FINDING YOUR VETERANS' RECORDS by Dahlia Wyllarde dahliaywyllarde@yahoo.com Tracking down information about an ancestor who served in the military used to be a time-consuming project, but the Internet makes this research easier and quicker. Looking for information about a deceased family member who served in World War I or later? Contact the National Personnel Records Center, 9700 Page Boulevard, St. Louis, MO 63132 or visit its Web page: http://www.archives.gov/facilities/mo/st_louis.html If you are the next of kin, request a copy of the service member's personnel records. While a fire at this repository in 1973 destroyed many records, some have been reconstructed and others have been found that supplement the lost ones. All of the services have outstanding home pages. The URLs are: U.S. AIR FORCE -- http://www.af.mil/ U.S. ARMY -- http://www.army.mil/ U.S. COAST GUARD –- http://www.uscg.mil/uscg.shtm U.S. NAVY (includes MARINE CORPS pages) -- http://www.navy.mil/ VIETNAM VETERANS Home Page -- http://www.vietvet.org/index.htm THE NATIONAL ARCHIVES in Washington, D.C. http://www.archives.gov/research_room/genealogy/index.html/ has an easy online option for ordering NATF Form 80 to request a search in pre-WWI military service and pension records. These forms are free and you can order several at time. Don't neglect local sources. These include: -- Adjutant General's Office in the individual's state of residence for those who served in World War II, Korea, or Vietnam -- Newspapers published in the city or county where the individual is presumed to have lived prior to entry into service. -- Local post of the American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Veterans of World War II for information on local men and women who survived. -- The National Archives, 8th and Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W., Washington, DC 20408, has other military-related records that may be of interest to family historians. They include: -- Application for Headstones (1879-1903). Arranged on cards, alphabetically by soldier's surname. Most applications are arranged by place of burial and then by cemetery. Soldiers buried in foreign countries are arranged alphabetically by name. -- Card Records of WWI-era Soldiers Who Died Overseas: 1917- 1922. These are arranged alphabetically by name of soldier or name of cemetery and are mainly grave registrations of Americans buried in European (including Russian) chapels. -- List of Soldiers Missing in Action: 1923-1960. Name of missing soldier, units in which served, date of disappearance. Arranged chronologically. -- The Cemetery Service, National Cemetery System, Veterans Administration, 810 Vermont Avenue N.W., Washington, DC 20422 has records from 1861 to present. Its records identify almost all soldiers buried in national cemeteries and other cemeteries under federal jurisdiction. These records are arranged on cards alphabetically by name of soldier. You might find additional family information in the records Of your ancestor's siblings, uncles, or other family members. It pays to be thorough in your research for military records. They are valuable documents of your family's history. [Editor's Note: See RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing Family Trees http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/ especially Lesson 13 -- Military Records (worldwide) http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson13.htm and Lesson 14 -- U. S. Military Records http://rwguide.rootsweb.com/lesson14.htm .] * * * * * ESTATE CLEANING AND MILITARY ITEMS By Kris Fetter geep70@bright.net As Veterans Day comes tomorrow [11 November] and my husband is sorting through the 55+ years' of accumulated memories and stuff in his parents' home, it occurs to me that this is the time to honor our veterans. My dad died back in 1997 age 76, a World War II and Korean War Navy veteran. Two years later my mom died at the age of 77. They had a comprehensive will, and my sisters and I knew who would get what. However, as sometimes happens, a few things weren't placed, like my dad's uniforms. My sisters, deciding that as I too had been in the Navy and was the de facto family historian, sent to me dad's black wool dress uniforms and some white sailor hats, packed in white plastic peanuts. I pulled out these uniforms, still in excellent shape but covered with peanuts like a bumpy coating. I laughed until I cried, then took them to the cleaners. When I got them back, I realized they were just going to hang in my closet and do no good. So I dug around and found the US NAVY memorial in Washinton, D.C., but they couldn't use them (not enough room) but suggested the Navy Museum at the Navy Shipyard in Washington, D.C. So I mailed them the request, and Got an immediate reply that "Yes, They would love to have them." So I donated them all in my Dad's memory. I have peace that I gave them to the right place for the right purpose -- memorial and education. As my husband and his siblings went through their old home, they found a lot of military memorabilia of his Dad's, a Navigator with the 8th Air Force in WWII and a Navigator in Korea. I made the same suggestion to them -- and to all of you as well. Don't sell those uniforms at a tag sale. Instead donate them where they will appreciated and keep your beloved veteran's memory alive. To name a few: ARMY WOMEN'S MUSEUM (e-mail) AWMWeb@lee.army.mil NAVAL HISTORICAL CENTER -- Washington Navy Yard 805 Kidder Breese Street SE Washington Navy Yard, DC 20374-5060 8th AIR FORCE MEMORIAL MUSEUM FOUNDATION (Phone) 1-800-833-1942 Ed Kueppers 8AFMMF P. O. Box 7215 St. Paul, Minnesota, 55107-0215 Previously published in MISSING LINKS, Vol. 7, No. 45, 10 November 2002 http://www.petuniapress.com