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How to Access a Marine Corps O.M.P.F. (Official Military Personnel File)

The Marine Corps O.M.P.F. ( Marine Corps Official Military Personnel File) is a vital tool for researching Marine Corps veterans who served during the 20th Century. The Marine Corps O.M.P.F.’s for WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam are maintained at the National Archives and these official military personnel files contain records which cannot be found on the internet. In this post we will examine why the Marine Corps O.M.P.F. service record can be useful for your research, what kinds of records you can expect to find in your Marine Corps veteran’s file, and how you can access your veteran’s Marine Corps O.M.P.F. service records. These Marine Corps O.M.P.F. military personnel files include original paperwork detailing the Marine Corps veteran’s duties, ships, assignments, ranks, awards, commendations, battle participation, and more. In addition to the military service records contained within the Marine Corps O.M.P.F., family records and beneficiary documents were also placed in the Marine Corps O.M.P.F. as a way to ensure that the Marine Corps veteran and their family would receive benefits to which they were entitled. The wide array of military and family records maintained within the Marine Corps O.M.P.F. make these Marine Corps personnel files absolutely vital for both military and genealogical research. The Marine Corps O.M.P.F.’s  are stored at the National Archives and are available to the public 62 years after the date that the individual Marine Corps veteran was separated from the service.

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A Guide to Hiring an Expert Researcher for Military Service Records (O.M.P.F.’s) and Unit Records (WWI, WWII, Korea and Vietnam)

Knowing when to engage the help of an experienced military research specialist is important for folks who are wanting to learn more about a family member’s military service and battle participation during WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam. This post will give you some ideas about when it is a good idea for you to reach out to an expert, and also some pitfalls to watch out for when you are navigating the available hiring options for military records researchers. As the lead researcher for Golden Arrow Military Research I have personally researched thousands of individual military veterans from a wide range of conflicts and service branches at the National Archives. I’ve spent every workday for nearly a decade, on-site at the National Archives learning the intricacies of the National Archives military records holdings and devising numerous complex and innovative military research procedures for piecing together the military service history of individual U.S. Military veterans from different conflicts. My background gives me a unique perspective on both the wide array of military personnel service records (official military personnel files or O.M.P.F.’s) and unit records which are available at the National Archives, as well as how you can use these records to tell the story of your soldier, airman, marine, or sailor. Let’s find out if hiring an expert military records researcher is right for you!

Can I just locate all of the records on the internet for free? I have heard and seen this question asked about a million times since I started my career in military records research. The answer to this question is: no, not if you are interested in more than just the superficial fragments of information which are really the only things available online. While the National Archives is slowly digitizing some holdings (or contracting the digitization of these records out to private groups like Ancestry or Family Search) these digitized holdings are mostly smaller collections such as the WWI award cards or other types of reference finding aids (such as indexing reels). While it is exciting to see some digitization taking place, even the process to digitize these incredibly small collections takes months to carry out. Since the millions upon millions of military personnel service records and unit records which are stored at the National Archives are mostly in fragile, paper format these records are going to need to be carefully and slowly digitized, page by page. This promises to be a massive and wildly expensive task so it is unlikely that these records will ever be completely digitized (at least not in our lifetime). Most of the digitized records which online genealogy sites such as Ancestry and Family Search refer to as: ‘military service records’ fall under the category of reference finding aid material or can be readily accessed for free through online databases (without their monthly subscriptions fees). One example of this is the enlistment data you find on Ancestry which can be accessed freely at the online National Archives Archival Access Database. These databases simply show basic overviews on individual veterans such as date of birth, enlistment date, and branch of service. This is great information for you to essentially begin your adventure in military research, but it is only a fragment of the wealth of information that can be found within the military service records of individuals which are maintained at the National Archives in paper or microfilm format. If you wish to carry out a truly exhaustive, in depth research or individual military personnel service records or military unit records then you will either need to do it yourself in person at the archives or hire an expert military researcher in military personnel service records to help you with your military research project.

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How to Replace Service Records Lost in the 1973 Archives Fire

Can I replace any of the information which was lost in the 1973 archives fire?  The fire which swept through the National Personnel Records Center (N.P.R.C.) in 1973 led to the destruction of millions of Army and Air Force military service records from WWI through the early 1960’s. While the vast majority of the Army military service records which were at the NPRC during the 1973 fire will never be recovered, there are alternate records which can be used to rebuild and document your veteran’s story. These alternate record groups can be used to follow the individual veteran though their time in the service and to show important milestones in their military career. Let’s take a look at some of the records which can be used to fill in the gaps created as a result of the 1973 fire.

Army Morning reports. The morning reports are company-level unit records which document what was happening to the individuals assigned to a specific Army unit on a daily basis. The morning reports thus enable us to track individual soldiers day to day within the units to which they were assigned. This is useful because it allows us to determine things like combat participation, military duties, promotions, ranks, dates and locations where a veteran was wounded, injured or killed in action, and geographical locations where the Army veteran was stationed from day to day. Some morning reports actually provide daily combat reports at the company level. Because the morning reports detail activity at the foxhole level within the unit, these records provide researchers the opportunity to learn a great deal about the experiences of individual veterans during the war. The usefulness of the morning reports cannot be overstated since many of the details recorded in these daily unit records mirror those which were lost when your veteran’s file was burned in the 1973 fire. The Army morning reports exist for the time period from WWI through Vietnam.

Here is an example of an Army morning report from WWII. I like to think of the military abbreviations which are used as a form of military shorthand. They can seem confusing at first glance but after viewing a few pages and familiarizing yourself with the military abbreviations you will quickly become comfortable with these records. Notice that the date, exact unit designation and the geographical station location is listed at the top of each page. There is actually a Cassini grid map coordinate at the top of this particular morning report which can be translated into Google Earth, allowing you to pinpoint (with G.P.S. precision)  the exact location where the men in the company were stationed on this date.

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Using Historical Research to Boost Your VA Disability Claim

Veterans often feel personal rejection and despair when their benefits claims are denied. Today, 31 percent of Veterans Disability Benefits Claims are denied—and 60 percent of those denials are due to misfiled paperwork, the lack of required documentation, and poor communication by the government as to what records are precisely needed to satisfy the bureaucracy. 

It is not unusual for a veteran to cite a disability, but to not understand the types of additional documentation required by law that are necessary to substantiate his or her claim. Indeed, it is not enough for a veteran to just provide the Department of Veterans Affairs (the “VA”) with service and medical records and then claim a disability in an initial benefits application. The VA typically responds with a form letter notifying the applying veteran that these initial mandatory documents are insufficient to prove not only evidence of the medical condition itself but also proof of service as well. Needless to say, much frustration ensues when confronted with this overwhelming bureaucratic hurdle. 

One such example of the VA’s seeming capriciousness can be found in the case of a veteran’s submitted form DD214 (a “Certificate of Release or Discharge from Active Duty”), in which he or she indicates service in Vietnam, as marked in Box 30 of the form. The same DD214 also shows that the veteran was awarded the Vietnam Service Medal (in Box 24). However, in an all too common response, the VA review board’s initial decision then came back stating that this alone was NOT enough evidence to prove service in Vietnam.

In fact, an original veterans’ disability claim must make the legal case that the veteran’s medical condition is related solely to military service and is disabling to a degree that qualifies for benefits. Fortunately, there is a wealth of information beyond the DD214 form, service, and medical records to help improve a veteran’s disability claim and his or her chances for approval. Primary historical evidence is generally considered one of the most reliable sources for corroborating in-service stressors. Examples of such documentation include:

• Unit, organizational, and ship histories, which document a military unit’s entire past, including combat.

• Daily staff journals, which provided a day-to-day record of operational activities and sometimes administrative activities as well.

• Operational Reports-Lessons Learned (ORLLs), which were quarterly, and later semi-annual, reports on the overall activities of a unit. They usually contain information on operations, logistical activities, significant personnel events, changes in command, and lessons learned.

• After Action Reports (AARs), which are official military documents drafted by officers and non-commissioned officers of combat units a few days or weeks after reported enemy contacts and engagements.

• Deck logs consist of journal-style entries of the ship’s administrative activities; location and course of travel; disciplinary procedures; and any unusual events. The logs sometimes include information related to operational activities, although the level of content and detail can vary.

• Muster rolls/unit rosters are lists of naval personnel attached to a ship, station, or other activity. The muster rolls for WWII only include enlisted sailors - officers of ships are listed in the deck logs. It needs to be noted that there are also gaps in the muster rolls - sometimes they are nonexistent, particularly for smaller units and advance bases. Personnel diaries also provide compiled monthly and list significant personnel status changes, including transfers, promotions, leave, or temporary duty. Additionally, rosters for units serving in World War II from 1944-46 were destroyed in accordance with Army records disposition authorities after the war. There are copies of most of the monthly rosters from 1912-43 and 1947-59 for Army units (including Army Air Corps) though in the custody of the National Archives in St. Louis, MO. Both of these record types are also good for obtaining information on fellow service men and women that served with the veteran in order to obtain “buddy” statements.

• Command chronologies and war diaries consists of daily operational journals created by various naval commands, shore installations, ships and other activities throughout the Navy, as well as some Marine Corps and non-Navy commands. Most war diaries provided a day-to-day record of operational activities and sometimes administrative activities as well.

• Monthly summaries and morning reports list daily personnel changes. They are “exception based” reports, meaning that a soldier’s name will on appear on the report only if his status has changed from the previous report (e.g. from present for duty to ordinary leave, or from present for duty to sick in quarters, etc.). The entries show the name of service member, service number/SSN, and rank. Also shown are unit strength, the location of the unit, and sometimes a Record of Events.

These military records are not centralized and can be found in a variety of places below:

• The National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, Missouri

• The National Archives at College Park, Maryland

• The National Archives in Washington, DC

• The National Archives’ Regional Branches

• The Federal Records Centers, managed by the National Archives

• The Army Heritage and Education Center and Military History Institute at Carlisle, PA

• The U.S. Army Center for Military History in Washington, DC

• The Navy History and Heritage Command (NHHC) in the Washington D.C. Navy Yard

• The Archives Branch of the Marine Corps History Division at Quantico, Virginia

• The Air Force Historical Research Agency at Maxwell, Air Force Base at Montgomery, Alabama

• The Coast Guard Records Management Program

Compounding the problem and the frustration is the sad fact that VA disability benefits staff is overburdened, backlogged, and simply unable to dedicate the time needed to find the records needed to support veteran claims. Furthermore, the amount of research conducted by archival staff at the above repositories is often limited as well, leaving veterans few options and often feeling stonewalled.

What are veterans in need of supporting documentation for their claims to do then? 

Fortunately, SJR Research has over twenty-five years of experience researching and collecting such records to help support veteran benefit claims. Therefore we can help you access your military service records and other supporting documentation by leveraging our deep experience and contacts with the National Archives system. 

Remember, every piece of supporting information could be the item that tips the scales in favor of a claim approval. Let SJR Research help you get it!

If you are interested in learning more about obtaining supplental historical documentation you can browse SJR Research’s military research services on their site here: SJR Research.