1973 St Louis fire destroys many military records...conn to data theft???

[bobbieinok]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1973_National_Archives_Fire

....

Affected Records
The affected record collections are described below.

U.S. Army personnel discharged November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960
U.S. Air Force personnel discharged September 25, 1947, to January 1, 1964, with names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.
Some U.S. Army Reserve personnel who received final discharge as late as 1964
Various U.S. Navy, United States Coast Guard, and U.S. Marine Corps records which were out of file and were caught in the section of the building which experienced the most damage in the fire.

more....

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I think more was destroyed b/c I believe my brother (in army and reserve from 1963 to 1991) was told some of his records were missing.

[Avalux]

1. My grandfather's were destroyed.

He was a marine during WWII - my Dad tried to get them and was told they were gone.

[lindisfarne]

6. The county he lived in just might have them. You might check if it means

a lot to you. (They had my grandfather's WWI records (his federal records were also destroyed in that fire) - I thought contacting them was a complete waste of time and lo and behold, they had them and found them rather quickly (this was a small rural county) - says a lot about the work ethics decades ago). I guess people's military records were kept at the county level (perhaps due to obligatory military service requirements? keeping track of it locally worked better? especially pre-computer age).

[Avalux]

7. Thank you - I will look into it.

He was from a small rural community also; my father still lives there. He would be grateful to have them. :hi:

[LaurenG]

2. All of my fathers medical records were burned

He died trying to get the government to give him information about a condition he aquired during WWII.

[davepc]

3. sometimes a fire in a building full of paper is just a fire...

[johnnie]

4. Coincidently..

I remember hearing that there were many medical records of the military that served in the first Gulf war stored in the Oklahoma Fed. building. Did I hear right?

[oneighty]

5. Even so a few years ago

my congressman a few years ago was able to access a friends proof of military service within a few days. My friend was discharged Army around 1949.

It is curious. Just confirms there is more than one source for some records.

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