Welcome to the National Archives and Records Administration's 2023 genealogy series. My name is Andrea Matney, the program's coordinator, and we are so happy you've joined us. In recognition of public service, we are offering a themed program that will provide family history research tools focused on both military and civilian records. You will also learn how to preserve your own family collections. Presenters are topic experts broadcasting from across the United States and offering sessions intended for beginners to experienced family historians. All are welcome. In addition, we invite you to join the conversation. Participate with the presenters and other family historians during each session's premier time. Here's how to engage in live chat. You can ask questions via chat by first logging into YouTube. Continue to watch chat because the speaker will answer your questions there in the chat. Type your questions about today's topic at any time. In addition, please select Show More to find links to handouts and the event's evaluation form. We are offering six genealogy sessions on Wednesdays at 1 p.m. eastern time, starting in May and ending in mid-June. If you missed the premier broadcast, know that the videos and handouts will remain available after the event and at your convenience. Today's program is entitled National Archives at St. Louis, Understanding the 1973 National Personnel Records Center Fire and Its Impact on Genealogical Research. I'm pleased to introduce today's presenter, Eric Kilgore. Eric is an archive specialist with the National Archives and Records Administration. He has been with the National Archives at St. Louis since 2010, with the majority of that time working directly with the public in the research room. Eric holds a Bachelor's of Art and a Master of Arts in History from the University of Missouri. I'm now turning the program over to Eric. Hello, and thanks for that introduction. Again, my name is Eric Kilgore. I am an archive specialist with the National Archives and Records Administration. I work primarily with on-site researchers here at the National Archives at St. Louis. My main focus is assisting researchers such as genealogists, scholars, historians, or anyone else interested in conducting research at the National Archives and connecting them with information they need to meet their research goals. This sometimes involves complex multi-year projects with federal agencies to an afternoon helping somebody retrace their grandfather's steps through World War II. During the course of this presentation, we'll be taking a look at the 1973 fire at the Military Personnel Records Center, as it was once called, and the challenges it presents to researching these records almost 50 years later. As a matter of fact, this July 12th will mark the 50th anniversary of the catastrophe. As you'll see, we've made some amazing strides over the years, but the lasting effects of the fire present challenges to research. The National Archives at St. Louis is co-located with the National Personnel Records Center and houses records of those individuals who served in the military or civilian service from the late 19th century through the mid-1990s when the service branches and civilian agencies began transitioning to electronic personnel records. In addition, we also house over 140 record groups of what are considered personal data series records. These are records that can be linked to an individual. Our largest collection is the Official Military Personnel Files, or OMPFs. But we also have General Court's Martial Records, Selective Service System Records, World War I Burial Case Files, Chaplains Files, World War II Individual Deceased Personnel Files, and many more. We'll discuss some of these records in depth as they relate to researching our records later on in this presentation. Our current facility completed in 2011 boasts 473,000 square feet, including 250,000 of that being for record storage. Our shelving is 29 boxes high with two levels of catwalk separating the second and third floors. We have a capacity for 2.3 million cubic feet of records on 385,000 shelves and 15 separate climate-controlled storage bays. However, the story of this facility and how it came to be started almost 70 years ago. During the Second World War, the United States saw an unprecedented 16.1 million men and women enter service. For comparison, World War I saw about 4.7 million Americans in service. After the war, with no need to maintain troop levels, millions of soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines found them discharged at the convenience of the government and for most, this was most welcome. The government recognized the immediate need for a central repository of service records, mainly for entitlement programs such as the GI Bill or VA Medical Treatment. In response, the newly formed Department of Defense began to build a facility to house all of the personnel files of individuals separated from military service. The six-story building was built by the Army Corps of Engineers. Its simple and economical design allowed for great flexibility in its primary purpose, housing records. The plan for the facility at 9700 Page Avenue called for the joint use by the Army, Navy, and Air Force, one building for three individual independent record centers. This facility, designated as the Department of Defense Military Personnel Records Center, DOD MPRC was completed in 1955 and the Army, Navy, and Air Force began moving in their records. At 11 minutes after midnight on Thursday, July 12, 1973, a local citizen driving home from work spotted flames on the building's sixth floor. He reported the fire to a security guard on duty. 19 minutes later, the first fire department arrived on scene and reported heavy smoke and extreme heat on the sixth floor. By 1.05 a.m., the smoke was reported to be so heavy that the source of the fire could not be located. Two hours later, the intense heat and heavy smoke drove firefighters from the building. They set up a perimeter and poured water from snorkel trucks onto the exterior and through broken windows. It took two days before firefighters were once again able to advance to the sixth floor. By that point, the roof had begun to collapse due to the intense heat and stress. When the fire was declared officially extinguished on July 16, over 40 fire districts had participated in battling the disaster. As soon as the fire was out and it was safe for personnel to enter the building, damage assessment began. Focus centered on two major areas, damage to the building and damage to the records. While the sixth floor was determined to be beyond repair, core samples revealed that the rest of the structure was sound. The decision was made to remove the sixth floor entirely and cap the remaining floors of the building. Damage to the records on the sixth floor was extensive with an estimated 79% lost. Some of the building's other holdings suffered minor water damage when water traveled between floors through electrical conduits, pipes, stairs, and escalators. An expert from the Library of Congress flew in to provide advice on countering the mold and mildew problem that would grow out of a water-soaked building during the hot and humid St. Louis summer. Despite preventative measures, mold infestation was first spotted on July 19 in the Air Force records. Shortly thereafter, mold was confirmed in an estimated 1200 other wet boxes throughout the building. Wet records were loaded into milk crates in an effort to stage them for drying. Here you can see workers retrieving records from the sixth floor. Notice the roof has collapsed and sections have already been removed. The millions of gallons of water used to extinguish the blaze had made its way to the lower levels of the facility and required immediate attention to prevent further damage to records. Crews continuously squeegeed water out of the building as it settled on the lower floors and corridors. Here you can see the wet records that were loaded into milk crates in an effort to stage them for drying. Crates were then sent to the Civilian Personnel Records Center on Winnebago Street in downtown St. Louis to be loaded into specially constructed racks for air drying. Some were sent to McDonald Douglas Aircraft Corporation to be vacuum dried and others were sent to a National Aeronautics and Space Administration Facility in Ohio. The remainder stayed on site to be dried in what became known as Tent City. This ad hoc drying operation was made up of nearly 30 Army tents set up on the lawn and parking lots of the Page Facility. Within two weeks of the building returning to government control, reference requests from the VA were being answered. Two weeks after that, requests from a few other government agencies were added. By October 15, three months after the fire, all incoming reference requests were being serviced. In the end, these figures represent the total estimated losses, over 22 million records. In archival terms, this is one of the greatest losses of information, not only in U.S. history, but modern world history. However, some good did come from this and as the saying goes, lessons were learned. The facility recovery and renovation began immediately and continued in the years that followed the fire. Construction of firewalls to break up the storage spaces began in September, the freight elevators were made operational that winter, and sprinkler installation began late the following year. The lack of sprinklers in the building was a focal point of criticism in the weeks and months following the fire. When the building was constructed, experts generally agreed that more damage could be done to records by water than by fire. Army fully concurred with this notion since their records were all housed within metal filing cabinets. Therefore, sprinklers had not been installed in their areas. The Navy, however, did not share this view and since many of their records were stored in cardboard boxes, sprinklers were installed in Navy storage areas. Over the next three decades, improvements to storage areas and an increased emphasis on solid archival principles ensured that the surviving records along with thousands of new records arriving yearly would remain safe. This is how the building at 9700 page appears today as it did after the sixth floor was removed. You can see the freight elevator shafts protruding through the roof where they used to open to the sixth floor. This image from Google Earth is taken from the same corner as the iconic photo of the snorkel trucks battling the blaze. You can see the fortress-shaped Previdale building, which was added later to accommodate Army Human Resources Command, which has since relocated to Fort Knox. At the time, it made perfect sense for the Army Human Resources Command to be where the OMPFs were. In 1995, over two decades after the fire, the National Archives appraisal team recommended that the official military personnel files become permanent, meaning that they would be transferred to the legal custody of the National Archives and kept for posterity in the public good. In an effort to expand access and to ensure the preservation of the records, NARA, together with the Department of Defense, developed a record schedule signed on the 8th of July 2004, making the official military personnel files permanent records of the United States. This schedule mandates the legal transfer of these files from DOD ownership to NARA ownership 62 years after the service member's separation from the military. As part of the initial transfer, the records of 1.2 million veterans who served with the United States Navy and Marine Corps were open to the public in July of 2005. In addition, 200 OMPFs of persons of exceptional prominence or PEP files such as presidents, members of Congress and the Supreme Court, famous military leaders, decorated heroes, celebrities, and other cultural figures who served in the military were also made available to the public for the first time. These actions resulted in the establishment of the National Archives at St. Louis. In November 2007, NARA opened to the public 6.3 million OMPFs of former military personnel who served in the United States Army, including the Army Air Corps and Army Air Forces, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. In September of 2009, marking the 62nd anniversary of the creation of the United States Air Force, NARA accepted the first block of Air Force records into its custody. The opening of these records is part of the ongoing transfer of all military OMPFs from ownership of the military services to the legal custody of the National Archives 62 years after separation from service. Based on this rolling date of 62 years, all military personnel records will eventually become archival records held in NARA's legal custody and open to the general public. Also, in 2009, NARA signed an agreement with the U.S. Office of Personnel Management making the official personnel folders or OPFs of certain former federal civilian employees archival. As such, many personnel records of former federal civil servants whose employment ended prior to 1952 would now be open to the public. This unprecedented shift presented the National Archives with a new challenge, one that required drastic changes. It was determined that the facility at 9700 Page Avenue was too old and outdated. It could not be brought up to the regulatory standards imposed by the federal code of regulations for storing permanent records in a cost-effective manner. This is our facility today, which is located 1 Archives Drive in North St. Louis County. It is 100% climate controlled and equipped with state-of-the-art fire protection systems to ensure that the records of our veterans and civil servants are protected and their service and contribution are not forgotten. We're the largest archives outside of the D.C. area and the busiest of all the National Archives facilities. Besides storing and providing public access to our records, the National Personnel Records Center receives over 5,000 requests per day from veterans and their families for benefits or other service-related claims. Today, 50 years later, we are still working to clean and stabilize records damaged in the 1973 fire. Our new facility has a state-of-the-art preservation lab to assist in this endeavor. We have spent decades reconstructing records from alternate sources to verify service, character of discharge, and in some cases, awards and decorations so that veterans can get the benefits they rightly deserve. There is another very important part of this facility that differentiates it from the old location at 9700 Page Avenue, and that is that this building was purpose-built to have a public interface, complete with dedicated research space. The research room at the National Archives at St. Louis provides access to paper textual records, in addition to certain archival series there on microfilm. Earlier, I mentioned that the holdings at the National Archives at St. Louis are primarily composed of personal data series records. While at its creation, St. Louis's primary focus was on the official military personnel files, or OMPFs, we've added numerous record series to our holdings over the years. Some were due to the need for alternate documentary sources to reconstruct records in order to verify service and character of discharge for benefits. Others were needed to verify entitlements to awards and decorations, and still others were accessioned into our holdings due to their intrinsic value in relation to the other personnel records housed at this facility. Even though millions of personnel records were damaged or destroyed, along with the information contained within them, we have the capability in most cases to provide alternate avenues to research a veteran's service. While these alternate sources won't provide all of the information lost, they may be very helpful in filling in some crucial blanks. To begin, let's look at a few misconceptions that persist when it comes to researching these records. Earlier in the overview of the National Archives at St. Louis, we looked at some of the stats related to the 1973 fire and the records affected. Although this was almost 50 years ago, it's only been 18 years since these records were made permanent and open to the public. Still, many people still think that all of the World War II records were lost in the fire. Thinking back to those statistics on losses provided earlier, 75-80% losses of Army records is staggering. However, that leaves a 20-25% chance that the records you're seeking may still exist. While not great, those are not terrible odds, and we always encourage people to submit requests and see what's available. To drill down on those stats a little more and provide a better understanding of those numbers, that 80% of Army and Army Air Corps represents soldiers and airmen discharged between November 1, 1912 to January 1, 1960. The 75% of Air Force records affected pertains to personnel discharge September 25, 1947 to January 1, 1964 with names alphabetically after Hubbard James E. This is because Air Force records were filed alphabetically. This means that if a person you're trying to research was in the Air Force from 1947 on and their name comes before Hubbard James E, then their records were most likely not affected by the fire. Another common question we get is, aren't official military personnel records classified? While there may be some personally identifiable information or other sensitive material in OMPFs and other record series that must be redacted before being reviewed by the public, these records as a whole are not classified. In 2007, an agreement between the National Archives and the DOD was signed facilitating the transfer of OMPFs from DOD control to the National Archives. This agreement, known as Project 62, mandates that a veteran's record becomes archival or open to the public 62 years after the separation from service, including any reserve obligations. This means that any member of the public, not just the veteran or their next of kin, can access these records as long as it meets that criteria. So let's take a look at some of the most common types of records a researcher would encounter and examine some of the types of documents one could expect to find. While service members from the different branches will forever argue which branch is best, it would be difficult to argue with the fact that the Department of the Navy kept the best records when it came to their sailors and Marines. Fewer than 3,000 Navy and Marine Corps records were affected by the fire, so the collection is largely complete. The date range of the Navy OMPFs begins around 1900 and extends through World War I, World War II, and Korea right up until 1961 due to the 62 year rule. In these records, you'll often find photographs or photographic negatives such as the one shown in this slide. You'll also find enlistment and training records, duty stations or ships the sailor or Marine was assigned to, awards, disciplinary actions, and tons of other interesting information. This particular sailor is Ernest Thompson who went by Ernie. Ernie was what is referred to as a plank holder on the USS Missouri. He was stationed aboard her at the Brooklyn Naval Yard during her final fitting and commissioning. He was also aboard in Tokyo Bay during the Japanese surrender. Ernie's rating was water tender first class and he worked to keep Missouri's boilers online and battle ready. If you ever visit the USS Missouri at Pearl Harbor, you'll find a plaque at the entrance to the port side engine room in his honor. Until his passing in 2016, Ernie spends his days volunteering aboard the USS Iowa near his home in Long Beach Harbor. Mr. Thompson's record is a perfect example of what one could expect to find in a Navy OMPF. This is the official military personnel file of Charlie Lockett. Lockett was born in 1926 in Indianola, Mississippi. In 1944, Lockett enlisted in the Marine Corps, a relatively new opportunity for African Americans since the Marine Corps only began integration in 1941 after an executive order forced them to do so. Besides the usual military administrative remarks, it's not uncommon to find interesting personal information contained in these records. I'm not sure if you can make it out but in the lower left corner of the document on the right side, there's a small section that asks which sports he was qualified for and Lockett checked baseball. And then added sandlot when asked for school or team affiliation. Lockett and others trained at a segregated camp just outside of Camp Lejeune known as Montford Point. Lockett and the pioneering men he trained with would come to be known as the Montford Point Marines. Many would go on to serve with distinction in the Pacific while paving the way for African Americans in the Corps. Marine Corps OMPFs available at the National Archives at St. Louis range from around 1900 to 1961 under that 62 year rule. Beginning the process of researching official military personnel files is the same, regardless of whether the subject of your research served during the period that was affected by the fire or which branch they served in. You simply submit a request with some basic information and we start the process of identifying and searching for records. The first step is to perform a search of our database that we refer to as the registry. As records are retired to the facility from the service branch, they are entered into the registry. This allows us to search for records in our system as well as provide a physical location for the record out in the storage base or the stacks as we call them. After the fire, all of the recovered records were meticulously cataloged and later entered into the registry. So with a name and a service number, we can instantly perform a preliminary search in order to see what we have. All of the records that survived the fire but suffered water or fire damage were entered into the registry with a B prefix. As you might guess that B stands for burned record or B file as we call them. While we're excited anytime that we get a registry hit for a B file, we're cautiously optimistic since we don't know exactly what is there until we physically inspect it. The B file could be anything from a pristine seemingly untouched record to a charred corner of a document with a service number or a name on it. Once we've verified that the record in question matches the information provided by the researcher, these records are sent to our preservation department to be clean, stabilized and digitized. Once this process is complete, a digitized copy of the record is provided to the researcher. This of course is a best case scenario. What if you don't know the service number of the veterinarian researching or you submitted a request and there were no records listed in the registry? In most cases, we can help with that too. Our collections of organizational records can be used to gain basic information such as a service number to more detailed unit information. For most researchers who request Army or Air Force records from World War I through the Korean era, the final pay voucher is the most common document available. The caveat to this rule is that the service member had to be discharged in order to receive one. Unfortunately, this means that anyone who is killed in service will not have a final pay voucher unless they had a break in service at some point before re-enlisting for the final time. While it's surely disappointing to only have a single document to tell the tale of someone's military service, it's often a great place to start. These documents were created upon separation from service and basically squared the service person's pay account with Uncle Sam. It was their last paycheck and the government's last chance to deduct anything from their pay that was still owed. These records were instrumental in reconstructing service records following the fire. The fact that the service person received a final pay voucher indicates that they had indeed served and were honorably discharged. It also provides a discharge date and the place they were discharged from. In some cases, it also provides the unit they were discharged from. Sometimes this unit info is helpful, but many times at least at the end of World War II, veterans were assigned to separation units for the sole purpose of discharging them. And it makes it extremely difficult to locate them on morning reports. It's the proverbial needle in the haystack. Some may recognize the individual listed on this pay voucher as William J. Garnier, better known as Wild Bill Garnier, who served with Easy Company 506 Parachute Infantry Regiment of Banda Brothers fame. If you are familiar with the HBO miniseries or the book upon which it's based, you may recall that Garnier was wounded during the Battle of the Bulge and lost a leg. In the top left, third row down, you'll see that he was discharged from Thomas England General Hospital in Atlantic City, New Jersey in December of 1945, a year after he was wounded. R files, like B files, are another type of record with a uniquely assigned prefix in our registry. Just as the B stands for burn, the R stands for reconstructed. In the decades since the fire, NARA has reconstructed a few million R files, primarily from the Army, Army Air Corps, Air Force, and the U.S. Coast Guard. While these records are never going to be complete like the original, they often contain some helpful information. It's also common for the final pay voucher or a copy of it to be inside an R file since it was one of the primary documents used for reconstruction purposes. There may also be documents that were provided by the veteran, the VA, or state offices that may have had documents related to a veteran's service because they registered for state benefits. The reconstruction process was usually initiated when the veteran or their dependents filed a claim for benefits. If it was determined that the record was lost in the fire, the reconstruction process began. In most cases, the R file will contain the request from the veteran that started the process, and those can also have some valuable information on them. They may even contain letters like this one from Bill Garnier who wrote in to get a certificate of awards and brushed over some of the highlights of his service. This R file also contains a copy of his discharge, a report of separation which may have been procured from a state office or other source. This is the most important document, the equivalent of today's DD 214, which provides a complete snapshot of a veteran's service. While not ideal in comparison to an original OMPF, an R file can be a great resource. The World War II VA index is another great resource for finding service information, especially in cases in which the service number is unknown or if the OMPF was destroyed in the fire. For those wondering, there is a World War I VA index that is available online at FamilySearch.org. An important caveat to the VA index is that the names can be a little misleading. The World War I VA index is not only claims filed from World War I, but in the period leading up to and through 1940. This index contains claims from the American Civil War and Spanish American War through 1940. The naming of the index is not about the conflict, but the time period in which a veteran or a dependent filed a claim with the VA. These records can be a great starting point. It's common for a researcher to not have a service number for an individual they would like to research. However, if they have a name, city where the person lived, dates of birth or death, or any combination of those pieces of information, we can use the VA index to cross-reference them to find a match. The VA index is on microfilm and has been used ever since the fire to provide some basic details of a veteran's service to begin the reconstruction process. This particular card belongs to an individual that served as a flight engineer and top turret gunner on a B-17 named Alexander Lambert. Lambert's bomber was shot down over Magdeburg, Germany in June of 1944, and he was the only member of his crew not accounted for. The other nine members of Lambert's crew were captured and sent to Stollegluft III. Lambert's service number is directly under his home address in Minnesota. It also lists his date of birth, death, and when he enlisted. Notice that his date of death is listed as 6-21-1945 over a month after VED. This is due to the fact that he was placed in MIA status on June 20, 1944 when his B-17 was shot down and could not be declared dead for one year. The second line shows his rank as tech sergeant in the Air Corps. The XC number in the top right hand corner is the identifier for his VA claim file. VA claim files for this time period are not in the custody of the National Archives, but can be requested under the Freedom of Information Act from the Veterans Administration. The Army and Air Force morning reports have been an invaluable tool in reconstruction efforts over the decades. The entire collection is on microfilm and survived the 1973 fire. Digitization efforts are currently underway for the 1940-43 portion of this collection, and digital images for this time period will be added to the National Archives catalog on a rolling basis. The World War I morning reports have been digitized and are currently available for free on fold3.com. These records proved invaluable to providing responses to requests following the blaze. While the morning reports are certainly no substitute for the OMPF, they do provide vital information about a veteran's service. You see, the morning reports provide a daily accounting of a unit's activities such as location of the unit, when they were there, personnel arrivals, departures, losses, and mission overviews. Each veteran assigned to a particular unit will not appear in every morning report. However, they will appear whenever there is a status change. The image on the left is dated May 16, 1944. This is the day that Alexander Lambrick arrived at the 339th Bombardment Squadron. The morning report lists Lambrick along with a handful of others noting that they were assigned the 10th of May by transfer from headquarters Army Air Force Station 112 by paragraph 1 special order number 69, headquarters, the 96th. Now, if we were researching Lambrick's service, we could request the morning reports for headquarters Army Air Force Station 112 for May 10 and that report would show Lambrick leaving that unit. You can effectively trace an individual unit by unit month by month throughout their service. It's easiest if you have a date to start with. In this instance, we know that Lambrick was shot down on June 20, 1944. So all one has to do is look at the morning reports for the 339th Bombardment Squadron for June 20th to find him. This could just as easily be done with the information on a discharge or any other document that ties the veteran to a unit at a specific time. The images in the center and on the right are the morning reports stated June 20, 1944, just over a month after Lambrick's arrival to the 339th when the B17G that Lambrick was on was shot down over Magdeburg. The mission report reads, 20th June, bombing mission performed on Magdeburg, Germany, 12 crews, 49 officers and 72 enlisted men took off at 0545. One crew, Lieutenant Horn, aborted as scheduled and returned to base. Approximately 20 enemy fighters encountered, flak heavy and accurate, battle damage to all ships, only two out of commission for more than 24 hours. Lieutenant DeBrandis crew, which included Lambrick accounts for four second lieutenants, two tech sergeants, four staff sergeants missing in action. Under their names, it reads from duty to missing in action and dropped from squadron roles. While Lambrick's time with the 339th was short, these morning reports verify a lot of information that was lost in the fire. We know his unit, when he was shot down, what campaigns he participated in, and after the war, this information would be used to verify the date that he died or was presumed dead. As a side note, the National Archives also holds missing aircrew reports, record group 92, which are available on the NARA online catalog. For Lambrick and the others who died in service, there is another avenue of research available in the IDPFs or individual deceased personnel files. The National Archives at St. Louis holds records pertaining to deceased personnel. These include World War I burial case files, World War II individual deceased personnel files, and Vietnam era mortuary files for individuals who died in service in Southeast Asia. For this presentation, we'll focus on the World War II era IDPFs, but these records share many similarities, regardless of time period. The Army individual deceased personnel files are a record group that is actually part of the records of the quartermaster general corps, since the quartermaster corps handled graves registration. Currently, World War II IDPFs for veterans with surnames A through L are in the custody of the National Archives. The records of veterans with surnames M through Z are still in the custody of the Department of Defense, but will be transferred in the future. The quartermaster corps performed this task after the war ended for all American personnel that were killed in action and interred overseas, regardless of service branch. They were charged with disinterring remains from temporary battlefield cemeteries and either bringing them home at the request of the family or interring them in an American cemetery abroad. These records were created anytime the Army had to handle remains, including searching for or identifying them. IDPFs are a tremendous resource when an OMPF was lost in the fire. In many cases, documents pertaining to the veteran's death or missing in action status that would have been in their OMPF will be found in the IDPF. These documents are from Alexander Lambrick's IDPF. The document on the left is the War Department's telegram informing his mother that Alex was missing in action in Germany 10 days after his B-17 was shot down. The letter on the right dated August 2, 1944 is a letter from the notification branch of the Army's personal affairs division, providing Miss Lambrick more information about the details surrounding the incident and a reassurance that a continuing search of land, sea, and air are being conducted to discover the whereabouts of missing personnel. The left and middle documents are pages from the Army's report of death for Alexander Lambrick dated January 24, 1950. It includes detailed information about the mission as well as statements from the crew that were conducted as part of the investigation. Most of the crew had come to the consensus that Lambrick had most likely been killed by German civilians upon reaching the ground due to how the surviving crew members were treated. Prior to giving the order to bail out, Lieutenant Brandis, the plane's pilot, said that Lambrick stated, the top turret guns are damaged, number two and three engines are on fire. He continued that he didn't think Lambrick was injured and that the waste gunners believed to have seen him leave the plane with a parachute. He finished by saying, due to the treatment we received from German civilians and German land watchers, which was brutal and hostile, we believe that Sergeant Lambrick had fallen into their hands and was killed. The final document on the right is dated January 31, 1950 and states that the attempted recovery of Lambrick's remains cannot be resolved until further investigation is conducted. Unfortunately, the crash site was in the Soviet zone of occupation and the letter goes on to state that due to the current political climate, further investigation at the time was impracticable. Alexander Lambrick is still missing in action and his case is still active with the Defense POW-MIA Accounting Agency. As we've seen, the National Archives at St. Louis has numerous record series that can assist genealogists in uncovering information about the past through the records of veterans and civil servants alike. While the effects of the 1973 fire will forever impact genealogical research, it's partially due to that catastrophe that all these alternative record sources are available. This is just a small sample of the types of personal data series records available to the public in our research room as well as through our reference branch. Even though so much was lost in the fire, the National Archives at St. Louis has a lot to offer the genealogical community. You never know what family treasures you might uncover, but you have to take the first step and see what's out there. We're happy to assist in any way we can. This concludes this presentation. If you would like more information about researching records at the National Archives at St. Louis, please visit our website at www.archives.gov forward slash St. Louis. Thank you again for watching. This ends the lecture portion of the broadcast, but we will continue to take your questions about today's topic in the chat. If we do not get to your question, please send us an email. Note that the presentation's video recording and handout will remain available on this YouTube page and our website. We plan future programs based on your feedback. Would you please take a minute to complete our short online evaluation form? At this time, I'd like to thank the genealogy series team who contributed to the success of this program. We are grateful for your work. And if you enjoyed this video, check out the Know Your Records program. We have over 100 educational videos on how to do research with us, including playlists for civilian service and U.S. veterans. In the autumn of 2023, the Know Your Records program is offering this schedule of sessions. We invite you to participate with the National Archives presenters and other audience members. Although this concludes the video portion of the broadcast, we will continue to take your questions in chat for another 10 minutes. Please stay if you have questions. Thank you for joining us for today's presentation.


Okay, so we have another addition of dumb things that people do in the car business and particularly shippers, no offense to the good shippers out there, you guys are great, but I just checked this out.  They got into our driveway, they were able to park them here and just give you an idea, we're at the building right here. So that's all great, fine and dandy. And now I'm going to walk over to our service department where we have our drop box. Sometimes they put the keys in the mailbox up there, but most of the time they're supposed to put them in this drop box over here, which we have conveniently for our customers and shippers like. So you can see how far I have to walk here. This is no joke, and we have a quick lube, all that good stuff, and there is a drop box right there, drop off service. There's a thing, you can put stuff in here, there's envelopes, all that good stuff. So we can't find the keys for those two trucks. We've been searching and searching, checked in the trucks, checked the fuel doors, all that good stuff. And we got our buyer to send us a message to the shipper where they put them and you're not going to believe where they're at. They put them all the way over here. So the other side of the building, I didn't even know that we had one of these things over here. This is an ash tray, it says, or an ash stash if you will. This is no joke, that goes down like so. They put the keys in here. Are you kidding? Anyways, there you go, dumb things people do in the car business. Edition three. Thanks for checking out the video. Remember to like, subscribe, and share on the YouTube channel.


Hello, I am Dr. Satish Kumar Kashi, Professor Department of Civil Engineering, Balchan Institute of Technology, Sulapur presenting a topic, application of unit hydrograph for deriving unit hydrographs of different duration, learning outcome. At end of the session students will be able to derive unit hydrographs of different durations using unit hydrographs of given duration, unit hydrographs of different durations. Now, these are necessary under conditions where log of adequate data is there in development of unit hydrograph, a D our unit hydrograph is used to develop unit hydrograph of different durations say that is N times D, it means 2 times D, 3 times D also it means we have suppose 2 our unit hydrograph that is 2 multiplied by 3 times that is 3 into to 6. So, we will be able to derive say 6 our unit hydrograph by using 2 our unit hydrograph. There are 2 methods available, first method is method of superposition and second method is the S corp method. In this small presentation we will be dealing with the method of superposition. Now, what is method of superposition? If a D our unit hydrograph is available it means say we have 2 our unit hydrograph available and it is desired to develop unit hydrograph of N times D, N can be 2, N can be 3, N can be 4 then it is easily accomplished by superposing N unit hydrographs with each graph separated from previous on the previous on by D ours. Example will clarify the things. Now, suppose we have D equal to 2, 2 our unit hydrograph. 2 our unit hydrograph means what? Whenever there is 1 centimeter rainfall excess in 2 hours, in 2 hours there is 1 centimeter rainfall excess. This intensity of rainfall was 0.5 centimeter per hour it trained here for 1 hour it accumulated half centimeter, in second hour it again accumulated 0.5 centimeter totaling to 1 centimeter. So, this was 1 centimeter rainfall excess in 2 hours and due to that effect of that rainfall over a specific catchment was to produce a hydrograph in this way which has a base of say 9 hours and these are the ordinates which are produced by rainfall in a particular stream flow at 1 time 1 hour this is the ordinate at time 2 hour this is the ordinate so peaking time is at 3 hours say the rainfall say the stream flow is about say 450 meter cube per second and so on. Now, this particular 2 hour in hydrograph we are going to use further. Now, change the unit hydrograph duration consider 1 hour unit hydrograph and add lag to unit hydrographs by 1 hour sum and divide it by 2 resulting 2 hour unit hydrograph. It means this is 1 hour unit hydrograph this is another 1 hour unit hydrograph lagged by 1 hour. So, what we will have to do we will have to add the ordinates and divide those by 2 and that will result in 2 hour unit hydrograph. Now, we will take a question select appropriate answer a 3 hour unit hydrograph differs from 6 hour unit hydrograph for any catchment options are 4 both the time of rise and the peak ordinate for the former that is 3 hour unit hydrograph are less than that for the latter that is 6 hour unit hydrograph. Second option both the time of rise and peak ordinates of the former are greater than that of the latter. Third the time of rise for 3 hour unit hydrograph is less but peak ordinate is greater for the former that is 3 hour as compared to the latter that is 6 hour unit hydrograph. Option D is the time of rise is greater but the peak ordinate is less for the former as compared to that of the latter. The answer is see the time of rise is less but peak ordinate is greater for the former it means for a 3 hour unit hydrograph we find that 1 centimeter rainfall takes place in 3 hours only that is why rise will be more for 3 hour unit hydrograph as compared to 6 hour unit hydrograph why because in second case 1 centimeter rainfall takes place in long 6 hours that is why as time is more obviously you will find the rise is lesser for 6 hours and rise will be more for 3 hours and you will find the ordinate is greater for the former because more rainfall in less time so you will find ordinate will be greater for 3 hour unit hydrograph as compared to 6 hour unit hydrograph so this gives us the idea about how hydrographs differ now here let us have example given the ordinates of 4 hour unit hydrograph as below dry the ordinates of tell our unit hydrograph from the same catchment so time our 0 4 8 12 16 20 going up to 44 and ordinates of 4 hour unit hydrograph are this 0 meter cube per second 20 meter cube per second 80 meter cube per second it means due to 1 centimeter rainfall spread over entire catchment in 4 hours of course 1 centimeter rainfall excess in 4 hours at the outlet of the catchment we are getting these discharges varying with the time so this time we are showing 0 4 8 12 16 20 24 28 32 and so and then we are given these ordinates of 4 hour unit hydrograph right now we are doing calculations for 12 hour unit hydrograph from 4 hour unit hydrograph means we are given 4 hour unit hydrograph ordinates and we want to derive 12 hour unit hydrograph ordinates it means time is 3 times so here what we are doing in figure I will show the first 4 hour unit hydrograph start from 0 and goes up to 44 hours it will be followed by another 4 hour unit hydrograph we will start from 4 going this way with these ordinates and go up to 48 in third part we will start from 8 and go in this way so these were lag by 4 hours so this is lag by 4 hours second 4 hour unit hydrograph this is lag by 8 hours the third unit hydrograph and then we are adding these ordinates horizontally to get direct runoff hydrograph of 3 centimeter rainfall excess 1 due to this second centimeter due to this and third centimeter due to this that is 3 centimeter rainfall excess and this is the resulting hydrograph so this was 3 centimeter rainfall excess so we need to divide these accumulated ordinates again by 3 to get the ordinates of 12 hour unit hydrograph so these were the ordinates of 12 hour rainfall event with 3 centimeter rainfall excess obviously we need to divide those by 3 to get ordinates of 12 hour unit hydrograph in meter cube per second so in this way by knowing ordinates of 4 hour unit hydrograph we have calculated ordinates of 12 hour unit hydrograph which was the objective of this particular lecture so you will find that when we sum the ordinates of these 3 4 hour unit hydrograph lag by 4 hours this is a total f is equal to a plus b plus c direct runoff hydrograph of 3 centimeter and when we divide it by 3 we get the 12 hour unit hydrograph dividing this ordinate by 3 and obviously it is due to 1 centimeter rainfall excess over 12 hours over 12 hours so in this way we constructed 12 hour unit hydrograph from 4 hour unit hydrograph these are the references and thank you.


I love your vibe by the way. Thank you. She's all sunshine-y. Awesome, awesome. That's the spirit, that's the energy. And the people who preceded us on studio have left good vibes here, so we have to flow. So you have to go with the flow. And that's how you take the cup, not the cup, the seat. Absolutely. And of course, if you have any questions and you guys to this particular conversation right here, if you only have questions for Caroline McKenna, be sure to send us those questions as we continue with this morning conversation. Let's talk about politics of Kiambu County and of course Caroline, let me start with just getting a glimpse of who you are. For somebody who's meeting you for the first time today, tell us a bit more about what you do. My name, thank you very much Ram for having me in studio today. My name, like you said, is Caroline McKenna Kigunda. And I am the incoming, through your votes. Ume Sema. Nisha Sema, Kiambu Senator. And McKenna is a leader. And I'm saying a leader because we are in the political space and what we do is, in the political space and what is lacking today in the Kenya that we have is leadership in the political space. So McKenna is a leader. A leader who is actually ready to represent the people in the most precise and best way possible. But then why would you choose to go for this particular seat for Kiambu County of all positions to take, of all positions to vie for and of course of all the things to do, why politics, why would you choose to go for this? Why you? That's a very very good question. I will start by saying first of all why this office. I am vying for the office of the Senate because currently we are in a situation whereby if we do not rise up to correct the errors that we are having currently in the system there will not be any hope for the future. We are like for example the generation that I represent today we are stuck in between a generation and being stuck between a generation simply means that we have to be role models for our children and at the same time we have to be the security for our parents and that leaves us at a place whereby we have been told that we are the leaders of tomorrow and I am very grateful that our tomorrow is here today. So I want to take up the role of the Senate because the issues that are bringing problems and challenges in our society are rooted under the term and sugar coated under the brand corruption and Senate is an oversight authority that is supposed to put up corrective measures so as to remedy the corruption and I looked at the space where we are at currently you realise there is a location of funding from county government but there is some mystery that appears there is a mystical energy that happens from the point at which the funds have reached the county government and they somehow dissipate within the atmosphere and never reach the grass monainchi. You mentioned that the problems we are facing are being sugar coated by corruption meaning it is not corruption. It is actually corruption but now that's why we are saying sugar coating corruption has been branded by things like TIP I am very passionate about services that are being rendered to the public and that is one of my main manifestos and main agendas. For example in health when you go to health centres the services are very poor you realise that you could actually go and spend a very long time and there is no hand to serve you but if you know somebody in that health centre it becomes easier for you to get service that also goes to the job opportunities that are available currently the youth are being told knock and the door shall be opened but when the door is open you find that the house is full what happened to the people who came in through the back door through the window when the door is open it's all full why because of corruption the same thing is extended to all these other arenas where somebody says I'd like you to come in but I want you to pay this X amount as appreciation fee so if you want a visa or passport today there is the appreciation fee actually the main fee and if you don't have the appreciation fee you have to wait for a very long time so it means we have sugar coated corruption in the name of appreciation tips and this has made us be a very retrogressive people who speak today but still let me take your feet steps back because the work of the Senate here we look at predominantly oversight how are you going to bring a difference when we are looking at the senatorial position and still back a few steps before why you the first one there you said how will we do it the Senate is the legislative organ we need to put up policies and procedures through legislation that will ensure that there is a stipulated mechanism on how governmental services are provided at the county level that is one of the things the second thing is accountability and transparency when there is a budgetary location provision chances are normally high that it is in a theoretical nature but when it comes to the practical aspect it is a ghost project so you believe that we have so many gaps that are there in the senatorial position in the Senate seat exactly and that is where I come in you ask why me because I have the ability to understand what that job entails and to be able to clearly be in a position to seal in those loopholes and provide that gap that is missing I am actually the missing piece of the puzzle for my people in Kiambu in the Senate docket and so far we have so many aspirants who are vying for the same position for Kiambu senatorial seat and there are those who are under parties that are known and there are those who are known politically because they have been in politics for a long time how are you going to jump over all these loops because if you are vying for independent independent candidate or in a party how are you going to jump over all these loops considering we have all these who are considered to be more popular in Kiambu county wow that's a very beautiful question Ram I sit here today confidently that we are at a very beautiful place in the history of our politics today the electorates has reached a level whereby they are enlightened and this is the season that people are not electing they are not electing popularity they are not electing parties they are not electing waves this is the season that the Kenyan electorate has become enlightened and they are willing to elect leaders based on their ideologies based on their capabilities and capacity and the best part is I would love to tell you this that the longest journey in history is always started by a small step I could be among the not so famous today but the fact remains that the leadership ideology that I sell to the people of Kiambu my positioning and ability to be able to serve the people is what is going to make the people skip and get over all those parties all those leaders and be in a position to say that yes Senator Caroline McKenna is the one that is ideal for Kiambu County yes wow and I believe you can remember to shake shake the tree the tree has been shaken I don't want to use that don't worry I used it for you on your behalf you believe you can remember to do that not I believe I can be able I am doing it you are doing it and the tree is shaking and the people are saying this is the kind of leadership that we want this is the kind of confidence we want we want leaders who will not go to the senate and be back benchers and bench warmers we want people who will be able to come and represent the people because that is what the job is all about so I am telling them Kiambu people enough of having back benchers bench warmers and those who appear only when there is a motion that is favoring them and not favoring the people so Senator Caroline McKenna for Kiambu County is here capable, ready and on the ballot actually I am the first one so if I could sell that on the ballot my name appears to be the first one so it also gives me confidence it is alphabetic yes let me find out from you Caroline what is the thought in regard to the position of the youth especially looking at Kiambu County the position of the youth of Kiambu County are they coming out are we giving our youth the proper motivation to look into a bigger future to grow as individuals because we have issues concerning unemployment and job creation we have issues concerning lack of money among the youth and of course Kiambu County is one county that is very it is resourceful as a county what is your thought in regard to the position of the youth and how we are actually pushing them towards the wall against the wall with lack of money lack of jobs yet at the same time we are giving them so many promises in this country especially during this electionary period beautiful, beautiful rum where has the youth been put I remember my opening remarks were we are stuck between generations here we are supposed to be role models for our children and future children who will be coming for them that have their children still on their knees and we are still stuck at a point of us being examples and ready leaders ready to take up the mantle from our parents and be the security for our parents so when the youth have been discriminated on and you find that they are the ones who are facing all these injustices of lack of unemployment being used for political violence or whatever violence that is required when you need people to demonstrate that's when you call on the youth but when it's time to give the youth jobs nobody is considering the youth that is why I am here today to represent the youth as an entity and say that we have had enough of being used and now we are ready to stand up and take up the mantle of leadership by ensuring that we have one of us because even you have seen from the past governmental trends the oppositions for the youth and they will go for our great grandparents to feel them as youth representatives so that has left us at a hopeless place for the youth so this is the time that we need the youth not to lose heart and just realize that there is hope we have an opportunity and it is a prime opportunity and that opportunity is now so in my case when I am as IVI for the senatorial docket for Kiyambu I intend to legislate over matters that are going to favor the youth that is on employment right now we have a lot of youth that have to settle for jobs that do not even add up so we have actually lost the hope for education by telling people read, get educated so that you get employment so we need to correct that and ensure that the people that are qualified are the ones that get these opportunities we need to have a fair playing field whereby it is about ideologies, capacity and the leadership that one has so we need to transition from a society that considers the youth to be given positions as a process of knowingification who do you know that's how you get to places and you get to a point of qualification if you are competent and qualified you don't need to negotiate for any opportunity you don't need to tip we need to create a fair environment that is protected in that that is one of the things that I am vouching for I am also one of my main manifestos and agendas is that due to the unemployment factor that we are having today the youth are actually employing themselves but when they employ themselves and probably start small businesses you realize that the same government will implement over taxes over licensing and push them again to the same corner we are trying to free themselves from so I want to assure the youth especially the youth of Kiyambo when I am the senator for Kiyambo we will be able to bring all these issues at the policy table because that is the docket of the senatorial office that is supposed to effect some of these changes so employment hope education restoration of hope those are the things and aspects that we need to also concentrate on I would like to also add we have youth that are very innovative youth that have ideas that they want to implement just the other day there was a feature about kikuyu boys who are actually working with robotics and you find they actually school dropouts so what happens to such people as a senatorial head I intend to push for an agenda so that we can create an innovation incubation hub to nurture those talents to absorb the youth and tell them yes we do not need you to just think on how to feed yourself but we want to create innovation hubs where the youth can bring in pool of talents pool of ideas and we actually have the capabilities as the youth the only thing we lack are opportunities let me get your thought this particular issue here because still on the youth because most of them majority of the youth are the ones watching us today I am looking at kiambo county that had been one of the 23 counties mapped out by the national cohesion and integration commission that the NCIC in february list as possible hospital for violence before during and after agas elections but right now at least there is some good news that we are getting that kiambo is among the counties that have been removed from the NCIC list for violence hotspots so yes kiambo county has been removed and of course a big thanks to our officials in the security sector that have ensured that is happening now the politicians that we have got and our leaders also have a role to play in regards to insurance, security and peace especially before during and after elections what are your thoughts on that particular aspect of peace and cohesion in kiambo county during this particular election period wow Ram today all your questions are golden thank you when I started my campaigns actually one of my main when you check out my agendas and one of my main campaign elements was that I am a peace advocate exactly and I had a slogan that says and to demistify or to explain further to elaborate on the meaning deeper meaning of this statement is simply to say that we are I personally I am advocating for peaceful campaigning peaceful elections and peaceful after the elections because we need to realize that politics is not the end of the world and we have put so much energy on this political electioneering season that it is actually detrimental even to the economy the reason as to why we are having also the rate of inflation today is because there are so many businesses that are currently at a limbo because they do not want to bring in staff they do not want to invest everybody is just sitting and watching to see what will happen in our economic field after the election so I want to call upon the youth today and tell them do not allow anyone to use you for violence because you realize that it's very easy for the leaders to call on the youth to go and fight but the truth of the matter is that you realize that none of their children or their kin is part of it so if your kin is not there then why do I want anybody else child to be there so I will tell my people of Kiambu and the youth of Kiambu to see kubali kutumika kuenesa vita zaki siyasa and why siyasa zamani bila bila fujo na pesa is that we do not want violence and do not be paid because what happens is that the euphoria of elections you will get paid yes they hand out because the hand out thing is what is also crippling us right now they think wukendopatia youth miambili they will sing and jump about you and sometimes they will because of how they've been pushed to the corner so I want to enlighten them and tell them just realize I am in the political space today so politics I am a leader that's why I started by saying we are leaders so politics even as leaders leaders take advantage of these youths some leaders take advantage of these youths I'm looking for example the border-border sector politicians take advantage of the border-border sector which is a place where youths can actually get good jobs but now we have seen them being taken advantage of actually you've mixed words that are like us to isolate politicians and leaders we find that we have politicians in Kenya and to these politicians the only thing and the only way they see the voter is is just a vote and that's why they get the votes go to the presidency you go to state house, you go to parliament you go to county assemblies and they do their things and things disappear and get them as a politician and now there is this thing that is a leader a leader is different from a politician a leader will see the person beyond the votes will see themselves as being the ones that are actually supposed to lead from the forefront a leader will not demolish and destroy the people will build and bring up the people so what we need to demystify in today's political space is who a leader is versus who a politician is are you electing a leader or a politician? you got it but now still we should stop taking advantage of these youths especially in the border the ones that we see on TV and now guess what it's not even at stop taking advantage the youth should refuse to be used correct the youth should refuse to be used because we have been enlightened we are aware and we will have to forge a different channel going forward yes and I believe that we can and this time around because I am seeing youths coming up to buy for political seats or for leadership positions you saw right Ram sorry but they are coming out they are coming out now let me move to yet another thing because you've managed to get to this level where you are in yes but this is the aspect of gender women how far are you and how was your journey being so far because at some point yes we must say it as it is that there is some discrimination when it comes to gender especially women vying for political seats especially when a woman is the one that is saying that they are going to be the forefront among many men vying for political seats I am not saying it could be there for you but I am saying how has it been especially looking at this fight for gender balance, gender equality and gender equity vying for this senatorial position for Kiyambu County that is a beautiful question first of all the gender has been discriminated but I personally in Kiyambu County I am vying for the senator sorry to say this on air but sometimes I forget that I am a woman because I do not want to play the woman card because sometimes the woman card is where you want to get favor but I come I have actually gone on the ground and there is not a single time that anybody has said that you are a woman in fact in my social media pages I check it out I went to Thika and when I was interacting with the business people a man stood up and said wow senator wetu mama senator mama wa kwanza wa Kiyambu and I said ya kudo so they have actually embraced it and the beauty is the fact that with the two third gender rule that is in our current constitution it is still a tithing problem but we must appreciate the milestones that we have made the fact remains that even currently when there was the nomination of candidates by political parties IEBC issued a statement that all the political parties that are submitting nominated names they must be compliant to the two third gender rule and many political parties especially including the one that I represent today which is KNC actually complied to that gender rule a few did not comply and there was a court ruling that actually dismissed that which means if IEBC had sent it sent the word first and they wanted to ensure that they stick to the two third gender rule that is a milestone on the other hand we have seen right now despite and in spite of whatever coalition you support it is a very major milestone that we have Honorable Mata Karua as one of the of the running mates to one of the political candidates for presidency and currently the female gender I feel is at the best time in history where we have almost like for IE from Kiambu all the male governors they are running mates and their deputies are actually women so it has sent a very good precedence and we have made milestones we are not yet there but I acknowledge where we have reached and I personally don't feel disadvantaged at all as a woman infact I find it as an added advantage when I have gone to the grassroots I have found people embracing the women leadership because you will realize that most men will always say come and see your mama come and see your mama so come and see your mama I want them to say come and see your mama come and see your mama to be very specific I am at a good space I don't feel discriminated or rather the other show was talking about the mindset my mindset is not even I come and offer my services and ask for the electorate of Kiambu to vote me and in as their senator not because I am a woman but because I am a leader who is capable of pushing and propelling the agendas of the people of Kiambu with excellence dedication and commitment so that's the card that I am using and that's why the position that I am vying for is not isolated or set apart just for the women in Kenya I want to take a short break and then we will be back and of course after this break we just want to touch on a few things concerning your manifesto the things that you believe in let me just read what you said you said do not follow where the path may lead go instead where there is no path and leave a trail precisely precisely let's take a short break and we will be back ladies and gentlemen in Makena the senatorial aspirant for Kiambu County after this break and of course keep talking to us keep engaging with us we shall be back in a bit