I am writing to complain about the lack of cooperation I get from the Columbia County Veterans Service Office.

I do a lot of historical research on the military service of veterans. I've done this kind of research since 1993. I am now trying to get information about the World War II Navy service of Norman Krueger, who was a lifelong resident of Portage and who died April 3, 2000.

Mr. Krueger worked for my father for many years at a garage in Portage. He served aboard the USS Hornet, an aircraft carrier, and aboard the USS Indianapolis, a heavy cruiser that was sunk by a Japanese submarine in August 1945. Mr. Krueger was one of the few survivors of the Indianapolis disaster and was a local folk hero for many years because of it.

I requested information about his WWII Navy service from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, but they could not find his records because I was unable to provide them with Mr. Krueger's old Navy service number. I tried to get that number from the Columbia County Veterans Service Office and was told that that information was not releasable.

I wrote letters of complaint to Columbia County legal counsel and to Debra Wopat, chairperson on the Columbia County Board of Supervisors, and to Kenneth Hutler, who represents me and the area where I live here in Portage. He is a member of the Columbia County Board of Supervisors.

None of them have responded to my letters of complaint, so I wrote to Wisconsin Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and complained of a possible open records violation. Under the Federal Privacy Act of 1974, a veterans service number is releasable under the Freedom of Information Act whether the veteran is alive or deceased. The reason for that is that a veteran's old military service number is useless to anyone who engages in identity theft.

But try to tell that to the Columbia County Veterans Service Office. This kind of incompetence and inefficiency is inexcusable, and I am hoping Van Hollen takes the appropriate action regarding this issue.

David R. Davies, Portage