By: Michele Lynn

When Morgan Hoyt ’24 applied to be part of Carolina Law’s Military and Veterans Law Clinic during the fall of her 3L year, she looked forward to learning more about veterans’ issues and gaining hands-on lawyering skills. What she did not expect was to have an experience that transformed her life. Yet that was the result of the work she began with classmate William Rhyne ’23, handling the case of former Marine Raymond Dick.

In the fall of 2023, Raymond Dick and his wife, Patricia, went to the Carolina clinic for assistance in getting Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) health care benefits. He had never received these benefits due to the bad conduct discharge he had received nearly 50 years earlier.

Mr. Dick volunteered for the Marines at the age of 17, and after excelling in training, volunteered for the Infantry, knowing he would be sent to engage in combat in the Vietnam War. He served with distinction on the front lines, earning four awards, although the memories of combat with the Vietcong plagued him.

As a result of this trauma, he developed Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD,) a condition that was not fully recognized by psychologists or the military until 1980. The combination of PTSD and racial discrimination faced by Mr. Dick upon his return to Camp Lejeune in 1969 negatively impacted him.

One night on the base, as he and fellow Black servicemen walked across the base, fellow Marines yelled the N-word at the enlisted men. A fight broke out. No weapon was ever used, and the only person who got hurt was Mr. Dick, as he suffered a cut on his hand. Yet Mr. Dick was court martialed, facing the same severe punishment typically reserved for the most serious offenders.

As a result of the rampant racism at the base, famed civil rights lawyer Julius Chambers ’62 was involved with other courts-martial at Camp Lejeune. Chambers’s name was mentioned in the verbatim record of Mr. Dick’s court-martial.

During the trial, Mr. Dick’s attorney, who represented at least one other accused Marine, had a conflict of interest and did not mount a full defense. Mr. Dick, who was the only man of color in the room, was menaced by the bailiff, who clicked his handcuffs repeatedly. This tactic earned the prosecuting attorney two admonishments on the record. The court martial did not end in Mr. Dick’s favor and he received seven years confinement and a dishonorable discharge, which was later changed to one year confinement and a bad conduct discharge on appeal.

Despite having an unblemished criminal record after his military service, Mr. Dick had limited employment opportunities since his discharge status was almost always required to be disclosed on job applications. He worked at physically demanding and low-wage labor jobs throughout his life. The trauma of his years of service meant that until his death, the memory of combat in Vietnam plagued him, and the feeling of waiting for an ambush haunted him.

As a result of his low-wage work, he and his wife, Patricia, dealt with housing insecurity and financial instability. And Mr. Dick was denied access to VA medical care for the various health conditions he had which were connected to his time in the military.

Hoyt and Rhyne set out to address this. (In the second semester, Elisa Sturkie ’24 partnered with Hoyt.) Hoyt—currently an associate at Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP in Raleigh—was recognized as the CLEA Clinic Student of the Year for UNC School of Law for 2023-2024. She was so invested in seeing the case through to the end that she continued with it not only during the second semester of her 3L year but also gave her time pro bono for nearly two more years.

The students appealed to the VA to recognize Mr. Dick as a veteran under federal law so that he could receive benefits, while also appealing to the Navy to change the discharge in their service records. The evidence that the students developed and presented—showing the racial motivation behind Mr. Dick’s court martial, the legal mistakes in the trial and the mitigating factors, including his PTSD—was strong enough to have both the Navy and the VA rule in his favor. In fact, the Navy’s discharge review board actually even upgraded Mr. Dick to fully honorable, which is rare.

The clinic partnered with UNC’s Transforming Health and Resilience in Veterans (THRIVE) program and Dr. Shawn Kane, a family practitioner with 27 years of active-duty Army service who retired as a colonel. Dr. Kane’s team evaluated Mr. Dick and documented the presence and effects of PTSD, and Dr. Kane evaluated the evidence about Mr. Dick’s health during this service. While this type of evaluation typically costs tens of thousands of dollars, it was provided at no cost through the UNC partnership.

Sadly, Mr. Dick did not live to see the results he hoped for. On April 11, 2024, he died as a result of a condition presumptively linked to his military service. Fortunately, thanks to the students’ tireless efforts, Mrs. Dick now receives life-altering surviving dependent benefits that have removed her housing and food insecurity and transformed the quality of her life. She said that she wishes she could give Hoyt and Brooker “a big celebration so everyone could know how great they are.”

“Raymond trusted and loved Morgan and Professor Brooker with all of his might, just like I do,” she said. “When Raymond was sick, Morgan came to the hospital and spent time with us like she was a family member. She was so dedicated to what she was doing to reverse that discharge.”

Hoyt said that in her first interview with him, Mr. Dick said that he wanted a military burial so he would be looked at favorably when people thought about his military service. Because a military burial with full honors was deeply important to him, Mrs. Dick chose not to have him buried immediately after his death, waiting to see if the discharge upgrade could be secured so he could receive an honorable burial.

On April 10, that dream was realized. At an honor ceremony and inurnment in a Greensboro cemetery, Raymond Dick received the full military honors he earned over 50 years ago at an event organized by Hoyt. “Our main wish was to honor and preserve the honorable service in life that Raymond had,” said Hoyt. “Seeing Mrs. Pat receive the flag after the three-volley salute and knowing that Raymond could finally be laid to rest peacefully was a moment I will never forget.”

Hoyt expressed appreciation for the guidance of John W. Brooker, Wade Edwards Term Professor of Law and director of the Military and Veterans Law Clinic. “He is so knowledgeable and has such empathy because he literally has been in those shoes (since Brooker served on active duty in the U.S. Army for more than 20 years),” she said. “He’s good at relating not only to the client but to the students, really bridging the gap between people.”

Brooker said that the financial impact of the victory pales in comparison to the intangible, yet very real, long-term impact of this victory.  “The entire Dick family and Greensboro community saw that Raymond’s life mattered, and that redemption for not only Raymond, but for the entire nation, was possible,” said Brooker. “Morgan and all the students learned that they now have the power to use their Carolina Law education to change the world for the better.”

Brooker added, “The Military and Veterans Law Clinic strives to serve as a proverbial resonance machine for good, as the former clinic students are empowered to continue to bring about positive change for decades to come.” He noted that about a dozen former clinic students have continued veteran-focused pro bono work at their law firms following graduation from Carolina Law. 

Hoyt plans to do the same and looks forward to continuing her involvement with Carolina Law’s Military and Veterans Law Clinic. “In my firm, I work in commercial real estate transactions, closing multi-million-dollar loans, which I find interesting and challenging,” she said. “But I am also really passionate about helping people in a way where I can directly see the impact and benefit on their lives.”