Instances of Use of United States Armed Forces Abroad, 1798-2007

This Congressional Research Service report (PDF), courtesy of the Federation of American Scientists, summarizes instances in which the U.S. used its armed forces since 1798:

This report lists hundreds of instances in which the United States has used its armed forces abroad in situations of military conflict or potential conflict or for other than normal peacetime purposes. It was compiled in part from various older lists and is intended primarily to provide a rough survey of past U.S. military ventures abroad, without reference to the magnitude of the given instance noted. The listing often contains references, especially from 1980 forward, to continuing military deployments especially U.S. military participation in multinational operations associated with NATO or the United Nations. Most of these post-1980 instances are summaries based on Presidential reports to Congress related to the War Powers Resolution. A comprehensive commentary regarding any of the instances listed is not undertaken here.

National Personnel Records Center Opens more than Six Million New Military Personnel Files

From a press release:

The National Personnel Records Center (NPRC) will open for the first time all of the individual Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) of Army, Army Air Corps, Army Air Forces, Navy, Marine Corps and Coast Guard military personnel who served and were discharged, retired or died while in the service, prior to 1946. Collectively, these files comprise more than six million records. This is the second step in the progressive opening of the entire paper and microfiche OMPF collection of over 57 million individual files. Additional military personnel records will be made available to the public each year through 2067 until the entire collection is opened.

These archived files are treasured by family members, historians, researchers, and genealogists. Contained in a typical OMPF are documents outlining all elements of military service, including assignments, evaluations, awards and decorations, education and training, demographic information, some medical information and documented disciplinary actions. Some records also contain photographs of the individual and official correspondence concerning military service.

The press release includes information on how to obtain the records.

Military injury reports

Michael Ravnitzky pointed out on posting on FOI-L earlier this week that that you can get reports on military injuries on the Army Medical Surveillance Activity Web site. Although its an Army site, it includes Navy, Air Force and Marine reports too. "These statistics are not readily available anywhere else, so this is an important data resource," he wrote. There is in-depth information about how soldiers are injured, including the body parts most affected and eye-opening summaries such as the one for March 2007, which says that 47,671 of the 504,416 soldiers assigned to the Army - 9.5 percent - had an injury that required medical attention that month.

Free access to historical military records until June 6

Peter Smith of The Courier-Journal points out that Ancestry.com, a genealogy site whose records are also useful for investigative reporters, is offering free access to its vast collection of historical military records until June 6, the anniversary of D-Day:

I've been able to find such things as an image of my grandfather's World War I draft registration card (he never was drafted, but it mentions that his eyes were blue, which I never knew because I've only seen him in black-and-white photos); the history of a great-great-grandfather's Civil War regiment; the Civil War pension card of another ancestor; several references to books mentioning an ancestor who was a captain at Bunker Hill; and a World War II draft card of a great uncle who had already fought in World War I, then gone into vaudeville -- a vocation that isn't surprising considering that he wrote "yes" on the line where the card said, "Telephone."

Anyone who wants to research military records on anyone should check this out before D-Day.

Ancestry.com says its records include "every major U.S. war from the Revolutionary War through Vietnam, including draft registration cards, veterans' gravesites, soldier pension indexes, enlistment records, muster rolls and much more. "

Department of Defense Statistical Information Analysis Division

You can get large quantities of official military statistics on personnel, procurement and casualties courtesy of the Department of Defense's Statistical Information Analysis Division. It won't be easy to analyze, however, because the data is provided as unhelpful PDF files.

Index to Military Periodicals

The Air University Library's Index to Military Periodicals "is a subject index to significant articles, news items, and editorials from English language military and aeronautical periodicals. The Index contains citations since 1988 and is updated continuously."