Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"April 26, 2002
Return
to the "POINTER VIEW"
April
26, 2002
WASHINGTON (Army News Service) -- The Army’s saying good-bye to a mainstay.
After years of service, the microfiche system used by personnel units and soldiers to keep tabs on their careers is going the way of the dinosaur and dodo bird.
The online Official Military Personnel File will completely replace the old microfiche system by next year.
Over the coming months, the Total Army Personnel Command plans on pulling microfiche in phases, said Theresa McGuire, branch chief of Officers’ Records.
The first phase will be to stop sending microfiche to soldiers in the field, McGuire said, followed by eliminating the readers and associated accessories from PERSCOM.
Phase one should be completed by this summer, McGuire said, and the personnel system should be completely electronic next year.
The OMPF for every soldier is currently online on a test-run basis. By June 1, those records will be available to access, said McGuire.
Previously, only majors, captains, sergeants first class and staff sergeants being considered for promotion had access to their online files. Currently, the OMPFs for soldiers eligible for promotion to lieutenant colonel or master sergeant are available online.
The old microfiche readers will become turn-in equipment, McGuire said.
"What we’re trading-in is a horse-and-buggy and we’re not getting a Model A, we’re getting a brand new Chevy," said Col. Howard Olsen, the Enlisted Records and Evaluation Center commander.
Replacing the old microfiche system with an online system is "monumental," Olsen said.
"We’re empowering the soldier to have greater participation in career management," he said.
Under the old system, soldiers had to write letters requesting a microfiche copy of their records, said McGuire.
"Then you had to find a microfiche reader, and those are hard to find," McGuire said.
With the online system, soldiers will be able to log on to their Army Knowledge Online account and view their records to make sure everything is correct and complete.
If a document is missing, all the soldier needs to do is take a copy of the document to one of 30 digital centers and have the document verified and scanned in for addition to the record, Olsen said.
"It’s going to allow people to update records in a day or two," McGuire said.
Promotion boards will also access soldiers’ files via the online system.
Putting personnel files on the Web, not only makes updating and viewing personnel files easier, it also saves money, Olsen said.
"The price tag for providing microfiche records to enlisted soldiers was about $350,000 a year," Olsen said. "That cost will be cut substantially with the new system."