To date there are actually over seventy million military records on file. That means that there is a tremendous amount of search that is required for military service verification. The problem with all of this is the number of records is only going to continue to grow due to the recent influx of military servicemen and servicewomen getting discharged from active military duty.
Thankfully the United States military has taken multiple steps to make this whole process for military service verification a whole lot easier. The biggest step that they took was to create the Department of Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) to administer responsibilities under the Servicemembers Civil Relief Act (“SCRA”). The department centralizes the whole process for verifications. That makes the whole process a lot easier. Instead of having to search through multiple branches of the United States military a person will just need to search one place.
Information Needed for Verification of Military Service
The good thing about the new search system is that there are only a few pieces of information that are needed in order to verify whether a person is in the military or not. To verify a person you just need the first name, last name, and social security number of the person they are wishing to search for. Those are really the only important pieces of information that is needed in order to perform a search for verification of military service. The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Centralized Verification Service (“SCRACVS”) is the one-stop shop for all verifications. If you do not have the person’s social security number, they can almost always find it for you and submit it to the DMDC so you can get your verification.
After Performing the Search
Once a search has been made to verify military service, the next step is to obtain a certificate. This is actually fairly easy too. In most cases, a certificate can be printed out online. This will show a person’s active duty start and end date as well as their positions held during this time. Most companies or services will accept this as adequate proof of military service. In some cases, however, they may require notarized and signed letter.
It used to take a very long time to search military records. Even with the introduction of computers it was still a very long process. It was not until the records became more centralized that the search process became much easier to locate and verify a military service status.
The Servicemembers Civil Relief Act Centralized Verification Service provides military service verification and protects rights for people who are on active military duty or recently have retired from duty.
