Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Finding past military records?

Would like to find some past military info on a couple of my uncles who served in WW11, as far as what years and where they served. Too dumb as a kid to ask questions, & was taught to be seen and not heard. Any ideas where one would start to inquire to getting said info? Thanks.

Veterans a fairs office in your county. Next of kin must apply. Or, start with a call to US Congressman of your district. They usually are helpful.

Well, yes and no. Read my link.


Records are accessioned into the National Archives, and become archival, 62 years after the service member's separation from the military. This is a rolling date; hence, the current year, 2016, minus 62 years is 1954. Records with a discharge date of 1954 or prior are archival and are open to the public. Records with a discharge date of 1954 or after are non-archival and are maintained under the Federal Records Center program.

maggie, do you know what kind of information you seek on your uncle's military service? Anything in particular? I saw years of service, and countries in which they servd. Anything else?

A coworker did same for his dad who died in the Czech Republic on a bombing mission. Spent a couple weeks in archives in DC copying pages of records including mission reports etc naming all the members of the flight crews and a trove of personal records. That led him to several reunions where he met several people furnishing a book's worth of data and stories with leads to even more sources. It's become a near endless obsession, and he even made it to Europe and met some of the resistance folks that aided his dad when he bailed out behind lines.

Thanks all, for the links and information, it gives me a starting point.

OrangeOkie: At this point, I'm not looking for a lot of specifics, mostly what years they were in service and where they served. One uncle was dad's brother, one his BIL. I have a few pics of them, and dog tags, but nothing much else. Any family members who would have knowledge have passed on.

My dad had an older brother, who i knew was in WWI. Said brother lived in oregon, and i found him in the v.a. cemetary in portland. Headstone indicated WWI and WWII.
what? I got a hold of the records service as mentioned, indicated my relationship,, and got stuff back on him.
He Did serve for a time in WWII. I don't think anybody knew that until i found it through that source.

maggie, I was looking for the commercial site I used to research my dad's Army record. I had quite a bit of information. It was one of those sites kind of like Ancestory.com. It may have been associated with them. It also had U.S. Census reports on my grand father and my dad and siblings from the 1930s. If you google around you can probably find several commercial sites, where for a few bucks you can get their military information. I cn tell you from experience, trying to go through St. Louis .gov is a royal PITA. Let us know what you find out. I'm sure there are others on here that would like to check out their own relative's WW2 info.

Thanks for the website. My Dad was in the Army in WW-2, one of his younger brothers was in the Air Force and his youngest brother served in the Navy during WW-2. The youngest brother enlisted in the Marines after WW 2 and then served in Korea. My Mom's oldest brother joined the Navy during WW 2 when he was 17. None of them ever talked about their service. The only things I know about their service is what my Grandparents and aunts/uncles told me. My Dad's youngest brother was severely wounded in Korea and recovered but he suffered with PTSD for the rest of his life. My Mother's older brother was a "frog man" in WW-2 and was the fleet boxing champion when he was 18. He was a badass and taught me how to fight when I was young. His basic advice to me was "Don't take shi* from anybody". I'd like to know more about all of them.

My dad and grandfather were in the Army in the wars, they lived in South Dakota.

In the year, I think it was 1973, the St. Louis Army records dept burned down. Many thousands of records, including those of my family, were lost.

There is another records depot in the east that contains many thousands of records and those records are intact.

So, I hope the records you seek were not destroyed in the Missouri fire.

Ancestory.com usually offers a free to view promotional thing every year over Memorial Day weekend on certain pretty much basic military records, if available.

I've found selective service registrations records of a few of my wife's and my family members through it, though their records for one of my uncles who served during WW2 were off quite a bit on some of his personal details.