non-combat-death.org

              FOIA  AND OBTAINING MILITARY RECORDS:

FOIA is an acronym for Freedom of Information Act.  It is a Federal Statute in the United States which insures citizens' rights to access government records.  This act was passed in 1966 and a related Privacy Act was passed in 1974.

Theoretically, it establishes a "right to know" policy for US citizens and places the "right to secrecy" burden on the government to establish when denying records to citizens.  The government is supposed to insure full disclosure of information requested by citizens, not selective or incomplete information. The rule is that FOIA requests must be responded to within twenty working days. If an agency cannot find the information you are seeking in that time, they are required to send you a letter stating this and the estimated time it will take to make a proper response.

Requests must be made in writing. There are no special forms needed. You may mail or fax the request, but you may not email it unless directed to by the receiving department. If you have made a formal FOIA request and feel that information has been selectively denied without proper justification, you have the right to appeal.

Requesting records through the FOIA is something you can do for yourself, free of charge.  Sometimes in making a formal request you agree to pay for copying material up to a certain dollar amount.  This fee is generally waived if you are acknowledged to be next of kin and entitled to the information.  There are commercial sites on the Internet which come up high in searches of the major search engines.  They would lead you to believe that you need to pay someone to make FOIA requests for you.  This is not true and you may prefer to keep the information you are seeking confidential, therefore not in the domain of commercial "information companies."

Another important point regarding the Privacy Act of 1974:  Outside parties need the written consent of next-of-kin (NOK, in Army parlance) to access military personnel records.  If someone has obtained these, for whatever purpose, without consent, someone has violated a Federal law.
 

Copyright non-combat-death.org.  Please contact us for permission to use our material.