I am trying to research my heritage. My father and I are not in contact and I do not even know my grandmothers real name or either of my grandparents birthdays. My grandfather's name is Lonnie Winston and I believe he was stationed at McClellan airforce base in California during the 1960s. He has a son named Lonnie Winston Jr. That is all I know.
Thank you for posting your question to History Hub!
We suggest that you request a copy of your grandfather’s Official Military Personnel Folder (OMPF) from NARA’s National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. However, in order for the NPRC to successfully locate your grandfather’s record, you will have to provide additional information such as his date and place of birth. We understand that you have very limited personal identifying details about your grandfather, other than his name; therefore, it may be best to dig deeper into the genealogical aspect first to obtain that information, if at all possible.
Based on the limited information available to you, we can in no way say if this veteran is your grandfather, but using a database made available to NARA, we did locate just one Air Force veteran named Lonnie Winston with service spanning WWII to the Vietnam era and ending in 1968. The service number, 12237398, shown for this Lonnie Winston matches information found on both Fold3.com and Ancestry.com. The additional information that may be very helpful to you in your genealogical search, and if you are submitting a request for his OMPF. Please note that the branch is sometimes shown as Army rather than Air Force, but that is because the Air Force was not established until after WWII, but the other information matches. It also indicates he was born in Alabama but enlisted in New York, so if you perhaps know of any family connections in those states, it could help in the identification.
We suggest that you look at the following entries on Fold3.com Index record for Lonnie Winston and Ancestry.com Lonnie Winston in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 for Lonnie Winston to see if you can make any connections to your grandfather and if so, the date and place of birth information will be very valuable to you when submitting your request to the NPRC. Please note that websites such as Ancestry.com and Fold3.com typically charge fees, so you may wish to check with your local public library or university library as these institutions often provide access to websites such as these. We have included screenshots below for you.
If this appears to be a likely candidate for your grandfather, we recommend that you request his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). OMPFs for Air Force personnel are serviced by NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. If not, then we recommend that you continue to search Fold3.com for Lonnie Winston to see if any may be closer matches to your grandfather.
Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans may use eVetRecs to request records. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. Please note that next of kin of a deceased veteran must provide proof of death of the veteran such as a copy of death certificate, letter from funeral home, or published obituary. For more information see Request Military Service Records.
You can instead 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. 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. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF).
Military personnel records are opened to the public 62 years after the veteran leaves the service. If fewer than 62 years have passed since the veteran’s discharge date (to include any reserve time), certain information in the records is not available to the general public without the written consent of the veteran or the next of kin the deceased veteran. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF), Non-Archival Holdings.
Archival OMPFs, those that are 62 years and older, may also be requested by visiting the Archival Research Room at the National Archives at St. Louis. Please email stlarr.archives@nara.gov for further assistance prior to making an appointment.
We hope this is helpful with your family research!
Thank you for posting your question to History Hub!
We suggest that you request a copy of your grandfather’s Official Military Personnel Folder (OMPF) from NARA’s National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. However, in order for the NPRC to successfully locate your grandfather’s record, you will have to provide additional information such as his date and place of birth. We understand that you have very limited personal identifying details about your grandfather, other than his name; therefore, it may be best to dig deeper into the genealogical aspect first to obtain that information, if at all possible.
Based on the limited information available to you, we can in no way say if this veteran is your grandfather, but using a database made available to NARA, we did locate just one Air Force veteran named Lonnie Winston with service spanning WWII to the Vietnam era and ending in 1968. The service number, 12237398, shown for this Lonnie Winston matches information found on both Fold3.com and Ancestry.com. The additional information that may be very helpful to you in your genealogical search, and if you are submitting a request for his OMPF. Please note that the branch is sometimes shown as Army rather than Air Force, but that is because the Air Force was not established until after WWII, but the other information matches. It also indicates he was born in Alabama but enlisted in New York, so if you perhaps know of any family connections in those states, it could help in the identification.
We suggest that you look at the following entries on Fold3.com Index record for Lonnie Winston and Ancestry.com Lonnie Winston in the U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947, U.S., World War II Draft Cards Young Men, 1940-1947 for Lonnie Winston to see if you can make any connections to your grandfather and if so, the date and place of birth information will be very valuable to you when submitting your request to the NPRC. Please note that websites such as Ancestry.com and Fold3.com typically charge fees, so you may wish to check with your local public library or university library as these institutions often provide access to websites such as these. We have included screenshots below for you.
If this appears to be a likely candidate for your grandfather, we recommend that you request his Official Military Personnel File (OMPF). OMPFs for Air Force personnel are serviced by NARA's National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) in St. Louis. If not, then we recommend that you continue to search Fold3.com for Lonnie Winston to see if any may be closer matches to your grandfather.
Veterans and next of kin of deceased veterans may use eVetRecs to request records. See eVetRecs Help for instructions. Please note that next of kin of a deceased veteran must provide proof of death of the veteran such as a copy of death certificate, letter from funeral home, or published obituary. For more information see Request Military Service Records.
You can instead 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. 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. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF).
Military personnel records are opened to the public 62 years after the veteran leaves the service. If fewer than 62 years have passed since the veteran’s discharge date (to include any reserve time), certain information in the records is not available to the general public without the written consent of the veteran or the next of kin the deceased veteran. For more information see Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF), Non-Archival Holdings.
Archival OMPFs, those that are 62 years and older, may also be requested by visiting the Archival Research Room at the National Archives at St. Louis. Please email stlarr.archives@nara.gov for further assistance prior to making an appointment.
We hope this is helpful with your family research!
