While there is more to this objective than the concern for the Individual Deceased Personnel Files, the great importance of the Individual Deceased Personnel Files and the urgency that they be permanently preserved is for now where we want to keep the focus within this objective -- without losing track of the other records (graves registration, cemetery, etc.) for which we have concern for preservation and accessibility.

The Current Situation
The paper Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) for all identified and unidentified remains (for all wars) are in the custody of the Army at Suitland, Maryland.

As of 2009, when AWAHC began working on this objective, the National Archives and Records and Administration (NARA) was operating under a previously approved schedule [a formal term for a signed-off agreement about the disposition of records] that called for the destruction of the IDPFs after 75 years. This would mean that destruction of 1941 IDPFs would begin in 2016.

In 2010, NARA proposed a new schedule that would make the IDPFs permanent records and would establish a moving cutoff date, under which the IDPFs prior to the cutoff date would be transferred to NARA custody and formally accessioned by NARA and moved to NARA's new St. Louis archives building, for state-of-the-art preservation and public access. NARA visited the storage facility at Suitland and found that the IDPFs are not now stored in proper conditions, so that there is danger of loss through deterioration. This is a huge amount of paper, but the new St. Louis NARA facility has ample state-of-the-art storage to hold the IDPFs. NARA has dealt with many government agencies to give them special access to their accessioned historical records, and they were willing to do so with Army access to the IDPFs. However, Army felt that there is still a need for the IDPFs to remain at and be available on site at Suitland for the next 10-15 years. It appears at this time (November 2011) that the IDPFs will remain with Army and that the proposed schedule has been rejected by the Army.

Because the proposed schedule is no longer pending, the situation reverts to the existing schedule, which provides for the destruction of the IDPFs after 75 years. NARA will now seek to rescind that schedule, so that there is no longer any schedule in effect for the IDPFs. Records for which there is no schedule are, by default, considered permanent records. So rescinding the 75-year-destroy schedule would have the effect of giving the IDPFs permanent status until they come up for discussion again, apparently after the 10-15 years that the Army now wishes to retain the IDPFs.

AWAHC is monitoring the progress of these various steps, with the primary purpose to assure that the IDPFs are never destroyed. It does seem that everyone verbally has agreed that they should not be destroyed, but until that is locked down as a signed-off fact, we will continue to pursue that goal.

AWAHC is concerned about the conditions of storage of the IDPFs, as well as access to them. Thus the NARA proposal of eventually storing them in the state-of-the-art conditions in St. Louis seems the best long-term solution. We cannot know what will happen to them if they are stored for 10-15 more years in the sub-par conditions at Suitland, but we are concerned about that. However, the main focus at this time is simply to have a formal designation of the IDPFs as permanent records that will never be destroyed.

Value of IDPFS - Value for Families
From a personnel standpoint, the mortuary records and the Morning Reports are far and away the best source of information to reconstitute at least part of the individual personnel records of the many thousands of military personnel who died in WWII and whose individual personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis. Other than the General Orders (which provide summary citations of a soldier's awards) and the extremely important Morning Reports, there simply is no other source than the IDPFs for reconstituting the destroyed individual WWII record for the vast majority of the troops who died in the war. So the destruction of the IDPFs would be a tragic loss for the families of these service personnel who made the supreme sacrifice.

Value of IDPFS - Value for Association Historians
There are four main reasons that association historians have for using the mortuary records.

1. Establishing the definitive list of who died, and when and where
   • While there is a widespread common belief that there is a complete and accurate list of who died and of what the death counts are for World War II, this belief is false. Most lists of dead and of counts of dead are based on the June 30, 1947 list of the Adjutant General. In fact, the Adjutant General's list omitted many men and sometimes placed men in the wrong units. There has been no updated or revised list since the original list was published, and there probably never will be.
   • In addition, the Adjutant General's 1947 list is simply a list of name, rank, service number home county, and unit. The date of death and the place of death and the last place of duty are not included.
   • The result is that the association historians have carried on the work of finding the accurate and complete list of men of their units who died in World War II and of determining when these men died and where their last day on duty was and what action it was that led to their death. The Morning Reports and the Individual Deceased Personnel Files are absolutely essential to this process. And the need will not end after 75 years or any other specific time.

2. Identifying men for monuments
   World War II associations are often asked for information by the local citizens of the countries in which their units fought. The citizens want to erect a monument to honor those Americans who liberated their town. And they want to include the names of the men who were killed (or sometimes killed and wounded) in order to bring about that liberation. The Morning Reports and the Individual Deceased Personnel Files are absolutely essential to this process. And the need will not end after 75 years or any other specific time.

3. Identifying the remains of those still MIA
   As World War II association historians gather not only the records of their unit in World War II but also the personal memoirs and souvenirs of the men of the unit, a synthesis emerges in which new awareness can be brought to the cases of the men who remain MIA. The Morning Reports and the Individual Deceased Personnel Files are absolutely essential to this process. So are the documents relating to the recovery of unidentified remains. And the need will not end after 75 years or any other specific time.

4. Understanding what really happened in battles
   Battles are often highly chaotic and complex. Battalion-level After Action Reports written at the end of the month by those at headquarters may have little accuracy and much error if the men who really knew what happened had become casualties during the action and were no longer around to write the reports. The Individual Deceased Personnel Files may contain important information that does not exist anywhere else. For example, simply knowing the map coordinates or other description of the location of where the remains were recovered can be very significant new information. And if a man's remains were difficult or impossible to recover, then the Individual Deceased Personnel File may contain statements by the man's commanding officer or interviews of the men who were last with him, so that the graves registration teams might have a better means of finding his remains. These statements and interviews can often be very detailed accounts of the mission and the action in which the man died and in which many other men fought, and these accounts do not exist anywhere else. Once again the Individual Deceased Personnel Files and the Morning Reports are absolutely essential to this process. And the need will not end after 75 years or any other specific time.

Value of IDPFS - Value for DPMO
The same objective that association historians have for identifying the remains of those men still MIA is a mandate for the Defense Prisoner-of-War/Missing Personnel Office. The IDPFs are absolutely crucial to DPMO's ability to carry out this mandate. Moreover, this is a sacred duty that has no end date: if new information emerges in the year 2379 about a soldier who has never yet been recovered and identified, all possible records to aid in the recovery and identification of that soldier must be available.

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