The IDPF (293) File

The Individual Deceased Personnel File (also called a 293 file) contains information directly related to the circumstances of someone's death. Currently, we only know about obtaining these from the Army or Marine Corps, though we will add information on the other services when we find it.

The IDPF includes such things as:

a copy of DD 1300, the official casualty report. This is probably the best single source of official information about the actual circumstances of the person's death. It also has information on unit, (probably edited) information on next-of-kin, and other details.

a statement of identification form, which deals with identification of the remains. This may contain things such as autopsy and dental records, or photographs. IDPFs were prepared primarily for military use, so these may sometimes be rather graphic.

information about funeral and family arrangements, personal effects, etc.

The Department of Defense has rather strict rules for giving out information on living people, so some next-of-kin information may be edited out of the files. [Those of you who are familiar with the Code of Federal Regulations can find the basic information at 32 CFR 310.41.]

This information is made available under the Freedom of Information Act [FOIA]. To get a copy of an Army IDPF, send a letter to:

FOIA OFFICER, Department of the Army
ADMIN Section, ATTN: TAP-ALP-A (FOIA)
DCS Personnel & Logistics
200 Stovall St, Alexandria VA 22332-0405.

and simply state something like "This is a request under the Freedom of Information Act, 5 U.S.C. Sec 552, for the Individual Deceased Personnel File of ..." and give the name of the casualty. You should include name, service no. etc., DOB and date of casualty.

You will probably get a form letter in 2-3 weeks saying that they got your request. Then it takes 4-6 weeks to get a copy of the report.

For the Marine Corps, use this address:

Headquarters, U.S. Marine Corps
Manpower and Reserve Affairs (MRC)
3280 Russell Rd.
Quantico, VA 22134-5103

and a similar FOIA statement. Information in the Marine files may be slightly different in format, and take a variable amount of time for a reply.

We do not have addresses for Navy or Air Force IDPFs at this time.