The National Veterans Freedom Park
Records Restoration

The Most Devastating Document Fire in the History of the World

In 1973 a devastating fire occurred in St. Louis, at the U.S. Personnel Records Center, which at the time housed the personal military service records of all of our veterans. In a matter of minutes, the records of over 80% of all U.S. Army personnel who had been discharged or deceased between the years 1912–1960 were consumed and lost forever. Additionally, the records of over 75% of U.S. Air Force personnel who served our nation and were discharged or deceased between the years 1947–1964 were also lost in the conflagration. At that time, no copies were available and none of those records had ever been transferred to a computer database. In essence, literally millions of personal service histories were destroyed and lost, making this the single largest document destruction in the history of the world.

I learned about this loss some time ago, but; never really thought much of it, until I started doing research on my father's military history. My father served as bomber pilot in WWII. Wanting to learn more, I emailed into the eVet Records database inquiring about my father's records. I received a nice form letter back from the Center telling me that his file was among the millions of those that were lost. They also sent me a blank form to fill out, requesting that I try to find some existing records of my father's service, so they could at least partially restore his file. Luckily, my father is still living and I called him and asked if he still had his personnel file. He said he did. When I informed him that his file was among those that were lost he said, "I know...but, I’ve never really thought about it." I asked him to send it to me and I scanned every page and sent the copies into the U.S. Personnel Center and his personal history was restored. While scanning those documents, I learned something remarkable about my 85 year-old father and my mother, who had passed away years earlier.

All these years I had thought of my father as one of those who flew missions, dropped bombs, and helped win the war. It never dawned on me that he had also saved lives and it was during that era that he learned how to keep a promise. In his file, I found the letter shown below from the Camp Commander. In 1945, while stationed in Georgia, my father and mother, a registered nurse, were coming home one evening after a date at the officer's club.

On their way, they spotted a car crash on the side of the road. Immediately they pulled over and offered first aid to 4 fellow officers and 4 women who were in the wrecked vehicle. As my father told, "All but one of the passengers survived, one of my pilots. It was the first time I had ever seen death." Because of my father's and mother's aid, 7 of the 8 individuals lived, survived the war, and went on to live fruitful lives. That made me proud. Then I asked my father why he had never told me that story before. He answered, "Son, I made a promise that day that, until now (60 years later) I have kept, but; I guess it's okay to tell now. All four pilots in the vehicle were married and none of the women with them were their wives. I promised I would never tell." After all these years, and well after I had lived my life through the age of 50, my father was still teaching me valuable life lessons. This one...the worth and magnitude of a promise kept. I would never have learned this part of my father's life had I not decided to do something to recover my father's records from the 1973 fire.

Today no federal funding exists for this project. The National Veterans Freedom Park has made this records restoration project a part of its free services to all veterans, so families and loved ones do not have to wait 60 years, like I did, to learn how valuable the veterans of their family were to our nation's freedoms and the freedom of life itself.

— Dave Milidonis, CPT USA, USMA 1974

To participate in our Records Restoration project, or should you want the NVFP to check on a family member's records or your records status, send an email to dmilidonis@nationalveteransfreedompark.com or write to NVFP Records Project, PO Box 4842, Cary, NC 27519