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- WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL SERIAL NUMBER
- WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL MANUAL
- WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL SERIES
WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL SERIAL NUMBER
Second, the punch cards were microfilmed in serial number order, making a search by name impossible.
WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL MANUAL
First, there were 1,586 rolls of microfilm, making manual review very difficult.
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The NPRC began using a copy of the microfilm, but it presented some challenges. The original punch cards, which contained basic information about enlistees at the time they entered Army service, were destroyed after microfilming, a common practice at that time.
WORLD WAR II ONLINE ORIGINAL SERIES
With these alternative sources, they could verify military service and provide a Certification of Military Service.Īmong the sources identified was a series of 16mm microfilm of computer punch cards titled "Microfilm Copy of the Army Serial Number File, 1938–1946." The Personnel Services Support Division of the Adjutant General's Office had created the microfilm in 1947, and NARA accessioned it in 1959. Following the fire, NPRC staff began identifying various series of records in NARA's custody that could assist them in reconstructing the lost basic service data. Army personnel discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960. The fire destroyed approximately 16–18 million Official Military Personnel Files, including the records of approximately 80 percent of U.S. The story of the electronic World War II Army Enlistment Record file begins with the disastrous July 12, 1973, fire at NARA's National Personnel Records Center for Military Personnel Records (NPRC). This article provides information about how the enlistment file came to be in AAD, along with some tips and pointers for finding records in the file. The enlistment records complement other World War II–era electronic records in AAD, including the Records of Duty Locations for Naval Intelligence Personnel, Records About Japanese Americans Relocated During World War II, and Records of World War II Prisoners of War. Those series contain more than 85 million historic electronic records created by more than 20 federal agencies on a wide range of topics. The enlistment records are one of 45 series of electronic records currently available on AAD. In addition to genealogists, individuals who served in the war (and their children and grandchildren) are using the records to document military service. With 9.2 million records for enlistments in the Army, Enlisted Reserve Corps, and Women's Army Auxiliary Corps, this should come as little surprise. In the first year, thousands of AAD users performed more than 700,000 queries against the enlistment records file alone. Since their release through NARA's Access to Archival Databases (AAD) resource in May 2004, they have quickly become the most popular series of electronic records accessible through that resource.ĪAD, as the first installment of NARA's Electronic Records Archives (ERA) program, is leading the way to providing improved access to NARA's rich holdings of electronic records. World War II Army Enlistment Records provide a rich source of information for genealogists and other researchers at the National Archives and Records Adminstration interested in Army enlistees in World War II. The AAD resource has 9.2 million records for enlistments in the Army, Enlisted Reserve Corps, and Women s Army Auxiliary Corps for the period 1938-1946. Nine young men who have enlisted in the Regular Army wait outside the Fair Park recruiting station in Dallas, Texas, in January 1946.
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