Doug Sterner on a national database of awards
Our buddy, Doug Sterner, with whom I stood on the steps of the Supreme Court when they announced their decision that the Stolen Valor Act was unconstitutional did this interview with Defense News. Aside from the new Stolen Valor Act currently in committee in the House and Senate, Doug is also pushing a database of awards that he claims will cost the government $8-10 million and will be 98% accurate. Doug has, nearly on his own and with a shoe string budget built the Home of Heroes, which includes tens-of-thousands of citations.
The Department of Defense claims that it’s not worth their time and expense, that there aren’t that many phonies out there. Well, a look at the participants in our Stolen Valor tournament only goes back to November and has 96 participants. And, tips are coming in at an alarming rate over the last few weeks.
As Doug says, a database is not a panacea for the problem, but it would certainly make my job easier, and we could be more responsive. Military.com used to have a relatively accurate database of people who had served, and AKO and MOL are good resources for those of us who can get to it. I don’t see the problem, because the systems and data exists, it just needs to be put in a publicly accessible format.
Category: Stolen Valor Act
I don’t want my name in another database for sensitive information to be shared and given to people who have no right to such information unless I deem it so.
Really lame.
There already is a number of databases, including whatever the SM and his/her family personally has. This is a billion-dollar boondoggle who purpose is better served by discussing awards with the assclown stealing valor in a back alley with a bat.
Nice idea, but it’s redundant, useless already, and doesn’t matter when some judge some where re-interprets the law howsomever s/he wants.
Anonymous: if you served in the military, that information (your awards and decorations) is publicly available under the FOIA. Your objection is without basis, as you’re already there.
DO: There is at present no comprehensive database of military awards and decorations. The fact that several such partial databases currently exist falls in the “true but irrelevant” category. Absent a authoritative single database, as a practical matter it’s simply not possible to validate with certainty claims of military awards and decorations. Even FOIA requests relating to military records are not infallible – I’ve seen different requests on the same individual give different answers, approximately 1 month apart.
I don’t know if this particular proposal is the answer but something needs to be done. The uber-posers will always be easy to spot and bust but guys like dullASS will be harder to deal with, they served and know the jargon. FOIA requests take days to process, if there were a site where a person could pull up a person’s information, all you’d need is a wireless laptop or a wi-fi device and BUSTED!
I wonder what the database would draw off of for its information. It took 7 different submissions spread out across 3 separate commands for my stuff to finally hit my ESR and NDAWS. If the Navy can’t keep their own stuff straight, I’d be a little worried about a centralized database being accurate.
And what’s more, if there is a Navy equivalent to AKO out there available to veterans and not just AD or retirees, I’m not aware of it.
Further, Navy databases only show my personal awards; i.e., my NAMs, GCMs, etc, and not even all of those (rifle/pistol, Expeditionary, Humanitarian) to say nothing of unit awards.
Bottom line something NEEDS to be done, but as previously stated, only government can take a relatively straightforward, simple, and inexpensive process and create a multi-million (or billion) dollar goatfuck.
#3 do you really want people being able to access your career accomplishments via their iphones? My objection has a basis contrary to your opinion.
In my opinion there is a huge difference between what TAH, POWnetwork or anyone willing to make an effort by submitting paperwork or checking ako (they earned access) and some random guy with little to no effort getting info at the tap of a phone or click of mouse. If it is not easier to access than what is the point? Since all that info is already available…..
Lame.
Awards aren’t really sensitive information. Having a database for awards and not releasing any PII doesn’t sound so lame.
Anonymous: Anyone can do that today. All they have to do is to use their iPhone to send a faxed FOIA about you to NPRC. And if you can convince NPRC it’s time-critical, NPRC will send the return answer by fax – right to your iPhone, assuming you have an app that speaks fax.
All this proposed project would do is to provide a single, authoritative source of information that by Federal law is already available to the public without a veteran’s consent. That doesn’t bother me a bit. If the information is already by law publicly-available, I don’t see a problem in having an authoritative source for it vice a jumbled collection of multiple sources that has to be accessed piecemeal to ensure one gets the full story.
+1, Hondo.
That’s the whole point, Anon–the records are already publicly available. Frankly, if you’re worried about that, you’ll absolutely shit yourself about what other so-called “private” information is out there about you for anyone who gives a damn enough to look for it.
Or pay Intelius the $4.95 for a nice fat summary.