eVetRecs — Requesting a DD 214 Online

The National Archives pro­vides the abil­ity to request vet­er­ans records (DD 214) for vet­er­ans who served in the US mil­i­tary between WWI and the present, using Standard Form 180 (SF-180).

This can be done either online or entirely on paper. One can also request replace­ment medals and other doc­u­ments. The online form is avail­able at:

http://archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/#evetrecs.

For “online” requests, a paper copy must be printed (or a hand­writ­ten doc­u­ment must be pre­pared) in order to sign the affir­ma­tion that you are enti­tled to this information.

To sub­mit the request, you will need to have a fair amount of infor­ma­tion handy, includ­ing the veteran’s full name, social secu­rity num­ber, ser­vice ID num­ber, birth date and place, and approx­i­mate date of sep­a­ra­tion from service.

A help­ful video on the process is avail­able on the site, as well as embed­ded on this page. 90% of requests are processed within 10 days, accord­ing to NARA.

eVet Recs Popup

You can also sim­ply write for the record. Is so, NARA requests the fol­low­ing information:

• The veteran’s com­plete name used while in service
• Service num­ber or social secu­rity number
• Branch of service
• Dates of service
• Date and place of birth may also be help­ful, espe­cially if the ser­vice num­ber is not known
• If the request per­tains to a record that may have been involved in the 1973 fire, also include:
• Place of discharge
• Last unit of assignment
• Place of entry into the ser­vice, if known.

The ser­vice is free in most cases, and NARA will con­tact you if your request might have a fee. A fire in 1973 (Wikipedia | NARA) destroyed many records at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri, notably:

However, NARA con­tin­ues to recover and restore records, so do not get dis­cour­aged, and con­sider request­ing a cov­eted record again in a cou­ple of years, as it may yet be recovered.

 

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