Can I request someone's military records without them finding out?

May 10, 2019 11:08 PM

As part of a not-fun situation, someone who claims to be "ex-Army Intelligence" is making implied threats about undefined consequences to me. I'm not sure that it's actually useful, but I would like to know if the claimed ties to the Army or "Army Intelligence" are factual. I believe I understand how to make that formal request via the FOIA, but I'm hesitant to do so because it's not clear if he will a) be notified or b) somehow be able to find out that I have made the request. My question: Would my request be be accessible to him with my name attached?

I would be using Standard Form 180 (Request Pertaining to Military Records) to request that part of his military record available to the general public (i.e. people who are not him or his next-of-kin) under the Freedom of Information Act.

posted by anonymous to Law & Government (13 answers total)

I would imagine one of the various ”Stolen Valor” activists would be happy to make that request on your behalf otherwise. My understanding is they would be *more* than happy to investigate even an anonymous from your side accusation of someone claiming veteran status and may indeed keep him busy enough with harassment of his own that he doesn’t have time to be hassling you. I have no idea if this is a safe or sensible idea. But it’s an idea.
posted by Iteki at 12:03 AM on May 11, 2019 [12 favorites]

Finding out this kind of information is what a private investigator does. It might be worth a couple hundred bucks to you to hire someone to find out this information. They are typically retired law enforcement and have access to sources unavailable to common folk. And they are able to do so anonymously.
posted by eleslie at 5:48 AM on May 11, 2019 [9 favorites]

OP's clearly in the U.S., due to the FOIA reference.

The UK and Australia both have Freedom of Information Acts.
posted by biffa at 6:30 AM on May 11, 2019 [7 favorites]

Canada also has a FOIA.
posted by whowearsthepants at 7:07 AM on May 11, 2019

Even if you succeed in making a completely anonymous (that is, untraceable) request, unless your enemy is threatening LOTS of people he is going to have a pretty good idea who really wanted to know. I'm not sure this is a bad idea, though. If he IS what he claims to be, he'll probably be amused that you proved it for him, but you're no worse off. If he's not what he claims to be, this may help you by letting him know you don't buy his bullshit anymore. However, there's a lot of uncertainty here. You may have very good reasons for not wanting him to know. If you can afford it, you should consult a lawyer about this.
posted by ubiquity at 7:07 AM on May 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

Unless Australia or Canada have a Standard Form 180 (Request Pertaining to Military Records), they're in the US.
posted by zamboni at 7:15 AM on May 11, 2019 [5 favorites]

Hi, yeah, no need to spend money, seriously this is what 'Stolen Valor' activists are for. Then if they find out, they just find out that a Stolen Valor tracker is on them and they don't assume anything to do with you.

However, in the meantime if you just want to check on the broad thing, this single record request for SCRA will help tell you if he was active duty during the years he is saying he was.

Feel free to memail me, I know people who do this kind of thing.
posted by corb at 7:56 AM on May 11, 2019 [15 favorites]

In my experience, people who claim things like this are not shy about saying it. I had a friend that claimed to be an ex-Navy Seal. He told many people this, think about the motivation for making such a false claim.

I contacted one of the "stolen valor" groups via website, gave them his name.
They got back to me and told me his claim was false, and asked if I would like them to speak to him about it, because they *really* would like to speak to him. Would I please give them location and other particulars to track him down?

I declined, much to the disappointment of the stolen valor folks.

If it is a fairly common name, there are going to be several (at least) people in the country with that name. heck, do a web search on the name or even on facebook.

And whether the claim is true or not, a threat is still a threat. Will finding out the claim is not true negate the threat?
posted by rudd135 at 8:03 AM on May 11, 2019 [6 favorites]

When you file a FOIA request, they do not notify the person you are trying to get information on.

I can tell you with 100% certainty that the person who is bothering you is not what he is claiming to be. The reason I can be so certain is that “Army Intelligence” does not do the kinds of things that this person, and probably the general public, imagines that they do.

This guy sounds like someone who flunked out of basic training.
posted by GliblyKronor at 8:32 AM on May 11, 2019 [6 favorites]

They wouldn't notify him, but for instance, if he submitted an open records request asking for all records of someone asking for info about him, he could get it. The odds of him doing that seem slim, but if you really want it to be a secret, you'd need someone else to do it, or you'd need to broaden your request in some way so he doesn't know you're specifically looking for him.
posted by AppleTurnover at 2:37 PM on May 11, 2019 [1 favorite]

99% bullshit because "Army Intelligence," for all the important and interesting things that it does, is not something that someone who knows what it does would find threatening in a civilian life stalker sense. The scarier threat for someone who knows what he's talking about would be that he was in the NSA (able to hack your life to pieces) or Delta (able to hack you to pieces, in the more literal sense).
posted by MattD at 7:57 AM on May 12, 2019 [3 favorites]

Mod note: From the OP:

corb, I memailed you

posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:03 AM on May 14, 2019

Mod note: From the OP:

corb, i memailed you again.

posted by Eyebrows McGee (staff) at 8:49 PM on May 17, 2019