MilitaryRecordSearch.us

You've heard of the expression "Top Secret," right? This is actually part of the formal government classification system for sensitive documents, and is combined with the "need to know" concept.

But what you probably don't realize is that a lot of the information you probably consider sensitive is actually unclassified, and you have access to that information. The primary reason it's not widely disseminated is because it's inaccessible, not because it's classified!

The three sensitive classifications are confidential, secret, and top secret, and documents that obtain one of these classifications are categorized based on the potential damage they could do to national security of the U.S., not merely to hide embarrassing or illegal activity.

In order for someone to view a document with one of those classifications, two conditions must be met: 1) they must have the appropriate security clearance to view the documental; 2) they must need to know. That is, even if someone has top secret clearance, they might still be unable to view confidential documents because they really don't need that information to perform their jobs.

So while some military records are indeed classified, most are unclassified, and are permitted to be accessed by most U.S. citizen through records offices or by a Freedom of Information Act request.

Therein lays the reason for the misconception that military records are classified. It's not because U.S. citizens aren't allowed to view them; it's because it's very difficult to find them. Most military records since the late 1800's have been accumulated in hard copy form in the National Personnel Records Center. It wasn't until the late 1990's that these records began to be digitized so that they could be queried online.

While these records can now be accessed online, they are not accessed via a government service. Rather, because many of these records are public, for-profit organizations have digitized and organized the records to make them easy to search via the web. That's actually a good thing. For one, it ensures that our tax dollars aren't put to work for information that not many people need. On the flipside, it means that if you want to view these records, you'll have to pay a small fee in order to access one of the commercial databases. This is usually very reasonable, varying from $15 to $30.

The neatest thing about these databases is that they contain the exact information that appears in government archives, except that things are a bit easier to find than rummaging around the 100 years' of paper records in the National Personnel Records Center!

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