Since folks may be planning to visit National Archives in D.C. this summer,I thought I'd share my experience. First, the folks are nice and our Archives are truly a national treasure.There are at least 19 floors and zillions of records. You have to respect the staff's ability to ferret out one man's or woman's records from so many and show it to you. Secondly, the staff have in many cases inherited poor procedures and things are in a kind of gridlock. Plan to spend way longer than you thought looking for records. Third, even though Archives is open on Saturdays, ARCHIVES DOES NOT PULL ANY RECORDS ON SATURDAYS. On Saturdays, you can use the Research Room's microfilm readers for indexes, census, etc. But if what you're hunting isn't on microfilm--it can't be pulled on Saturdays. And if you cna't make out the microfilm, the original documents can't be pulled on Saturdays. You can put in request on Saturdays;they'll pull the records the next Monday. If you are looking for Civil War Pennsylvania Union Soldiers files, these are NOT on microfilm, and you can't see them on Saturdays. You have to turn in the request in person, so you have to go on a weekday, or have a friend go. I had called ahead and had been assured I could request and view these records on Saturday, so I drove 5 1/2-hours one way only to have shrugged shoulders and to be told "you should have called ahead." Just because a National Archives employee on the phone says you can see records doesn't mean it's true. Suggestion: if you plan to visit Archives, call the Research Room during the week, request to speak to a Research Room supervisor, tell her/him exactly what you're trying to learn, and ask on which days the information can be pulled and on which days you can view it. Bottom line: If you can't go to NARA on a weekday, you may not be able to see the files you want. Also, the Research Room will hold pulled files for three days. If they get sent back, it could be UP TO TWO MONTHS BEFORE THEY ARE REFILED. How about those mail-in Form 80s? The chief of that section called me today. She has a staff of 15 handling 12,000 requests a week. She has just worked everyone two weeks of intense overtime, and they're down to a six-week turnaround (they are currently working April requests). They can't check status on any Form 80s because their computer system is being migrated. This has been the situation for several weeks. By the way, if you're planning to go to Archives in person, don't send a mail-in Form 80 request. If the file gets pulled by the mail-in group, the Research Room group won't be able to find it. Hope this helps some of you avoid the disappointment I've found. Cole, I know you can add some advice to this for summer travelers. Happy hunting, y'all. Cheers, Laura