Yesterday I found my DD-214.

I found my DD-214 yesterday and it is the first time I have seen it since I got out of the service in the 70s.

Someone wanted it to prove I served so I can get into a certain forum. This is the first time I have ever needed it for anything.

I looked at it and saw a number of things that were missing and I suppose I could try and dig out the old records and apply for a correction of some sort, but at this stage why bother. You can just take my word for it that I was decorated. I was given the Good Conduct medal for going three whole years without robbing and murdering the payroll officer. That's pretty good.

The next time I think I am going to need it will be after I am dead and gone so the Navy can bury me at sea.

Looking back, I remember simply being in a hurry with the admin people just to get out-processed and when the Sp/4 told me to look at it, I just told her that so long as it said honorable, I was happy with that.

After I had my discharge, I went to the unit to sign out and shake hands with a couple of people. My First Sergeant knew I was headed off to adventure and offered to mail my records home for me so as not to lose them. That was awful nice of him. Looking back on it, I suppose it saved me grief. I probably would have lost it.

My mom framed the damned thing and hung it somewhere (I'm the oldest, go figure Irish mothers)and a few years later when the government decided to discharge me fully, they sent my discharge. Mom put that in the frame to replace my DD-214.

When we broke up the old homestead a few years back, it was given to me and I hung it on my bedroom wall. I had no clue where the DD-214 went.

When I was asked for it, I thought and on a whim I decided to look behind the discharge certificate and there it was. Three copies.

I remember the Sp/4 telling me how important it was to keep it and so on, but she was wrong because I have really never needed it for anything since. When I took my GI bill they simply asked me for service dates and left it at that.

The only thing I have ever needed it for was to join an internet forum board.

I think I might write the people in Indianapolis for a complete copy of my service jacket and see if the records there are more complete. It would be interesting to go through them.

A couple of years ago I wrote for the records an uncle that was KIA at Iwo Jima and I asked for my dad's, too. I should have asked for mine.

They sent me a copy of my Uncle Jack's, they also gave me a letter stating my father had served but the records had been burned up in a fire years ago. I wonder what mine look like.

Curiosity overwhelms me. I think I'll write them for a copy and if there are any records of the schools I attended, maybe I'll apply for a DD-215 and get the record set straight.

Then again, after all these years, why bother?

If I do get it corrected, and I send the Navy a DD-215 instead of a DD-214 you never know what some armchair type is going to do. Maybe it is better I leave things alone so as to make things simply go smoother.

Then again, I could just use my current 214. It doesn't really matter now.








my other blog is: http://officerpiccolo.blogspot.com/ http://piccolosbutler.blogspot.com/