Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard/Ex-wife and discharge information

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Expert: Rod Powers - 9/23/2006


Question
During the course my divorce and prior to it being finalized my husband at the time was discharged from the army.  He was in active duty and had finished all his career training.  He has told me that it was a Mental Medical discharge for Alcoholism, Anti-Social, and Homicidal.  My question is if there is anyway for me to get ahold of his discharge records for a better understanding of his possible dissabilities, we have 3 children and that I am concerned about.   Please let me know if there is anyway possible, be it court order or otherwise, for me to possibly get that information and paperwork from the military?


Answer
Hi Dawn,

The records you're interested in (reason for discharge, and discharge characterization) is protected under the Privacy Act of 1974.

That means, you are not entitled to them, unless the member gives his/her specific, written permission for access.

If he gives his written permission, you can request a copy of the records, by following the procedures in my article at: http://usmilitary.about.com/cs/generalinfo/a/milrecords.htm

If he does not give his written authorization, you would have to get a court to issue an order via a subpeona.

Hope this helps!

Rod Powers
http://usmilitary.about.com

Careers: Military--Army, Navy, Airforce, Marines, Coast Guard

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Rod Powers

Expertise

Rod Powers is considered one of the premire experts about U.S. Military career information on the planet. He has more than 30,000 articles about U.S. Military career information on the About.com U.S. Military Careers Information website at: http://usmilitary.about.com. Additionally, he is the author of "ASVAB for Dummies," "ASVAB AFQT for Dummies," (available in Dec 2009), and "Veteran Benefits for Dummies," all published by Wiley Publishing. He is also the author of "Barrons' Guide to Officer Candidate School Tests," published by Barron's Educational Series.

Experience

Rod Powers is a retired Air Force first sergeant, with 23 years of active duty service, 11 of those years as an Air Force First Sergeant. He has helped thousands of military members, recruits, and military applicants since he took over the About.com U.S Military Careers Information site in 1999. He has a reputation for "telling it like it is," so questions may not be answered based on "what you want to hear," but will be answered based of the bast available information, concerning the service/situation.

Education/Credentials
Rod is a distinguished graduate of the Air Force Noncommissioned Officers Academy, the Air Force Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy, and the Air Force First Sergeant Academy. He also holds an Associates Degree in Personnel Administration from the Community College of the Air Force (CCAF).

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