If I want to order Military Records for a veteran relative, how closely related do I need to be? Wh

LegacyUser

If I want to order Military Records for a veteran relative, how closely related do I need to be? Where do I find the form?

Dennis J Yancey

I imagine it depends which arm of the military they served and what time period.

I don't think you will find them all at one source.

Dennis J Yancey

here is one source

https://www.va.gov/records/get-military-service-records/

Glenn R Whicker

https://vetrecs.archives.gov/VeteranRequest/home.html. If you are a parent, spouse, child, or sibling, you can request the record. Otherwise, you can request a military record of a person who separated from the service 62 or more years ago. The National Archives runs this service, and it applies to all of the military branches. You must know the full name, birth date and ideally, both the Social Security #, and Service # of the person for whom you are requesting information. (Though I'm sure if you had one or the other, they could find the record.) Be advised, there was a fire in the St. Louis repository in 1973 and thousands of records were burned. However, even so, I was successful at getting a restored "burn record" for my father-in-law, which had almost all the information I sought.

LegacyUser

Thank you Dennis and Glenn!

X24 MOM

Last time I checked (a couple days ago) .... evetrecs were only processing emergency requests due to coronapocalypse

Glenn R Whicker

I submitted one last week for my Dad, and received a response asking for further info within 2 days, so they're working them!

User15909445688864952002

Thanks for this information. I have all the information, but was not sure I could get the deceased veteran's records. Served WWII, Died November 1997.

Glenn R Whicker

You can if you are a parent, sibling, spouse or child. Otherwise, you'd have to wait until 62 years after his/her discharge from the military.

LegacyUser

I would like to make a request for the records of my great grandfather and my grand uncle. I can't click that I am the next of kin, nor am I one of the suggested relatives.

Glenn R Whicker

Carolyn - you can still order the records if his date of separation was in 1958 or before by clicking here: https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/locations

 

If it was AFTER 1958 that he separated, you'll have to go through a different process at https://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/locations

 

I wish you success! I'm still waiting on the records for my Dad which I ordered 2 months ago. COVID has slowed everything way down...