---------- > From: Clifford Amsler Jr. <clifford.amsler@stlouis.nara.gov> > To: ecw@htcomp.net; slist@localhost; belle@mwec.com; TNGRAING-L@rootsweb.com; TXGEN-L@rootsweb.com; TXHAMILT@rootsweb.com; SzrOCB.A.2m.tiLL2Abl-30.rootsweb.com@smtp.nara.gov; dwatson@texas.net > Subject: [TNGRAING-L] [Fwd: MILITARY RECORDS--duplicates found] -Reply > Date: Wednesday, October 21, 1998 12:02 PM Thank you for contacting the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), Military Records facility (MPR) located in St. Louis, MO. We are a regional division of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Your message concerning "10,000,000 lost" records found was transmitted to us recently. It is not correct. Please see the following information and pass it on to anyone to whom you may have provided the incorrect data. The information concerning lost/recovered records is not accurate. No military personnel records or medical records presumed to be lost or destroyed have been found or recovered. Unfortunately that unsubstantiated rumor has been circulating since the mid 1980s -- but is totally false. The basis for the rumor is as follows: The "10 million lost records found" records that were mentioned in an article are actually records from the Surgeon General's Office (SGO) Hospital Admission Card file that were identified and transferred from the National Research Council to the National Archives and Records Administration in 1988. The source records existed on computer files which were not readable or usable in their original format and required extensive re-formatting. We, the National Personnel Records Center, were able to salvage 7.8 million record entries from the source file. These records have been in use at NPRC since that time to assist us in answering requests from the Department of Veterans' Affairs (VA) and inquiries from veterans themselves and their authorized representatives. The SGO records are not specific medical documents, they are abstracted information obtained from hospital admission cards sequenced by serial number (they contain NO names). The records were created using data sampling techniques for statistical purposes. The listings are not complete nor comprehensive and many admissions were skipped during the sampling process. The subjects of the entries were active duty Army and Army Air Corps personnel in service between 1942 and 1945; and Army (95%+), Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force and military cadet personnel (totaling 5%+) who were in service between 1950 and 1954. Information concerning the SGO files is available on the Internet at: NPRC http://www.nara.gov/regional/stlouis.html MPR http://www.nara.gov/regional/mpr.html We realize that people who are not aware of the facts of this situation are given false hope when the RUMOR that lost records, which will assist veterans have been "found", reaches them. Sadly, it is not the case. We have received inquiries and letters concerning this since 1988 but we have been unable to squelch the story. It seems to appear every so often in magazines, on TV, even through information sources of other federal agencies and military veterans' organizations. We request that you would provide this correction of misinformation to any persons or organizations to whom you may have provided the inaccurate, original information. Thank you. >>> Kyle & Evelyn Long <belle@mwec.com> 10/20/98 10:33am >>> X-Loop: TXHAMILT-L@rootsweb.com From: R.N. Tex <dwatson@texas.net> To: TXGEN-L@rootsweb.com Subject: [TXGENWEB] Military Research Date: Monday, September 07, 1998 9:14 PM This came in on one of the user lists I subscribe to. Thought many might be interested. The Veteran's Administration has discovered some 10 million duplicates of 20th century military records thought to have been ... ... ...