WilliamBean 

Thank you for posting your request on History Hub!

If your request is urgent, please see Emergency Requests and Deadlines. 

If you have not done so already, we suggest that you request a copy of Kenneth B. Bean’s Official Military Personnel File (OMPF), which should be in the custody of NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. In many cases where Army and Air Force personnel records were destroyed in the 1973 fire, proof of service can be provided from other records such as morning reports, payrolls, and military orders, and a certificate of military service will be issued. Please complete a GSA Standard Form 180 and mail it to NARA's National Personnel Records Center, (Military Personnel Records), 1 Archives Drive, St. Louis, MO 63138-1002. Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans also may use eVetRecs to request records. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. If there is any information requested by the form that you do not know, you may omit it or provide estimates (such as for dates), but the more information you provide, the easier it will be to locate the correct file if it survived the fire. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF), Archival Records Requests. 

For a complete copy of a personnel file, in Section II, on the line for "Other" (Specify), write "Complete copy of every page of personnel file - not an extract."

Archival OMPFs may also be requested by visiting the Archival Research Room at the National Archives at St. Louis. Please see the linked web pages for more information. Please email stlarr.archives@nara.gov for further assistance prior to making an appointment. 

Please note that the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) does not issue service medals; that is a function of each military service department. Requests for the issuance or replacement of military service medals, decorations and awards should be directed to the specific branch of the military in which the veteran served. However, for cases involving Air Force and Army personnel (click here for exceptions), the NPRC will verify the awards to which a veteran is entitled and forward the request along with the records verification to the appropriate service department for issuance of the medals. 

You may use the addresses listed on the NPRC web page Military Awards and Decorations to submit your request. Please note that there are different guidelines depending on your branch of service and date of separation.

Since some veterans registered with their state or local veterans service agencies after they separated from service, we suggest that you contact the state or county veterans agency where Kenneth B. Bean lived for additional assistance. Please review the NPRC web page Other Methods to Obtain Military Service Records for more information. Please note that registering discharge papers with local and state authorities was optional, so we cannot guarantee that these types of organizations will have his records.

Finally, the Beneficiary Identification Records Locator Subsystem (BIRLS) Death File from the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has been digitized and is available on Ancestry.com as the U.S., Department of Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File, 1850-2010. Please note that there may be a fee for using Ancestry. The BIRLS information is also available free of charge (with registration) on Fold3 as the Veterans Affairs BIRLS Death File. You may also wish to check for access to Ancestry and Fold3 at your local library as many library systems subscribe to these sites, making them free for their patrons. We located one BIRLS entry for Kenneth B. Bean and have included it here for you:

If he took advantage of any federal veteran benefits after his time in service, the US Department of Veteran Affairs may have files on him. To request a search for records, file a FOIA request with the Department of Veterans Affairs. Their FOIA website is https://www.va.gov/foia/. All questions regarding VA’s FOIA procedures and fees may be emailed to VACOFOIAService@va.gov. 

We invite you to continue the conversation with community members on History Hub, but should you have follow up questions for the staff at Archives II, please email us at archives2reference@nara.gov so that we can assist you further. 

We hope this is helpful for your research! 

Sincerely,

Textual Reference Archives II Branch (RR2RR)

[RR2RR 23-65929-RS]