Service Records of WW2 Vet

[RCraig]

I sent in a records request to the Military Personnel Records Center in Saint Louis. Does anyone have an idea of how long it might be until I hear anything back?

Thanks

[McDermut99]

The common consensus among collectors is that going through the official request channels at the NRPC is a complete waste of time and money. When I was a new member here I sent a request for a WWII army enlisted man and SEVEN months later they replied wanting to charge me $75! After doing some reading here I found out that not only do the feds charge an obscenely high price for scanning pages (a truly difficult task I might add), but what you would receive depended on what they chose to scan. In other words, you pay a lot of money for part of the information.

There are a couple private researchers and collectors who offer much better quality research for a reasonable price, not mention they are much friendlier! I have had Geoff of Golden Arrow Research pull multiple files in the past and he does an excellent job and charges very reasonably. A couple members here live near the NRPC and do periodic trips to pull records requested via other Forum members for a price as well. I have read that member 2ndInf.Div. does excellent work and I have messaged him about pulling a couple service records on his next trip which I believe is this September.

 

All in all forget you even sent a request to the NRPC and look into the private research services. You'll save money and a couple years of your life (not kidding). Here is a thread about Geoff and Golden Arrow Research:

http://www.usmilitariaforum.com/forums/index.php?/topic/124442-golden-arrow-research/?hl=%20golden%20%20arrow%20%20research

 

Best of luck in your research!

[RCraig]

Wow, thanks so much for this information. I see you are from the Lone Star State so I hope you are not underwater.

 

Another question: For the WW2 soldier I am interested in, I have information about what Infantry Division and Regiment he was in, so I read all about what that Regiment did. I think what I really need is confirmation that he was in that Regiment from when he first got there until the end of the war. So perhaps rosters from a few dates or something like that?

[McDermut99]

No problem. I'm pretty far north of Houston but we're feeling the hurricane's impact to a degree.

 

As for confirmation of what unit your man served in, I would do some heavy internet research and see if you can find any of the division or regiment documents from that time and with any luck you may find rosters. Another possibility is to try to find an article that mentions his WWII service, even better if it might state his unit. However more times than not such articles don't mention such detailed information. Nevertheless it's worth a shot!

 

The best way to find information online is to search the name with quotation marks. Such as "Sgt. John Smith" or "John Smith" WWII, "John Smith" 16th Infantry, etc.

[RCraig]

Ok, well I had sent a letter to the St. Louis Archives and I did get a response back. However, I am going to hire a researcher to do the work, for the reasons you mentioned in your post. For some reason, they have to do preservation on it before the researcher can view the file at the Archival Research Room, and the preservation may take weeks. Arg! Let me know if you have any insight as far as what this preservation is.

[McDermut99]

Ok, well I had sent a letter to the St. Louis Archives and I did get a response back. However, I am going to hire a researcher to do the work, for the reasons you mentioned in your post. For some reason, they have to do preservation on it before the researcher can view the file at the Archival Research Room, and the preservation may take weeks. Arg! Let me know if you have any insight as far as what this preservation is.

 

The preservation work is most likely because the records were damaged from the 1973 fire. The records your looking for may be lightly or heavily damaged, and some information may be lost, but at least they weren't completely lost like so many others.

[RCraig]

I am eagerly awaiting. In the mean time, I ordered another guy's record, from the Coast Guard in WW2. It turned out to be way over 100 pages. Youch! I will let you know what happens as far as the WW2 Army guy's record.

 

Actually, I saw a fantastic webinar on the resuscitation on the damaged files. They showed slides of the filing cabinets all melted down. Some of the files were kind of like a soggy lump of recycled paper. They keep them at low temperature because of mold growth. Anyway, it was amazing to see what they could do. piecing together from shreds, etc.

 

Ashley Cox, “A is for Archives, B is for Burn File: Accessing Burned Records at the National Archives at St. Louis,” National Archives Virtual Genealogy Fair, 25 October 2017. This was the name of the webinar, I don't have the URL at the moment but I could probably find it.