How to verify military pay information?

I found the following quick guideline to military pay. ALWAYS try to contact their command to verify any information given. First SGT or Company Commander will have the info. This works for officers also since they are probably assigned to Headquarters Company for admin purposes, even if they outrank the company commander by several grades.

 1) First, determine if they are Active or Reserve. Most, but certainly not all, active duty members will live around military bases; the main exceptions are for recruiters and Recruiting Command support/command personnel.

2) Ask to see a copy of their ID card, (AKA Common Access Card or CAC). It will show their rank and an expiration date on the front and their social security number and birth date on back.

3) For Active duty members, ask for an LES (Leave and Earnings Statement). This can be downloaded so it can easily be altered. With a copy of their ID Card you can more or less verify the LES by going to the following two websites:

www.dfas.mil/army2/militarypaycharts/2007MilPaycharts-cc.pdf

www.perdiem.hqda.pentagon.mil/perdiem/bah.html

Both sites are fairly easy to use. For years in service, assume they joined at about 20 for enlisted and age 22 for officers. Everyone is different, but this will put you in the ballpark. Also try to verify rank with their command.

4) For Reserve members, this is a lot different. For most it is a part time job, effectively working out to about 1 day a week of pay. However, many Reservists are on various types of active duty. To make it easy, simply request a copy of their orders and verify them with their command personnel. Orders will be for a certain number of days and have a start date which indicates how long they will be on active duty – it could range from one day or two years. For Reservists on active duty use the above two websites to verify their LES.