any Vietnam vets on here?

Question

My dad served in Vietnam with the USMC. There is the place in , i think, MO, that have records, but i have heard they had a fire and lots of records where lost. I want to get my father his medals, but i just do not know how to go about it. any ideas? thanks!

Answer 1

His records will be fine. A fire at the NPRC in St. Louis on July 12, 1973, destroyed about 80 percent of the records for Army personnel discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960. About 75 percent of the records for Air Force personnel with surnames from "Hubbard" through "Z" discharged between September 25, 1947, and January 1, 1964, were also destroyed. So, you can see he had his records survive the fire.

Here's some info about military records:

The National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records (NPRC-MPR) is the repository of millions of military personnel, health, and medical records of discharged and deceased veterans of all services during the 20th century. (Records prior to WWI are in Washington, DC.) NPRC (MPR) also stores medical treatment records of retirees from all services, as well as records for dependent and other persons treated at naval medical facilities. Information from the records is made available upon written request (with signature and date) to the extent allowed by law. If you are a veteran or next-of-kin of a deceased veteran, you may now use www.vetrecs.archives.gov to order a copy of your military records. For all others, your request is best made using a Standard Form 180. It includes complete instructions for preparing and submitting requests. Please Note: All requests must be in writing, signed and mailed to the address shown below.

National Personnel Records Center
Military Personnel Records
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100

Contact Information

Telephone: [phone]
E-mail: [e-mail]
Fax: [phone]

Special Note on Calling by Phone: If you have already submitted a request and need to know its status you may speak to a Customer Service Representative. The peak calling times are weekdays between 10:00 am CST and 3:00 pm CST. Staff is available to take your call as early as 7:30 am and as late as 5:00 pm cst. This number will allow you to hold until a technician is available to help you.

Special Note on Contacting by E-mail: Requests for military personnel records or information from cannot be accepted by e-mail at this time. The Privacy Act of 1974 (5 U.S.C. 552a) and Department of Defense directives require a written request, signed and dated, to access information from military personnel records. Their e-mail address should only be used only to request general information (hours of operations, procedures, and forms) or to submit compliments, complaints or concerns.

Answer 2

Not necc to have served in VietNam to know this. The lost records were Army and Air Force not Navy or Marines.

If all you are looking for is authorized Medals that is on his DD 214 if you have a copy.

If you are in the area his parents were when he returned you can probably get a copy of that from the County Registrar. He most likely had it registered. That might prove easier to get too.

If he recieved the Air Medal or above go for the records and get copies of the citations written in support of the award.

Do you know if he wants them? It's possible he does not. If he is alive, and it sounds like he his, you may not be able to get the records. He may have to make the request unless he is incapacitated.

SSG US Army 73-82

Answer 3

You can get them here:

Navy Personnel Command
Liaison Office Room 5409
9700 Page Avenue
St. Louis, MO 63132-5100

Answer 4

Go to this website and fill out the form. I did, and my son did, and we got our DD-214's. I have both of ours just in case he needs his extra copy.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click no the RED BAR.
It's free. If someone sends you to a site where you have to pay, don't go there.

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/evetrecs/index.html

Answer 5

Bubba is correct. 1975 is the year the mico- fich records burned. Some Vets are still having to piece their SRB's back together.I wish you well!

Answer 6

i'm a disgruntled Vietnam veteran too, yet i do no longer think of i'm relatively as offended as Wayn C. in the process the Vietnam warfare the liberal media intentionally demonized the troops serving in Vietnam to sell their opposition to the warfare. till now long it replaced into inconvenient for absolutely everyone in the militia to positioned on their uniform off base. It replaced into required to qualify for militia mark downs on airlines, so quite a number of confrontations befell in airports. this physique of strategies replaced into carried over into the 70's and it replaced into often socially proper to instruct disrespect for those people who had served in the process the warfare. i all started noticing a metamorphosis touching directly to the time the Iranian "pupils" overran our embassy there. while Ronald Regan got here in in simple terms like the Vietnam Vet replaced into rehabilitated, and it replaced into now no longer socially proper to spit on a vet or call us infant-killers. The extra radical anti-warfare liberals never replaced their minds, they only stopped performing out in public. Then a sparkling image of the Vietnam Vet--as a looser plagued by emotional problems--got here into trend. The media all started encouraging people who declare they have been vets suffering form submit stressful stress affliction to return forward. A study via B.G. Burkett and Glenna Whitley of their e book Stolen Valor proved a huge form of those cry-toddlers had never served in try against, maximum had no longer severed in Vietnam, and many had no longer served in the militia in any respect. It replaced into in simple terms yet otherwise for the liberal media to demonize those people who had served at the same time as pretending to care (and a source for quite a number of those myths Wayn C reported). while troops deployed to the midsection East for Operation desolate tract shelter some old anti-warfare varieties gleefully all started in on their old rants approximately how evil the militia is. the yank human beings (led via the Vietnam Vets) together informed them to close up. stunned, they took a sparkling tact. that's now socially proper to assert you oppose the warfare yet appreciate the warrior (the sarcasm is usually very thinly disguised). in reality, quite a number of the old-line anti-warfare demonstrators of the 60's and 70's long for the solid old days while they could brazenly spit on adult males (and ladies human beings) in uniform and not go through any severe backlash. besides, it relatively is my adventure and opinion. Edit: Wayne C--thank you for the comments.

Answer 7

i think that was the army records center that burned. you need to write to the dept of the navy