Trace the Steps of Your Military Veteran
Golden Arrow Research specializes in reconstructing veterans’ military service histories through in-depth archival research and analysis, including cases where personnel files were destroyed in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. We connect evidence from surviving military records to establish unit assignments, trace movements, and explain wartime service. We can find you much more than is available on the internet. Our expertise and experience enable us to interpret the complex records for you, taking the guesswork out of your research. If you choose our comprehensive research service, you will receive a detailed historical narrative supported by archival documents, helping you understand where your veteran served, what they did, and the historical significance of their service.
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Access to WWII U.S.N. Service Records
By: Geoff Gentilini
Posted: Mar 19, 2017
The WWII Navy O.M.P.F. or ‘WWII Navy official military personnel file’ is essential for researching veterans who served in the Navy during WWII. In this post we will examine why the WWII Navy O.M.P.F. is useful for your research, what kinds of records you can expect to find in your veteran’s file, and how you can access your veteran’s WWII Navy O.M.P.F. service file.
Cecil T. Schubert 115th Liaison Sq. WWII A.A.F.
By: Geoff Gentilini
Posted: Dec 10, 2018
Today’s post honors WWII Air Corps pilot Cecil T. Schubert. Like many Army and Air Corps veterans of WWII, Mr. Schubert’s military service records were lost in the 1973 fire. Other than the fact that Schubert flew P-38’s in the South Pacific, his family knew very little about his service in the Air Corps during World War II. Schubert was indeed a P-38 pilot, but as it is often the case for veteran’s whose service records were burned in the 1973 fire, there was much more to his story.
How to Access a Marine Corps O.M.P.F.
By: Geoff Gentilini
Posted: May 7, 2017
The Marine Corps O.M.P.F. ( Marine Corps Official Military Personnel File) is a vital tool for researching Marine Corps veterans who served during the 20th Century. The Marine Corps O.M.P.F.’s for WWI, WWII, the Korean War, and Vietnam are maintained at the National Archives and these official military personnel files contain records which cannot be found on the internet.
Frequently Asked Questions
If you are seeking to follow in the footsteps of an individual U.S. military veteran, you have come to the right place! After nearly twenty years of hands-on research experience at the National Archives, we have developed a unique, one of a kind process to trace the steps of indiviudal veterans. We can show you where your veterans served, what they did, uncover unknown details about their service, interpret complex military records and solve the mysteries surrounding your veteran’s service. Our comprehenisve unique research process is not avialable from any other source. We dig deeper and uncover more details because we are the company mining the source, in person, every day at the National Archives. If you are relying solely on records you have found online, then your veteran’s servic history is incmplete. Our expert team can help you to find records that most people would not even know to look for and we help you to understand why those records are significant to your veteran’s story.
After nearly two decades of engaging in research of military and historical records at archival research rooms nationwide we have acquired a level of experience that few can match. Our team includes staff who previously worked for the National Archives, ex-Department of Defense research contractors, military historians, and genealogists. The team of military and genealogy research specialists at Golden Arrow are physically on-site at the archival research centers (nationwide) where we perform research in-person, every day. Our unrivaled knowledge of the archival holdings, U.S. military history, and the decades of combined experience in historical and military records research ensures that the quality of research and attention to detail far exceeds what any other research company can offer you
Yes! If your veteran’s service records were lost in the 1973 fire, we can help rebuild their service history using surviving military records from multiple archival facilities. Through careful research and analysis, we piece together their assignments, movements, and wartime activities, allowing you to follow in their footsteps, often day by day. We also provide a written historical narrative that explains our findings, guides you through the supporting documents, and helps you understand your veteran’s service. Remember, the records that are avialable online only tell you part of the story. Golden Arrow Research can help you to see the complete picture, providing you with a history of your veteran that you and your family can treasure.
When you contact us for a free consultation we will respond promptly with different options for genealogical or military research. We offer a variety of affordable research options. Whether you need a simple record lookup or something more complex, we can help you. The scope of the research will depend on your research needs as well as your budget. We are happy to scale the work to your specific needs. Generally, personnel files range between $20 to $175 depending on the number of pages in the file. A large scale, comprehensive rebuild of a veteran’s service history typically costs about $645.
Many genealogical and military records are not available online, and internet searches often reveal only fragments of an individual’s history. Our research services provide access to original documents held at archival facilities, including records that have never been digitized. We analyze these sources, connect the evidence, and explain their historical context so that you can better understand your ancestor’s life and military service. Professional research can also cost considerably less than traveling to the archives yourself.
Online research has limitations. Optical character recognition, or OCR, can misread names, dates, and military terminology, making relevant records difficult to find. AI-generated answers can introduce additional confusion by misinterpreting documents, confusing individuals or units, and presenting unsupported claims as facts. We are receiving increasing numbers of requests prompted by misleading or fabricated AI search results.
Our expertise helps families work through that confusion. Through hands-on archival research and careful interpretation, we locate records that automated searches may overlook and evaluate what those documents actually establish. We build a documented history of your veteran’s service, explaining both what the surviving evidence reveals and where questions remain. Human expertise matters more than ever with introduction of AI hallucinations. We can help you take the guesswork out of your research.
Most military or historical records requests are ready within a few weeks. However, some large scale research projects may take as long as 16 weeks or more to complete. In many cases we are working on your research request at multiple research archives across the country-which is a time consuming process. We have seen a reduction in force at government agencies where archives are located. This leads to yet longer lines and wait times. Please contact your Senate and Congressional representatievs and ask them to fully staff the National Archives and other agencies tasked with FOIA responses!
We offer a wide variety of research services ranging from simple scanning projects to intensive, in-depth research of individuals, families, veterans, and units. The best way to figure out exactly what you need is to submit your contact info to us. We will promptly send you an email with options for research. You can fill out a simple contact form with any questions here: Request Records
Yes. We will contact you via email once we have completed your research project. Payment is due upon receipt of the email invoice and can be made using either credit/debit or Paypal if preferred. We use Paypal to process all of our payments securely. However, you do not need a Paypal account to submit payment to us. Once payment is received we then send you a download link so that you can download and save your records.
Yes, we do retain most records for at least one year. Please be advised that you are responsible to download and backup your records. If your records are lost we will do what we can to recover them for you but we cannot guarantee that your records will be located. Additionally, any records located and scanned at NARA that are considered ‘archival’ are public records (this does not include Vietnam and later OMPF’s) and these public domain records may be used in one or more of our free educational programs.
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