Are military service records available to the public?
For example, John Doe is running for local office, citing his military service as experience. I’d like to know more about his service. His enlistment and discharge dates, what job he had in what unit, and any commendations or black marks on his record.
Is this information available under FOIA or some other law? How would a citizen go about obtaining this information?
Here’s some information from the national archives.
Most people running for office, make anything that will help them open to the public, just because it smacks funny to say “I’m this and that, but I won’t prove it.”
The main record for military service would be the DD-214. This is not public; it is available only to the veteran (or their next-of-kin).
But any veteran running for public office could obtain this, and make copies of it freely available to the public & the media, if they wanted to prove their service record. (Here in Minnesota, Jesse Ventura claimed to have been a Navy SEAL, but refused to ever make public his DD-214. Combined with other questionable assertions (like the alleged dates of his service) led many to doubt the accuracy of his claims about his service in the military.)
But I don’t know what would stop someone from releasing a faked-up version of their DD-214. Since this record is private, no one in the media could compare the politician’s version with the original record. Even if military records employees noticed fake versions in the media, I don’t think they could legally say this.
So it’s not a public record? Interesting… My employment by a state university is public record, but military service isn’t? That strikes me as odd.
Military service is a matter of public record. I’m not sure of the statement that the DD214 can not be released but it is certainly true that you can get information on peoples service. Follow the link to the National Archives in post 2 and follow it until you get to where it talks about the SF (standard Form) 180. Fill it out and send it in. If you don’t have information like someones SSN it may be difficult for them to find it in the records. (Next of Kin have an easier way to do it). If the service happened before 1973 they may have difficulty putting it together because of a fire.
With Jesse Ventura the questions are about if he was really a SEAL, not if he served in the Navy. He trained as a UDT guy and back then they were counted as SEALs but not everyone agrees with UDT=SEAL.
Taking another look at the site I would say that the DD214 is a matter of public record. Here is a list of things that will not be released. VA records, kept with the VA and not with the personel records. Pay records. Some what recently the Air Force, Marines and Navy keep their own records and you have to contact them for more recently discharged vets.
It mentions National Guard service for several reasons. For instance get discharge papers (DD214) everytime you leave active service and go back to reserve status. I have four DD214s. But those records are only available through the state and not the federal government.