Issue 17.11
One of the most difficult challenges in assisting a Veteran or their widowed spouse with benefit claims is obtaining Service Records. The Veterans Administration requires an original discharge or a certified copy of the Discharge when applying for most benefits. In the years since leaving the service of our Country many of our veterans or their families have lost or misplaced these documents. To complicate matters on July 12, 1973 a fire at the National Personnel Records Repository destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. It is estimated over 80% of all Army Personnel discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960 was destroyed and 75% of all Air Force records from September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964 were also burned.
No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained. There were no indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veteran Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. Nevertheless, NPRC uses many alternate sources in its effort to reconstruct basic service information to respond to requests.
When proof of military service is needed, NPRC attempts to reconstruct basic service data from alternate sources. NPRC has identified many of these sources, but each contains only limited military service information. These sources include final pay vouchers, a collection of computer tapes and medical admission records. They are utilized to piece together or reconstruct basic service data.
It is therefore essential requesters collect as much information from old personal papers before submitting a request pertaining to records from the fire-related collections. Good information on a request helps NPRC indentify which sources to research for reconstructing.
If you are a veteran or next of kin of a deceased veteran, you may now use vetreces.archives.gov to order a copy of your military records. You may also use Standard Form 180 (SP-180). These requests must contain enough information to identify the record from among the 70 million on file at NPRC. Veterans and next-of-kin of deceased veterans have the same rights to full access to the record. Next-of -kin must provide proof of death for the veteran such as a copy of death certificate, letter from a funeral home, or published obituary.