REVIEW OF CERTAIN DISCHARGES FROM THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY DURING THE POST-CIVIL WAR PERIOD.

SEC. 555. REVIEW OF CERTAIN DISCHARGES FROM THE UNITED STATES MILITARY ACADEMY DURING THE POST-CIVIL WAR PERIOD. (a) Review Required.— The Secretary of the Army shall carry out a thorough review, to be completed not later than 180 days after the date of the enactment of this Act, of— 108 STAT. 2774 (1) the discharge from the Corps of Cadets of the United States Military Academy in 1874 of James Webster Smith of South Carolina; and (2) the discharge from the Corps of Cadets of the United States Military Academy in 1880 of Johnson Chesnut Whittaker of South Carolina. (b) Purposes of Review.— The purpose of each review shall be to determine the validity of the original proceedings leading to such discharge and the extent, if any, to which racial prejudice or other improper factors now known may have tainted those proceedings. In conducting each review, the Secretary shall use as broad a range of historical documents as possible, including non-military sources. (c) Correction of Records.— If the Secretary determines that the discharge of James Webster Smith or Johnson Chesnut Whittaker was in error or an injustice, the Secretary shall correct that person’s military records (including the records of proceedings in that person’s discharge case). (d) Posthumous commission.— Upon recommendation of the Secretary in the case of either person named in subsection (a), the President may issue in the name of that person a posthumous commission as an officer in the Regular Army in the grade of second lieutenant. Section 1523 of title 10, United States Code, shall apply with respect to a commission so issued.