SECNAV M-5210.1 - Department of the Navy Records Management Manual

Scope

SECNAV M-5210.1, the Department of the Navy Records Management Manual, sets policy and procedure for the life cycle of every DON record, creation, maintenance, use, and disposition. The manual implements SECNAVINST 5210.8D and operates under SECNAVINST 5430.7N. Part III carries the disposition schedules, organized by Standard Subject Identification Code and approved by the National Archives and Records Administration. When a Marine Corps page asks how long a record lives and what happens to it afterward, the answer traces here.

Audience

• Records officers and records-management leads at every DON activity.
• S-1 and IPAC personnel building file plans and executing disposition.
• Commanders accountable for command records through inspection cycles.
• Legal clerks applying court-martial and NJP retention rules.

Operative content

• Retention organizes by SSIC. Each code carries a retention period and a disposition action, destruction or transfer to NARA. The Schedules Cross Walked by Chapter map at page III-1 paragraph 2.b is the working index.
• Electronic records carry the same retention and disposition rules as paper. Command-sponsored electronic reports systems register in DITPR-DON under SECNAV Note 5210 so the records inside stay managed.
• Part 1 paragraph 16.b.(e) carries the Capstone email management rules for senior officials, an IGMC checklist item under functional area 5210.
• Retention rules the portal leans on daily. Unit Punishment Book, three full years. Summary court-martial records, two years from case close. Special and general court-martial records, two years after appellate review completes. Activity administrative discharge records, three years. DD Form 577 signature cards, ten years. OMPF documents, 75 years after separation. The DD-214 and personal award records, permanent.

Part map

• Part I. Program policy and responsibilities, including electronic records and email management.
• Part III. Disposition schedules by SSIC, the section most field users open.

Connection to higher policy

• 44 USC Chapter 33 and Section 3303a. The statutory basis, NARA approves federal retention schedules.
• SECNAVINST 5210.8D. The DON records management policy the manual implements.
• SECNAVINST 5430.7N. The assignment of responsibilities the manual operates under.

Connection to Marine Corps doctrine and lower policy

• MCO 5210.11. The Marine Corps Records Management Program, the service-level implementation.
• SECNAV M-5210.2. The SSIC manual, the code taxonomy the schedules organize by.
• MCBul 5210. Periodic Marine Corps records-program updates.
• DoD 7000.14-R DoDFMR Volume 1 Chapter 9. Financial records retention floors flowing from these schedules.
• MCO 5215.1K. Directive records disposition.

Status

Active. The current edition is September 2019, dated 2019-09-23, on the DON issuances site, confirmed 2026-07-15. The edition history runs December 2005 basic, November 2007 CH-1, January 2012 Rev 1, August 2017 CH-1 to Rev 1, then the September 2019 edition. Checklist citations reading 2019 with CH-1 conflate the 2017 change to the 2012 revision with the 2019 edition. No change to the September 2019 edition appears on the issuances site.