Military Records and “the Records Fire”

Many of us have heard something about a “records fire” that destroyed many military Official Military Personnel Files (OPMFs) years ago.  And we’ve also heard some people claim that “my records were destroyed in ‘the records fire’ – and that’s why there’s no record of my <insert award for valor/Special Operations qualification/service here>”.

But many people don’t know much more than the fact that a fire once happened where many military records were stored.  The reality is that liars using the excuse of a “records fire” to justify false claims about their military service are regrettably common.  Such claims are very often if not almost always false.

This article will give the facts concerning that fabled “records fire”.  In it, I’ll give some background about the storage activity, its history, and its design – which contributed to the severity of the fire.  I’ll also briefly discuss the fire and its impact.

And, finally, I’ll discuss what records were – and what records weren’t – affected by the fire.  I’ll also provide some references that provide much more detail.

BLUF:  if someone was an Army retiree alive in July 1973; served in the Army after 1959; served in the USAF after 1963; or served in the Navy or USMC – it’s a virtual certainty that their records of service were not affected by the fire.  Any claims to the contrary are pure, unadulterated organic fertilizer of the type produced by male bovines capable of reproduction.

The National Personnel Records Center

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is located in the Saint Louis, MO, metropolitan area.  For years it was located at 9700 Page Avenue (the same address as the US Army Reserve’s Personnel Center – indeed, they shared the same Federal compound).  However, in 2011 NPRC moved to a new, more modern facility.  Their address today is 1 Archives Drive, Saint Louis, MO.

NPRC came into being in 1966.  What follows is an abbreviated history; one of the links at the end of this article provides more details.

Prior to World War II, personnel records for separated Federal personnel – military and civilian – were scattered among literally thousands of locations nationwide.  The dramatic expansion of Federal employment during World War II – particularly military employment, which rose by somewhere around 15 million during the war – pointed out the need for both better management of such records and the need for some degree of centralization.

During World War II, the military services began centralizing their personnel records archives (e.g., those dealing with separated personnel).  The same was also true of Federal civilian personnel records for separated employees.  This process accelerated in the immediate post-World War II period.

The Federal Records Center (FRC) was created in Saint Louis in the early 1950s.  It’s original goal was to consolidate records of former DoD civilian employees, but quickly changed to consolidation of former Federal civilian employee records.  The military did the same – in the same general area.

In the mid-1950s, a new facility was constructed in Overland, MO (on the west side of what is now the Saint Louis metro area) to house archived military records.  The decision was made to transfer control of this facility – the DoD Military Personnel Records Center (DoD MPRC) – to GSA in 1960 (the FRC had been under GSA since 1951).

By 1966, the FRC and MPRC had effectively completed their records consolidation roles.  Due to the similarity of missions, that year the decision was made to combine these activities into a new entity – the National Personnel Records Center, or NPRC.  At the time, the NPRC remained under GSA.  (The National Archives and Records Administration – NARA – was not created until 1986. The US National Archives and NPRC now both fall under NARA.)

The Facility

The facility housing the former DoD MPRC was built for the Army in the 1950s.  It was a huge, 6-story, relatively open building – measuring 283′ by 728′.  It was transferred to NPRC when NPRC was created in 1966.

When completed, the facility had neither sprinkler systems nor internal firewalls.  The lack of sprinkler systems was the result of a debate within the records management and archive community when it was constructed (mid-1950s) regarding whether sprinkler systems posed more risk of damage to records in storage than did fire.  The “no sprinkler” side won the argument, and the facility was built without them.

In one of the great ironies of history, the same year the building was completed (1956) the Federal government decided that the risk of fire was indeed greater, and mandated that all new records storage facilities have sprinkler systems.  Existing facilities were apparently “grandfathered”, however, and a sprinkler system was not installed at the facility prior to 1973.

The lack of internal firewalls, however, was IMO both inexplicable and inexcusable.  Regardless of whether or not sprinkler systems were used, fire was a foreseeable danger.  Internal firewalls IMO damn well should have been included as a design feature in order to limit damage in case of fire.

In essence, in July 1973 the building was a huge, 6-story warehouse.   At the time of the fire it was mostly filled with filing cabinets full of paper records – far more than originally expected (space was becoming an issue).  Unfortunately, the Federal government was to find out the hard way that installing sprinkler systems and having internal firewalls would have been damn good ideas.

The Fire

The fire at NPRC began sometime during the night of 12 July 1973. The precise cause was never determined due to the degree of damage in the area of origin.  Evidence indicated that smoking could have been the cause, as cigarette butts were found afterwards in some trash cans at the facility.  However, spontaneous combustion is also a possible cause.  Saint Louis gets quite hot in July, and the upper floors of buildings tend to get the hottest.  Hot paper in storage can under some conditions generate enough internal heat to begin to slowly smoulder – and after a while smouldering, to burn.

At just after midnight on 12 July 1973, the first reports of smoke were called in to the local fire department.  The first firefighters were on the scene in a very short period of time – less than 4 1/2 minutes.  They indeed found a fire on the 6th floor of the building.  Unfortunately, they were unable to contain the blaze.

By 3:15AM, firefighting efforts on the 6th floor had been abandoned due to smoke and intense heat; they would be unable to reenter the 6th floor for nearly 2 days.  By 4:15AM, the entire 6th floor was involved; crews were pulled from the building approximately 5:00AM.  However, through strenuous other firefighting efforts, fire damage was contained to the 6th floor.

The fire burned out of control for 22 hours.  At that point, the fire was brought under control  The fire was not declared out by firefighting authorities until sometime during the day on 16 July 1973.  In total, firefighters from 42 local fire districts had participated in the firefighting effort.

The Damage

The damage to archived military records held by NPRC was extensive.  Between 16 and 18 million military personnel records for separated military personnel are believed to have been destroyed.  Roughly 6.5 million other OPMFs were damaged – either by the fire directly, or by the huge quantities of water used to extinguish the fire – but were later recovered.

A variety of means were used to preserve and restore damaged records.  Critical records – an index of the facility’s holdings on magnetic tape, and 100,000+ reels of microfilm containing USAF and US Army morning reports from 1912-1959 –  were removed during the fire.  Though some degradation of this film had occurred in storage, approximately 95% of it was useable.  By lucky coincidence, it also happened to correspond to the area that was most affected by the fire.  Alternate sources – including claims records on-file with the VA, individual state records, Selective Service Records, pay records, and military medical records – were used to reconstruct records of service that had been destroyed in the fire to the maximum degree practicable.

Not all records affected by the fire were destroyed; many were damaged but either completely or partially recovered.  Damaged records were not discarded, but were dried and placed in special storage.  Recovery efforts continue today.

Still, the damage was extensive.  The facility’s 6th floor was a loss (the roof had collapsed, and external walls had begun to lean outwards).  It was later removed; afterwards; the building was only 5 stories tall.

However, the records destroyed were the primary loss.  These losses were:

• Army Records:   Personnel discharged November 1, 1912 to January 1, 1960 – 80% loss
• USAF Records:   Personnel discharged September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964 (with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.) – 75% loss

A handful of Navy and USMC records (3 dozen or fewer) might have also been affected.  The fire did not affect the area of NPRC storing Navy and USMC archival records, and no Navy/USMC records are known with certainty to have been affected.  However, it’s estimated that no more than 3 dozen Navy/USMC OMPFs in archival storage might – I stress, might – have been out of normal storage at the time and on analyst desktops in the area burned. Any Navy/USMC records that were out of storage and in analyst workspaces in that area at the time of the fire could have been destroyed.

Reportedly, records for then-living Army retirees were also not affected.  These records were reportedly still maintained by the nearby Army Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center, which was not affected by the fire.

In short:  many irreplaceable records of Army and USAF service during World War I, World War II, and Korea were lost.  While a substantial amount was recovered from alternate sources, much of America’s individual military history – and the irreplaceable original documents containing it – relating to those conflicts literally went up in smoke.

The Stolen Valor “So What”

That’s what happened.  But for potential stolen valor cases, what does this mean?  Here’s my analysis.

1.   If someone served in the Navy or USMC, it’s a virtual certainty that their records were not affected by the fire.  At most, 3 dozen or fewer OPMFs for discharged Navy/USMC personnel in archival storage might have been affected.  None are known to have been destroyed, and NPRC’s official position is that none were destroyed.

2. If someone was a US Army retiree living in July 1973 – their records were not affected by the fire.  Records for living US Army retirees were reportedly still being stored at the nearby US Army Reserve Components Personnel Command (then the US Army Reserve Components Personnel and Administration Center) at the time. (See paragraph 26.a, page 2-E-2, in the last reference below.)

3.  If someone served in the Army in Vietnam, their records of service in Vietnam were not affected.   No US Army records relating to personnel discharged from active duty after 1959 were destroyed in the fire.  The same is true of US Navy and USMC personnel, but for a different reason – see the first item above.

4.  If someone served in Vietnam in the USAF in Vietnam, there’s only a very slim chance that their records were affected. However, for that to be possible they’d have to have (1) served in the USAF in Vietnam between 15 November 1961 (start of 1st USAF-recognized campaign for the Vietnam Service Medal) and 1 January 1964 (last date of USAF records affected by the fire), (2) been discharged from the USAF before 1 January 1964, and (3) had a last name alphabetically after “Hubbard, James E.”, for that to be possible.  No USAF records relating to personnel discharged after 1 January 1964 were affected.  Even then, it’s a stretch.  That’s a rather small fraction of the number of airmen who served in Vietnam.  End of year troop strengths in Vietnam in 1961-1963 for all services were 3,025, 11,300, and 16,300, respectively.  Most of these personnel were US Army soldiers.

5.  Anyone who first joined the US military during the last 50 years claiming that their records were “destroyed in the fire” is a damned liar.  The newest records destroyed by the fire were from 1963.

Bottom line:  if someone served in World War I, World War II, or Korea – the fire might have affected (or destroyed) their records.  But if they served in Vietnam?  Only if they served there in the USAF between 15 November 1961 and 31 December 1963 is that a possibility.  Even then, as noted above that’s highly unlikely.

And anyone making that claim who was discharged from active duty after 1963 is a damned liar.

References

The following links provide further information about NPRC, the 1973 Fire, and it’s aftermath.  They were used in the preparation of this article, either as background or as direct sources.

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/archival-programs/history.html

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Personnel_Records_Center_fire

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/nprc-fire.pdf

http://www.defense.gov/News/NewsArticle.aspx?ID=120446

http://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/2011/fall/nprc.html

http://www.airforcemag.com/Features/Pages/2013/July%202013/box071213records.aspx

http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2012/03/the-national-personnel-records-center-fire-of-1973-not-everything-was-destroyed.html

http://www.stltoday.com/news/local/metro/searching-for-treasure-at-military-records-center/article_ed6db9a4-268e-5a67-ab3c-d1df72c1aef2.html

http://todaysdocument.tumblr.com/post/55293539712/the-fire-at-the-national-personnel-records-center

http://www.stripes.com/news/the-painstaking-effort-to-recover-millions-of-burned-military-service-records-1.233869

http://www.benefits.va.gov/warms/docs/admin21/m21_1/mr/part3/subptiii/ch02/ch02_sece.doc

Category: Historical