[Spridgets] Spridgets Digest, Vol 21, Issue 4

Lee Fox lee.fox at sbcglobal.net
Tue Feb 3 20:05:28 MST 2009


Tim,

The National Military Personnel Records Center is in St. Louis. They had 
a huge fire in the early 1970s that took off the entire top floor. It 
was only about a mile or so from my house and was quite a site. Burned 
for several days. Millions of records stored in cardboard boxes with NO 
ZERO NADA sprinkler system!

Worked there the next summer while I was in college going through 
half-burned freeze-dried boxes of records trying to recover them. Us 
college kids were supposed to go through at least 300 a day while 
wearing dust masks to keep the ashes out of our lungs, but the records 
were so interesting we could only do about half that. There was stuff 
from the Spanish=American War, both World Wars and lots of records from 
Alcatraz. Even saw instruction manuals for ICBMs and other fun toys.

A truly disastrous loss of history, but the military is known for 
keeping multiple copies of records. Keep looking. You may find the 
answers you seek.

http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/fire-1973.html

Lee


--- On Mon, 2/2/09, Timothy H. Collins <thcollin at mtu.edu> wrote:
From: Timothy H. Collins <thcollin at mtu.edu>
Subject: [Spridgets] World War II - Way Off Topic
To: spridgets at autox.team.net
Date: Monday, February 2, 2009, 8:04 PM

I have been researching my fathers time in the military. He would have 
been 90
this Thursday, but passed away when he was just 46 and I was not quite 16.

I have some war time photographs of him without dates or where they were 
taken.
The photos are stamped on the back "PASSED BY EXAMINER - BASE 2446
ARMY" Other pics have different BASE numbers. From the vegetation in the
pics I assume they were taken in Australia or New Guinea.

Is there any way to identify where these bases were located? I am 
unclear as to
how pics were cleared by the Army. Did the GI's send film back home for
processing?

I have learned some interesting things. Dad entered the service in May 
of 1941.
He was sent to Australia in Feb of 1942 (just after Pearl Harbor) on the 
Queen
Elizabeth.(Feb 18 to March 29) - the only time the Queen made that trip. He
ended up on New Guinea but I can't tell for sure if he was there for the
battle of Milne Bay - a famous battle for the Ausies. He traveled home 
in June
of 1944 and was discharged June 15 of 1945 just shortly before "Fat
Man" and"Little Boy" were dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima.

So, it's an interesting study in history, but I come up with little
additional info along the way and family members who might know have 
passed away
too. If you can help with my question, please contact me directly. Thanks!

It's a shame that the National Archives of Service Men's records had a
fire that destroyed all that valuable information.

Tim Collins
http://www.flickr.com/photos/12702006@N07/
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