Posted on 06/05/2014 10:48:55 AM PDT by US Navy Vet
While the Veterans Administration struggles to repair the damage caused by shoddy -- and in some cases fraudulent -- handling of health care for American service members, benefits for millions who served their country in four wars were wiped out in a fire more than 40 years ago, leaving many battling to this day to collect their due.
The blaze that ripped through the National Personnel Records Center in a St. Louis suburb shortly after midnight on July 12, 1973, consumed 16 million to 18 million official military personnel files long before computers kept such records safe from harm. Few could have predicted the harm it would visit on the veterans who were denied VA benefits -- some to this day -- because they could not reconstruct their military service files.
Tom Morrow, a 67-year-old Vietnam veteran, suffered a head injury while training at Fort Benning, Ga., prior to his deployment to Saigon in 1967 at age 20. The side effects that followed were debilitating for Morrow: seizures and cold sweats followed later by panic attacks and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
Leads me to believe that my husband's medical records showed things the government does not want to pay for.
Yep - my records were missed in the fire but my late Dad’s weren’t. He called them back saying that he had hard copy of everything in them, which is why I now have hard copy of everything I was ever sent.
Yeah, now that everything is on computers, it's safe from harm, and we can just forget about it.
Regards,
When I retired from the AF I made sure I had copies of my service record and all of my medical records. Unfortunately, my active enlisted Marine Corps records had been sent to the personnel records center just before the fire date and I haven’t been able to track them down. My records shouldn’t have been destroyed but in trying to get the records to add to my father’s genealogy records I believe they are gone. He was WWII and called back for Korea. They were probably included in the records that were destroyed since his name begins with an S.
I almost lost a pending sale with a VA Loan because of that fire.
“Yeah, now that everything is on computers, it’s safe from harm, and we can just forget about it.”
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Laugh of the day. :-)
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He came home from Vietnam practically deaf and has had no luck since. They said he had never been in combat. He finally went to the VA in a neighboring state, he had found an advocate and they were able to get him in there. They reconstructed his service by the papers he had along with news clippings from the local paper.
Illegal aliens go to the front of the line. Americans and Veterans are not worth consideration. All of those socialist, American-hating hippies who spit on Veterans who were returning from VietNam, along with their corrupted offspring, are now in charge, like bill, hillary, obama, kerry, and ayers to name a few. Maybe the generals should have left some troops at home to clean out the leftist rat’s nests that were building up here. Now, all of the Veterans from wars since have to pay the price, again.
I kept most of the papers I was given during my military term.
Most of my dad’s papers were burned in that fire. He also kept many of his papers which I still have.
I remember the day the news reported on that fire. I was wondering how it would affect us.
In 1985, I flew in a UH-1H to deliver some unit personnel records to the records center in St. Louis. My Dad always urged me to save a hard copy of anything military related that pertained to my service. I still have my own self maintained service and medical records that I started as a cadet. One look at the hallways there jammed with pallets of records and documents spilling out on the floor, confirmed his warnings.
I was not married to him at the time. It's like beating a dead horse. I am not going to get any where with the VA. But make copies of everything you can!
Mine were among those lost. However, I was able to show hospitalization from Company Morning Reports which were held at another location. My Rep helped me out to get them retrieved.
I can’t find records of my grandfather’s WWII service- was also checking for genealogy. I have seen pictures and other artifacts, so we know it happened!
At a minimum, your grandfather’s BRLS record should be available through Ancestry, search Military. The BRLS usually has a bit of information. If he was Navy or Marine Corps there should also be muster rolls under that search.
There were certain categories of records for the army and air force that were destroyed, by date and by last name. There are web sites where you can request those records from DoD, even for deceased veterans. They have some records going back to the 1700s.
The only reason I have my grandfather’s Army records (1903-1912) is because a copy was added to his Marine records (1912-1922) which survived. Of course, his later Army records (1941-1947) were destroyed in the St. Louis fire, but I know where he was most of the time (Japanese POW camps).
Many Marines were sent TDY with no notations in the SRB's. Perhaps your husband was one of them?
The US Govt has looked for ways to get out of treaties and contracts since they beat a Jewish financier out of the money he put into the Revolutionary war. Don't believe me? Ask an Indian.
The fire? Oh, you mean Operation Save the Careers of Every Democrat Who Came of Age in the Vietnam Era?
If he got PTSD in Saigon it was the: So many, So little time syndrome.
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