Will a soldier's DUI lead to being declared unfit for active service?

Soldier drinking incidents are highly likely to lead to active service unfitness review beyond general criminal punishment.

Soldier drinking discipline does not end with simple discipline but is structured to lead to active service unfitness review.

Active service unfitness review is a procedure to judge the possibility of continuing service for professional soldiers such as officers and non-commissioned officers, and is referred when certain requirements are met.

Specifically, you become subject when you have received a guilty verdict in a military court but have not been discharged, when severe disciplines have been accumulated 1 time or light disciplines 2 times or more, or when reasons such as lack of mission performance ability or organizational maladjustment are recognized.

In particular, since the punishment for DUI has been strengthened since 2010, there are not a few cases where non-commissioned officers and above are automatically subject to active service unfitness review even if they only receive a disposition of suspension of indictment or higher.

In this process, discipline and criminal disposition are carried out in parallel, and as a result, it can lead to a discharge decision.

In actual cases, there are cases where, despite a relatively low blood alcohol concentration of 0.077%, it went through a fine sentence and discipline, was referred to active service unfitness review, and ultimately a discharge was confirmed.

Therefore, from the early response stage, a strategic response that considers both discipline and active service unfitness review procedures is necessary.