The County Clerk Records Your Discharge Free — and It Stays Confidential for Sixty-Two Years
On request, the county clerk must record the discharge document of an honorably discharged person without charge, in a book kept for that purpose. The record is confidential: it goes to the servicemember, to next of kin or a mortuary for burial benefits, to veterans’ service officers and organisations, to the state veterans’ affairs division, or to anyone with written authorisation — and to the public only once sixty-two years have passed.
Verified August 23, 2026
What this benefit is
On request, the county clerk must record the discharge document of an honorably discharged person without charge, in a book kept for that purpose. The record is confidential: it goes to the servicemember, to next of kin or a mortuary for burial benefits, to veterans’ service officers and organisations, to the state veterans’ affairs division, or to anyone with written authorisation — and to the public only once sixty-two years have passed.
What it's worth: Recording free, with a local certified copy available instead of an Archives wait
- The statute waives the RECORDING charge. It does not state that later copies are free, so a clerk may apply its ordinary copy fee.
- The value here is availability rather than money: a discharge on file with the county is retrievable in an afternoon when a claim, a funeral or a burial needs it.
Who is entitled to it
- The servicemember presents the discharge for recording.
- Next of kin may take a copy where the servicemember has died, and may ask for a mistakenly filed original back.
- You are in this state.
Not sure whether that describes you?
Answer a few questions about this benefit specifically — we only ask what this one actually depends on, and we stop as soon as we know.
How to claim it
- 1You do not have to surrender the original. The section says the clerk records the document on request and does not require the original to be filed.
- 2If an original was filed by accident and the clerk still holds it, you can get it back — a written request from the servicemember, or from next of kin after a death, requires its return.
- 3The record is confidential by statute, not by office practice. That matters when a clerk is unsure: the disclosure list is closed and is in the section.
- 4A mortuary can be given the record after a death for the purpose of burial benefits, which removes one obstacle from the days after a death.
- 5Veterans’ service officers and organisations, and the veterans’ affairs division of the Department of Military Affairs, are on the disclosure list in their own right. A service officer helping with a claim does not need a separate authorisation from you.
- 6After sixty-two years from the discharge date the record becomes public under federal law, with social security numbers redacted. Families researching an older relative are usually inside that window.
- Form
- Present the discharge document to the county clerk and recorder
- File with
- County clerk and recorder
- Documents you will need
- dd214
- No renewal
- Once granted it does not need renewing.
Sources
Why only one source type: Only the statute could be read. Individual Montana county clerks publish their own release forms and counter fees, and no single official statewide operating page for this exists; none is claimed here.
This finder provides an informational match, not a government eligibility determination. The responsible agency decides your application.