Auxiliary and Organizational Records, Holdings

Organizational and Auxiliary Holdings:

Auxiliary and Organizational Records, An Overview:

On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) destroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. The records affected:

No duplicate copies of these records were maintained, nor were microfilm copies produced. Neither were any indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available.

Auxiliary Records:

The 1973 Fire destroyed millions of Army and Air Force records that documented the service history of former military personnel. While the information in many of these primary source records was either damaged or completely destroyed, it is possible to obtain some of the military source data that was documented in these lost files from alternate record sources. In the years since the fire, the NPRC has collected many series of records used for this purpose, but these records contain only limited military service information. However, utilized together, they can aid in reconstructing basic service data.

Some of these records have been part of the NPRC's collection since before the 1973 Fire; others were brought in to help reconstruct basic service information. A primary source of alternate data is a collection of 19 million Final Pay Vouchers. These records provide name, service number and dates and character of service - the most critical service data elements needed for the reconstruction process. Another primary source of data is a collection of 7.8 million records of individual hospital/treatment facility admissions created by the U.S. Army Surgeon General's Office. These records are a major supplement for other, smaller sources of medical data. Using these and other auxiliary records series, various parts of an individual's military service and medical history can be recovered.

Organizational Records:

The organizational records maintained at NPRC contain a variety of personnel-related information recorded by military units during the first half of the 20th Century. The data in these records give genealogists, researchers and other members of the public the opportunity to document further the service histories of former members of the armed forces. So too, these records provide invaluable insight into the administrative functions of the Military Services during this period. Most importantly, organizational records play a vital role in reconstructing service data from files lost in the 1973 Fire.