When may an enlisted ACC submit a Chapter 6 Request?

• A. When charges have been preferred for an offense which authorizes a punitive discharge and to a court that can adjudge a punitive discharge (SPCM & GCM)
• B. After any minor offense
• C. Only after a court-martial and never for punitive discharge
• D. At the discretion of the accused

Answer: (A)

The concept being tested is when a Chapter 6 Request is available for an enlisted accused. This remedy is limited to situations where the charges involve offenses that authorize a punitive discharge and it must be directed to a court that can actually adjudge that punishment (a Special Court-Martial or a General Court-Martial). The idea is that you need the possibility of a punitive discharge to be on the table and the proceeding to be within a court that can impose such a sanction for there to be a meaningful Chapter 6 process.

Why this is the best answer: if the offense charged does not authorize a punitive discharge, or if the matter isn’t in the realm of a court-martial that could impose one, a Chapter 6 Request would have no basis. The other options imply conditions that don’t align with how Chapter 6 requests work—either they refer to offenses that cannot carry a punitive discharge, or they suggest it’s purely at the accused’s discretion, or they misstate the relationship to court-martial status.