Assessing the Accuracy of Marine Corps Reserve Active Duty Dates Within the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System

Abstract

The Defense Manpower Data Center (DMDC) is charged with collecting, maintaining, and reporting information on over 42 million people who are currently or previously connected to the Department of Defense. Personnel information is provided by each of the United States Uniformed Services to be passed to the Personnel Data Repository (PDR) to update members records in the Defense Enrollment Eligibility Reporting System (DEERS). Records are used to support benefits provided to the members and their families including medical, dental, educational, and life insurance while they are fulfilling their service and after retirement. This research identifies issues with overlaying active duty periods in the PDR; uses statistical data analysis techniques to determine the accuracy of the data fields within the PDR; and provides guidelines for the application of active duty periods to a member record. This research (1) maps all active duty date source submissions that modify PDR records for Marine Reservists; (2) determines the business rules for applying changes to active duty date fields and recommends changes; (3) assesses and quantifies data quality of Marine Reservist active duty dates; and (4) makes recommendations for a continuous improvement methodology that the DMDC can implement for the other guard and reserve component data.