Bergdahl Coast Guard records

To Whom It May Concern:

This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act. I hereby request the following records:

The Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) for former Coast Guard member Bowe Robert Bergdahl, born March 28, 1986.

Records requested include:

All fitness report and counseling forms, the most recent cumulative record of training, any background summary file, Form DD-214 and, if applicable, any and all Officer Personnel Action Requests, Officer Evaluation Reports, Officer Support Forms, Reports on the Fitness of Admirals, .

Because Bergdahl is a figure of intense interest by the national news media, there is an urgency to inform the public about Bergdahl’s record pertaining to any alleged government activity in the Coast Guard. Please respond with an estimation of the amount of time it will take to process the request.

I also request that, if appropriate, fees be waived as I believe this request is in the public interest. The requested documents will be made available to the general public free of charge as part of the public information service at MuckRock.com, processed by a representative of the news media/press and is made in the process of news gathering and not for commercial usage.

In the event that fees cannot be waived, I would be grateful if you would inform me of the total charges in advance of fulfilling my request. I would prefer the request filled electronically, by e-mail attachment if available or CD-ROM if not.

Thank you in advance for your anticipated cooperation in this matter. I look forward to receiving your response to this request within 20 business days, as the statute requires.

Sincerely,

J.K. Trotter

Hello,

I would like to appeal the determination of FOIA #2014-2188, from which 2 pages were withheld pursuant to Title 5 U.S.C § 552 (b). Part of one page, the determination explains, is being withheld due to the “personal nature of information pertaining to individuals not the subject of this request,” which would “constitute an unwarranted invasion of their personal privacy.” Two other pages, the determination continues, “are privileged inter-agency correspondence” and thus unreleasable.

These explanations are completely insufficient for withholding entire or partial pages of the requested records.

The first explanation—pertaining to personal privacy of an individual who is “not the subject of this request”— does not even bother to explain whether the information would be released under a different FOIA request specifically targeting records about that individual.

If that information would in fact be releasable, it should certainly be releasable in this case. Whether or not a FOIA request happens to encompass individuals who are not technically ““the subject” of the relevant request is not sufficient grounds to deny the records that happen to pertain to that individual.

In the case that this section contains information that would infringe on the personal privacy of the relevant individual regardless of the particulars of any one FOIA request, please simply redact that information before releasing that section of information, in response to my original FOIA request.

The second explanation is equally insufficient. Classifying information as “privileged intra-agency correspondence” is grounds for precise redactions, not the entire withholding of entire pages of requested records. Please redact any personal information from the withheld pages and release in accordance with my original FOIA request.

Sincerely,

J.K. Trotter

Hi LTJG Ward,

Thank you for the email. Just to clarify: Will you be sending the password today?

Thanks,

J.K. Trotter

Thank you very much! Have a wonderful day.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2015-CGFO-02110.

Thank you for your help.

To Whom It May Concern:

I wanted to follow up on the following Freedom of Information request, copied below, and originally submitted on June 12, 2014. Please let me know when I can expect to receive a response, or if further clarification is needed. You had assigned it reference number #2015-CGFO-02110.

Thank you for your help.