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. To contact the National Guard directly, write to: