Analyses of differences and similarities in military members’ experiences across installations inform the development of targeted activities and programs that support the readiness and resilience of the U.S. Military. Such analyses require the ability to link military members’ survey and/or administrative data to the installations where they serve, which is limited by installation information being unavailable or inconsistent in these data sources. This report summarizes the Office of People Analytics’ (OPA) current methods for identifying Department of War (DoW) Active component and Reserve members’ installations to support analyses that provide insight into how military members’ experiences vary across installations.
OPA leverages combinations of installation-level geospatial data, individual- and unit-level administrative records, and Service-generated data crosswalks to link Active component and Reserve members to installations and ships through a series of logical steps, supporting matches of more than 90% of the Active component and Reserve populations to an authoritative list of locations.