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Good to see this getting some attention again. This affected me personally when trying to find a family member's military records. When I requested them I foun

Good to see this getting some attention again. This affected me personally when trying to find a family member's military records. When I requested them I found out they were all gone because of that fire. It's astounding how much was lost as a result. I ended up having to piece together information from other sources. Hospital records were in a different place, safe from the fire, for example, and you could use that to infer certain things about where they were at what time, and some of the records had some information in notes. But if they weren't ill at a certain point, you would have never had that. There's still a lot that's unknown as a result of the fire.

op00to 3y ago
I have no connection to my ancestors, that part of the family disappeared. I wish I could access my grandfather's WWII records, it would be a priceless link to the past.
- toomuchtodo 3y ago
  https://www.archives.gov/veterans https://www.archives.gov/veterans https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy
  - op00to 3y ago
    I’ve requested, the files were lost as of about 7 years ago. Thanks!
    - WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
      >the files were lost as of about 7 years ago. A lot of that going around. My wife's records were never archived. When a soldier separates from service, if they file a disability claim (at that time) their records are forwarded to the soldier's home VA office, instead of St. Louis. When my wife separated, someone forged her signature on a disability claim application. No one knows why. We have a copy of app and it clearly isn't her signature. The challenge is her records never arrived at any VA office she might have been associated with. We contacted them all. A US House rep opened an inquiry but even after a few years, nothing was learned. After 10 years we gave up.
      - technothrasher 3y ago
        > A lot of that going around. I got pretty lucky with my grandfather and got about 150 pages of records from his time as a Naval aviator right after WWI. But when I tried to get my great uncle's records from WWII, all I got was a single page discharge record. Fortunately I've got his war letters from Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Tokyo Bay that fill in quite a bit of info.
- WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
  I didn't know my father and tried to get his WWII medical records but was denied. IIRC, only he could auth their release and he'd been dead for 20yr.
User23 3y ago
I heard about this years ago from my father because it was why he had no service records despite being drafted.

op00to 3y ago

I have no connection to my ancestors, that part of the family disappeared. I wish I could access my grandfather's WWII records, it would be a priceless link to the past.

toomuchtodo 3y ago
https://www.archives.gov/veterans https://www.archives.gov/veterans https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy https://www.archives.gov/research/military/genealogy
- op00to 3y ago
  I’ve requested, the files were lost as of about 7 years ago. Thanks!
  - WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
    >the files were lost as of about 7 years ago. A lot of that going around. My wife's records were never archived. When a soldier separates from service, if they file a disability claim (at that time) their records are forwarded to the soldier's home VA office, instead of St. Louis. When my wife separated, someone forged her signature on a disability claim application. No one knows why. We have a copy of app and it clearly isn't her signature. The challenge is her records never arrived at any VA office she might have been associated with. We contacted them all. A US House rep opened an inquiry but even after a few years, nothing was learned. After 10 years we gave up.
    - technothrasher 3y ago
      > A lot of that going around. I got pretty lucky with my grandfather and got about 150 pages of records from his time as a Naval aviator right after WWI. But when I tried to get my great uncle's records from WWII, all I got was a single page discharge record. Fortunately I've got his war letters from Iwo Jima, Okinawa, and Tokyo Bay that fill in quite a bit of info.
WarOnPrivacy 3y ago
I didn't know my father and tried to get his WWII medical records but was denied. IIRC, only he could auth their release and he'd been dead for 20yr.

User23 3y ago

I heard about this years ago from my father because it was why he had no service records despite being drafted.