Dear Researchers, There's some more good news! Hope this helps you... Roxanne ListHostess URL: HYPERLINK "http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/archival-program s.html"http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/public/archival-p rograms.html National Personnel Records Center (St. Louis, MO) Archival Research Room The Department of Defense and the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) signed an agreement on July 8, 2004, to make the Official Military Personnel Files a permanent series of records, transferred to NARA custody 62 years after the service member's separation from the military. On June 11, 2005, the Archival Programs Division at the National Personnel Records Center opened the following holdings: * Navy enlisted personnel files for individuals who were separated from the Navy between 1885 and September 8, 1939. * Marine Corps enlisted personnel files for individuals who served between 1906 and 1939. * A selection of approximately 150 records of prominent individuals who have been deceased ten years or more. We will add to this initial transfer of records on a regular basis. Written requests for records will initially be processed the same as requests for other military records from NPRC. As new reference procedures are developed they will be published on this web page. Until recently, NARA was merely the physical custodian of these records that were open only to the veteran, the next of kin, or the individual's service branch. In 1999, however, the Pentagon and NARA reached an agreement that would begin the process of systematically opening these records. According to Bill Seibert, chief of the archival operations branch of the records center, the records now "cease to belong to the military and instead belong to the American People - they're public documents." NARA negotiated an agreement that provided for all such military records to remain sealed 62 years past the date an individual left active service. That means that most WW2 records, for example, will remain closed for several more years. In addition, because of a fire at the records center back in 1973, some files of Army and Air Force veterans will be withheld even longer - until 2023. Coast Guard records will probably not be available until 2026, and because some individual files contain fragile or crumbling paper, some files will probably be kept on hold for some time. Persons interested in accessing the collection should contact the National Personnel Records Center, 97000 Page Avenue, Overland, MO, phone: 314-801-0850. -- No virus found in this outgoing message. Checked by AVG Free Edition. Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.13.4/175 - Release Date: 11/18/2005