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Veterans Day Records at the National Archives

Marines come ashore near Da Nang Air Base on March 8, 1965.
Marines come ashore near Da Nang Air Base on March 8, 1965. (National Archives, RG 127) 

Each year, we acknowledge the work done and sacrifices made by our men and women in uniform. The National Archives and Records Administration is proud to serve veterans and their families, especially through our work at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO. We are also proud to include many veterans among our staff. Find out how we help veterans access their records to receive benefits, read about the work our Preservation staff do to make these records accessible, watch historic films that our staff have restored and digitized about the experiences of veterans, and plan a visit to an exhibit or event near you.


Veterans’ Service Records

Vietnam War Research Portal
 

Accordion

Introduction to Military Records at the National Archives

Teach your students about World War I with new resources on our DocsTeach website. On DocsTeach you can access thousands of primary sources — letters, photographs, speeches, posters, maps, videos, and more — spanning the course of American history. And we're always adding more!

Teaching About Pearl Harbor

Remembering Vietnam Promo Video

“Remembering Vietnam: Twelve Critical Episodes in the Vietnam War” promotional video

Historic Videos

The True Glory, 1945 (restored)

Let There Be Light, 1946

Making of a Marine

The Lonely Eagles

Diary of a Sergeant, 1945

Welcome Home

A Special Day (Veterans Day 1963)

Veteran's Day PSA with John F. Kennedy

President Reagan's Remarks at a Veteran’s Day Ceremony at Arlington Cemetery on November 11, 1985

President Clinton's Remarks at a Veterans' Day Ceremony (1993). President Clinton delivers remarks at the Veterans' Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery.  

President Obama Honors Veterans

Additional Videos

In Honor of our Veterans: Caring for Our Heroes. A bipartisan panel discusses issues facing veterans, November 2015.

Women Vietnam Veterans: Our Untold Stories. Vietnam veteran Donna Lowery discusses the participation of American military women during the Vietnam War.

Veterans Personnel Records at the National Archives, St. Louis. This Inside the Vaults video short illustrates the primary purpose of the National Military Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, MO—to preserve the nation's military personnel files in perpetuity and to make them available to veterans and other interested parties.

Vet Records Short Clip. Scott Levins, the Director of the National Personnel Records Center in St Louis, which houses individual Military Personnel Records, shares one of his stories about responding to requests for veterans' service records.

Records for Veterans: Gathering Evidence for Claims and Benefits. A presentation at the National Archives aimed at veterans and their families seeking documentation in support of a benefit or claim.

Image Resource

The War in Vietnam: A Story in Photographs

Prologue Articles

1 Archives Drive: Personnel Records Are Consolidated at New Location in St. Louis (Fall 2011)

20th-Century Veterans' Service Records: Safe, Secure—and Available (Spring 2005)

Caring for Veterans in the Nation’s Capital: Records of the U.S. Soldiers' Home in Washington, D.C., 1851–1943 (Spring 2015)

The National Home for Disabled Volunteer Soldiers (Spring 2004)

"I Am Still in the Land of the Living”: The Medical Case of Edson D. Bemis (Spring 2011)

Genealogical Records of the War of 1812 (Winter 1991)

Blogs

AOTUS Blog Post: Veterans Day (2016)

Forward With Roosevelt blog: A Veterans Day to Remember: 11/11/42

Forward With Roosevelt blog: A First Lady on the Front Lines 

NARAtions blog: How to participate in the US National Archives’ Remembering WWI: A Guide for Local Institutions 

NARAtions blog: The Wartime Films Project: Remembering WWI

Pieces of History blog: New in Our Catalog: Famous Faces in the Military Veterans’ Military Records

Pieces of History blog: Burned and Brittle Records Are in Good Hands

Pieces of History blog: Veterans’ Military Records

Pieces of History blog: Surrender? Nuts!

Pieces of History blog: Minnie Spotted Wolf

Pieces of History blog: The Lost Battalion of World War I

Pieces of History blog: U.S. Entry into the War to End All Wars

Pieces of History blog: Remembering “A date which will live in infamy” 

Pieces of History blog: Gerald Ford: President and Veteran

Pieces of History blog: Vietnam and the Women Who Served

Rediscovering Black History blog: Remembering Those Who Served: A Tribute to Veterans

Rediscovering Black History blog: “And They Thought We Couldn’t Fight:”* Remembering the Nine Soldiers in a World War I Photograph

The Text Message blog: The Blue Arrowhead 

The Text Message blog: Hometown Hero: Walker Kirtland Hancock, St. Louis’s Monuments Man 

The Text Message blog: The Last Box 

The Text Message blog: Stories of American Escapees from Prisoner of War Camp 59, Servigliano, Italy

The Unwritten Record blog: World War II Veteran Lloyd Heller Shares Details About Production of 1943 Tank Training Film

The Unwritten Record blog: Remembering the Vietnam War this Veterans Day

The Unwritten Record blog: Spotlight on Veterans: Navy Women in Parachute Rigger Training

The Unwritten Record blog: A Brief Look At African American Soldiers in the Great War 

The Unwritten Record blog: Photographs of Military Mascots in WWI 

The Unwritten Record blog: A Worthy Resting Place: American Military Cemeteries Overseas 

The Unwritten Record blog: The Women of World War I in Photographs

In commemoration of Veterans Day, the National Archives History Office conducted a series of oral history interviews with veteran National Archives employees.

Google Cultural Institute

World War I: A Soldier’s Story

D-Day and the Normandy Invasion

Vietnam Veterans Memorial: A Story Behind the Memorial

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