Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
reply to post by flyswatter
Indeed... I learned quite a bit about that whole side of things when I was looking into something on Jessie Ventura's specifics when stories were the
big thing about him awhile back. I wish we still had the public access military record database which was online before 9/11. That was priceless and I
stumbled across it by helping my father with PI work occasionally but it would show Branch, MOS and Hometown on whatever name you cared to enter. I
actually helped solve a couple family puzzles with that and it wasn't in favor of the little cretins misrepresenting themselves either. One swore he
was special forces in Vietnam and he actually was, believe it or not, the proverbial cook. (facepalm)
Believe it or not, that thing's still around, it's over on NIPRnet though. I have seen a bridge to it running on a couple of hardcore military
websites but you have to validate your prior service before you can get to it.
I use it from time to time to see who I'm talking to online, if they expose enough personal info for me to get a name.
It's not complete for pre-'80s, you can find some people in there but for sure not all. And there are categorical omissions in the later records, for
example, if you go looking for a SOCOM record you will either get nothing, or a somewhat laundered record that shows his pre-SOC MOS. Same with
nuclear command personnel, but you can often find a lot on staff officers that I wouldn't have expected.
edit to add: it's not so hard to validate SOC duty, though, there are other accessible databases that will allow you to look at what initially seems
like innocent data, but if you put it together, it's a huge honkin' security breach. For example - let's speculate about a fictional person you might
want to ask 'who IS this guy, really?'. So you get a name and go fishing. His DOD lookup gives you Army, a hometown, and a rank of E7. Not too
enlightening. So you go digging in the data pile, and lo! billeting records, local utility bills, and the like. Now it shows this guy was at Ft
Benning, then you see a flurry of TDYs in north Georgia, Florida and New Mexico, then Ft Bragg for a while. Another TDY in Yuma, then a new
semi-permanent billet at Ft Devens, and Bob's your uncle You know everything you need to know about the guy. Other records will tell you where he
TDY'd from Fort Devens (now Ft Carson) and how long, which tells you what schools he went to, so you know his specialties - for example, if you're
checking out someone who appears to be SF and he does a stint out of Ft Carson to Pensacola, Fl, you know he's an Echo.
OTOH, if the guy was at Ft Drum the whole time, he most definitely was NOT in SOC.
edit on 11-12-2012 by Bedlam because: (no reason given)
edit on 11-12-2012 by Bedlam because: (no reason given)