Gerald

I know the fire happened, but the archive often uses it to deny requests for old records. The records that were destroyed were Army records not Marine, Navy or AF. If I had not filed with the VA early in 1972 my records would not have been transferred to the VA from St. Louis and mine would have been up in smoke. Many military records were held at local military hospitals and many of mine were lost. My entire Basic Training medical file is missing. The hospitalization for Pneumonia is missing from Ft. Lenardwood. Out patient psychiatric records are missing where I was being treated for insomnia and anxiety after Vietnam....all missing. I was DX'ed with TMJ from a blow to the face and that is missing. I was concussed from an explosion and that is missing from my file. Impossible to prove these things happened and get compensation if the facts are missing from your file. I have 44 years experience with the VA and all bad. I did get 100% rating back in 2002 after fighting the VA for 30 years. How much harder to find battle facts or medical info from the Civil War?

John