Michigan World War II Military Records: Honor List, Draft Cards, and the 1973 Fire

What is the Michigan World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing?

It’s a War Department publication — “World War II Honor List of Dead and Missing Army and Army Air Forces Personnel from Michigan” — compiled in 1946 and organized by county, then alphabetically within each county. It’s the single most useful genealogy resource for a Michigan soldier who didn’t come home. Coverage runs from May 27, 1941, when the President declared an unlimited national emergency, through the report’s cutoff date of January 31, 1946, and it includes both combat and non-combat deaths.

Each entry gives a serial number, rank, and a casualty code rather than a narrative. The codes matter more than they look:

I’ve cross-referenced this list against family letters more than once, and the code is often the only clue you get about how someone actually died — the list itself doesn’t narrate the circumstances. A companion volume, the Summary of War Casualties from World War II for Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard Personnel from Michigan, covers those branches separately, since the Army compiled its own records apart from the sea services.

What other World War II records exist for Michigan servicemen and women?

Several distinct service records survive beyond the Honor List, and each covers a different slice of a soldier’s time in uniform:

• Draft registration cards. The Selective Service System ran six registrations during the war. The Fourth Registration, held April 27, 1942, and nicknamed the “Old Man’s Draft,” collected industrial-skills data on men born between 1877 and 1897 — ages 45 to 64, mostly too old for combat duty. It’s fully digitized and name-searchable on Ancestry and Fold3. Registrations covering younger, draft-eligible men exist too, though access and digitization vary by state.
• WWII Army Enlistment Records. The National Archives holds an electronic database of roughly 9.2 million WWII Army enlistment records, searchable by name through its online catalog.
• Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF). The complete service jacket — assignments, promotions, awards, discharge — held by the National Personnel Records Center. Whether one survives depends heavily on the 1973 fire, discussed below.
• Michigan Adjutant General’s Office records. The state kept its own induction and discharge paperwork for many Michigan servicemembers, held today by the Michigan Department of Military and Veterans Affairs and, for older material, the Bentley Historical Library at the University of Michigan.
• Draft board and county-level records. Local draft boards and county clerks sometimes kept parallel paperwork, since a veteran’s DD Form 214 discharge paper was commonly recorded at the county courthouse as a safeguard for future benefit claims.

Why did the 1973 fire destroy so many World War II service records?

Because one building held nearly all of them, with no backup. A fire broke out just after midnight on July 12, 1973, on the sixth floor of the National Personnel Records Center in Overland, Missouri, near St. Louis. It burned out of control for 22 hours, and firefighters couldn’t fully re-enter the building for two days. No duplicate copies of the affected files existed, no microfilm backups had been made, and no index had ever been created — so even now, the National Archives can only estimate what was lost.

The damage fell unevenly by branch and date. Army records for anyone discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960, suffered roughly an 80% loss — and since Army service accounts for over half of all WWII-era U.S. military service, that one window wiped out the bulk of a generation’s paper trail. Air Force personnel files for people discharged between September 25, 1947, and January 1, 1964, with surnames from “Hubbard” through the end of the alphabet, lost about 75%. Of an estimated 22 million individual files on that sixth floor, somewhere between 16 and 18 million were destroyed outright; roughly 6.5 million survived, many in fragile condition. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel records were stored in a separate facility and weren’t touched.

What can I do if a Michigan veteran’s World War II record burned?

File the request anyway — a burned file doesn’t mean a dead end.

1. Submit Standard Form 180 (SF-180) to the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis, either by mail, fax, or through the online eVetRecs system. Include every detail you have: exact unit, approximate dates, and any description of what happened.
2. Let NPRC attempt reconstruction. Its Records Reconstruction Branch searches auxiliary and organizational records collected specifically for this purpose since 1973 — morning reports, unit rosters, Multiple Name Pay Vouchers from the Adjutant General’s Office, Selective Service registration records, and pay records from the General Accounting Office.
3. Check for a VA claims file. If the veteran ever applied for a pension, disability compensation, or medical care through the Department of Veterans Affairs, the VA likely created its own paperwork independent of the burned personnel file.
4. Contact the Michigan Adjutant General’s office. States often kept their own copies of induction and discharge papers separately from the federal file, and Michigan’s records are held by the Department of Military and Veterans Affairs.
5. Check the county courthouse. Many veterans recorded their DD Form 214 with the county register of deeds after discharge, precisely so they’d have a protected copy for employment or benefit claims later.

According to the National Archives, NPRC’s reconstruction technicians had successfully rebuilt basic service details more than 5.5 million times as of 2023, issuing documentation that stands in for the missing DD Form 214 when a veteran’s file didn’t survive.

How do I search for a Michigan World War II veteran or soldier?

Start broad, then narrow by record type. If the soldier died in service, check the Michigan World War II Honor List first — it’s organized by county, so knowing the hometown narrows the search fast. If he survived, the draft registration card is usually the easiest record to locate, since the Fourth Registration cards are indexed by name. From there, request the OMPF through SF-180 regardless of whether you expect the fire to have touched it; you won’t know until NPRC checks. Michigan genealogy societies and the Bentley Historical Library are also worth a call if the federal trail runs cold.

In my experience, people skip the county-level Michigan records entirely and go straight to the federal archives, which is understandable but backwards — a state Adjutant General’s file or a courthouse-recorded discharge paper can turn up in an afternoon, while a federal SF-180 request can take months.

Frequently asked questions

What is the Michigan WWII Honor List of Dead and Missing? It’s a War Department publication, cut off January 31, 1946, listing Army and Army Air Forces personnel from Michigan who died or went missing between May 27, 1941, and that date. Entries are grouped by county and give serial number, rank, and casualty type.

Did the 1973 fire destroy all WWII military records? No, but it came close for one branch. The fire at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis destroyed roughly 80% of Army personnel files for anyone discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960 — a window that covers the vast majority of WWII Army veterans. Air Force files from 1947-1964 (surnames Hubbard through Z) lost about 75%. Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard personnel files were stored elsewhere and survived.

How do I find my grandfather’s WWII record if it burned in the fire? File Standard Form 180 with the National Personnel Records Center anyway. Even without the original file, NPRC’s Records Reconstruction Branch can often rebuild basic service data from morning reports, unit rosters, Selective Service registration records, VA claims files, and other records that survived separately from the personnel jacket.

Where are Michigan WWII draft registration cards? The Selective Service ran six registrations during WWII. The fourth, the “Old Man’s Draft” of April 27, 1942, covered men born 1877-1897 and is fully digitized and searchable by name on Ancestry and Fold3. Original cards for all registrations are held by the National Archives at St. Louis.

Are Michigan WWII military records free to search? Many are. The Honor List, draft registration card indexes, and NARA’s WWII Army Enlistment Records database are free to search online. Ordering a copy of an actual personnel file, when one survived the fire, involves a fee and a written request to NPRC.