Information in Military Morning Reports and Unit Rosters

The morning reports and unit rosters are maintained by military divisions to serve their personnel and payroll functions. These records are evidence of an individual’s assignments or the events that have taken place in his/her military career and prove to be valuable sources of information at times when the Official Military Personnel File cannot provide all the details. 

As evident from the name, morning reports are created anew every morning. The information in morning military reports is formed on an “exception based” system, meaning that it lists individuals who are not “present and accounted for.” An individual’s name may feature in the morning military report for a variety of reasons: being promoted or demoted; being injured, killed, or found missing while on duty; being designated to a different unit or having left an unit; being admitted to a hospital or deputed elsewhere for training.

The military unit rosters are created every month, quarter, or six months. These list the names of the individuals of a particular unit present on the last day of that month when the roster is created.  There may be separate unit rosters created for officers and enlisted members of a unit.

Sources of Morning Military Reports and Unit Rosters

The morning reports and unit rosters are maintained by the Military Personnel Records Division of the National Personnel Records Center, housed at 9700 Page Avenue, St. Louis, MO 63132-5100. You can access these records in two ways: filling out a form and submitting your request online or mailing your search request. You may also visit the Center in person and search military records yourself.

Such military records search may be requested by war veterans seeking benefits that accrue to them or by the next of kin of a soldier who has died on duty. 

Morning Reports and Unit Rosters Search Procedure

The war veterans or next of kin may request access of military morning reports and unit rosters by filling out the online order form available by clicking the “Request Military Records” button at http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/. The steps of how to go about this process are listed on this site. They may also fill out the Standard Form 180 (SF-180) available at http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/standard-form-180.html, the Department of Defense, the Federal Information Centers, or from your local Veterans Administration office.

You may also submit a request for a search of these military without the form. Your request should contain these bits of information: the complete name of the veteran as was used during the service tenure, the service number or the social security number, the branch and dates of service, and the date of birth. If you are requesting records prior to 1973, you will also have to provide the name of the place of discharge, the last unit of assignment, and if possible, the name of the place where the individual entered into service.

Sign on the form or the written request and provide the date before you send it via mail or fax to the Records Center.

A person who is not the next of kin of a veteran, for instance a genealogist, may also request to access morning reports and unit rosters. S/he can do so armed with an authorization letter from the veteran. Without this letter, s/he may have access to only a limited volume of information, as dictated by the Freedom of Information Act and the Privacy Act.

Information in morning military reports and unit rosters are helpful sources of military records.