Tennessee Military Discharge Recording

Tennessee county registers record a veteran's certificate of release or discharge free of charge. It is the cheapest thing in this catalog and one of the most useful, because a DD214 that has been recorded can be obtained again from the county in days, where a replacement from the National Personnel Records Center can take considerably longer, and longer still for records caught in the 1973 fire. The part worth knowing is what recording does to the document's public status. Under 10-7-513 a military discharge in a register's hands is confidential for seventy-five years from the time it is recorded or otherwise comes into the register's possession. It is not an open public record during that period. That was a deliberate change of position. A recorded discharge used to be an ordinary public record, and a DD214 carries a social security number, a date and place of birth, and in some versions the character of service and the narrative reason for separation. Those are precisely the fields that make identity theft easy, and a document containing them sitting in a searchable county index was a genuine exposure. The statute goes further than confidentiality. Section 10-7-513 also gives a veteran the right to request removal of a military discharge from the register's records, or redaction of the social security number from it. A veteran who recorded a discharge decades ago, when the record was open, can act on it now. And 10-7-514 requires a subscription service before a military discharge record can be viewed over the internet, which closes off casual bulk access. Recording is done at the county register of deeds in the county where the veteran lives. Bring the original or a certified copy. Two related programs. The Tennessee Department of Veterans Services and county veterans service officers will also hold a copy and assist in obtaining replacements. And the State Treasurer's Unclaimed Property Division runs a military medal protection program: medals that come into the state's hands as unclaimed property are held indefinitely rather than sold, until the owner, heirs or beneficiaries are identified, and a custodian can be appointed.