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ARTICLE 04 - Identity Thieves Harvesting DD-214s From Courthouse Records
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By Andrea West
It was one of the last pieces of advice I received while preparing to leave
active duty. "Take your DD-214 down to the county courthouse and register
it," my first sergeant said. "That way, if you lose the hard copy you can
replace it easily."
It seemed like wise advice at the time - since it can be very difficult to
replace a lost DD-214 form - but filing your formal discharge document with a
local courthouse can make you extremely vulnerable to an even more serious
problem: identity theft.
But as Kelly Reid, an alert DefenseWatch reader, recently alerted us, the
danger is very real:
I had a retired Master Chief come by my office this morning with a scary
story. His identification was stolen the beginning of September. He received
a call from a lady at American Express because someone had established credit
with them (in his name) and was trying to cash a $9,000 check in his name in
early September, made out to a Muslim/Arabic-sounding name. The lady flagged
the check because apparently she had a different address on file for the
Master Chief than what showed on the check. When she called him, he of course
reported it.
Last night, the Master Chief received a call from an investigator telling him
that they finally tracked down the fellow who stole his identification. The
guy is a lawyer and had a lap-top computer with several thousand military
names, SSN's and other information. Each military person was a separatee or
retiree and their common link was that they had their DD-214s filed with a
county clerk. The Master Chief was told that this lawyer had accessed the
DD-214 information through the public court computer system.
When I left the service, I followed my first sergeant's advice and had my
DD-214 registered with the county clerk and recorder. For convenience, I did
this in several places as I moved around the country. When I heard about this
situation, I called two of the counties where I am registered (for obvious
reasons, I won't say where) to see what their security procedures are.
Bad news: one of the county clerks said that the DD-214 is a public document
and there is no legal way to prevent someone from looking at it and
requesting a copy. Moreover, since this particular county clerk intends to
post all documents online at some point, my DD-214 and others will be
available on the Internet as well.
The second county clerk I contacted said the office is aware of the security
problem, and on a recommendation from the county attorney has removed the
index to all filed DD-214s from public view. They also now require that a
person trying to access a DD-214 prove that he or she is either the person
named therein or that he or she has this person's permission. While the
county in question cannot remove the documents themselves from public access,
it intends to take all legally permissible steps to keep potential identity
thieves out of the DD-214s. At the end of our conversation, I asked this
clerk to speak to his counterpart in the first office I had spoken to and
pass along these ideas.
You cannot underestimate the hazard of someone obtaining your DD-214. A
DD-214 is an identity document. It links a Social Security number to a name,
and makes it simple for an identity thief to connect the dots. In view of
this, it is unwise in the extreme to register a DD-214 at the county
courthouse.
If you have done so, the best you can do is protect yourself against identity
theft. The best defense is vigilance. According to the Federal Trade
Commission's ID Theft website (www.consumer.gov/idtheft/), you should check
with the three major credit bureaus and request a copy of your credit ratings
from each of them. The URLS are as follows:
Equifax: www.equifax.com/ 1-800-685-1111 fraud line 1-800-525-6285.
Experian: www.experian.com 1-888-EXPERIAN (397-3742) fraud line
1-888-EXPERIAN.
TransUnion: www.tuc.com 1-800-916-8800 fraud line 1-800-680-7289.
If you discover items in your credit history that look fraudulent to you,
notify the credit bureau immediately. The FTC has additional recommendations
at the following website: www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/alerts/idenalrt.htm.
Next, keep close track of your personal information. Watch bills and bank
statements and follow up if they don't arrive on time. If you intend to
dispose of anything with your credit card number, driver's license number,
SSN, signature, bank account number, or the like on it, destroy it by
thoroughly tearing it up or shredding it finely. Be especially vigilant about
credit card offers. Dispose of them as you would a piece of credit
information. If possible, it may be worthwhile to have your mail delivered to
a secure post office box instead of to your house.
It is worth the effort to contact your county records section and see what
the county is doing to prevent theft of DD-214s. It is recommended that you
encourage the county clerk to look into the matter if he or she is not
already doing so.
Andrea West is DefenseWatch Veterans editor. She can be reached at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Table of Contents
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ARTICLE 05 - Praise For Black Hawk Down From One Who Was There
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By Gerry Izzo
During the last few days, many pilots have come up to me and asked me if I
had seen the movie Black Hawk Down. I don't mind talking about the movie, and
I welcome the opportunity to talk about the heroism and valor of my friends.
I just wanted to post some comments here about the movie and my impressions.
Also I wanted to try to answer some frequently asked questions.
First of all, I and many of my friends that also flew on the mission thought
that the movie was excellent! It is technically accurate and it is
dramatically correct. In other words, the equipment, lingo and dialogue are
all right on. By dramatically correct, I mean that it very effectively
captured the emotions and tension that we all felt during the mission.
It did this without being a cartoon, (like Top Gun) or being over the top,
(like Firebirds). It's true that the screenwriters had to consolidate two or
three people into one, but this was necessary because otherwise there would
have been too many principle characters to keep track of.
Also, in the actual mission we had nearly 20 aircraft in the air that day. In
the movie they had four Blackhawks and four "Little Birds." The unit could
not afford to commit the actual number to the filming of the movie.
However, through the magic of the cinema, they were able to give the
impression of the real number. Our force mixture was as follows:
Super 61 - Lead Blackhawk
Star 41-44 - Little Bird Assault
Super 62 - Trail Blackhawk
These aircraft made up the assault force. Their mission was to go into the
buildings and capture the individuals who were the target of the day.
Super 61 was shot down, killing both pilots. (They were CW4 Cliff Wolcott and
CW3 Donovan Briley. The three of us shared a room at the airfield.) Star 41
landed at the crash site and the pilot, CW4 Keith Jones, ran over and dragged
two survivors to his aircraft and took off for the hospital. Keith re-enacted
his actions in the movie.
Super 62 was the Blackhawk that put in the two Delta snipers, Sgt. 1st Class
Randy Shughart Master Sgt. Gary Gordon. They were inserted at crash site No.
2. Shortly after Gary and Randy were put in, Super 62 was struck in the
fuselage by an antitank rocket. The whole right side of the aircraft was
opened up and the sniper manning the right door gun had his leg blown off.
The aircraft was able to make it out of the battle area to the port area
where they made a controlled crash landing. (This is not depicted in the
movie.)
Next was the Ranger Blocking Force. This consisted of 4 Blackhawks:
Super 64 - (CW3 Mike Durant, CW4 Ray Frank)
Super 65 - (Me, Capt. Richard Williams)
Super 66 - (CW3 Stan Wood, CW4 Gary Fuller)
Super 67 - (CW3 Jeff Niklaus, CW2 Sam Shamp)
The mission of the blocking force was to be inserted at the four corners of
the objective building and to prevent any Somali reinforcements from getting
through. In the movie there is a brief overhead shot of the assault. My
aircraft is depicted in the lower left hand corner of the screen. This is the
only part of the film where I come close to being mentioned.
As the assault is completed, you hear the Blackhawks calling out of the
objective area. When you hear, "Super 65 is out, going to holding ... "
that's my big movie moment. There is also a quick shot of an RPG (Rocket
Propelled Grenade) being shot at a hovering Blackhawk. I did have one maybe
two fired at me, but I did not see them or the gunner. I only heard the
explosions.
We were not able to return fire, although some of the other aircraft did.
Make no mistake. I am fully aware of my role in this mission. My job was the
same as the landing boat drivers in Saving Private Ryan." Get the troops in
the right place in one piece. I am very proud of the fact that my crew and I
were able to do that. After having done this in Grenada, Panama and Somalia,
I can identify with the bombardiers of World War II. You have to ignore all
of the chaos that is going on around and completely concentrate on the tasks
at hand: That is holding the aircraft as steady as possible so the Rangers
can slide down the ropes as quickly and safely as possible.
Okay, enough about me. Super 64 was shot down also with an RPG. They tried to
make it back to the airfield, but their tail rotor gave way about a mile out
of the objective area. They went down in the worst part of bad guy territory.
The dialogue for the movie appears to have been taken from the mission tapes
as it is exactly as I remember it. (This was the hardest part of the movie
for me to watch). The actions on the ground are as described by Mike Durant,
as he was the only one from the crew to survive the crash and the gun battle.
It was here that Gary and Randy won their posthumous Medals of Honor.
Super 66 was called in at about 2000 hours to resupply the Rangers at the
objective area. Some of the Rangers were completely out of ammunition and
were fighting hand to hand with the Somali militiamen. (Also not depicted in
the movie).
Stan and Gary brought their aircraft in so that they were hovering over the
top of the Olympic Hotel with the cargo doors hanging out over the front
door. In this way they were able to drop the ammo, water and medical supplies
to the men inside. Stan's left gunner fired 1600 rounds of minigun ammo in 30
seconds. He probably killed between 8 to 12 Somali militiamen.
As Stan pulled out of the objective area, he headed to the airfield because
his right gunner had been wounded, as had the two Rangers in the back who
were throwing out the supplies. Once he landed, he discovered that he'd been
hit by about 40-50 rounds and his transmission leaking oil like a sieve.
Super 66 was done for the night.
The final group of aircraft were the 4 MH-6 gunships, the command-and-control
Blackhawk and the Search and Rescue 'Hawk.' They were:
Barber 51-54 - MH-6s
Super 63 - C&C
Super 68 - SAR
In the movie, the gunships are shown making only one attack. In fact, they
were constantly engaged all night long. Each aircraft reloaded six times. It
is estimated that they fired between 70,000-80,000 rounds of minigun ammo and
fired a total of 90 to 100 aerial rockets. They were the only thing that kept
the Somalis from overrunning the objective area. All eight gunship pilots
were awarded the Silver Star. Every one of them deserved it!
Next is Super 68. The actions of this crew were very accurately portrayed.
The only difference was that they were actually hit in the rotor blades by an
RPG. This blew a semicircle out of the main rotor spar, but the blade held
together long enough for them to finish putting in the medics and Rangers at
the first crash site. It was then that they headed to the airfield.
What they did not know, was that their main transmission and engine oil
cooler had been destroyed by the blast. As they headed to the airfield, all
seven gallons of oil from the main rotor gearbox, and all seven quarts from
each engine were pouring out. They got the aircraft on the ground just as all
oil pressures went to zero. They then shut down, ran to the spare aircraft
and took off to rejoin the battle. They were in the air just in time to
affect the MEDEVAC of Super 62, which had landed at the seaport. The pilots
of this aircraft were CW3 Dan Jollota, and Maj. Herb Rodriguez. Both men were
later awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross.
Major Rodriguez is retired from the Army now and he teaches middle school
with my wife in Clarksville, Tennessee.
Finally there is the Command and Control Blackhawk, Super 63. In the back of
this aircraft was my battalion commander, Lt. Col. Tom Matthews, and the
overall ground commander, Lt. Col. Gary Harrell.
In the movie, there is a scene where the men on the ground were begging for
MEDEVAC. By this point in the battle we had five Blackhawks out of action,
either shot down or shot up so much they couldn't fly anymore. Of the two
assault force and four blocking force 'Hawks', only myself and Super 67 were
left. I fully expected Lt. Col. Harrell to send us in to try to get those men
out.
I jacked a round into the chamber of my pistol and my M-16. I knew that the
only way to do it was to hover with one wheel balanced on the roof of the
building. Then the Rangers would be able to throw the wounded in. I knew that
we were going to take a lot of fire and I was trying to mentally prepare
myself to do this while the aircraft was getting hit. My friends had all gone
in and taken their licks and now I figured it was our turn. (Peer pressure is
such a powerful tool if used properly.) Quite frankly, I really thought that
we were at best going to get shot down, at worst I figured we were going to
be killed. The way I saw it we had already lost five aircraft, what was two
more? I had accepted this because at least when this was all over. [Maj.]
Gen. {William F.] Garrison would be able to tell the families that we had
tried everything to get their sons, fathers or husbands out. We were even
willing to send in our last two helicopters.
Fortunately for me, Lt. Col. Harrell realized that the time for helicopters
had passed. The decision was made to get the tanks and armored personnel
carriers to punch through to the objective area.
Once again, the dialogue in the movie is verbatim. What you don't hear is me
breathing a sigh of relief! I remembered thinking that maybe I was going to
see the sunrise after all.
I guess I got a little carried away. I really didn't mean to write this much.
People ask me if this movie has given me 'flashbacks.' I don't think you can
call them flashbacks if that day has never been out of my mind.
I hope that when you do see the movie it will fill you with pride and awe for
the Rangers that fought their hearts out that day. Believe me, they are made
of the same stuff as those kids at Normandy Beach. When 1st Lt. Tom
DiTomasso, the Ranger platoon leader on my aircraft, told me that we did a
fantastic job, I couldn't imagine ever receiving higher praise than that.
I love my wife and children, but the greatest thing I've ever done is to be a
Nightstalker Pilot with Task Force Ranger on 3-4 Oct., 1993.
Editor's Note: Following his retirement from the Army, Capt. Izzo joined
Comair Airlines, where he is a captain today.
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