Recording a Discharge with the Alaska State Recorder

Any State Recorder's office in the Alaska Department of Natural Resources records a veteran's separation document free of charge. Four documents are named: the DD214, the DD215, the NGB Form 22 and the DA Form 1569. Naming four is more useful than it sounds. A Guard member who never served a federal active duty tour holds an NGB Form 22 rather than a DD214, and the DA Form 1569 covers a reserve transcript of service. A veteran whose paperwork is not a DD214 is often told by a clerk that their document is not the right one, and it is worth knowing that Alaska recognises all four. Why record it at all. A recorded discharge can be retrieved from the recorder's office in days. The alternative is a request to the National Personnel Records Center, which takes longer, and considerably longer for records damaged in the 1973 fire at the St. Louis facility. Nearly every benefit in this file, from the land discount to the death gratuity, requires the discharge document, and a family arranging a funeral is the worst possible moment to discover it cannot be found. The Alaska recording districts cover the whole state and recording is done by district rather than by borough, so a veteran in an unorganized area still has a recorder. What this catalog cannot tell you is whether a recorded discharge in Alaska is a public record or a closed one. Several states in this catalog have closed theirs, for good reason: a DD214 carries a social security number, a date and place of birth, the character of service and sometimes the narrative reason for separation. A veteran who is concerned about that should ask the recorder about access restrictions and redaction before recording, rather than after. The Alaska Office of Veterans Affairs and its veteran service officers will also help obtain a replacement discharge, and they can request military records on a veteran's behalf. One related Alaska provision is worth knowing. The Office of Veterans Affairs provides certified birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates free of charge to veterans and eligible family members when the records are requested through that office for VA purposes. A claim requiring several vital records is otherwise an expensive piece of paperwork.