How to locate a someone who is or was in the Navy
Active duty:
The Navy's World Wide Locator is a service established to find
the present duty station of active duty personnel, and is for
official business use only. Family members, active duty
personnel and Navy retirees may also use this system. To do so,
you must have the service member's full name, Social Security
number, grade or rank, and, if possible, last known duty
station.
Write to:
Navy World Wide Locator
Naval Personnel Command
Pers-312
5720 Integrity Drive
Millington, TN 38055-3120
Retirees and those who have left the Navy but are not retired:
The Navy does not keep track of anyone once they've left the Navy. Individuals may serve an initial obligation of a certain number of years and then be discharged, or they may remain for more than one tour and then be discharged, or they may remain until eligible to transfer to the Fleet Reserve or to retire. To locate retirees, limited service is available through the
World Wide Locator (address above). Correspondence will be
forwarded, if possible, to the retiree since individuals' addresses are not
releasable by law under the Privacy Act. Also, many times the
address is not known. You may also place a locator notice in the Navy's retiree
newsletter Shift Colors.
For those individuals who left the Navy prior to being eligible for retirement or transfer to the Fleet Reserve, there is no formal way of trying to locate them. You may try the last place they called home and see if there are any records with either that local government or in the local newspaper's files, or you may just place an advertisement in any of the many veterans' organizations magazines.
Last updated: 14 March 2001
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