Exciting news regarding the transfer of Army I.D.P.F.’s to the National Archives!
WWII, Korean War and Vietnam War Individual Deceased Personnel Files (Army I.D.P.F.’s) for Army veterans have been transferred to the custody of the National Archives. Prior to the start of 2017 the Army I.D.P.F.’s had been maintained under the custody of the Army. The process to acquire a veteran’s Army I.D.P.F has traditionally been incredibly tedious and time-consuming for anyone attempting to research a K.I.A. veteran. In 2016 the Army was quoting a wait time of about a year to duplicate an Army I.D.P.F. when requested from Fort Knox. The great news is that Army I.D.P.F.’s for veterans with last names A-L are now available at the National Archives and can be accessed within days! Requests for paper photocopies of veteran Army I.D.P.F’s can be requested directly from the National Archives, although this process will most likely still take weeks or months due to the lengthy wait times caused by the backlog of requests for personnel files coming into the National Archives records center.
How to access an Army I.D.P.F.: If you are interested in getting digital scans of your veteran’s I.D.P.F. from the National Archives within just days, we recommend using a reputable research company such as Golden Arrow Research. Golden Arrow Research has military research specialists physically on-site at the National Archives where they digitally scan the Army I.D.P.F. page by page so that you can view the original paperwork and artifacts within your veteran’s Army I.D.P.F. exactly as they appear in their original form. You can see examples of Army I.D.P.F.’s, and request your veteran’s Army I.D.P.F. on their order page here: Access an Army I.D.P.F. casualty personnel file
What about I.D.P.F.’s for veterans with last names M-Z? The Army I.D.P.F.’s for veterans with last names M-Z are still being transferred to the National Archives and are slated to be accessioned (or added to the National Archives record collection) in 2018. The exact date is not known since the process is still ongoing, however, if you are researching a veteran whose name falls within the M-Z category, and you want to make sure that you get your veteran’s I.D.P.F. as soon as it becomes available in 2018, Golden Arrow Research is now taking orders for Army I.D.P.F.’s M-Z as well. You can place a request now and make sure that you are able to access your veteran’s Army I.D.P.F. as soon as it becomes available.
Further reading about Army I.D.P.F.’s : If you want to read more about what kinds of documents can be found in the Army I.D.P.F. I have included a post that describes the more common types of records found inside the Army I.D.P.F. here: Understanding the I.D.P.F. Casualty Personnel File
Happy hunting!
