How to Find Military Service Records and Honor Your Ancestors

Military service is one of the most meaningful parts of an ancestor's story — and one of the best-documented, when you know where to look. This guide walks you through how to find military service records, what happened to so many records in 1973, and which tools and databases can help you piece together a veteran ancestor's story.

The 1973 NPRC Fire — What Was Lost

On July 12, 1973, a fire broke out in the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, Missouri. It burned for four days and destroyed an estimated 16–18 million military personnel files. The records most affected were:

• Army records: Approximately 80% of records for personnel discharged between November 1912 and January 1960 were destroyed.
• Air Force records: About 75% of records for personnel discharged between September 1947 and January 1964 (those with last names beginning Hubbard through Z).

There was no sprinkler system, and many records had not been microfilmed. The loss was devastating and irreversible for many families. But it's important to know that not everything was lost — and records from before and after that window survived intact.

What Records Survived

Despite the fire, a significant amount of military documentation is still recoverable. Records that often survive include:

• Draft registration cards — World War I and World War II draft cards are held at the National Archives and are fully searchable on Ancestry.com and FamilySearch.
• Pension files — Revolutionary War through Civil War pension applications are stored separately and were largely unaffected. These often contain detailed personal and family information.
• Discharge papers (DD-214) — veterans or their next of kin can still request these even when the original service file was destroyed. Many veterans kept personal copies.
• Unit rosters and muster rolls — these organizational records are held at the National Archives and survived independently of individual files.
• Medal and decoration records — award documentation from the Department of Defense is often separately maintained.

How to Request Military Records

The primary way to officially request military records is through the NPRC itself. Here's the process:

• Online via eVetRecs: The NPRC offers an online request system at archives.gov. Veterans can access their own records immediately with identity verification. Next of kin can request records for deceased veterans.
• Standard Form 180: The SF-180 is the official paper request form and can be submitted by mail. Processing times vary from weeks to several months depending on demand.
• Next of kin eligibility: Immediate family members (spouse, children, parents, siblings) can request records of a deceased veteran. You'll need to provide the veteran's full name, branch of service, approximate dates of service, and Social Security number or date of birth.

Even when original records were destroyed in the fire, the NPRC can often provide alternate documents — employment records, medical records, and documents filed elsewhere that reconstruct the service history.

Online Databases for Military Research

Several free and paid databases can supplement (or replace) formal records requests:

• Fold3.com — the leading military records database, with millions of WWI, WWII, Civil War, and other military records, including draft cards, pension files, and service records. Subscription-based but widely available through public libraries.
• FamilySearch.org — free access to a large collection of military records, including Civil War records, pension files, and overseas gravesites.
• Ancestry.com — extensive military collections integrated with census and vital records for cross-referencing.
• Veterans Legacy Memorial (VLM) — a free National Cemetery Administration database listing veterans buried in VA national cemeteries, with photos and biographical information.

Military Cemeteries as a Research Resource

If your ancestor is buried in a national cemetery, their grave record is a research asset. National cemetery burial records typically include:

• Full name and rank
• Branch of service and war era
• Birth and death dates
• Plot location and grave number

The National Cemetery Administration maintains a Burial Search at cem.va.gov. For overseas burials, the American Battle Monuments Commission (abmc.gov) has a searchable database of more than 218,000 American war dead buried abroad.

Honoring What You Find

Once you've tracked down your ancestor's service history, there are meaningful ways to preserve and honor it. The VFW and American Legion offer grave-marking programs for veterans without proper markers. You can request a presidential memorial certificate for a deceased veteran through the VA. And compiling what you find — service records, unit history, cemetery photo — into a family archive ensures the story isn't lost again.

Cemetery records are often the thread that connects military history to the broader family story. If you know where your veteran ancestor is buried, their grave can lead you to the rest of the family.