Military History Went Up In Smoke

Sunday evening I told my husband that I was going to work on getting information on my Dad`s military history this week. On Monday afternoon I started my search, and was very upset to find the following posting on the National Archives website:

What is devastating about this post is that 80% of the Army records were destroyed in this fire, and they cover the years my Dad served in WWII. I will still try to get his records in hopes that maybe they are the lucky 20% that survived. In the picture above you can see the sentence, under the box, that says there were no duplicate copies nor were there microfilms made of these records.

The post does go on to say that they have been trying to recreate the lost and damaged information. The preservation team has been dealing with records that have been burned, waterlogged and have had to go through mold remediation. They have had about 40 years to work on it, so maybe I will have a little luck and be able to get some information from their hard work.

Today is the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. The Russian soldiers that liberated Auschwitz hold a special place in history. How sad would it be if the military records no longer existed for the family members of soldiers that may have played very important roles in the American`s liberation of camps like Dachau. The Americans were responsible for the liberation of several camps, and these soldier`s records may have been lost forever. There are so many Americans that came home from WWII and did not share their stories. They saw unbelievable human devastation and lived in a generation that just did not talk about their experiences, thoughts and feelings. The loss of these records will  make it impossible for these soldier`s ancestors to ever learn of their experiences.

My Dad enlisted at the end of the war, and he told a story that after his basic training he was sent home for a short period of time due to complications during the birth of my oldest sister. His unit was shipped out overseas, and he told us that they all lost their lives soon after their deployment. When he reported back to to the base he was sent to the Aleutian Islands to serve until the end of the war. I would love to be able to verify this story by tracking his original unit and the one he finally joined. Due to the damaged files I may never get the answers I am looking for. It may have all gone up in a puff of smoke.