a letter to a Rep or Senator produces an inquiry such as the ones Hill and McHugh made (although at the staff level). Typically, a staffer will call the unit in question or there will be a letter sent at a higher level.While the response is often bureaucratic gobbledygook (as seen in Cavguy's second post) the service will often modify what it is doing to make sure that people get what they deserve. If the mil bureaucracy is in the wrong the error usually gets rectified without any admission of error. (As we all know bureaucracies never are in error).

Cheers

JohnT