You found a strong veteran candidate. The resume checks out. The interview went well. Now you want to call a past supervisor. So you ask for a reference, and the answer comes back fuzzy.

"My platoon sergeant retired." "My old command got reorganized." "That unit moved to a different base." "My OIC left the service two years ago."

This is normal. The military moves people constantly. A reference who was the boss in 2022 may be three duty stations away by now. The unit may not even exist under the same name. For a civilian recruiter used to calling a candidate's last manager, this feels like a dead end.

It is not a dead end. You can still verify this person. You just have to know which doors to knock on. This guide walks through how to reference-check a veteran when the chain of command has scattered. It is written for midsize hiring teams that do not have a federal-style investigations unit. The goal is simple. Confirm the candidate is who they say they are. Confirm the work was real. And do not let a good hire slip away over a phone number that no longer works.

Why Are Veteran References So Hard to Reach?

Civilian reference checks work because most jobs keep people in one place. A candidate's last manager is usually still at the same company. You call, you confirm, you move on.

The military runs on the opposite pattern. Service members rotate to a new assignment every two to three years. This is called a PCS, short for permanent change of station. A boss from one tour is gone by the next. Then there is the structure itself. Units merge, split, or stand down. A squadron or battalion can be renamed or dissolved between the time your candidate served and the day you call.

On top of that, people leave the service. The supervisor who knew the candidate best may now be a civilian. They have a personal email you do not have. None of this means the candidate is hiding anything. It means the people who can vouch for them are spread out. Your job is to find a couple of the right ones.

This is a different problem from confirming someone served at all. If you only need to verify the service record itself, that runs through documents. We cover that in our guide on how to verify military service and read a DD-214. This article is about something narrower. It is about reaching the people who can speak to how the candidate actually worked.

What Do You Actually Need to Confirm?

Before you start chasing phone numbers, get clear on what a reference check is for. You are not running a security clearance investigation. You are answering two plain questions.

First, is this person who they say they are? Did they hold the role and the responsibility they listed? Second, would someone who worked with them work with them again? That is it. Those two questions drive every step below.

Notice what is not on the list. You do not need to confirm every date down to the day. You do not need a full deployment history. You do not need details about classified work, and you should never ask for them. A veteran cannot share what was classified, and a good one will tell you so. That is a sign of integrity, not evasion.

That last column matters for legal reasons too. There are questions you should not ask a veteran during hiring. We lay out the full list in our guide on service questions you cannot ask veterans. Keep your reference calls inside the same lines.

Where Do You Find a Reference When the Command Is Gone?

Here is the shift in mindset. Stop looking for the org chart. Start looking for the people. The unit may be gone, but the humans who served in it are still out there. You just have to find two or three who knew the candidate's work.

Ask the candidate first. This is the fastest path by far. A veteran almost always stays in touch with a few people they served with. Ask a direct question. "Who did you work for or alongside who could speak to your work, and how do I reach them?" Most candidates will hand you a name and a cell number on the spot.

Do not stop at one. Ask for a peer and a leader. A peer saw the daily grind. A leader saw judgment and results. Two angles beat one boss who barely remembers the candidate.

LinkedIn is your friend here. Veterans network heavily with people they served with. If you see the candidate connected to someone with the same unit in their profile, that is a warm lead. For a full playbook on this channel, see our guide on how to source veterans on LinkedIn.

How Do Military Evaluations Help You Verify a Veteran?

Every service member gets formal performance reviews. The Army calls them NCOERs and OERs. The Navy and Coast Guard use FITREPs and evals. The Air Force and Space Force use EPRs and OPRs. The Marines use fitness reports. The names differ, but the job is the same. A senior leader graded the candidate in writing.

These documents do two things for you. First, they confirm the work was real and rated by a named superior. Second, they hand you a reference. The person who signed that evaluation knew the candidate well enough to grade them. Ask the candidate if they can share a recent evaluation. Many keep copies.

A quick caution. Do not try to grade the candidate yourself off the raw scores. Military evaluation systems are dense, and ratings inflate in some communities. Use the document for two things only. Confirm the role, and get the name of the rater. Then call that person if you can reach them.

This is also where understanding rank pays off. The rater on an evaluation usually outranked the candidate. Knowing what those ranks mean tells you how senior the reference is. Our guide on military rank explained for civilian recruiters breaks down the seniority levels in plain terms.

How Do You Verify Documents Near the Offer?

Reference calls confirm the person. Documents confirm the record. You handle these at different times. Talk to references during screening. Verify documents near the offer, once you are serious about the hire.

The main document is the DD-214. It is the discharge paper. It lists service dates, rank at separation, and discharge type. Almost every veteran has a copy. Ask for it as part of your standard pre-offer paperwork. It is the same way you would ask any candidate for proof of work eligibility. Do not treat it as a resume or a source of job bullets. It is a record of service, nothing more.

What if the candidate cannot find their DD-214? That happens, and it is not a warning sign. The National Archives holds these records. A veteran can request a replacement, and an authorized party can request records with the veteran's written permission. The official process runs through the National Archives Standard Form 180. Online requests go through the eVetRecs system, and the requester verifies identity through ID.me. As a rule, do not order records yourself. Let the candidate pull their own copy and share it. That keeps the consent clean.

What Questions Should You Ask a Military Reference?

A military reference may not speak your language at first. They might describe the candidate's role in terms you do not know. Your questions should pull out the parts you can use. Ask about scope, results, and trust.

Skip the open-ended "tell me about them." You will get a story you cannot grade. Ask sharper questions instead. "How many people did they lead?" "What did they own that mattered?" "When something went wrong, how did they handle it?" "Would you put them in charge again?"

You will hear military terms. A reference might say the candidate "ran the watch floor" or "was the section NCOIC." Do not let the jargon throw you. Ask the follow-up. "In plain terms, what did that mean day to day?" A good reference will translate it for you. This is the same skill that helps you read a veteran's resume, which we cover in our guide to evaluating a veteran's resume.

One more thing. Veterans are trained to be modest and to credit the team. A reference may understate what the candidate did. If you hear a lot of "we" and not much "I," dig in. Ask who made the call when it counted. That answer often reveals the leader hiding behind the team.

What If You Cannot Reach Anyone From the Service Years?

Sometimes the trail goes cold. The candidate lost touch. The leaders left the service and went dark. The unit dissolved. You still have options. Do not pass on a good hire just because the old references are unreachable.

Lean on the civilian record. If the candidate has worked since separating, even briefly, call that employer. A SkillBridge internship counts. A part-time job counts. Recent civilian managers are easy to reach and speak your language. They also tell you how the candidate performs in a civilian setting, which is what you actually care about.

You can also weight the interview more heavily. Use a structured process so every candidate is judged the same way. Our structured interview scorecard for veteran candidates gives you a repeatable framework when references are thin. A strong, structured interview plus a verified DD-214 plus one solid reference is plenty to make a confident offer.

How Do You Keep This Process Fair and Legal?

Reference checks have rules, and they apply to veterans too. Treat every candidate the same way. Run the same number of reference calls for a veteran as you would for any other finalist. Do not single veterans out for extra scrutiny because the records feel unfamiliar. That can drift into discrimination.

Stay inside the questions you can ask. You cannot ask about discharge type as a way to screen, about disabilities, or about anything unrelated to the job. Veteran status is a protected category. Keep your reference calls focused on work performance, the same as any other check. Our guide on sourcing veterans without violating EEO rules covers the boundaries in detail. None of this is legal advice. When in doubt, run your process by your own counsel.

For more on what you legally can and cannot do with veteran information during hiring, the Department of Labor's VETS guidance for employers is the primary source.

Where Does a Verified Candidate Pool Come In?

Most of this work gets easier when the candidate arrives already translated and reachable. That is the gap a strong talent pool fills. When you connect with a veteran through a platform built for the transition, the resume already speaks civilian, the role is described in terms you can grade, and the candidate is reachable and ready to share their record.

The veteran labor market is healthy, which means good candidates move fast. The unemployment rate for male Gulf War-era II veterans was 3.4 percent in 2025, lower than the rate for male nonveterans at 4.3 percent, per the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A slow, painful reference process can cost you the hire while you are still chasing a phone number.

Best Military Resume gives midsize employers a direct line to that pool. We add over 1,000 new veteran profiles every month, and more than 60,000 resumes have been built on the platform. The candidates come pre-translated. You spend your time confirming fit, not decoding jargon. If you want a faster path to verified, ready-to-hire veterans, you can reach out to access our veteran talent pool.

Brad Tachi, Founder of Best Military Resume