Acala
12-30-2014, 08:50 AM
My Father, a WWII vet, is trying to round up a couple ribbons from his service in the ETO. As instructed by a government website, he wrote to the National Personnel Records Center (a division of the National Archives) to inquire after his service record so he could have missing items replaced. This is what he got in return:
"Dear Recipient:
Thank you for contacting the National Personnel Records Center. The record needed to answer your inquiry is not in our files. If the record were here on July 12, 1973, it would have been in the area that suffered the most damage in the fire on that date and was destroyed. The fire destroyed the major portion of records of Army military personnel for the period 1912 through 1959 , . . ."
Really? One job. You people had ONE SIMPLE JOB. Keep the documents safe. And you allowed the records of Army servicemen from WWI, WWII, and Korea to be destroyed. Nobody thought to make a microfilm copy and store it in a different location? Maybe keep the records in fireproof containers? Nope. Just store the originals in cardboard boxes in a big warehouse. "What could possibly go wrong?"
When you start thinking that the government is going to crush us all under relentless tyranny, just remember, and take solace in the fact, that the government is actually composed of incompetent idiots. A silver lining I guess.
"Dear Recipient:
Thank you for contacting the National Personnel Records Center. The record needed to answer your inquiry is not in our files. If the record were here on July 12, 1973, it would have been in the area that suffered the most damage in the fire on that date and was destroyed. The fire destroyed the major portion of records of Army military personnel for the period 1912 through 1959 , . . ."
Really? One job. You people had ONE SIMPLE JOB. Keep the documents safe. And you allowed the records of Army servicemen from WWI, WWII, and Korea to be destroyed. Nobody thought to make a microfilm copy and store it in a different location? Maybe keep the records in fireproof containers? Nope. Just store the originals in cardboard boxes in a big warehouse. "What could possibly go wrong?"
When you start thinking that the government is going to crush us all under relentless tyranny, just remember, and take solace in the fact, that the government is actually composed of incompetent idiots. A silver lining I guess.