You always keep your DD214s. And you know where they are.
It would take me a couple of hours to find mine even now.
I used them to get what I needed or had to show after service and then put them away. Once in 1977 to enter NATS and get the GI Bill and then a few years later to prove I entered service in Georgia to get a free drivers license (this is great - no fees every time I renew)..