Where is Your DD-214?

For those veterans not planning on living forever, you don’t need this info — for the rest of you, listen up!

Does anyone besides you, know where your DD 214 is? First things first: do you know where your DD 214 is? Okay, let’s start slow — do you know what a DD 214 is?

Kidding aside, over the years I must’ve gotten hundreds of phone calls from families who had just lost a vet without leaving anyone who knew what their wishes were, or the paperwork to make that happen.

Say you would like an Honor Guard, or a firing detail — perhaps you want to be buried in the Veterans Cemetery, a flag for the casket, a veteran’s headstone? Well, Sparky, unless you can prove you’re a vet, those things might not happen, and you’re going to be past the point of telling anyone.

Remember when we got out of service we were all told to go immediately to the County Clerk and put your discharge/DD 214 on file? Yeah, well, I didn’t either, but now they will give you a card that might save you some money. Then you could figure out what funeral home you want to use. You could make pre-arrangements on things to save your family guessing later. What about insurance? VA, or private?

Or you could just do nothing and that way you can make sure that it’s a bad day for everyone — even your brother-in-law.

Jerry Donnellan