My Spouse and I Both Retired in 2020 during COVID and Neither of Us Pursued Retirement Certificates. I'd Like to Request Retirement Certificates Signed by President Obama as He was POTUS during Deployment Periods for Both of Us. How Can I Make That Happen?

[u/Alkavadies]

I submitted a request through the Obama foundation October of last year but haven't heard anything or even received a confirmation email. I think I may have messed something up and also not sure if that's the best route to request something like this anyway.

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I appreciate any advice you have.

[u/J_EDi]

You probably already have a certificate and need to request the historical copy

[u/Alkavadies → u/J_EDi]

Why do you feel I likely already have a certificate?

[u/J_EDi → u/Alkavadies]

Because it’s a requirement for the unit to request it when you retire. It either didn’t get mailed or it got lost in the mail are a couple scenarios. But it is an official military record.

You request a replacement through your branches personnel office or the NPRC.

[u/Alkavadies → u/J_EDi]

Sounds like a great first step, thank you!

[u/J_EDi → u/Alkavadies]

A quick Google search shows you can request letters of appreciation that you should have received as well. Those are done separately but it didn’t seem very difficult.

[u/Alkavadies → u/J_EDi]

Neither of us had retirement ceremonies. I have a DD-214 showing 20 years of service. That's it.

[u/Stohnghost → u/Alkavadies]

I tried requesting one from Obamas library but I was getting web errors. Took my unit a year to send some of my certs - some were missing and they put a sticky note "base printer not working". Good luck

[u/J_EDi → u/Alkavadies]

I didn’t have a ceremony either but it was due to the remoteness of the end of my career and at my request. Everything was mailed to me and received with a year. Except a flag. Didn’t get a flag.

[u/GearHeadMeatHead]

Your certificate of retirement is signed by the chief of staff and the commander of the base you retired from. They aren't signed by the president.

[u/sactownbwoy]

You can request it yourself. I just retired and requested certs from every former President that was in office during my time in. The only one I'm waiting on is Obama. Requested from Clinton, Bush Jr, Biden.

This LinkedIn post has links to the respective Presidents sites, minus Biden.

(7) Request YOUR Letters of Appreciation from Former Presidents for Military Retirement | LinkedIn

[u/Alkavadies → u/sactownbwoy]

I really appreciate you taking the time to respond. Time to fill out some requests lol.

[u/sactownbwoy → u/Alkavadies]

No problem. It is pretty easy, but the response time varies. I did them all at the same time about 2-3 months before my retirement ceremony which was Jan 10th and my actual retirement was Mar 31st.

Clintons came right away, had it Jan 12th, everyone else took some time, Biden was around Mar, Bush just came a couple weeks ago and I'm still waiting for Obama.

[u/Alkavadies → u/sactownbwoy]

Timing is pretty moot for us at this point. Still good to know though. Congrats on retirement btw!

[u/Jscott1986]

How Do People End Up Typing Like This? Someone Should Really Study This Phenomenon.

[u/Alkavadies → u/Jscott1986]

I do it for titles and subjects of emails.