DEPARTMENT OF DEFENSE
OFFICE OF FREEDOM OF INFORMATION
1155 DEFENSE PENTAGON
WASHINGTON, DC 20301-1155

IJV 2 1 2011
Ref: 17-F-0774

Ms. Sara Creighton
American Oversight
1030 15th Street NW
B-255
Washington, DC 20005
Dear Ms. Creighton:
This is the final response to your March 31, 2017, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA)
request, a copy of which is attached for your convenience. Your request was received on
March 31, 2017, and assigned it case number 17-F-0774. We ask that you use this number when
referring to your request.
This FOIA office only processes requests for the Office of the Secretary of Defense
(OSD) and the Joint Staff (JS). There is no central FOIA processing point for records for the
entire Department of Defense (DoD). FOIA processing is decentralized and delegated to those
officials of the Military Departments and various DoD Components who generate and/or
maintain the records being sought or reviewed. For future reference, you may find links to the
non-OSD/JS DoD FOIA Requester Service Centers on our website:
http://www.dod.mil/pubs/foi/.
The Records and Declassification Division (RDD), the Correspondence Management
Division (CMD) which is part of Executive Services Directorate (ESD), and the Office of
General Counsel (OGC), components of the Office of the Secretary of Defense (OSD),
conducted searches of their records systems based on the information provided in your request.
After thorough searches of the electronic records and files ofRDD, ESD, and OGC, no records
of the kind you described could be identified. Further, RDD, ESD, and OGC certified that, to the
best of their knowledge, the records you describe do not exist. We believe that these search
methods were appropriate and could reasonably be expected to produce the requested records if
they existed.
In this instance, fees for processing your request were below the threshold for requiring
payment. Please note that fees may be assessed on future requests.

If you are not satisfied with this response, you may contact our OSD FOIA Public
Liaison, Jim Hogan, at 571-372-0462 or by email at OSD.FOIALiaison@mail.mil. Also, please
note that the Office of Government Information Services (OGIS) offers services to requesters
who have disputes with Federal agencies. You may contact OGIS if you have concerns about
the processing of your request. Their contact information is provided below:

 Office of Government Information Services
National Archives and Records Administration
8601 Adelphi Road-OGIS
College Park, MD 20740
E-mail: ogis@nara.gov
Telephone: 202-741-5770
Fax:202-741-5769
Toll-free: 1-877-684-6448
You have the right to appeal to the appellate authority, Ms. Joo Chung, Director of
Oversight and Compliance, Office of the Secretary of Defense, by writing directly to ODCMO
Directorate for Oversight and Compliance, 4800 Mark Center Drive, ATTN: DPCLTD, FOIA
Appeals, Mailbox# 24, Alexandria, VA 22350-1700. Your appeal must be postmarked within
90 calendar days of the date of this response. Alternatively, you may use the OSD FO IA request
portal at http://pal.whs.mil/palMain.aspx or email your appeal to osd.foia-appeal@mail.mil. If
you use email, please include the words "FOIA Appeal" in the subject of the email. Please also
reference case number 17-F-0774 in any appeal correspondence.
If you have questions about the foregoing, please do not hesitate to contact the Action
Officer assigned to your request, Charles Marye, at charles.c.marye.civ@mail.mil or
571-372-0407.

Sincerely,

~

~c.~

Stephanie L. Carr
Chief

Enclosure:
As stated