"Notice: As a result of increases in the Health Protection Condition (HPCON) level, our FOIA/PA office is maximizing the use of telework for our personnel. This means that we are slower to handle requests sent via traditional methods and will respond to electronic inquiries faster while under these elevated HPCON levels."

Freedom Of Information Act

The Freedom Of Information Act, which is known by its legal cite as 5 U.S.C. § 552, along with the DoD Regulation, governs how requests will be processed within the DoD. DoD Regulation 5400.7-R, "Department of Defense Freedom of Information Act Program," can be found at Part 286 of Chapter 32 of the Code of Federal Regulations, which is available in most libraries.

Due to its size and complexity, the Department of Defense's FOIA program is decentralized among the several DoD Components which operate their own FOIA offices and respond directly to the public for their own records.

How to file a FOIA or Privacy Request

Please note that the filing of a FOIA or Privacy request is a personal matter. Military personnel and Federal Government Employees may not use government time or equipment to make such requests.

If you are seeking personal records on yourself under the Privacy Act, you must provide a signed letter indicating the specific records you are seeking. Based on the existing retrieval practice for the records you are seeking, you may be asked to provide additional information to allow us to retrieve your record. The letter, containing your signature, can be mailed, faxed, or scanned and sent as an e-mail attachment.

  1. Write to:
    Department of Defense Veterans and Emergency Management
    Headquarters Maine Army National Guard
    ATTN: FOIA Office
    Camp Chamberlain
    Augusta, Maine 04333-0033
     
  2. Phone (Primary): 207-430-5027
    Phone (Alternate): 207-430-5000 Fax requests to: 207-626-4233
     
  3. Email requests to: ng.me.mearng.list.j6-foia@mail.mil

ALL Air National Guard FOIA requests are handled by the NGB FOIA Office. They can be contacted at 703-607-3195 or by e-mail ngb.foia@mail.mil

If you do not receive satisfactory service from the Maine National Guard FOIA Requestor Service Center listed above, you may contact the National Guard Bureau or Army FOIA Public Liaison Officer for additional assistance as follows: **

Essential Elements of a FOIA Request Letter:

  • Provide your full name and contact information
  • Provide a reasonable description of the record(s) requested
  • Provide a statement of your fee category and your willingness to pay applicable fees
  • Send your request to the applicable FOIA Office (see below)

Fee Categories:

  • Educational, Noncommercial, Scientific, and Media: Any accredited U.S. educational or research institution or instructor of an institution, or representative of the news media using the information in a scholarly or analytical work contributing to public knowledge and disseminated to the public.
  • Commercial: Increases the commercial interest of the requestor.
  • All Others: All other requestors

Fees:

The FOIA provides for the collection of fees for:

  • Searches: Time spent in looking for and retrieving material, either paper or electronic files, that are responsive to the request to include personnel hours (clerical and professional) and computer time.
  • Reviews: Time spent to determine if the record is releasable under legal guidelines, excluding resolution of legal or policy issues. This does include time spent excising text that is exempt under FOIA.
  • Reproduction: Generating a copy of a requested record in the appropriate medium, for example paper or computer file.

Fees rates and schedules can be found in DoD 5400.7, DoD Freedom of Information Act Program (http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/corres/pdf/540007r.pdf), and on the DD 2086, Record of FOI Costs (http://www.dtic.mil/whs/directives/infomgt/forms/eforms/dd2086.pdf). For more information the Freedom of Information Act, please visit http://www.usdoj.gov/oip/index.html

FOIA Resources

Other Commonly Requested Records

For inquiries on background investigations and personnel records for former NGB, ARNG, and ANG employees, please reference: http://www.opm.gov/efoia/html/foia_contacts.asp For inquiries on retired, separated, and deceased military personnel records (to include Army and Air National Guardsman), please reference: http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/get-service-records.html

For inquiries on Department of the Army (Non-Guard) records, please reference: https://www.rmda.army.mil/foia/docs/foia-servicecenters.pdf For inquiries on Department of the Air Force (Non-Guard) records, please reference: http://www.foia.af.mil/offices/