43 Years Ago, a Historical Tragedy

The National Personnel Records Center burned on this day in 1973. Millions of service records for men and women who had served in the Army and the Air Force from 1912 to the beginning of the Vietnam War were lost forever.

Families of men who fought in the World Wars and Korea, who may have wanted to learn what their fathers and grandfathers did in the conflicts, were essentially shit out of luck. Especially if the men never talked about it.