How to Order Military Records

Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008 7:29 pm

Josh7 wrote:

Is there any benefit to (county) record a military discharge?

The only thing that comes to mind right off, is that it would be easier to get should you need one as opposed to going through NPRC, St. Louis.

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:27 pm

Josh7 wrote:

Quote:

Is there any benefit to (county) record a military discharge?

On the advice of a 2 star I recorded mine several wars ago. Other than making another document easily available to my fan club I see no reason to record a discharge, any one else care to comment?

watchman

Posted: Wed Mar 12, 2008 5:49 pm

watchman can you check your pm

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 7:10 am

You have the date of birth so find out how old he was when passed away then you might be able to do a guestimate of his age at or around his discharge-relatively. This might help you with finding out his rank....maybe even hit up a Veteran's hospital or a long lost Veteran's Friends website, ask around about rank and age for that branch of service. I mean, ask the question "What rank would you probably be if say I was 19 years old" You get the age when you calculate the info from his date of birth and date of death, or at least year of death. It's ok if you have quite a few age ranges and quite a few ranks, at least you've narrowed it down by quite a bit.

Just thought I'd throw that out there....maybe you've already thought of this.....

watchman wrote:

When checking for Army records please keep in mind 80 percent of the records for Army personal discharge between November 1912 and January 1960 were destroyed in a fire at the NPRC in St. Louis in 1973.
I have been attempting to reconstruct an Army service record of a deceased WWII veteran who passed away in the mid 70’s and whose files were destroyed in this fire. I have only name, DOB, branch of service and a few faded black and white photographs taken in the early 40’s. Without a military service number, dates of service, place of entry and discharge, unit assignments or rank this task has become somewhat of a challenge and common military record reconstruction proved useless. Unable to locate living relatives from this era or others with information my next step will be to try to establish places of residence after the war years and hopefully a recorded discharge. If this proves negative I think I exhausted all possible leads and it would be time for a crystal ball. Any suggestions appreciated.
Thanks
Watchman

Posted: Fri Oct 10, 2008 4:48 pm

RianNeel, welcome to Detective Forums and thank you for your input.

Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2008 1:37 am

watchman wrote:

RianNeel, welcome to Detective Forums and thank you for your input.

Thank you for your kindness and warm welcome....

-Rian

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 6:36 am

Yes, the recording of your Discharge papers such as DD214 is beneficial especially if you misplace or lose your copies during a fire, hurricane or other catastrophe. Recently I had to secure a copy of my records from my County Veterans Office to file for benefits from the Social Security Administration.

Posted: Thu Feb 05, 2009 1:35 pm

Grios welcome to Detective forums and thank you for your input.

watchman

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 3:29 am

Any one have any tips on getting National Guard records. (California) I have already found out that my "teammate" at work was not in the regular Army, (had POW network run the standard form 180 on him). He is going around telling folks that he has been nominated for the Medal Of Honor, for something he did in Nam. I just want to find out the truth, so far his story isn't looking too good.

Posted: Sat Mar 14, 2009 8:55 pm

Hi Jim H, welcome to the forum. You should be able to find what you need by following the link below.
http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/general-public.html

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 3:06 am

Jim, welcome to Detective Forums!
justlogic gave you a good starting point, if you use the search tool you should find other links on this topic.

This sounds like a story the media might be interested in especially with this country being at war and if your place of employment would like some exposure for honoring a decorated hero. On a second thought maybe not, if a few calls placed by the media proved he was a fraud this would result in embarrassment and humiliation and maybe his job. At least he's not claiming to be an ex seal or purple heart recipient like most phonies. Wink

Jim let us know how this turns out. Are you able to say what his occupation is?

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 7:56 pm

Off the top of my head I recall bragging about being nominated for the Medal of Honor Is not illegal but wearing a bogus medal is a federal crime investigated by the FBI and punishable by prison and fine. It’s been a number of years since I researched this subject; if anyone has current info please update this post or If someone has time to research this topic I'm sure member will find it interesting.

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 8:47 pm

The link below covers the topic very well. The offense is a very serious one.

http://www.dba-oracle.com/t_fake_military_heroes_medals_uniforms.htm

Posted: Sun Mar 15, 2009 9:26 pm

JL,

Thanks for the update