Military News - Military Times

Some find pitfalls in plan for awards database

A House Armed Services Committee proposal to create a searchable database of military awards to help ferret out fraud and also make it easier for veterans, family and friends to verify military honors is getting mixed reviews.

Chuck Pfarrer, a director for VeriSEAL, a nonprofit group that verifies claims of people who say they served in the elite Navy SEALs, said he sees no real benefit — and some downside — to making a database of decorations for valor available to the public.

Pfarrer said he and fellow members of VeriSEAL have outed many people falsely claiming to be decorated veterans, but have not needed a national database to do it.

A claimant’s DD 214 discharge paperwork “lists every medal and award they earned,” said Pfarrer, a retired SEAL commander. “If it isn’t on the DD 214, they didn’t get it.”

He said the need to keep some special operations missions secret is another reason to keep details about awards from public view. Citations typically include information about when and where service members displayed the gallantry that led to their awards, which spec ops units might not want released, he said.

The armed services committee recognized possible problems, aides said, which is why the provision asks for a Pentagon study of the issue rather than ordering a database to be created.

The study, to be completed by March 31, will look at the cost, administrative issues and privacy implications of such a database. The study also is supposed to consider what awards would be included. At a minimum, the committee wants Medal of Honor recipients included, but other awards for valor are less certain.

In requesting a study, the committee backed away from legislation jointly sponsored by Sen. Ken Salazar, D-Colo., and his brother, Rep. John Salazar, D-Colo., that would order the creation of an awards database.

But an Overland Park, Kan., woman who spent almost a year trying to learn what military decorations were earned by her father, a Navy veteran, said a wider database is needed.

Information on Medal of Honor recipients already is gathered by the nonprofit Congressional Medal of Honor Society, but information on other awards is difficult to find, said Jan Girando, who discovered that her father had earned the Navy Cross, two Air Medals and other awards.

Her father, Lt. j.g. Victor Miller, was a pilot assigned to Bomber Squadron 13 aboard the aircraft carrier Franklin in the 1940s, but had lost his records.

In an Aug. 14 letter to armed services committee chairman Rep. Ike Skelton, D-Mo., Girando said researching her father’s records showed her the “difficulty a private citizen faces when trying to locate information.”

Her letter chronicles the 48 weeks it took her to document her father’s awards, get a headstone placed in Arlington National Cemetery and arrange a memorial service with full honors for him.

But VeriSEAL is not convinced. Steve Waterman, another group member, said a national database might actually help fakers by allowing them to launch phony personas based on other peoples’ factual awards.

VeriSEAL keeps a private database of SEAL members and veterans, but even a private database can be misused, said Waterman, a retired Navy Reserve chief diver, combat photographer and parachutist.

John Salazar, an Army veteran, said one reason he is pushing for a database is to help authorities who try to press charges against people who fabricate military backgrounds and honors they do not deserve.

“A readily accessible and public database will not only give the tools to law enforcement to prosecute fraudulent claims, but will properly recognize those who have been honored for serving their nation,” Salazar said.

A database would be meant to help enforce a law enacted in 2005 that makes a false claim to a Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, Air Force Cross, Navy Cross, Silver Star or Purple Heart a felony, punishable by up to one year in jail and a $10,000 fine.