Thank you to the few who actually responded appropriately to the post. It did say to visit their site for more details. The whole intent of the posting was to share what isn't being made widely known. I reposted it again for you to see. My intent was not that the original papers were going to be lost but that the records were being made availabe to surviving family members. The message came down through official military communications... not the general public. I thought this was pretty awesome of the government myself. Genealogy was intended to SHARE info... from original post... > >The National Personnel Record Center that is responsible for maintaining > >archives of our military records is automating their storage and > >management of our military records. When this is complete they plan to > >destroy the hard copies of the records unless requested by the veteran > >or a deceased veteran's family to send those records to them. > > > >If a veteran or members of the deceased veteran's family wants to > >request those records be sent to them instead of being destroyed he/she > >can make a request by mail to: > > > >National Personnel Records Center > >Military Personnel Records > >9700 Page Ave. > >St. Louis, MO 63132-5100 > > > >or: > >make the request online at: > > > >http://vetrecs.archives.gov/ > >When you submit your request online, a signature form downloadable from > >the site can be sent to you for completion and submission. The National > >Personnel Records Center will then send you an e-mail acknowledging your > >request.