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From: "Mic Barnette" <>
Subject: [APG] DD214 Hornets Nest
Date: Thu, 6 Feb 2003 17:34:33 -0600


Wow folks, the other day I mentioned the pending legislation in Texas attempting to close to the public the DD214s/military discharges of veterans.

Well, I have spend the better part of the day searching and surfing the Net seeing what I can find out.
On a search of DD214 Identity theft I came up with 744 hits. I have only gone through a little over 20 of the hits.
The military has been up in arms over this for nearly two years. Apparently it began with a single article written in a veterans newsletter and snowballed since then. Many of the articles I read all quoted the same article or if not the article they used the same scenario or statistics. Now every veterans group around recomends veterans not file their DD214s with county clerks as they have always beens recomended to do.

What I have found is this legislation is not inherent only to Texas. It is everywhere. What I read is that 46 states have passed identity theft laws since 1996 when only three or four had them. Many of the new laws or at least some of the pending laws have to do with the filing of DD214s.

I wrote my column for Saturday on Monday night and stated I would post more information on the RP&A website by Saturday. It will probably be posted under Texas but there should be a link to it from "current issues". I will be writing it up tonight and submit it to the RPA people tommorrow to get uploaded before Saturday.

I would appreciate hearing from anyone with knowledge about when social security numbers began being placed on DD214s. Someone has told me 1953. Please check any DD214's you may have in your files and lets get an idea when social security numbers began being used on the DD214s. Currently, I am told the military no longer places social securty or birth date information on the DD214- This apparently was effective last year.

Thanks,
MIC


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