Have You Ever Heard of the Individual Deceased Personnel File (IDPF)?
Increasingly, our project team “Men of the 2nd Infantry Division” is approached by families whose relatives served with the 2nd ID and lost their lives in WWII. One of our first questions is: “Have you ever heard of the Individual Deceased Personnel File?”
The IDPF also known as Mortuary or Casualty Files, documents may include correspondence, memorandums, teletype messages with the family regarding the burial and other documentation relating to the death of individual personnel during service. These records include the service member’s rank, serial number, date of birth, unit (usually including the mention of a specific unit – e.g. rifle company) and a brief description of the circumstances surrounding the death, including date and place of death. For all those who are seeking information about their veteran who died in the service – the IDPF is an extremely valuable tool, containing all the information that should be available to a veteran’s family.
I WANT TO APPLY FOR THE IDPF – WHO SHOULD I CONTACT?
At this time, Individual Deceased Personnel Files (IDPFs) from 1940-1976 for U.S. Army personnel with surnames that begin with A-L are in the custody of the National Archives at St. Louis (RL-SL), not the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC). For more information about these records, please contact RL-SL via email at stl.archives@nara.gov or try to call them.
To request copies of the IDPFs from 1940-1976 of personnel with surnames that begin with M-Z, please write to:
Department of the Army
U.S. Army Human Resources Command
ATTN: AHRC-FOIA
1600 Spearhead Division Avenue, Dept. 107
Fort Knox, Kentucky 40122-5504
usarmy.knox.hrc.mbx.foia@mail.mil
Or you can call them: 502-613-4400
It is not true that all military records were lost in the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire. It is therefore important to search and request the personal documents and records of your relatives that are available. And we definitely recommend starting with the Individual Deceased Personnel File!
We hope this post is helpful to you. We look forward to your comments and please do not hesitate to share with us your experience with the National Archives at St. Louis or with the U.S. Army Human Resources Command as well as your eventual excitement when you receive the IDPF of your veteran.