Free Joint Status Report - District Court of Federal Claims - federal

Case 1:02-cv-01744-LMB

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IN THE UNITED STATES COURT OF FEDERAL CLAIMS ) ) Plaintiff, ) ) v. ) ) THE UNITED STATES, ) ) Defendant. ) ________________________________) GARY S. WOLLAM,

No. 02-1744C Judge Baskir

JOINT STATUS REPORT Pursuant to the Court's Order dated January 28, 2003, and the parties' Joint Status Report dated March 14, 2008, the parties respectfully submit this Joint Status Report. In the time since the last status report, Plaintiff, Gary Wollam, sent an appeal to the Secretary of the Air Force in response to the Air Force Personnel Center's (AFPC) February 25, 2008 partial response to Mr. Wollam's January 30, 2008 FOIA request (FOIA Case No. 080109). See Joint Status Report (March 14, 2008) at 1. This appeal remains pending. In mid-April, Mr. Wollam received a package and letter from the Office of the Chief Counsel of the National Guard Bureau for the Army and Air Force. The undated letter referenced Mr. Wollam's

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June 25, 2007 FOIA request which sought a copy of all awards and decorations for a particular officer that Mr. Wollam had sent to the Wyoming National Guard (FOIA Case No. 07-108). The Wyoming National Guard apparently forwarded Mr. Wollam's request to the National Guard Bureau for further action. The records released by the Office of the Chief Counsel provided additional records that previously were not released by the Wyoming National Guard on this officer. They satisfied this FOIA request and the matter is now closed. In response to an e-mail that he received in February, Mr. Wollam contacted the Wright-Patterson AFB (WPAFB) FOIA Office and inquired about the other three records they said, in their February e-mail, had been found but were not provided in response to his September 24, 2007 FOIA appeal (FOIA Case No. 07-852AB). See Joint Status Report (March 14, 2008) at 2. The WPAFB FOIA Office responded stating: The other three records were not a match to your request (wrong personnel, same last name different first name). I believe that the decorations were issued, however for whatever reason the records were not properly maintained. The history office has told me that they should be provided copies, but often they never receive them. . . . 2

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Unfortunately we are going to have to do a 'no records' response for the remaining nine officers. Subsequently, the WPAFB FOIA Office sent Mr. Wollam another e-mail on April 7, 2008, stating that one of their organizations was able to find three more records, which they provided. These were not the same three records mentioned above. After reviewing them, Mr. Wollam informed the WPAFB FOIA Office that only one of the records was pertinent to his request; the other two were duplicates of records he already had. After further discussion, Mr. Wollam suggested forwarding the names of those officers whose records have not yet been provided to HQ AFPC for a search of their records. Mr. Wollam will follow up with the WPAFB FOIA Office in the near future. Mr. Wollam has conducted extensive searches of public records for nine key individuals over the past couple of months. As of May 11, 2008, he had contacted three and a left telephone message for one other. Efforts to track down the remaining five are on-going. Finally, Mr. Wollam has updated his spreadsheets and analysis as new information becomes available.

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The parties propose to file their next joint status report as soon as the FOIA situation resolves itself, but not later than July 14, 2008, if there have been no definitive developments by that date. Respectfully submitted, s/Guy J. Ferrante GUY J. FERRANTE King & Everhard, P.C. 8019 Daffodil Court Springfield, VA 22152 (703) 644-2009 (Phone) (703) 644-0013 (Fax) Attorney for Plaintiff

JEFFREY S. BUCHOLTZ Acting Assistant Attorney General JEANNE E. DAVIDSON Director s/Todd M. Hughes Deputy Director s/Dawn Goodman Trial Attorney Commercial Litigation Branch Civil Division Department of Justice Attention: Classification Unit 1100 L Street, N.W. Washington, D.C. 20530 (202) 616-1067 Attorneys for Defendant May 14, 2008 4

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CERTIFICATE OF FILING I hereby certify that on May 14, 2008, a copy of the foregoing "Joint Status Report" was filed electronically. I understand that notice of this filing will be sent to all parties by operation of the Court's electronic filing system. Parties may access this filing through the Court's system. s/Guy J. Ferrante

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