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3.7. The St. Louis Fire

In 1973 there was a fire at the National Personnel Records Center ("NPRC") in St. Louis. The NPRC is an official repository for records of military veterans who served in the United States Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. This event is important to many veterans because a large number of military service records were destroyed. The "fire" has become something of an urban legend because VA sometimes cites it as reason for not obtaining a veteran's service records, sometimes even when the veteran left service after the fire occurred. According to a VA "Fact Sheet," the fire destroyed about 80% of Army records for persons discharged between November 1912 and January 1960 and about 75% of Air Force records for persons discharged between September 1947 and January 1964. Because of poor recordkeeping and loaning of records, it is not possible to say for sure exactly which records were destroyed within these groups.

No other records were lost in the fire. VA itself has stated that records for veterans who left service after 1964 were not affected and that only Army and Air Force records were involved (no Navy records were affected). Clearly, records for veterans who left service after 1973 could not have been destroyed in a 1973 file. As a result, any time the "fire" is cited as a reason for VA not locating service records, veterans should take the time to determine if the record could have been affected and, if not, challenge the VA's conclusion.

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