More than 1,800 vets' records intentionally destroyed or misfiled by 2 clerks
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Robert Patrick
Published: January 30, 2014
ST. LOUIS -- More than 1,800 personnel records for U.S. veterans were destroyed or misfiled by two student employees of the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis County, federal criminal court documents show.
One of the student employees, Lonnie Halkmon, 28, was sentenced Thursday to two years of probation and ordered to perform 40 hours of community service. The other, Stanley Engram, 21, is scheduled to be sentenced Feb. 7. Both pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge of destruction of government records and faced probation to six months in prison under federal sentencing guidelines.
Engram's guilty plea says that 241 military records were found in the woods near the center on July 3, 2012, with 300 names and Social Security numbers visible on the documents.
The records were traced to Engram, who admitted disposing of the records found in the woods, “abandoning” files in the center and throwing them away at home. In all, he admitted destroying or purposely misfiling more than 1,000 records.
Halkmon's plea says that after an “incident,” the center conducted an audit of all records assigned to employees in 2011 and 2012.
From Dec. 7, 2011 to March 28, 2012, over 1,200 files were assigned to Halkmon, and 850 were reported missing.
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Showing posts with label military records. Show all posts
Showing posts with label military records. Show all posts
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Sunday, November 11, 2012
Lost war-zone records add to veterans' pain
This happened when Vietnam veterans came home and records were typed, often with the wrong social security number typed in. Records were misplaced all the time. If a veteran kept copies, they had proof but if they didn't, which is something many did not, they had nothing to prove what they said.
Now records are electronic but again there is human error. If you are given records keep them and save them!
Now records are electronic but again there is human error. If you are given records keep them and save them!
Lost war-zone records add to veterans' pain
A joint investigation by ProPublica and The Seattle Times has found a widespread lapse in record keeping from the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, leaving some disabled veterans hard-pressed to document their combat injuries, and future military strategists wondering what lessons might have been learned.
By Peter Sleeth and Hal Bernton
Special to ProPublica; Seattle Times staff reporter
A strange thing happened when Christopher DeLara filed for disability benefits after his tour in Iraq: The U.S. Army said it had no records showing he had ever been overseas.
DeLara had searing memories of his combat experiences. A friend bled to death before his eyes. He saw an insurgent shoot his commander in the head. And, most hauntingly, he recalled firing at an Iraqi boy who had attacked his convoy.
The Army said it could find no field records documenting any of those incidents.
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Monday, January 30, 2012
St. Louis service records center, recovery from 1973 fire continues
At military records center, recovery from 1973 fire continues
By STEVE GIEGERICH
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Published: January 30, 2012
NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Debra Griffith didn't know where to turn when her father, a Korean War veteran with a failing heart, asked to be buried at a military cemetery near his boyhood home in Indiana.
With her parents long divorced and the family scattered across the country, Griffith had no clue where to find the records attesting to Lewis Lower's military service — or whether they even existed.
She turned the problem over to her husband, who learned of another hitch in granting Lower's final request upon contacting the National Personnel Records Center in north St. Louis County.
The file may have been among the millions destroyed 39 years ago in a fire that burned for two days through the sixth floor of the building in Overland the center once occupied.
The near-impossible task of restoring the charred documents that survived continues to this day — a labor of love and duty for archivists either too young to remember or, in some cases, not even born when a significant chunk of America's past went up in smoke.
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By STEVE GIEGERICH
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
Published: January 30, 2012
NORTH ST. LOUIS COUNTY — Debra Griffith didn't know where to turn when her father, a Korean War veteran with a failing heart, asked to be buried at a military cemetery near his boyhood home in Indiana.
With her parents long divorced and the family scattered across the country, Griffith had no clue where to find the records attesting to Lewis Lower's military service — or whether they even existed.
She turned the problem over to her husband, who learned of another hitch in granting Lower's final request upon contacting the National Personnel Records Center in north St. Louis County.
The file may have been among the millions destroyed 39 years ago in a fire that burned for two days through the sixth floor of the building in Overland the center once occupied.
The near-impossible task of restoring the charred documents that survived continues to this day — a labor of love and duty for archivists either too young to remember or, in some cases, not even born when a significant chunk of America's past went up in smoke.
read more here
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