Daily Ancestor1973 fire
The 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed about 80 percent of Army personnel files for soldiers discharged 1912 to 1960.
On July 12, 1973, fire swept the sixth floor of the center and burned out of control for 22 hours. An estimated 16 to 18 million Official Military Personnel Files were lost: about 80 percent of Army files for men discharged from November 1, 1912, to January 1, 1960, and 75 percent of some Air Force files from 1947 to 1964. No copies or indexes existed.
About 6.5 million burned or water-damaged files were saved. When a World War I or World War II Army file was lost, NPRC can often rebuild basic service facts from other records, such as morning reports.
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Daily Ancestor. "1973 fire." Dictionary of Old Record Words. https://dailyancestor.com/dictionary/military/1973-fire. Last checked 2026-10-03.