[Research Guidance: U.S. Military Records - Research Outline] Research Guidance Version Of Data : 6/9/2001

U.S. Military Records
Research Outline

KOREAN WAR, 1950 TO 1953, AND VIETNAM WAR, 1964 TO 1972

About 54 thousand of the 5 million American service men and women who served in the Korean War were killed. About 58 thousand of the 7 million Americans who served in Vietnam died.

Most of these casualties are documented in the Military Index, a FamilySearch™ file. This index includes those who died or who were declared dead from 1950 to 1957 in Korea and from 1957 to 1975 in Southeast Asia. The index gives birth and death dates, country of death, cause of death (air, ground, or sea), town and state of residence at time of enlistment, race, religious affiliation, marital status (Vietnam only), service number, rank, and branch of service. The Military Index is available at the Family History Library and at most Family History Centers. For more information on this index on FamilySearch™, see the publication Military Index, Third Edition, January 1995. Series FS, No.2. The following are additional records that contain information on deaths and casualties:

Vietnam Veterans Memorial. Directory of Names. Washington, D.C.: Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, 1984. (FHL book 973 M2vv; computer number 0142646.) Arranged chronologically by the date the death was reported. The directory gives name, rank, branch of service, birth date, death date, city and state of residence, whether missing in action, and the panel and line numbers where the name is inscribed on the memorial.

United States. Office of Public Information. Press Releases (of) Korean Casualties. Washington, D.C.: Defense Printing Service, Microfilm, section, 1960. (FHL film 1930090–107; computer number 59481.) The contents include relationship; names of parents or wife; and whether killed, wounded, or missing in action during the years 1950 to 1953.

Check with the National Personnel Records Center for available service records.

Unit Histories

For brief organizational and service histories of army combat units of the Vietnam War see:

Stanton, Shelby L. Vietnam Order of Battle: A Complete Illustrated Reference to the U.S. Army and Allied Ground Forces in Vietnam, 1961–1973. 1981. Reprint, New York: Galahad Books, 1986.

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[FamilySearch^TM: Research Guidance
Version of Data: 6/9/2001]