What will I get from an SF-180?

[JE3146]

My grandfather passed away in the late 60's. I never met him and my dad was only 4 when he passed away.

There are a lot of things I don't know about him, that really no one talks about or remembers.

He was USMC and a Gunny sgt from what I can tell from his rank patches. We have a few of his medals in our possession, but honestly I don't know if we have everything.

I've been digging up research and for father's day I wanted to submit an SF-180 with the help of my aunt to obtain records about him to give to my dad. Hopefully stuff about why he was promoted or why he received medals and a complete list of medals he received.

Sadly my grandfather is as much of a mystery to my own father as he is to me.

Is this the proper route to obtain all this info? I imagine there will be a lot of unnecessary information, but will this provide the information I am looking for?

[kenstogie]

Depends what you ask for. Sometimes all they give is an DD214. Sometimes they'll give you the whole record. There are instruction on the SF 180 make sure you are submittinng to the correct locale.

[rudeJARHEAD]

Jordan
Here is a link for the national archives for Marine Corps records. http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/location/location-marine-corps.html The links on this site will point you to the direction of what information you need to provide to receive the records and what information that they will actually give you. hope this helps your quest

[JeffyB]

You can request almost anything from your grandfather's records; there is also a provision in US Code in that the next of kin can one-time request a set of medals/ribbons that are listed/found in the records. There should be a citation for the various decorations (NMC Commendation/Achievement, etc.) in the records, and for the others, you can find the backgrounds/history online. I worked in the USAF Awards office which received the SF180s, and verified eligibility for medals/decs. PM me if you want more info.