History Hub staff can not provide estimates on how long it will take to fulfill requests. The exact procedures for replacement medals depends on several factors. For more information, please see Military Awards and Decorations. Response times from NPRC vary depending on the complexity of your request, the availability of the records, and their workload. The NPRC staff works actively to respond to each request in a timely fashion, but keep in mind they receive approximately 4,000 - 5,000 requests per day.
Please be aware that NPRC is prioritizing the requests for separation documents needed by veterans and their dependents to prove eligibility for a variety of benefits. NPRC has restored service levels to pre-pandemic levels for requests related to burials, homeless veterans, medical emergencies, congressional inquiries, and routine separation documents. It will take a considerable amount of time to eliminate the backlog on other types of requests, such as requests for replacement medals. For more information, please refer to Onsite Operations at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
If you have already submitted your request and have allowed sufficient time for the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to receive and process your request (more than 10 days), please review Check the Status of a Request for Military Service Records to see the options for checking the status of your request. You also may telephone the NPRC Customer Service Line (this is a long-distance call for most customers) at 314-801-0800. Peak calling times are weekdays between 10:00 a.m. CST and 3:00 p.m. CST. Staff is available to take your call as early as 7:00 a.m. and as late as 5:00 p.m. CST. Please be aware that NPRC receives a high volume of calls on a daily basis, and when their capacity is reached their call system may ask you to call back at a later time. You may also email mpr.status@nara.gov for help. Provide the request number number if you have it; the name, address and telephone number of the requestor; and the veteran’s branch of service to aid in finding the request in the system.
The National Personnel Records Center only verifies a list of the entitled awards for the veteran. When a requester wants a replacement set of awards, the information is reviewed and sent to the service branch for issuance. Once the service branch has the request, it then rests on their timetable.
When you receive a response from the NPRC on the reissuance of the veteran's awards, you can contact the service branch office for updates:
