MAHONING COUNTY Recorder's Office tries to return documents

There are about 400 of the forgotten forms on file in the recorder's office.
By BOB JACKSON
VINDICATOR COURTHOUSE REPORTER
YOUNGSTOWN -- Mahoning County Recorder Ron Gerberry is looking for some soldiers and sailors.
He's not gearing up for war. He just wants to give back their official military discharge papers.
"We have a whole drawer full of them," said Gerberry, rifling his fingers across the tops of alphabetized file folders. "I find it somewhat amazing that these people never came back for their papers."
When veterans are discharged from the military, they are given a document, known as a Form DD-214, which verifies their time of service and date of discharge.
Often, veterans take the form to their county recorder's office to be officially and permanently recorded. That's so a copy is always on file in case the original is lost or damaged.
Under Ohio law, there is no charge for recording of military discharge papers. Veterans are not required to record the documents.
Never picked them up
For decades, veterans who brought their discharge papers for recording in Mahoning County were told to return and pick them up in about two weeks, which is how long it took to process them, Gerberry said.
But over the years, about 400 people either forgot, or simply didn't bother. Their discharge papers are still in a file drawer behind the counter in Gerberry's office.
"These are original documents," Gerberry said. "They should be in the hands of their owners, not the county."
He said the county has always asked the owners to come back and personally pick up the documents to ensure that they were not lost or stolen in the mail.
Required for services
Jack Twohig, director of the county Veterans Services Commission, said the papers are required for veterans who want to obtain services through Veterans Affairs, such as college tuition, health care or death benefits.
That's why the discharge papers have always been handled with extreme care in the recorder's office, said Nora Palermo, a 28-year employee.
"I was always taught that these are like gold to a veteran," she said. "We don't even fold them."
Most of the documents in the drawer are from the 1960s, probably for Vietnam War veterans, though some date as far back as the 1940s, Gerberry said.
Ohio law allows the recorder to destroy documents that have been kept on file for a certain number of years. Since the discharge papers have been recorded, the originals could possibly be destroyed and the recorded copy used if one is ever needed.
"But there is no way in the world that I want to destroy anyone's discharge papers, and I'm not going to," Gerberry said.
Getting the word out
He's asking that anyone who does not have his or her original discharge papers, and thinks they might have been left at the courthouse, to call or stop at his office to check.
In a few weeks he will try to contact people by mail, letting them know their papers are in his office. He realizes, though, that many of those whose papers are on file may no longer live here, or could be dead.
"I don't know what we'll do with the ones we're left with after that," he said.
Palermo said the office hasn't accumulated any new documents since July 2001, when it began using scanning and imaging equipment.
Now, when a veteran brings in his or her discharge papers, a photocopy is made and the original is immediately handed back to the owner.
The copy is then scanned into the computer and copied onto microfilm.
Trumbull, Columbiana
Diana Marchese, Trumbull County recorder, said there aren't any forgotten DD-214 forms in her office. The policy there has always been to mail them back to the owner after they were processed.
"We always tell them how important that document is and to make sure they keep it," she said.
Likewise, Columbiana County has historically had veterans fill out a self-addressed envelope so the forms could be mailed back to them, said a spokeswoman for Recorder Gary Williams.
"It's amazing how different counties do things differently," Marchese said. "We all try our best."
bjackson@vindy.com