NPRC backlog continues to impact veterans By Nathaniel Kubik - DarkeCountyMedia.com Davidson DARKE COUNTY — Rep. Warren Davidson (R-Troy, Ohio) visited the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Mo., on Monday to express his concern with the nearly 500,000 backlogged veterans record requests. As a result of COVID-19, the NPRC has been understaffed and unable to process record requests in a timely manner, which has led to major issues regarding veterans benefits that include medical care, service awards, military honors at funerals, student loan and mortgage assistance, and other services for veterans facing homelessness, even COVID-19 vaccines. The NPRC closed over a year ago, and has been sporadically working at a very limited capacity, at times as low as 25 percent of their usual staffing. The result is that veterans are waiting inordinate periods of time to access benefits they earned while serving, and some have been buried without honors because of these delays.