Lawmakers demand responses to unauthorized release of military service information
CNN
—
House Republicans are demanding answers after the Air Force admitted unauthorized release of military service records of 11 people, including two members of Congress, after an internal review.
Military records of Republican representatives. Don Bacon of Nebraska and Zach Nunn of Iowa were among the 11 personal entries released by the BBC. Bacon retired from the Air Force as a one-star general after almost 30 years of service. his official biographyand Nunn is an officer in the Iowa National Guard, according to his campaign page.
Rep. Mike Rogers and James Comer, chairs of the House Armed Services and House Oversight and Accountability Committees, in a letter to Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin last week requested various records and policies regarding the record disclosure process.
An internal audit of the Air Force’s October 2021-2022 document release process found that “unauthorized release of military service information has occurred in relation to 11 people,” spokesman Ann Stefanek said on Tuesday.
“The Air Force Directorate did not follow proper procedures requiring a member’s signature authorizing the release of information,” Stefanek said. “There was no evidence of political motivation or malice on the part of any of the employees.”
The lawmakers wrote in their letter to Austin that the Air Force’s conduct was “to say the least unacceptable.”
“It is important that men and women in the military have confidence in their leadership’s ability to protect personnel’s personal data from inappropriate disclosure,” they said.
The unauthorized release of Bacon and Nunn’s recordings was first reported from Politico.
The heart of the problem seems to be the military personnel request form, called Standard Form 180 or SF-180. A military official familiar with the matter told CNN that the transmission of information via the SF-180 “requires the signature of the service member. In the case of these 11 people, this did not happen.”
The information requested through Form SF-180 is a process “commonly used by other federal agencies to verify employee backgrounds,” Stefanek said in a statement.
“In some cases,” she added of 11 unauthorized disclosures, “personal information, such as social security numbers, was included on record request forms.”
It’s unclear who else is in the group of 11, although one unauthorized release earlier this year included personal information about the health of congressional candidate Jennifer-Ruth Green. Military reports given to the same group that requested Bacon’s reports indicated that Green had been sexually assaulted during her military service.
Green said in a statement in October, she asked the inspector general of the Air Force to “bring criminal charges” over the release of her files.
The unauthorized disclosure in the Bacon case was confirmed in a letter from a US Air Force major earlier this month. Gene. Troy Dunn, commander of the Air Force Personnel Center.
Dunn said in his February 7 letter to Bacon that the Air Force Personnel Center’s military records department had received “numerous inquiries” from a due diligence group, LLC background investigation analyst regarding his records. The person who submitted the requests, Abraham Payton, “inappropriately requested copies of your military personal data for the stated purpose of employment and benefits.”
Nunn called the situation “criminal” in a statement on Tuesday.
“As a country, we must support veterans who want to continue their service, and not harass and intimidate them,” Nunn said. “I strongly support the bipartisan efforts being made by the House Armed Services Committee to protect our service members and bring criminals to justice.”
The Justice Department declined to comment on the matter.
Stefan stressed in a statement that the Air Force is “committed to preventing the recurrence of any such unauthorized disclosure of private information” by conducting monthly audits.