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We suggest that you request a copy of your Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), which should include a copy of your Department of Defense (DD) Form 214. OMPFs for those who separated from the U.S. Armed Forces after 1959 and before October 2002 are in the custody of NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. In many cases where Air Force personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire, proof of service can be provided from other records such as morning reports, payrolls, and military orders, and a certificate of military service will be issued. Navy and Marine Corps OMPFs were not affected by the fire. Please complete a GSA Standard Form 180 and mail it to NARA's National Personnel Records Center, (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138-1002. Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans also may use eVetRecs to request records. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. For more information see Request Military Service Records.
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 continues working to restore their pre-pandemic response times of under ten days for these requests. It will take a considerable amount of time to eliminate the backlog on other types of requests, such as genealogical requests for complete copies of records. For more information, please refer to Onsite Operations at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
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. If your request is urgent, please see Emergency Requests and Deadlines.
Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) for those who served in the U.S. Armed Forces and were separated after September 30, 2002 (Army); after September 30, 2004 (Air Force); after 1994 (Navy); and after 1998 (Marine Corps) are available in electronic format via https://milconnect.dmdc.osd.mil/milconnect/.
You may also complete a GSA Standard Form 180 and mail it to NARA's National Personnel Records Center, (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138-1002. If there is any information requested by the form that you do not know, you may omit it or provide estimates (such as for dates), but the more information you provide, the easier it will be to locate the correct file. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF).
Archival OMPFs, those that are 62 years and older, may also be requested by visiting the Archival Research Room at the National Archives at St. Louis. Please email stlarr.archives@nara.gov for further assistance prior to making an appointment.
