My father was in the army in WWII. How can I find out about his military career - where he was stationed and so on?
The Navy sent my dad’s 201 File when he died. You can try contacting National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records.
I did a google search on “military records” and “201 file” to find a page that had that link. It says:
If the NPRC doesn’t have your records, they might be able to point you in another direction. Good luck.
On a related note, my father just recently got all his WW II medals. He had to wait about a year after he applied but he did get them. I think this is a new program that not many people know about so if you know any WW II vets who don’t have their medals they can still get them. I don’t know the exact way to apply but your local congressman or senator may be able to help out.
The 1973 fire destroyed 80% of the service records of Army personnel who were discharged 1912-1959. If your father’s service record was one of those, there are alternate sources. One is to look for a copy of his discharge record that he may have filed in the deeds office of the courthouse near where he settled after returning to the U.S. after the war.
Veterans of the two world wars were encouraged to file a copy of their discharge record at their local courthouse in case they lost their original, and needed a copy for employment or military benefits.
One of the things you are going to find, especially with WWII and prior records, is that they were heavily impacted by the '73 fire. Most of these records quite literally went up in smoke. Luckily there are ways to reconstruct the service record of individual veterans, showing where they were and what they did during the war. This is a complicated process that requires a great deal of experience and knowledge of the records at NARA but it can be very rewarding especially since most Army records for this period were burned up in the fire. Here is a link to a site that specializes in record reconstruction from WWII and the Korean War: www.goldenarrowresearch.com
Spammer reported.
not to hijack the thread, but how do you know this is a spammer?
Yeah,it’s a link to a commercial site. But it could be a legitimate piece of advice for somebody who has no other way of finding his father’s military records.
(mods–sorry if this is inappropriate.
But gee…it seems like most of us Dopers never bother to read ATMB ) 
Well, since I reported it yesterday, I guess TPTB have decided to leave it, since they’re usually good about taking down commercial spam.
If a regular member had suggested this site as a place for the OP (who, incidentally, has been inactive for the past eight years) instead of someone who apparently registered for the sole purpose of posting this link, I wouldn’t have been so quick to report it.
The volume of records SUPPOSEDLY destroyed in the St Louis fire is debatable.
That fire is a very convenient excuse for when the employees at the Depository simply do not want to hunt down errant paperwork. You ask for damn near ANYTHING stored by DoD, and you’ll get the standard song-and-dance about “The fire in St Louis.”
Do not accept that as gospel. Lean on people if you have to. You might be surprised just what is still available.
~VOW
Yep. I was surprised to find my husband’s records at the county courthouse, when applying for the veterans’ credit on our property taxes.