Lawmaker Blames Lack of Urgency for Sluggish Military Records Processing military.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from military.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
NPRC backlog continues to impact veterans
By Nathaniel Kubik - DarkeCountyMedia.com
Davidson
DARKE COUNTY Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Troy, Ohio) visited the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Mo., on Monday to express his concern with the nearly 500,000 backlogged veterans record requests. As a result of COVID-19, the NPRC has been understaffed and unable to process record requests in a timely manner, which has led to major issues regarding veterans benefits that include medical care, service awards, military honors at funerals, student loan and mortgage assistance, and other services for veterans facing homelessness, even COVID-19 vaccines.
The NPRC closed over a year ago, and has been sporadically working at a very limited capacity, at times as low as 25 percent of their usual staffing. The result is that veterans are waiting inordinate periods of time to access benefits they earned while serving, and some have been buried without honors because of these del
Purple Heart pinned on local World War II veteran Friday ardmoreite.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from ardmoreite.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
By MICHAEL D. SMITH | The Daily Ardmoreite, Okla. | Published: April 5, 2021 ARDMORE, Okla. (Tribune News Service) Joe Bartlett is one of the many Americans that bears the scars of U.S. military service. While he was the one that faced a kamikaze attack that seriously injured his legs, the veteran repeatedly thanked family, friends and veterans advocates on the very first day he was awarded his Purple Heart. Over 75 years after an attack on his U.S. Navy vessel in the Pacific theater of World War II, the longtime minister also thanked God for the events that led up to Friday morning. He said in the years following his service, he and other veterans found great comfort in faith and fellowship.
By THOMAS GNAU | Journal-News, Hamilton, Ohio | Published: April 2, 2021 HAMILTON, Ohio (Tribune News Service) When veteran and Hamilton, Ohio resident Jack Hoaglan Sr. died in December at the age of 73, his family and funeral home were unable to obtain a simple federal form that verified the character of his discharge from the Army a DD form 214 that could have allowed his family to bury him with military honors. Before the pandemic, it might have taken 48 hours to obtain that form from the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), said Mike Farmer, executive director of the Butler County Veterans Service Commission. But in December, the family and funeral home were not able to reach anyone at the center at all, Farmer said.