Why are personal military records important?

Your personal records matter for multiple reasons. As you know, joining the military comes with several benefits, whether you are still on active duty, in the reserves, retired or already transitioned to civilian life. Examples of these benefits are education and health care. If you are still on active duty, federal programs are available to access these benefits. I’ll recap some of the most common programs at the federal level, but please note that the list is not exhaustive.

For starters, the tuition assistance program, or TA, pays $250 per semester hour, up to $4,500 in a fiscal year. Of course, that’s often not enough to cover tuition and fees these days. So, you also have access to the top-up program, which can help you pay for tuition and fees not covered by TA. You may have also heard of the various GI Bills. There are several of those. The most popular ones are the Montgomery GI Bill, the Post-9/11 GI Bill, and the GI Bill Kicker.

The programs we’ve mentioned so far mostly cover you directly, but your family also receives benefits from your enrollment into the military. This is especially important because dying in the line of duty is always a possibility. So, there are programs like the Marine GySgt Jon D. Fry Scholarship or the Survivors’ and Dependents’ Education Assistance Program (DEA). We hope that all of you participating in this curriculum will finish your careers well or are already enjoying the civilian life. Still, your service sometimes may lead you to pay the ultimate price. If this happens, programs like the ones we just mentioned are essential because they can help your loved ones.

Then, your personal records also are important to access healthcare benefits. The Tricare Program offers plans to active service members and veterans from the Department of Defense Military Health System. Chances are you have already heard about these plans during your initial training, and you may even be enrolled in one of the Tricare Plans right now. If so, you are aware that the level of coverage depends on the plan and that your eligibility is related to several factors. For instance, if you are on active duty, you are covered, but once you become a veteran, things become more complicated. When the VA registers you for any of the Tricare programs, they inquire about things such as your discharge type. You or some of your colleagues may be discharged honorably, which helps. However, in our research, we found that sometimes, the VA may have information in their system that does not reflect the actual discharge status of one of your colleagues. While we hope this never happens to you, if it does, having documentation at your disposal to set the record straight can be the difference between getting healthcare or not.

The question of your discharge may also affect the benefits your relatives have access to. So, whether your family has records about your service is important too, especially if you were to die in the line of duty. Your records can make the difference in ensuring that your loved ones are deemed eligible for benefits such as healthcare and education.

In the end, it is up to you as a service member to prove your eligibility through your records. Granted, the most common form you may use is the DD-214, but other forms may come in handy such as copies of your enlistment contract, commissioning documents, medical records, and your official military personnel files, among others. All of this is to say that your records matter. A lot.

Take a moment and think through the types of benefits that you care the most about. What are the eligibility criteria? What records do you need to prove your eligibility? How many of those records do you have? Where do you keep those records?

Official records are not the only kinds of records you create during your time in service. You also generate a bunch of information in your daily life. Think about the emails you write, the chats you participate in, and the photographs you take. You can also think about the reports you write or receive and the souvenirs you get from your deployments. All of these are records. They are part of your story. Think about your favorite moments of service. It could be a specific mission, a team you used to work with, or something else. What is it about those moments that are so important to you? What records do you have about those moments? Have you ever shared stories from your service with your loved ones? What would you like to share about your service with your friends and family? What records would help you tell the story?

Our research found that for many military personnel, their time of service is a source of personal pride that they want to leave behind as inspiration and a gift to their loved ones. What aspects of your service would you like to leave behind for your loved ones if this is your case? What records could help you leave this legacy for them? Do you have those records? Where are they?

Your personal records also have a historical value. Our research learned that some veterans do not believe their records would be relevant to their loved ones but would be interested in donating their stuff to cultural heritage institutions like museums or archives. That’s very important! Your personal records can offer others a glimpse into your personal experience in military life.

Your individual story matters. Sometimes, in the media and among decision-makers, you may hear discussions about veterans. These discussions often lack regard for the actual individual lives of military personnel or veterans. That’s you! You’re not some anonymous hero. Like everyone else, you have a name, hopes, aspirations, and fears. However, unlike most of us, you are (or were) willing to pay the ultimate sacrifice to serve your nation. Sometimes, you may have also found that serving is not as glamorous as is portrayed in the movies. Military service can be messy at times. Just how messy? You can tell us! Or rather, your records can tell that story.

Finally, your personal records are also a window for civilians to learn the perspective of service members. If you ever choose to donate your records to an archive or a museum, then your records will become a vital source of information about your experience for others to see. In this case, your records can help others understand your experiences of service, such as the places where you were deployed. If you were ever deployed, your records are also a window into the world outside the U.S. borders—and to many locations rarely visited by Americans. Often, the world you’ve seen is marred in conflict, but perhaps not always. Besides, you are part of an institution that continues to shape the world we all live in. Seeing the world through your eyes and your colleagues’ eyes is seeing the world as it changes. Your records matter a lot.

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