DEERS locks down access to some information updates Published May 9, 2013 By Debbie Gildea Air Force Personnel Center Public Affairs JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO-RANDOLPH, Texas (AFNS) -- Base identification card issuing offices will no longer be able to manually correct or update certain types of personnel information in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System, Air Force Personnel Center officials said May 9. DEERS is the system used to enroll Airmen and their eligible family members for an identification card and associated benefits such as medical and dental care, federal installation access and access to installation facilities such as the commissary or exchange. DEERS updates are required for major life events that change an Airman's status, including marriage, divorce, birth or death of a dependent, promotion, reenlistment, extension, retirement, separation or unit transfer to another branch of service or agency. Personnel specialists use the Real-time Automated Personnel Identification System to update DEERS. In past, RAPIDS customer service representatives could manually update or correct members' DEERS information. Now, access to member citizenship, date of birth, gender, social security number, name, service dates, civilian or contractor employment dates, Air National Guard or Reserve activation periods and member separation transition benefit information is locked down. The lockdown does not affect dependent family member record information that needs to be updated. "Members' DEERS records are established and updated by an authoritative data feed directly from a personnel source like AFPC or the Air Reserve Personnel Center. If information about a member that feeds into DEERS is wrong, the ID card issuing office can't fix that. Only the office of primary responsibility for that information can correct it," said Ed Yoder, the AFPC DEERS/RAPIDS operations branch assistant chief. For example, if a member's reenlistment date is wrong, the reenlistments office must correct it. If the social security number in DEERS is wrong or a member becomes an American citizen after the DEERS record is established, he or she will need help from the Total Force Service Center to verify information in the personnel data system. "If you have incorrect or outdated information in your DEERS record and it is locked down, your first step is to contact the origin of the information and work with them to correct it. Once it's corrected in the personnel data system, it will flow to DEERS and be updated," Yoder said. Typical OPRs include military reenlistment, separation and retirement offices, or the civilian human resource office, or the contractor trusted agent. Airmen who don't know the appropriate OPR for specific information should go to the myPers website, Yoder said. "Once your record is updated, you can check the corrections or updates online at the eMilConnect website," Yoder said. "Depending on the nature of the correction, Airmen may need to get a new ID card, so keep an eye on your records." Retired military members who need a DEERS update or correction can submit a request to AFPC, Yoder said. Once AFPC completes the correction action, an Air Force Form 281, Notification of Change in Service Member's Official Records, is filed in the retired member's military record and the member's documents are returned. For more information on DEERS updates and other personnel issues, visit the myPers website at https://mypers.af.mil and enter "21534" or "DEERS Record Correction" in the search window.