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A Dishonorable Discharge is not handed out casually, certainly not for sniffing laughing gas.
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It very much depends but you are right it is not handed out casually.
Turn down an Article 15 and you will be on your way to General Court Martial.
The same Chain of Command you just told, "I do not trust your judgement" is the same one that appoints every aspect of a General Court Martial outside of the Judge and the defense attorney. The Jury even gets picked by that same Chain of Command!
That is the bad news. The good news is now everything is public AND most importantly....
Notions like Honor, Courage, and Character really do exist. They are on display everyday in the Military Courts. There is no better court in the world to be in IMHO IF you are innocent.
So you turn down an Article 15, end up in a General Court Martial acting like a douche bag not accepting responsibility get caught lying about it...
I can easily see a Dishonorable Discharge and the full weight of UCMJ being thrown at the SM.
We do not know the specifics...only this guy knows.
As for taking him shooting the answer must be a NO. I would encourage him to have his conviction reviewed and leave it at that.
Here is a good primer on it:
https://www.dd214.us/reference/Disch...grade_Memo.pdf