That St Louis fire
The Stars & Stripes has a pretty good article on the July 12, 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center that we’ve so often heard phonies use an excuse for their inaccurate records not squaring with their stories;
The calamity ultimately destroyed the records of about 18 million veterans, including roughly 80 percent for Army personnel discharged between 1912 and 1960 and 75 percent of Air Force personnel discharged between 1947 and 1964.
The article is actually about my brothers and sisters at the National Archives and their attempts to recover the damaged records;
Decades later, technicians with the National Archives facility in St. Louis still painstakingly search for and process the burnt and brittle personnel files requested by veterans, their wives and children and researchers. Often the requester is looking for proof needed for federal entitlements, such as medical care, education benefits and burial.
But if you look at the sidebar, there are also instructions and links for requesting your records and records of your deceased family. I get a couple of requests every week for helping people to get their family’s records. It’s easier for you to get those records than it is for me to do it.
Category: Veterans Issues
Drove by there yesterday
I did a request for my dad (WW2). Got the default “those were burned up” response along with a request for more info. The “more info” was basically the info I was looking for – if I had it I wouldn’t have done the request in the first place.
nice to know it only affected people up to 1960/64. Makes for a nice mental note for me to block off that time frame for my BS detector. I wonder if Nikkos records were destroyed in that fire?
A state’s archives will often hold enlistment records for WW I. It is an often overlooked source. The thought of the fire still pisses me off, though my father’s WW II Army records survived.
Some of us have family members who actually had records burned in that fire. It was a good lesson on the importance of keeping a copy of everything pertaining to one’s own military service. At least records that old are more difficult to forge.
OWB, I think that fire is why they told us at my many out processing briefs the first time I got out,to have your discharge put on record at the local courthouse. Sadly the second time I got out, they told us not to do that, as it was apparently becoming a new source of identity theft. Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.
Yeah, my dad lost his flight training records in that fire, but they did recover his later years of flight log and he had paper copies of his awards in his “I love Me” book.
Just not his certification of training. It would have saved him a lot of cash not having to pay for civilian flight training.
After my Dad retired, and several months of no checks later, he found his records had been burned. He had the foresight to have made copies as was suggested above… saved him TONS of grief. (And to tell you something about detail oriented – he brought in more detailed files and documentation than they said they had lost.)
OWB: tell me about it. My dad retired in the early 1960s – from the USAF.
My brother’s father-in-law was in the Pacific theater during WWII and couldn’t get a disability claim for the hole in his back from shrapnel. He told me that he still had some that hadn’t been dug out.
After much fussing, fuming, and finally getting some help through the DAV and AL, he finally did get his disability claim filled and was awarded back pay for it.
So, yes, it is important to keep copies of as much documentation as you can.
I had an AAM lost in that fire. Oh wait…I was born in 1979. Damn, can’t use that excuse ha ha
That’s good news for genealogists too. I didn’t start my research until after my Grandfather died, and would dearly love to have his WWII records. I have wonderful photos and a good general idea of his service (a doctor in N Africa and Sicily) but it would be nice to see the specifics.
I wished they had some of the other records. I was able to get my father’s DD-214, but it was typed poorly and I was unable to read some of his awards. I have his actual Purple Heart and Bronze Star from WWII, but lost the BS citation. I’d love to be able to get a copy of that back.
There are alternate ways of getting information by using the NAF 13055 (google it). It asks for specific dates/places/etc. I’ve had numerous veterans tell me that their files have been “burned up” (including some veterans that got out AFTER 1973!) but it’s not always the case. It took four days for the fire to be contained, and a lot of records were saved but have had to be preserved in a mold free environment (caused by all the water fighting the fire). As a veteran service officer for the American Legion, I’ve seen records that have had burn & singe marks on them, and unfortunately (being too cynical) think that the NPRC is using it as an excuse.