I received this from my WV list - thought it was worth sharing. I received an email update from the Air Force Association. Among other things they had a short paragraph indicating that "U.S. Government officials have decided to preserve the personnel files of every military member since 1885, and to allow public access to such records 62 years after official discharge or separation." There is an article in Stars and Stripes which gives more details. To read the article, go to the following link. _http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22353&archive=true_ (http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22353&archive=true) According to Stars and Stripes; it will take about ten years to make all of the records available to the public, but some Marine & Sailors records going back to World War I will be available by this fall.
Interesting reading Bette, but the only ones it applies to is my dad and his brother and they are still living. Charles ----- Original Message ----- From: "Bette Butcher Topp" <toppline@comcast.net> To: <WA-EWGS-L@rootsweb.com> Sent: Monday, July 26, 2004 1:08 PM Subject: [EWGS] A tip on military > I received this from my WV list - thought it was worth sharing. > > > I received an email update from the Air Force Association. Among other things they had a short paragraph indicating that "U.S. Government officials have decided to preserve the personnel files of every military member since 1885, and to allow public access to such records 62 years after official discharge or separation." There is an article in Stars and Stripes which > gives more details. To read the article, go to the following link. > _http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22353&archive =true_ > (http://www.estripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=22353&archive =true) > > > According to Stars and Stripes; it will take about ten years to make all of the records available to the public, but some Marine & Sailors records going back to World War I will be available by this fall. > > > > ==== WA-EWGS Mailing List ==== > October 12 US Military Research > Revolutionary War Doris Woodward >