The Veterans Administration and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) have agreed to work together to resolve a common complaint of veterans -- the often monumental time required for VA to settle veterans' compensation and pension claims. 

Currently, the VA faces a total national inventory of more than 668,000 pending compensation and pension claims, of which, 53,000 have been awaiting a decision for over one year.

According to VA, the holdup comes from the length of time required for NARA to provide veterans' military records for review. Before VA can approve or deny a claim, it must determine the claims validity by examining the veteran's military, discharge and medical records, and those are all kept in NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Mo.

At any time, more than 57,000 requests for military records are backlogged at NARA.

President Bush told Secretary of Veterans Affairs Anthony J. Principi to solve the problem. "The president gave me a clear mandate to bring the unacceptably large number of claims in VA's compensation and pension programs to a fair and speedy resolution," stated Principi in a VA press release. "To meet this mandate, VA needs the assistance and cooperation of NARA to obtain veterans' records in a timely and expeditious manner."

The solution, according to Principi, is a "memorandum of agreement" between the VA and NARA stipulating that the two agencies will cooperate to reduce the time required for NARA to furnish official military records. Under the agreement, NARA is to provide one-working-day delivery of high priority requests and under five-day delivery of routine requests.

VA is hopeful that the backlog of pending requests for records from NARA will be completely eliminated within one year.

NARA is the official repository for records of military personnel separated from the United States Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Marine Corps and Navy. All records of military personnel are housed in the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Mo.

Ordering Copies of Your Military Records
You say you want a copy of your DD-214. Report of Separation from the military? Lots of veterans do, but you cannot view, print, download or even request your DD-214 over the Internet. Under the Federal Privacy Act, all requests for Veterans' records and information be submitted to NARA in writing. For more information on requesting your military records and to download the forms you will need, see: About the DD-214