I mailed away a couple of weeks ago for several types of reports.

I recieved a letter back today from the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis stating, " roster for all organizations for the years 1944 through 1946 were destroyed in accordance with the General Records Schedule."

Now DH says they were probably destroyed in the 50s or 70s according the set timeline of superceeding and destroying old data. So how are you all still getting this information for YOUR units?

This was either daily reports or unit reports. I can't remember which is at St. Louis at this moment. Humpf.

The St Louis branch only has morning reports and personnel files.

The Maryland branch carries unit documentation. That's where we obtain our information.

Please see our RESEARCH section for the appropriate links.

The St Louis branch only has morning reports and personnel files.

 

The Maryland branch carries unit documentation. That's where we obtain our information.

 

Please see our RESEARCH section for the appropriate links.

Yup. that's the other one I mailed last week. So the morning reports for the 280th are gone, destroyed. That's really sad. I'm waiting on Maryland. Maybe I'll drop a note to Carlisle, PA for any more historical records they might be hiding as well.

I never heard of records being destroyed. That's a new one on me. I've never had any problems procuring any types of data from either any NARA branch, other than some personnel records which were destroyed in the 73 fire.

How was your letter worded (the one to St Louis)?

Morning report requests have to have exact dates, etc.

The one I requested was for my dad's unit, with specific data listing his company and the exact date, May 24, 1944.

I requested the unit by name and by date as well. I also included why I wanted the data. The letter they shot back is exactly - St. Louis stating, " Unfortunately, roster for all organizations for the years 1944 through 1946 were destroyed in accordance with the General Records Schedule."

They included a phone number, so while I'm stuck here waiting on the dishwasher man tomorrow, I'll call.

Holy cow Caryl. I'll have to ask my historian profs about that one. That just astounds me. Why the heck would they destroy pieces of history??? Man if they did that, then it's another reason to shake our finger at the federal government!!!!

This is what I'm sayin'! I'll call around lunch and get back on here to update.

OK, so I called St. Louis. The man on the phone said that EVERY MORNING REPORTS for every organization Prior to 1946 has been destroyed ! OMG! REALLY?!?!?! At the peak time when these veterans and their children are just now digging into past events, they've BEEN SHREDDED?!?!? Who does that?

Have they been transcribed? No

Saved to digital? NO

OMG!?!?!?! I'm gong to be sick.

Thought I might chime in on this one. The unit rosters for all units are theoretically intact(the thoroughness on this varies from unit to unit)for 1943 and before. Rosters for '44,'45, and '46 were apparently discarded. We run into the same issue with records like special orders showing when individual soldiers were transferred from unit to unit. Copies were placed in in the individual serviceman's personnel file, but because of the fire most of these records were destroyed. Unfortunately, many of the original special orders were also discarded by the military. So, in many cases the only remaining special orders showing the transfer of individuals are photographed on microfilm where company clerks inserted them with the morning reports when they submitted them. The issue was really one of space, and not having the room to store all of these records, they were in many cases, burned. Very, very frustrating. Believe it or not the modern military is starting to experience a similar problem today-but with providing DIGITAL space for all of their records! Hopefully, they will not throw away(or delete) documents that will be vital to understanding the experience of our veterans serving today.

I should stress: this does not apply to the morning reports. The reports from WWI through Korea are just fine and were not thrown away-just the rosters for the 3 years noted above. After this they pick up again(into the 1950s).

Hope this helps.

Geoff

Caryl, on a unrelated note, I noticed you are coming up as a guest for some reason. Am trying to correct this. Don't know what happened. I know we ran into a problem because you had two accounts, so merged them, but this shouldn't have affected your status. Am working on it.... Sorry!