United States World War II Service Records

Official Military Personnel Files
The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis maintains World War II Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF).

Access to Non-Archival Military Service Records is limited. Non-Archival records are those of service members who separated from the military less than 62 years ago. See Access to Non-Archival Records for more information. Records of individuals who left service more than 62 years ago are considered Archival Records and become records of the National Archives open to the general public.

Order records from the National Personnel Records Center, in St. Louis at the Start your Military Service Record Request page at the National Archives website.

Records Loss
On July 12, 1973, a disastrous fire at the NPRCdestroyed approximately 16-18 million Official Military Personnel Files. The affected record collections are described below.

No duplicate copies of the records that were destroyed in the fire were maintained, nor was a microfilm copy ever produced. There were no indexes created prior to the fire. In addition, millions of documents had been lent to the Department of Veterans Affairs before the fire occurred. Therefore, a complete listing of the records that were lost is not available. Nevertheless, NPRC uses many alternate sourcesin its efforts to reconstruct basic service information to respond to requests.

Cadet Nursing Corps Card Files
The "Cadet Nurse Corps Files, compiled 1943 - 1948, documenting the period 1942 - 1948" ARC ID: 5605027 contains membership cards of women who joined the Cadet Nurse Corps that were created during WWII.

Online


 * U.S., World War II Cadet Nursing Corps Card Files, 1942-1948 (Ancestry) ($)

Related Records

 * WWII Enlistment Records
 * Discharges Coverage Table]