MARINE CORPS BASE CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. -- The Marine Corps is ever changing and the old ways of checking out service record books has become a thing of the past. Marines will now be able to view their service record book through Marine Online.
During July 2011, the service record book section with Installation Personnel Administration Center aboard Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune began scanning SRBs and Officer’s Qualification Records of more than 38,000 Marines, which would eventually be digitalized and electronically accessible on MOL. The process of converting the SRBs to an Official Military Personnel File online, also known as an E-record, took 10 weeks for IPAC to complete.
“Converting the field of service record books to electronic records has been talked about for over 20 years now,” said Tony Fonseca, officer in charge of the SRB section, IPAC. “It finally came into play when the current commandant took command, and part of his commandant’s planning guidance was to make the administration (section) more user friendly for the commander.”
Members from every IPAC in the Marine Corps and representatives from different offices of Headquarters Marine Corps met to discuss and develop the best method of converting the hard copy SRBs to an electronic format.
The electronic system allows commanders to view the records of every Marine joined to their reporting unit code. Commanders can designate access levels through MOL permissions to Marines that need access in order to complete their duties.
“The advantage is that the commander and those who he or she delegates permissions to, has immediate access to that unit’s entire SRBs electronically,” said Fonseca. “They no longer have to request SRBs through the IPAC to prepare routine administrative packages or document requiring SRB screening, such as re-enlistments, legal action or to review records for meritorious promotions.”
Once records are scanned, screened for quality and sent electronically to the Marine’s OMPF, commanders and individual Marines can view the electronic record in MOL within 24 hours. Per MARADMIN message 680/11, upon competion of converting the hard copy SRB to electronic records, IPACs will return the hard copy SRBs to the units so the records can be returned to each Marine. This process of returning the hard SRBs to the units began Jan. 9, and it is anticipated to be completed by mid to late March.
“Hard copy SRBs are still being carried by Marines through the accession process,” said Fonseca.
According to Fonseca, a Marine will graduate recruit training with an SRB and carry it to Marine Combat Training and military occupational specialty school. Once that Marine arrives at his first permanent duty station, his SRB will be converted to an electronic record.
“This has been an ongoing initiative since June 2010,” said Fonesca. “It took about a year and a half to get this far with all of this planning. (MCB Camp Lejeune) IPAC became the test site for the function of the E-records. In the near future, the Marine Corps will do away with SRBs in its entirety.”
Every active-duty IPAC component has completed the conversion. Approximately 75 percent of the Marine Corps’ active duty force has converted to the electronic record. Headquarters Marine Corps’ goal is to have all of the SRBs and OQRs scanned and converted to electronic record by the end of this calendar year, said Fonseca.
“We want commands to give us feedback on ways we could enhance the e-record system,” said Fonseca. “There are a lot of commands that feel that this is a tremendous asset to them to perform their daily administrative duties more effectively and efficiently. Everything that the commander needs in regards to processing some type of administrative paperwork on an individual Marine, that previously required viewing the hardcopy SRB, can be accessed by the command through MOL with a click of a button.”
To gain unit access and permissions to E-records, contact your company commander. Access is not controlled by IPAC.
For more information or assistance from IPAC, visit www.lejeune.usmc.mil/ipac/.