Module 1: Part 3
Identifying Important Records & Key Moments of your Military Career (Appraisal)
Before the age of computers, we all kept our records on paper. When people had too many of them, they could quickly lose track of what they had and where everything was. In an effort to keep track of our stuff, some folks resorted to different strategies to organize and classify things. Perhaps they used folders, wrote labels on the margins, added post-it notes to some files, or both. Others may have also taken stacks of folders, put them in binders, shelves, or boxes, and then added labels to those. Yet, there were still other problems. For one, papers take up space. Eventually, people ran out of space, at which point they had to make decisions about what to keep and what to toss out.
Nowadays, with computers, we still have those problems. Have you ever been in a situation where you needed a file but could not find it? It happens to the most organized among us. You start searching in your hard drive, folder after folder, and nothing pops up. You use the search engine of your file manager (e.g., Explorer if you are a Windows user), but none of your terms returns what you are looking for. Sometimes, that pesky file eventually emerges in some folder you didn’t even remember was there on your computer. Other times, you may have faced just giving up on the folder and going to your email; maybe there is a copy there.
Suppose this has happened to you or to someone you know. In that case, you understand the importance of being intentional in keeping track of what you have and how you organize it. In the digital age, we normally don’t worry about running out of storage space, at least when dealing with records. However, having vast amounts of storage space for digital information can be a blessing and a curse. The more you have, the harder it can be to find something. Vital records can easily get lost in a sea of other information. Because of this, we must be mindful of what we keep, where, and how we organize it.
Think about the records that you have from your time in service. What are the things that matter to you the most? Where do you have them? How many copies do you have of each document? If you have copies, are those in the same place?
We may sometimes have problems choosing what matters most when we decide what to keep. What matters to us now may differ from what will matter in a few years or a couple of decades. If you keep stuff that has sentimental value, the way you value those things may be different from your loved ones. For instance, if you have a family, it may be that your records from one of your deployments are not that important to you. Perhaps you were busy reporting for duty, but perhaps your loved ones would love to see the places where you deployed. So, when you are deciding what to keep, you may also want to consider who your records are for. Maybe the things you keep are just for you, but perhaps they are for other people as well. If so, what do those people care about? What are the records you have that may be most important to them?
Even more tricky is the question of people who are not yet here, but that will matter to you. If you are not a parent right now, what if you become one later? Or if you are a parent, and your children are young, what about the moment when they have children of their own? In this case, asking what they want may not be as important to you right now as deciding what you would like them to know about your time of service.
Our research found that active service members and veterans start making decisions about what to keep at different moments in their journeys. Some begin to keep things from the moment they join the military service. Others do so mid-way through their careers. Others begin until they retire, at which point they are playing catchup. Others never collected anything. The people in this latter group told us how much they regretted not having records of their time of service. If you are taking this course, we want you to know that there are two best moments to start collecting your records. The first is when you join the armed forces. The second one is right now. If you are in the second group, congratulations! You are in the right place.
As you know, the military career has moments that mark a before and after for servicemen and women. For example, when you enlisted, joined the academy, or were commissioned; your training; your deployments, TDYs, and PCS; when you were promoted or received an award; and where you were discharged. Of course, these are just examples of key moments in your career. You may have other moments in mind that were the most important to you. In any case, we encourage you to ask yourself: what records do you have about those moments?
You may also want to consider what kinds of records you have. This will come in handy later when we talk about ways to organize your information. In our research, the records that people most often mentioned were their DD 2014, medical records, PCS orders, certifications of training, and promotions. What types of records do you have? Are there any that we have not listed?
Finally, we have focused so far on formal records, but the stuff you keep from your time of service may also include mementos: photographs, journals, emails, your social media feeds, and items you picked or bought along the way during deployments. We encourage you to ask yourself similar questions about these objects. In the case of your photographs, which devices did you use to take the pictures? Where are the photographs stored? If some photographs are still in the devices only, do you still have the cables or SD cards with you?
In the case of emails, which technology did you use to access your email? For instance, did you use a web browser or an email client like thunderbird or outlook? In either case, do you still have the login and password information of your account(s)? In the case of email clients, do you still have access to the computer which you used the client from? Is the client still installed on your computer? Are there still copies of the emails on the web server?
In the case of social media feeds, some companies like Facebook allow their users to download their data. Have you downloaded a copy of your data? If not, consider what data points specifically you would like to keep, as Facebook datasets can be large. Do you want only your pictures or the texts of your posts and your friends’ replies to your posts? In the case of other social media feeds, what information do you want to keep? Do you have the time to manually copy and paste the information in the case of static materials like text and images? If there are medical files that you want to preserve, do you know where they are located? Are you familiar with solutions that allow you to download information from the web?
More generally, are you keeping your digital materials for yourself only? Besides yourself, who else would you like to have access to your materials today or in the future? Why would you like those individuals to have access?
End of Module 1
Congratulations, you’ve reached the end of the first module. Before moving on, click the link below to test what you’ve learned so far. You can also access a Module 1 worksheet to help create an inventory of your records by accessing the files below: