Friday, March 30, 2018

Strike one for the National Archives: What a Blow to our Personal History. By Geniusofdespair


If you want to trace back the history of your brave relatives who fought in the Army or Air Force -- you won't be happy. We asked for the military records of my Father-in-Law who was a doctor under the command of General Patton. They played chess together. My Father-in-Law said when they wanted to stop Patton from moving forward...they didn't supply him with gasoline. That was the only way to hold him back. He ended the war at a Concentration Camp and could not talk about it, only to say “the blood wasn't dry.” The German’s machine gunned those remaining. But that isn't the point of this story.

Many soldiers returning from battle don't want to talk about it. So, we decided to see what was in the Army records about my Father-in-Law's service to the United States. Well guess what? The records are burned to a crisp. In 1973 there was a fire that destroyed 47 years of Army personnel records. The Air Force records destroyed were not quite as bad: 16 years of partial records were destroyed. If your name began with an HU - to Z....your records are gone too.

Incredible but true. World War I, World War II and the Korean War, all the Army personnel records are up in smoke.  So whatever records they can reconstruct from other sources, they have the gall to charge us for them.  Friggin' military. They suck. Or should I be angry at the National Archives? Were the records in cardboard boxes? Why not fireproof boxes? This just sucks.


5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Obviously it wouldn’t be someone from your family who served

Geniusofdespair said...

Obviously I have plenty from my family but they were not officers so their records are minimal. I have their discharge documents. My Father-in-Law was a Captain and had various medals which would have been in the records. In other words his records would have been far more interesting. But thanks for trashing my relatives. A little respect for the dead.

Anonymous said...

Sounds more like someone has something to hide.......

Anonymous said...

Obviously no one from your family would be an officer

Geniusofdespair said...

Obviously. They all had bone spurs.