The blaze that ripped through the National Personnel Records Center in a St. Louis suburb shortly after midnight on July 12, 1973, consumed 16 million to 18 million official military personnel files in the days before computers kept such records safe. Few could have predicted the harm it would visit on the veterans who were denied VA benefits—some to this day—because they could not reconstruct their military service files.

Veterans whose records have been lost can fill out a specific form at the National Archives website (http://www.archives.gov/st-louis/military-personnel/na-13055-info-2-reconstruct-medical-data.pdf) that authorizes the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) to search for other types of documents that would assist the veteran with their VA healthcare access or compensation claim, or for valuable research their family member’s service history.

For more information, visit the Department of Veterans Affairs website for veterans whose records were destroyed:
http://www.benefits.va.gov/COMPENSATION/NPRC1973Fire.asp.