Posted on 06/06/2005 11:05:28 PM PDT by FairOpinion
Senator John F. Kerry, ending at least two years of refusal, has waived privacy restrictions and authorized the release of his full military and medical records.
The records, which the Navy Personnel Command provided to the Globe, are mostly a duplication of what Kerry released during his 2004 campaign for president, including numerous commendations from commanding officers who later criticized Kerry's Vietnam service.
The lack of any substantive new material about Kerry's military career in the documents raises the question of why Kerry refused for so long to waive privacy restrictions.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Bet he did, but he signed a limited release of documents. You can do that on the SF-180.(Warning PDF file)
One can limit what records are released and who they are released to. I believe I read the form was sent to the Navy, whereas the SF-180 instructions indicate that Navy personnel Discharged, deceased, or retired 1/1/1886 1/30/1994 (enlisted) or 1/1/1903 1/30/1994 (officer) should have the request sent to the National Personnel Records Center (Military Personnel Records) in St. Louis, MO.
Kerry's records, like mine, are in the national archives in St. Louis, because he was discharged before '94. Everyone's records end up there eventually.
No, the SF-180 can be filed in such a way as to release the records to only a single person, including the individual themselves, or a single entity, like the Boston Globe, without making it available to the general public.
True, unless you are making claims about that record that seem a bit askew, and are running for public office based in part upon those claims. Then your opponents, and the voters, have a legitimate claim on those records.
If you don't want people to see the records, as is your right, then don't be using what you purport to be in them to further your own interests.
That's the way it is. Bush signed one allowing general release. Kerry probably signed one only allowing the Boston Globe, or a favored writer thereof, access. Assuming the documents released recently are a result of that signing, or even it they are not. Kerry might have signed a SF-180 that merely requested copies of the records for his own use. He could then release records at his leisure, or not at all.
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