Clay Shaw Military Records

[Peter Lemkin]

A lot of researchers do not believe in the 1973 fire [although that is the official explanation given for 'denying' many requests]. Not all military by any means were involved in intelligence - even military intelligence operations....but some were and many CIA and other three letter agencies hid people inside the military, although they were really totally 'intel'. My point was that other than next of kin certain types of records just can't be had. Some others can be, but you'll have to do your homework and know his DOB and place, date and place of death; which service he was in and sometimes even the unit designation. One thing you can do is there is a searchable database of all those serviceman buried in military cemetaries. They sometimes have a little information about the persons service activities. Tosh and I were hit with the '73 fire line too. Neither Tosh nor I really believed it. I've never seen any local newspaper stories about this fire. Feel Lucky. I've been trying to get some German intelligence files. By German law they are NEVER EVER delassified - not ever!!! to 'mortals' and certainly not to researchers. If you don't have a 'friend' in the intelligence service, you'll never see a single page.......by the way, one can fairly easily find online the correct form for ordering the military record of a serviceman. If I remember correctly, they need to be sent to different locations depending on the dates of service. The form is not long and seems straight forward....but the games begin immediately. First, I was told no such person ever existed in the military. I then sent proof and they reluctantly sent me about 100 pages....but nonsensical stuff...NOTHING of where he was nor what he was doing. 100 pages of his height, weight, service number, blah, blah, blah. Good luck. It is different if a direct family member files. For legal trails [like Garrison's] the do produce the papers. For us mortals, they rarely do.