The 1973 St. Louis fire: what was lost and how a service record gets rebuilt

What happened

Early on July 12, 1973, a fire broke out on the top floor of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. It burned for days. By the time it was out, a huge portion of the building's personnel files was gone. The center held no duplicate copies and no microfilm index of the destroyed files, so what burned was simply lost.

The losses were not spread evenly. They fell almost entirely on two groups:

• Army personnel discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960. Roughly four in five of those files were destroyed.
• Army Air Forces and Air Force personnel discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964, for names alphabetically after Hubbard, James E. Roughly three in four of those files were lost.

Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard records were not in the affected area. Neither were most records created after these windows. If your veteran served in one of the affected groups, though, there is a real chance the personnel file no longer exists.

Why this is not the end

A personnel file is a summary of service, but it is not the only record of it. The military generated the same facts in many places, and a great deal of that paper survives elsewhere. Reconstructing a burned file means going to those other sources and rebuilding the timeline piece by piece. It takes longer than pulling a single file, and it may not recover every detail, but it very often recovers the core of a veteran's service.

Where the surviving evidence lives

These are the records we lean on most when a personnel file is gone:

• Morning reports, the daily unit accounting of who was present, sick, transferred, promoted, or lost. For Army and Army Air Forces units, these are among the strongest reconstruction sources.
• Unit histories and organizational records, which place a unit in time and space and describe what it did.
• Award and decoration orders, the General Orders that authorized medals, which can confirm both the award and the unit.
• Final pay and separation records that survived outside the burned files.
• Surgeon General's Office hospital admission cards, a separate series that can confirm illness, injury, and location.
• Veterans Affairs claim files, which often contain copies of service documents the veteran submitted.
• State and local records, including draft registration, discharge recordings at the county courthouse, and bonus applications.

No single source rebuilds a file. The method is to cross-reference several until a consistent, cited picture of the service emerges.

What we can honestly promise

We do not invent details, and we do not paper over gaps. When the record cannot support a claim, we say so. What we can do is work the surviving sources methodically, tell you clearly what each one proves, and assemble a documented account rather than a guess. For many families that account is more complete than they expected, and every fact in it is tied to a source.

Frequently asked questions

What records were destroyed in the 1973 fire?

The fire destroyed a large share of Army and Army Air Forces personnel files at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. There were no backup copies or microfilm index, so the destroyed files were lost outright.

Whose military records were affected by the fire?

Two groups took nearly all the losses: Army personnel discharged 1912 to 1960, and Army Air Forces and Air Force personnel discharged 1947 to 1964 with surnames alphabetically after Hubbard, James E.

Were Navy and Marine Corps records affected?

No. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard records were not in the affected area, and neither were most records created after the affected windows.

Can records lost in the 1973 fire be recovered?

The original files cannot be recovered, but the service can often be reconstructed from morning reports, unit histories, award orders, pay records, hospital admission cards, and Veterans Affairs files.

What is a morning report?

A morning report is the daily unit accounting of who was present, sick, transferred, promoted, or lost. For Army and Army Air Forces units, it is one of the strongest sources for rebuilding a burned personnel record.

Where the on-site records come in

Some of these records, especially early morning reports, exist only on site in St. Louis and are not available by mail. We explain that access in our guide to the records held in St. Louis, and we can coordinate an on-site pull as part of a research project. If you are still at the request stage, our guide to requesting an Official Military Personnel File covers the first step.