Diana’s husband Murray Scheshko, as I’ve discussed in previous posts, was in the Air Corps of the U.S. Army in WWII. There is a little question as to whether he was in the 353rd or 352nd Fighter Group or perhaps both.
We knew he had bronze stars and a purple heart, but wanted to order his full records from NARA (National Archives) in St. Louis, MO. Well, the gardener and I ordered them, but we received an unsettling response. Apparently, his records were lost in a fire. 
According to NARA, the only hope we have for information is to send $25 for the “final pay voucher.” The idea is that there is information on that document that might be helpful. Why the original documents were not better taken care of, I do not know. Thank you VA for taking care of our vets in yet another way (sarcasm alert).
I’m going to order the final payment voucher. Wish me luck! Also, if you have had to do this, please let me know in what ways it helped your research.
Entering the Pale 
Wow, how discouraging and frustrating. yes order and see what you get. At the end of his service in the Vietnam war, with the exception of keeping his discharge papers and papers he would need my husband got rid of all of his metals or pins etc. I wrote away to NARA to replace all he had received. We are convinced we did not get back everything he remembered. I guess what I am saying is that I think you can get metals or ribbons that were given at that time to Murray if you don’t already have them. But with this snafu I am wondering if you can? Maybe with this pay voucher something will be on it to track down more information.
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They haven’t responded yet!
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I also have had the bad news about the fire in my own research. I have been told that the veterans were suppose to file a copy of their discharge papers with the county of their home town. I am not sure if this has been done but is something you could check into. Also if Murray received Veteran’s disability a copy of his discharge papers could be with that claim. I hope this may be of help or that you get lucky and someone finds a copy of his discharge in a box of papers someday. Best of luck.
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I think my dad’s was also destroyed.
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My grandfather’s record from service in the Korean war was lost in the fire too. I have been lucky enough to acquire copies of photos and letters he wrote during his time in service but only because he kept them in an old box in the attic.
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You are lucky to have that!
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Wow, that’s awful. That’s why we have to be grateful for all the digitization that is going on now to preserve such records. I hope the pay voucher gives you some information about Murray’s service. So sad.
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This is so sad and frustrating. I hope that the final pay voucher proves useful.
BTW around 40 percent of British WWI service records were destroyed in the Blitz in WWII, so I totally understand your frustration. I have so many dead ends in my research because of it.
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I’ve heard nothing yet though I sent the money!
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The same thing happened to me when I needed a record of Dad’s military service in WWII in the Air Corps. I was told the records were lost in a fire. At the time I wanted to try to get Veteran’s Benefits for my mom. This was in 2008, I believe.
I never was able to get anything but if you remember, Teresa and I drove through Savannah, Georgia a couple of years ago and had a wonderful experience at the 8th Air Force Museum there. Their library has extensive records on members of the 8th. Air Force, and they couldn’t have been nicer to give us access. I highly recommend their research to anyone who has a connection to that history.
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That is great to know! I think my dads were in the fire, too. Near the end he was trying to get accurate records of a rank he held, but the documents had burned up.
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