St. Clair County Clerk: DD-214 Filing and the Retired Veteran Discount Card

Michigan county clerks record discharges, keep them confidential for 70 years and give copies free to the veteran and those working on the veteran's behalf (MCL 35.31 to 35.35; see the Michigan entry on discharge records). St. Clair County. The Clerk's home page, under Clerk and Register of Deeds Angie Waters, says: "Effective immediately, we will no longer be processing Veteran's Cards. Please reach out to the Veteran's Office at 810-989-6945. We will still be filing DD-214's during normal business hours." The office is at the County Courthouse in Port Huron, 810-985-2200, Monday to Thursday 8 a.m. to 4:15 p.m. and Friday 10 a.m. to 4:15 p.m.; the genealogy room is open by appointment and only the death and marriage indexes are open to the public. What the discount card was. The veteran's card the Clerk used to process was the county's merchant-discount card, in the manner of the honor-rewards programmes other counties run; applications now go to the Department of Veterans Affairs, which keeps its own list of local merchants offering discounts. What the pages leave out. The Clerk's site prints no fee schedule for discharge copies. MCL 35.32 gives the veteran, a person with the veteran's written permission, the surviving heirs and a veterans service officer or county counsellor helping with a claim free certified copies of the recorded discharge, and charges the public only for discharges 70 or more years old; anyone refused should cite the section.