USA Today visits my place of employment

Andrea Stone, a reporter with USA Today, spent about seven hours at NPRC yesterday. She is writing an article about our newest group of accessioned OMPFs (1945 & earlier separations) which were opened to the public just last week. Her article will be published this week, possibly as early as tomorrow, Wednesday, November 7.

The tour and interviews went very well. Ms. Stone interviewed and observed employees working in the file areas and in the Preservation Lab. She was particularly intrigued by the burned and reconstructed records, and was impressed with the treatment techniques used by our Preservation staff. We were able to show Ms. Stone a burned file for her cousin who had been a POW in France and a final pay voucher from our auxiliary holdings for her father. We located but could not grant Ms. Stone access to a burned file for her husbands uncle, as the record had not been accessioned yet (service into the 1950s). We also scanned and provided her with several photos of the former sixth-floor file area immediately following the 1973 fire.

Prior to her visit, Ms. Stone contacted one of our registered archival researchers, Mr. Frank Smith of Edmonds, WA, who was scheduled to arrive at the center Monday. She was able to talk with Mr. Smith as he viewed for the first time the Navy OMPF of his great-uncle who had been killed in action in 1943.