OPINION OF THE COURT
A special court-martial composed of officer and enlisted members convicted the appellant, contrary to his pleas, of breach of the peace, aggravated assault (two specifications), and communicating a threat, in violation of Articles 116, 128, and 134, Uniform Code of Military Justice, 10 U.S.C. §§ 916, 928, and 934 [hereinafter UCMJ], The convening authority approved the adjudged sentence to a bad-conduct discharge, confinement for six months, forfeiture of $600.00 pay per month for three months, and reduction to Private El. The appellant’s case is before this court for automatic review pursuant to Article 66, UCMJ.
The appellant asserts that the military judge erred when he denied the trial defense counsel’s request for the standard presentencing instruction describing the ineradicable stigma of a punitive discharge. We find that the military judge abused his discretion, but find no prejudice to the appellant under the circumstances of his case.
Facts
The appellant was convicted of incidents involving two fellow service-members. First, the appellant pointed a knife at a soldier and lunged at him after the soldier followed him outside a building to smooth over a previous brief, minor, contentious discussion. Later, he threatened to injure this same soldier in retaliation for the soldier’s reporting the aggravated assault. Second, in an unrelated incident, the appellant attacked a United States Marine Corps trainee, first with his fists, then with a knife, apparently because the appellant was offended by the trainee’s stare. That aggravated assault resulted in a knife wound to the trainee’s temple.
During two brief Article 39(a), UCMJ, sessions held prior to presentation of sentencing evidence, the military judge discussed sentencing instructions, but only to inquire whether the defense counsel desired the instruction explaining unsworn statements. The record contains no other indication of any in-court or out-of-court session concerning sentencing instructions.
During his sentencing instructions, the military judge read the standard bad-conduct discharge instruction:
A bad-conduct discharge. You are instructed that a bad-conduct discharge deprives a soldier of virtually all benefits administered by the Veterans’ Administration and the Army establishment. A bad-conduct discharge is a severe punishment, and may be adjudged for one who, in the discretion of the court, warrants more se*607 vere punishment for bad conduct, even though the bad conduct may not constitute commission of serious offenses of a military or civil nature. In this ease, if you determine to adjudge a punitive discharge, you may sentence Private Rush to a bad-conduct discharge; no other type of discharge may be ordered in this case.
See Dep’t of Army, Pam. 27-9, Military Judges’ Benchbook 70 (30 Sep. 1996) (currently unchanged at 70.1, Change 1, 30 Jan. 1998) [hereinafter Benchbook], He did not read any portion of the standard ineradicable stigma instruction.
Historical Development of the Ineradicable Stigma of a Punitive Discharge Instruction
As early as 1962, our superior court recognized that the consequences of a punitive discharge are so severe that it is a more serious punishment than confinement. In United States v. Johnson,
[I]t is certain that the damage visited upon an accused by a sentence to confinement may not involve the serious consequences of a punitive discharge. As we have on occasion noted, a bad-conduct discharge affects entitlement to those benefits which a grateful nation has made available to individuals who have served it honorably. Moreover, the ineradicable stigma of a punitive discharge is commonly recognized by our modern society, and the repugnance with which it is regarded is evidenced by the limitations which it places on employment opportunities and other advantages which are enjoyed by one whose discharge characterization indicates he has been a good and faithful servant.
The court also noted:
[Congress] has demonstrated uncommon concern for punishments extending to dishonorable or bad-conduct discharges. Thus, aside from judicial review under the Code, it has provided administrative machinery in the form of discharge review boards and boards for the correction of military and naval records to insure that these iniquitous penalties received continuing and unremitting attention.
(citations omitted).
The 1969 version of the Military Judges’ Guide included an instruction describing the ineradicable stigma of a punitive discharge consistent with the Johnson opinion. Dep’t of Army, Pam. 27-9, para. 8-4a(1), Military Judges’ Guide (May 1969). This 1969 ineradicable stigma instruction was almost identical to the current instruction, and was in effect during the 1981 court-martial of United States v. Soriano, 15 M.J. 633 (N.M.C.M.R.1982), aff'd on unrelated grounds,
In May 1982, before the Navy-Marine Court of Criminal Appeals decided Soriano on appeal, a new Military Judges’ Benchbook
By 1985, the Soriano case had progressed through successive appeals to the then Court of Military Appeals. That court opined that the modified “may” instruction given by the military judge at the 1981 trial “conflictfed] with the long established view of th[e] Court that Congress and the President intended [a punitive discharge] to be severe and to be treated as severe by those who impose sentences at courts-martial.” Soriano,
Despite Soriano and Cross, the ineradicable stigma instruction was not returned to the Benchbook until 1994. 1982 Benchbook, Update Memo 11 (19 July 1994). Thus, in the interim, the then Air Force Court of Military Review decided United States v. Gadson,
Standard of Review
Like our superior court, we “review a military judge’s decision whether and how to instruct on the consequences of a sentence for abuse of discretion.” United States v. Perry,
Discussion
The standard Benehbook instructions on punitive discharges advise the members of two significant, but different, adverse consequences of a punitive discharge. First, such a discharge deprives the accused of virtually all benefits administered by the Department of Veterans Affairs and the Army. The military judge in this case did so instruct the members. However, a second, totally different, yet equally important consequence is a punitive discharge’s impact on a soldier’s return to the civilian community and its adverse effect on his legal rights, economic opportunities, and social acceptability. It is this second ineradicable stigma instruction that the military judge refused to give without any explanation or justification.
After reviewing the historical development of the services’ trial judiciary script guidelines and applicable appellate case law, we conclude that the ineradicable stigma instruction is a required sentencing instruction.
Because the standard Benehbook instructions are based on a careful analysis of current case law and statute, an individual military judge should not deviate significantly from these instructions without explaining his or her reasons on the record. It is possible that this military judge harbored the belief that a punitive discharge no longer
We next turn to the question of whether this appellant was prejudiced by the military judge’s failure to give the requested instruction. UCMJ art. 59(a); United States v. Gillenwater,
The findings of guilty and the sentence are affirmed.
Senior Judge TOOMEY and Judge CARTER concur.
Notes
. Benchbook at 69:
You are advised that the ineradicable stigma of a punitive discharge is commonly recognized by our society. A punitive discharge will place limitations on employment opportunities and will deny the accused other advantages which are enjoyed by one whose discharge characterization indicates that (he)(she) has served honorably. A punitive discharge will affect an accused’s future with regard to (his)(her) legal rights, economic opportunities, and social acceptability.
. Captain Charles E. Lance, A Criminal Punitive Discharge — An Effective Punishment?, 79 Mil. L.Rev. 1 (1978).
. The court relied in part on United States v. Wheeler,
[T]he ordering of a punitive discharge so characterizes an individual that his whole future is utterly destroyed. He is marked far beyond the civilian felon, hampered as he may be by the sneering term "ex-con," for, justifiedly or not, the punitive discharge so dishonors and disgraces an accused that he finds employment virtually impossible; is subjected to many legal deprivations; and is regarded with horror by his fellow citizens. Truly, it has come to be the modern equivalent of the ancient practice of branding felons, and the stain it leaves is as ineradicable.
. We note that while Gadson indicated that an Air Force judge was using the Army benchbook without the ineradicable stigma instruction, case law reveals that some judges were nevertheless incorporating some version of the instruction into their trial scripts. See United States v. Maharajh,
. Unlike the case where a "military accused ... requests a non-standard instruction [and] must, at a minimum, establish both the legal and factual predicates for the request,” Perry,
. We also reject the government’s assertion that . the note found on page 67 of the current bench-book, "NOTE: The following instruction may be given in the discretion of the trial judge,” makes discretionary every instruction on the four fol-' lowing pages.
. The Air Force Court's holding in Gadson that the ineradicable stigma instruction was discretionary relied in part on United States v. Henderson,
. Although this military judge may have made a practice of omitting the questioned instruction, we are not holding that such an omission constitutes plain, that is, obvious and substantial, error. Failure to read even a standard instruction is still properly subject to the waiver provisions of R.C.M. 1005(f). “The waiver rules are designed to prevent defense counsel from remaining silent, making no objection, and then raising the issue of appeal for the first time, long after any possibility of curing the problem has vanished. It is important to encourage all trial participants to seek a fair and accurate trial the first time around.” United States v. Reist,
. The appellant’s defense counsel did argue to the members that "the conviction itself” would end the appellant’s military career and stigmatize him forever as a convicted felon, but he never conceded the appropriateness or inevitability of a punitive discharge. On the contrary, the members could infer from his argument that the stigma of a conviction is so great that the further stigma from a bad-conduct discharge would be an unnecessarily harsh punishment.
. Alternatively, using .the three-part test set out in United States v. Damatta-Olivera,