#Middlebury #NationalPersonnelRecords Center
VETERANS POST
By Freddy Groves
The National Personnel Records Center, part of the National Archives and Records Administration, has finally cleared up a huge four-year backlog of work caused by the Covid pandemic. At one time they had a list of 600,000 requests for records.
From what we hear, it was a crazy time, with only a certain number of emergency personnel allowed to work in the building at once to take care of must-have requests for things like documents for funerals and medical emergencies. Now allowed back to work, they’ve dealt with longer hours for staff, working weekends, additional staff and shifts, new technology and much more.
At this point they’ve caught up, and ideally any normal requests for separation records should be handled within a week or so, with other types of records taking approximately 20 days. Meanwhile, they receive over 4,000 new requests each day. That’s over a million per year.
The vast majority of the records at the record center are paper copies that must be found by hand. They’ve been busy digitizing all the files they can find, including asking the VA to digitize all the military service records they hold. In addition, the eVetRecs portal has been upgraded to handle requests for files online, and there is now a phone line to check the status of orders.
The 1973 fire continues to impact efforts to produce records. With 16-18 million files reduced to ash, it’s been necessary over the years to reconstruct information from various sources and locations to produce the requested files, such as DD Form 214. Some of the alternate records they can search are final pay vouchers and medical/hospital records.
Staff at the records center should be applauded for their work under less than ideal conditions. I personally wondered if they would ever catch up, even with their plan of action and status report one year ago, but they have.
If you need to request service records, go to vetrecs.archives.gov/VeteranRequest/home.html and file your order online.
© 2024 King Features Synd., Inc.
