A fire at the NPRC in St. Louis on July 12, 1973, destroyed about 80 percent of the records for Army personnel discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960. About 75 percent of the records for Air Force personnel with surnames from “Hubbard” through “Z” discharged between September 25, 1947, and January 1, 1964, were also destroyed.
That’s the one. We were unable to retrieve much for my father-in-law, who was discharged from the army in ‘51.
I just got some WWII Navy discharge records this summer at the county courthouse. It took all of five minutes. No fuss, no muss. Actually, they are more of a condensed version of the DD 214 but it’s more than nothing. I’m surprised people haven’t done more research at the courthouse and at HI genealogical and local libraries. It’s also amazing how the newspaper offices can’t seem to come up with the original papers.