Genealogyland Blog

Military Records

Military Records can be a fantastic source of information concerning an individual. There are many wonderful web sites that list all the addresses for obtaining records but for the sake of simplicity, I will provide you a link to the National Archives web site and their information concerning Military Records.

While you would think this should be a simple and easy process, I would like to tell you a recent experience, so that you can avoid some of the hassle that I had in obtaining some records. What should have been simple, turned into a 6 month chore.

Being the family genealogist, I have compiled various items concerning my family. On my mother’s side five of her six brothers were soldiers during W.W.II.

Harry, the oldest, served as a Lieutenant J.G. on a Destroyer in the Atlantic, searching for German Submarines.

Clarence, served first in the Aleutian Islands and then as a Prison Guard for German Prisoners of War in Georgia and then finally as a Brakeman on Railroads transporting war goods.

Jack served in Europe and was eventually part of Patton’s Army.

Frank served as a medic at a Hospital in California.

Kenny served first in the Army and was in all of the New Guinea campaigns and later was in the battles that retook the Philippines. He worked with the Army Corp of Engineers building air bases. He served after W.W.II in the Army Reserves and eventually enlisted in the Navy and was part of the Operation Deep Freeze II expeditions to New Zealand and Antarctica. He ended up his career working at the Pentagon.

Since Kenny was the career Military Man, I figured that he would have the most interesting set of records and that they should be relatively easy to obtain; because he retired from the Military. Boy was I wrong.

I initially sent a form requesting his records and also included a statement asking for all records under the Freedom of Information Act. Several weeks later, I received a letter with only a few records and a directive to find a Next of Kin to sign a form releasing any other records. BE AWARE nephews and nieces or any relative with a STEP in front of it ARE NOT considered next of kin. Luckily, my mother is alive so I had her sign a letter and the form requesting the records.

Several weeks later, I received a letter telling me that because I had not responded, the case was closed. I emailed the person who’s name was listed on that letter and informed him that we had responded and sent him an email copy of both the form and the letter. Then we received a letter telling us that there were no Army records and they could not find the Navy Records. I got mad and wrote a nasty email back telling them that I would contact the Pentagon directly, as that is where he retired from. Then I contacted my Congressman Tim Ryan’s office and got his people involved. They made a direct request for the records and within a month or so I had them.

Within those records, were notices of citations and medals from both the Army and the Navy. We made a request to the Navy and received those medals in a relatively short time. When I made the same request to the Army, they told me I had to prove those medals, which I did by sending them back some of their own paperwork. They then insisted that we had to get a signature from the PRIMARY NEXT OF KIN. So I looked this up on the net and it distinguishes the Living Spouse or the Eldest Brother or Sister as the Primary Next of Kin.

Well, his spouse had recently died, so that pushed things back to his siblings. In this case, the Primary Next of Kin was his 92 year old brother Clarence. So, I sent a letter to Clarence to sign and forward to my Congressman’s office, so they could send it to the Army to keep them happy and get the replacement medals issued. Three Bronze Stars and other unit decorations and citations finally arrived.

Note: The Post Office damaged the certificates and the medal boxes in transit and it took sixteen phone calls and four letters to get several employees reprimanded and an incompetent employee removed from my route. She stuffed the large envelope into a small box.

Finally, six months plus after this saga began, I now hold all of the documents, they claim exist and all of the replacement medals. Thanks to his step-granddaughter, I now also have some things he kept and his flag from his burial at Arlington National Cemetery.

Understand, for most W.W.II veterans, the National Archives will claim that their records have burnt up in a fire. Over the years, I have heard dozens of cases where with persistence, people eventually got the records. So I encourage you to approach the quest with the attitude that you will eventually succeed.

If your relative was a career military person, their records were not stored in the place where that fire happened. So don’t let the National Archives bureaucrats buffalo you into believing things don’t exist. Also don’t hesitate to remind them about President Obama’s statements concerning “Open Government.”

One side note for those of you seeking records from other wars and other records from National Archives. I have requested multiple copies of Civil War records and Census Records from National Archives over the last 30 years and have NEVER had the hassles I endured trying to obtain Ken’s records. But those records are stored somewhere else besides St. Louis.

In another article I will give you additional information about the National Archives in Washington D.C.

Sunday, November 15th, 2009, by admin and is filed under "Military ". You can leave a response here, or send a Trackback from your own site.