Commissioned officers do not necessarily receive certificates of discharge near the end of what, for enlisted personnel is the period of military obligation for their (enlisted person's) enlistment.
Officers remain commissioned until they resign their commission or the Navy decides they are not longer of service to the country.
Thus, an officer may not receive a certificate of discharge for several years, long after his or her active duty, let alone inactive and/or standby duties, if any.
There is no evidence of any certificate of discharge for Lt. John F. Kerry, that is a less than Honorable Discharge.
Xtinct, I think you have your facts wrong. As aformer Marine officer ( twice wounded and three times decorated for heroism in Vietnam and retired as a Lt. Col in the USMCR, I can offer you the facts.
There is no such thing as a certificate of discharge issued to someone upon separation. You receive a DD 214 which lists the condition of separation ( Homorable, General, GOS etc). As an Naval Officer, I received my DD 214 upon separation from active duty in 1970. I still retained my rand and commision and was transferred to the Inactive Reserve as a Captain. I entered the Active Reserve and served for 22 more years. My original DD 214 in 1970 as all Naval officers did. I still use it for my service related corresponance ( I am 80% diasabled).
I served on Admin discharge review boards several times. The sole purpose of these review boards are to answer appeals for men and women who received less than honorable discharges. For Kerry to receive a letter dated 1978 it becomes clear that he had to go through the appeals process.
Xtinct, I think you have your facts wrong. As a former Marine officer ( twice wounded and three times decorated for heroism in Vietnam ) and retired as a Lt. Col in the USMCR, I can offer you the facts.
There is no such thing as a certificate of discharge issued to someone upon separation. You receive a DD 214 which lists the condition of separation ( Honorable, General, GOS etc). As an Naval Officer, I received my DD 214 upon separation from active duty in 1970. I still retained my rand and commision and was transferred to the Inactive Reserve as a Captain. I entered the Active Reserve and served for 22 more years. My original DD 214 in 1970 as all Naval officers did. I still use it for my service related corresponance ( I am 80% disabled).
I served on Admin discharge review boards several times. The sole purpose of these review boards are to answer appeals for men and women who received less than honorable discharges. For Kerry to receive a letter dated 1978 it becomes clear that he had to go through the appeals process.
I'm not sure about this but, if Kerry's commission was originally as an ensign in the United States Navy Reserve and was not at some later point selected for a Regular commission, then he could be discharged without resigning his commission at the end of his term of service. An officer holding a Regular commission serves at the pleasure of the President and would resign his commission in order to leave the service prior to being eligible for retirement.
That would be about a half hour into Kerry's tour of duty
In addition to what USMC0302 explained from an expert's perspective, I'd like to point out what was obvious to me and anyone else who didn't just fall off the turnip truck. According to one of the documents on kerry's own website, his Honorable Discharge was a result of an appeal filed in accordance with Title 10, U.S. Code, Sections 1162 and 1163. Would you care to guess why he filed an appeal for his original "Honorable Discharge?" Maybe he was hoping to have it upped to an Honorable Discharge with "V" Device for Valor.