An Air Force veteran of the first Iraq war and a military spouse and her two children have hit the Defense Department with a class action lawsuit seeking $4.9 billion in damages from the theft of a computer tape containing personal and sensitive health information from the car of an employee of Science Applications International Corp., a contractor with the TRICARE Health Management Activity. The company was not named as a defendant in the action.

The suit, filed Monday by the law firm Shulman, Rogers, Gandal, Pordy & Ecker of Potomac, Md., seeks $1,000 in damages for all 4.9 million TRICARE beneficiaries whose records were on the computer tape stolen Sept. 13 from the SAIC employee’s car in San Antonio. TRICARE and Defense Secretary Leon Panetta are named as defendants.