Honorable Discharge Certificate

Question

Not sure if this has been answered or not. I work in an archive at Texas Tech University, and I will occasionally come across former Air Force members Honorable Discharge Certificates. Most are framed and look really nice. I Honorably separated from Active Duty Air Force after 8 years and some change back in 2013. I did receive my DD-214 but never received an Honorable Discharge Certificate from the Air Force that I could frame. Is that something I just missed out on? Do they do this for Active Duty Air Force who separated when I did? I have looked into the several sites and it looks like there is conflicting information. I put in a request on the eVetRecs site but have not gotten a response yet. Any information anyone can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Edit: This is what I received from writing to AFPC/DPPSA Ret And Sep Programs:

Active Duty AF stopped doing the DD 256AF certificates back in the late 90s.  This was around the same time OSD changed the policy and stopped requiring a DD 214 to be done every time a member separated for immediate reenlistment.  Since separations were still decentralized until approximately 2010, individual bases did their separation actions.  Some bases may have continued to hand out the DD 256 until finally running out of stock or until most separations were centralized at AFPC.

 Jimmy B. Standridge, DAF

AFPC Separations Policy

Looks like I am kind of SOL for right now I am still in contact with AFPC to see if anything could be done. Thanks everyone for the help!

Posted Jun 8, 2026, 4:44 PM UTC

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