Lieutenant Richard Grannis was the kind of person who, if he found a dollar bill on the street, would spend hours trying to get it back to its rightful owner, said his son, Jerrold Grannis. When Lt. Grannis passed away in April 2020, his family sought to bury him with full military honors in recognition of his service in the U.S. Air Force. But they were told that their request could not be granted because Lt. Grannis had been other than honorably discharged. “We were shocked,” Grannis said. “Anybody that met my dad would say that he was the salt of the Earth.”
Grannis contacted the National Archives to obtain full access to his father’s personnel and medical records: “My pandemic lockdown project was figuring out how I was going to fight this.” He looked up the code connected with his father’s discharge records and discovered that his father had been forced to resign in 1966 due to an investigation into same-sex conduct with another servicemember. “I knew that Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell had been repealed,” Grannis said. “It felt wrong to me that if it was no longer considered grounds for discharge, then how does this still stand?”
After reaching out to the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), he was connected with Sidley’s long-running pro bono Veterans Advocacy Project. Dedicated to representing veterans in pursuit of their medical and disability benefits, the program provides lawyers with opportunities to work with individual veterans and legal services organizations such as the NVLSP. Partner Penny Reid and Sidley alumni Tiffanie Limbrick, with Sidley managing associate Christina Koenig, soon embarked on assisting Grannis with his quest.
“It was such a touching story that Jerrold wanted to fix the record for his father,” Reid said. “We were more than happy to assist in making the wrong a right.”
“We are lucky to work for a firm that not only supports, but encourages pro bono work,” Koenig said.
Sidley worked with Grannis to put together a detailed brief — including the fact that Lt. Grannis not only earned a bachelor’s degree in math, but was commissioned into the Air Force as an officer in 1962 — and weaving in evidence of his model comportment throughout his service. As the brief noted, just months before he was discharged in 1966, a military evaluator wrote that Lt. Grannis had “the confidence and respect of those working for him, setting an exemplary example, both in his military and private affairs.”
Despite his excellent service record, an extensive investigation into Lt. Grannis’ conduct proceeded. He was subjected to a grueling psychological evaluation, as well as a six-month mandatory stay in a psychiatric hospital that ended with his discharge. “It was literally a night and day difference,” in the way that he was treated, Grannis said. “The things that they said about him were atrocious; that he was a moral degenerate and a schizophrenic. There were no other records to prove that was the case.”
Following his discharge, Lt. Grannis moved to Arizona and took an information technology job with the state’s Department of Economic Security, where he was given top security clearance. He would stay in that role for his entire career. “He was a very brainy guy,” Grannis said. “He loved any kind of puzzles, and he loved working with computers.”
In 1973, Lt. Grannis appealed to the Air Force Discharge Review Board to correct his records, Grannis said. By this time, his parents had married and started their family, and Lt. Grannis wanted to access his benefits, such as the G.I. Bill. But his correction request was denied.
Said Grannis: “I can see why he wouldn’t want to relive any of that time.” His father’s reticence to discuss or even acknowledge his military career extended to his local veterans hall, where Lt. Grannis ran board meetings as president of the credit union. When veterans were invited to stand for a round of applause in thanks for their service, Lt. Grannis always declined. “He just didn’t want to dredge it up.”
At last, in 2024, two years after the Sidley team submitted their brief to the Air Force Board for Correction of Military Records, Lt. Grannis’ discharge status was finally corrected. Correction Boards have the power to change records when “necessary to correct an error or remove an injustice” (10 U.S.C. § 1552(a)).
“When the Board ruled on this, they stated that Lt. Grannis was a victim of injustice,” Koenig said. “As lawyers, sometimes it’s easy to get bogged down in the minutiae. But to help someone’s family in this way was really meaningful. At its core, this case was about doing the right thing.”
Although Lt. Grannis would likely have shied away from the spotlight, his son hopes that “he would’ve been proud that we went through this process and got the right result.”
He maintains that “If it wasn’t for the Sidley team, I would still be trying to figure my way out of the darkness. My eternal gratitude goes out to Penny, Christina, and Tiffanie.”
“It was rewarding to see Jerrold’s motivation and love for his father in wanting to honor him, even posthumously, by correcting this historic injustice,” Koenig said.
Now, Grannis looks forward to properly commemorating his father’s bravery. “I want to carve the Air Force logo on his tombstone. When people walk through the cemetery, they can see that he served, and that he deserved to be recognized for that service.”
