resignation requests by nonobligated officers, [he is] approving” my resignation and granting me an honorable discharge.
I am pleased that I received a discharge that I believe should have been granted over a year ago. It is a little bittersweet because the ambiguity in the law still exists for future situations like this to occur and it was inconvenient (to say the least) to get to this point. The good news is that this seems to be a shift in policy—not just an exception for my case—based on the Secretary of the Army’s recent comments and the general’s letter so hopefully this won’t happen to others anytime soon.
I will have more information on my website in the next week or so. Right now everything is on hold while I finish studying for and take the bar exam next week.
What remains to be seen is whether this is a sea change in the attitude of senior Army officials or whether they are merely reacting to negative publicity in this case and plan to continue the same modus operandi of refusing to release other officers who have completed their service obligations.
Previous related posts:
Taking advantage of being the government
Captain Brad Schwan responds regarding his lawsuit to leave the service
Army Captain sues to separate