Message:The records of servicemen are declared public interest sixty-three years after discharge. In concept you can see duty station, awards, rank obtained. A person's theater medals would show his action.
So in 2008 most of WWII became public domain. Korea in 2013. Some of Viet Nam by now and all by 2037. There are many other Cold War stations that might prove intriguing to look at personnel assigned. This opens the records up for historians and other parties interested in what was once secret, generally who fought in what covert wars and for how long? Yet none of the records are online (yet) for easy search.
There is also a footnote that 80% of these records after 1911 were lost in a fire in 1973. Pretty much anything that might be sensitive or embarrassing is gone. Military gets ordered to release the records and then someone burns them to oblivion. More secrets and lies; worse what gets imagined has more negative connotation than the truth.
Everywhere you turn it's Battle Born.
Yours,
IronRed
12-Apr-2021