I think that the reason NARA stated for the $40 charge was that the average pension file had 118 pages. I just did the math and that is a charge per page of 25 cents means the cost would be $29.50. So the extra $10.50 is presumably meant to cover the wages of the person copying the file. Of course it doesn't cost the government 25 cents a copy. You have to remember they own the building (not paying rents), they also normally purchase in bulk quanities. I am wondering about the extra pages which we at this point do not see. Of how much value will they be...? How many of them are simply going to be pages with the exact same information but different dates as our ancestor resubmitted paperwork.? But then how much badly needed information is in those files that we will never see because someone decided it was a needed document. By the way am I the only one who has not received information from NARA in the last couple of months.... I sent in for two different pensions and have yet to hear. terri