Fifty years ago this week, a fire destroyed millions of military personnel documents at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, MO, part of the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA).
The event—unprecedented in the scale of its damage to federal records—changed how the National Archives builds its facilities, maintains its holdings, and serves veterans and the public.
To honor the anniversary, the National Archives is sharing its most comprehensive effort to document the history and resources available to understand the NPRC fire, its aftermath, and the changes it led to in policies and procedures.
In 1973, a fire at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis, MO, destroyed millions of military personnel records. To mark