Module 2: Part 2
Organizing Personal Military Records
Take a moment to review which records you have from your time in service. When was the last time that you needed an item? How long did it take you to find it? How did you know where to find it?
The more information we have, the more critical it becomes to be intentional about sorting and classifying our records to find them as needed. There are different ways you can accomplish this. One strategy is organizing everything based on dates. Which dates? It depends. Perhaps it’s the date on the record, such as for visit summaries of doctors’ appointments or an order to relocate to a new base. It could be the specific date you took a photograph or the month (or year).
Alternatively, you may choose to segment your records based on different phases of your military career. For instance, all your records from training could be one stack, one set for every period that you held a rank. For example, if you were enlisted, all your records of your time at E-2 could be one stack, your time at E-3 would be a different stack, etc. Then, the records of your discharge would be the last and separate stack.
You could also try sorting your records by location, such as the stations or bases where you served. Suppose you were deployed, such as in Iraq or Afghanistan. In that case, those records could be in a separate stack from your time serving stateside. A different approach would consist of sorting your records based on the subject. Thus, medical records would be one stack, your gifts and awards would be another, yet a third one would be your certifications from training, and so on.
Importantly, you could combine these organization criteria: you could add post-it notes on top of records indicating their date, group them in a folder by subject, and place them on binders by location. Alternatively, suppose you are dealing with digital records. In that case, you can organize multiple folders in the same manner, combining the different criteria.
You may want to consider some issues as you decide how to organize your records. Remember LOCKSS: Lots of Copies Keeps Stuff Safe. We not only mean having copies but intentionally distributing and keeping track of those copies periodically. For instance, you could have a digital copy on a hard drive, another one on the cloud, and another one on paper. Granted, you may have too many records to print everything. If so, we strongly suggest that you take a moment to decide which of your records are the most important and print out those at least. This is important because you never know when you may lose stuff. For instance, you may live in an area prone to fires, flooding, or tornadoes. This can also help protect you from losing things during a relocation.
Alternatively, you may be in an area where internet connectivity is unreliable, or you may not have the budget to pay for online storage. If so, consider the following questions: what free cloud services do you have access to? Do they offer enough space to host your records? What are the conditions of these services (e.g., how often are you supposed to log in to prevent your account from being deactivated)? We’ll explore these issues more deeply in another module.
One of the main challenges we found in our research is that some veterans did not keep their records of service. If so, we strongly encourage you to reach out to the Office of Military Personnel Records from the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). This office offers the option to obtain copies of the following documents:
DD 214/ Separation Documents
Official Military Personnel File (OMPF)
Replacement Medals
Medical and Health Records
If you have records, but you have not taken the time to organize them, we strongly encourage you to set aside some time to do so. The task may consume some time, but it will make your life easier in the long run. If you have already kept and organized your records, we only suggest that you make sure you are storing them in an appropriate environment. We’ll say more about this in a future lesson.