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The National Personnel Records Center(s) (NPRC) is an agency of the
National Archives and Records Administration The National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) is an " independent federal agency of the United States government within the executive branch", charged with the preservation and documentation of government and historical records. It ...
, created in 1966. It is part of the United States National Archives federal records center system and is divided into two large Federal Records Centers located in St. Louis, Missouri, and Valmeyer, Illinois. The term "National Personnel Records Center" is often used to describe both the physical Military Personnel Records Center facility and as a broader term for all records centers in the St. Louis area. To differentiate, the broader collection is occasionally called the "National Personnel Records Centers".


Military Personnel Records Center

The Military Personnel Records Center houses
United States Armed Forces The United States Armed Forces are the military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six service branches: the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, Space Force, and Coast Guard. The president of the United States is ...
military service records dating from the late 1800s to the early 2000s. In 1956, records were moved into the MPRC's new building at 9700 Page Avenue in
Overland, Missouri Overland is a city in St. Louis County, Missouri, United States. The population was 16,062 at the 2010 census. History The area south of the King's Road to St. Charles was first settled in the early 1820s, when travelers westward from St. Louis ...
. The building served as the ''de facto'' headquarters for the entire National Personnel Records Center, and was often referred to simply as "NPRC" (the building's official code was NPRC-MPR). A
fire Fire is the rapid oxidation of a material (the fuel) in the exothermic chemical process of combustion, releasing heat, light, and various reaction products. At a certain point in the combustion reaction, called the ignition point, flames ...
at the facility burned from July 12-16, 1973, destroying about one-third of its 52 million official military personnel files. In 2011, the MPRC moved to Spanish Lake, Missouri. The designation "Military Personnel Records Center" was dropped from most official correspondence; the building in Spanish Lake was referred to as the "National Personnel Records Center". The term "National Personnel Records Center" may now refer to both the physical building in Spanish Lake or all of the National Archives federal records complexes located in St. Louis.


Civilian Personnel Records Center

The Civilian Personnel Records Center houses the Official Personnel Folders (OPF) and Employee Medical Folders (EMF) of separated
United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...
Federal civilian employees. CPR also houses personnel documents that date back to the mid-nineteenth century, although the bulk of the collection covers the period from 1900 to present. The medical records of military family members treated at
Army An army (from Old French ''armee'', itself derived from the Latin verb ''armāre'', meaning "to arm", and related to the Latin noun ''arma'', meaning "arms" or "weapons"), ground force or land force is a fighting force that fights primarily on ...
,
Air Force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
and
Coast Guard A coast guard or coastguard is a maritime security organization of a particular country. The term embraces wide range of responsibilities in different countries, from being a heavily armed military force with customs and security duties to ...
medical facilities are also stored here. The Civilian Personnel Records Center was first known as the "St. Louis Federal Records Center" before becoming part of the National Personnel Records Center in 1966. The Civilian Personnel Records Center was located on Winnebago Street in downtown St. Louis, Missouri, and was known as "NPRC-CPR". The facility later shifted locations to Boulder Boulevard in Valmeyer, Illinois and became known as the "NPRC Annex".


National Archives at St. Louis

Housed in the same building as the Military Personnel Records Center (MPRC) is the National Archives at St. Louis which is a regional archives considered part of National Archives research services and separate from the majority of correspondence work handled by the main part of MPRC. The National Archives at St. Louis is the legal custodian of archived military and civilian personnel records and related personnel data series records. These files are considered open to the public and separate from the military personnel files which are considered protected under the
Privacy Act of 1974 The Privacy Act of 1974 (, ), a United States federal law, establishes a Code of Fair Information Practice that governs the collection, maintenance, use, and dissemination of personally identifiable information about individuals that is maintain ...
. Archival records at St. Louis include: * U.S. Army patient rosters of certain military hospitals * Selective Service System records from 1940 - 1976 * Army pay cards *
Philippine Army The Philippine Army (PA) (Tagalog: ''Hukbong Katihan ng Pilipinas''; in literal English: ''Army of the Ground of the Philippines''; in literal Spanish: ''Ejército de la Tierra de la Filipinas'') is the main, oldest and largest branch of the ...
record material * Navy casualty files, also known as "Individual Deceased Personnel Files" or IDPFs * Copies of officer order copies * Military burial files and headstone applications * German Civilian Personnel files from
World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...


Preservation St. Louis Office

The National Archives at St. Louis maintains an on-site preservation office for the upkeep of locally maintained records, specifically those records which were damaged by the 1973 National Archives fire. The St. Louis facilities maintain several conservation and preservation labs which deal with fire damaged records as well as records affected by age and
mold A mold () or mould () is one of the structures certain fungi can form. The dust-like, colored appearance of molds is due to the formation of spores containing fungal secondary metabolites. The spores are the dispersal units of the fungi. Not ...
.


Tenant agencies

The National Personnel Records Center presently hosts fourteen tenant agencies of the
United States federal government The federal government of the United States (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the national government of the United States, a federal republic located primarily in North America, composed of 50 states, a city within a fed ...
. These include the
Department of Veterans Affairs The United States Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) is a Cabinet-level executive branch department of the federal government charged with providing life-long healthcare services to eligible military veterans at the 170 VA medical centers an ...
and the FBI, as well as liaison offices with all of the U.S. armed forces with the exception of the
United States Coast Guard The United States Coast Guard (USCG) is the maritime security, search and rescue, and law enforcement service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the country's eight uniformed services. The service is a maritime, military, m ...
.


Directors

The director of the National Personnel Records Center is usually a senior federal civil service employee, rated as a GS-14/15 or as a member of the
Senior Executive Service The Senior Executive Service (SES) is a position classification in the civil service of the United States federal government equivalent to general officer or flag officer rank in the U.S. Armed Forces. It was created in 1979 when the Civil Service ...
. Office of Personnel Management archives list the directorship of NPRC as established in 1966; prior to this time, the two separate records centers for civilian and military personnel records were considered as separate director positions under the General Services Administration. The term "National Personnel Records Center Director" only came into being when the two buildings were administratively (but not physically) merged in 1966.Office of Personnel Management, "National Archives - National Personnel Records Center. Senior leadership positions (1966 - 2015)", Oct 2015 National Personnel Records Center Directors * Joseph Wertzberger: 1966 - 1973 * Warren Griffin: 1973 - 1979Served as director during the National Personnel Records Center fire * J. D. Kilgore: 1979 - 1982 * David Petree: 1982 - 2000 * Ronald Hindman: 2000 - 2011 * Scott Levins: 2012–PresentServed as Acting Director (2011 - 2012) after previously have served as NPRC Assistant Director


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External links


National Personnel Records Center
{{authority control National Archives and Records Administration 1956 establishments in Missouri Buildings and structures in St. Louis