Records of the Adjutant General’s Office:
Military Personnel File of Harry S. Truman
(Record Group 407)
Dates: 1917-1973
The Military Personnel File of Harry S. Truman (Record Group 407) consists of correspondence,
cables, memos, military orders, evaluations, oaths, handwritten notes, medical records, pay
vouchers, and a clipping from the Congressional Record documenting the military service of
Colonel Truman. Truman served during World War I as a Field Artillery officer, and served
in the Officers’ Reserve Corps until he retired in January, 1953.
[Administrative Information | Administrative History | Collection Description
| Series Descriptions | Folder
Title List]
ADMINISTRATIVE INFORMATION
Size: Less than one linear foot.
Access: Open.
Copyright: Documents created by United States Government employees in the course of their official duties are in the public domain. Copyright interests in documents that do not fall into this category are presumed to remain with the authors of the documents or their heirs.
Processed by: C.W. Orhvall (1977).
Updated by: David Kreidler (2005) as part of the Truman Library Internship
Supervising Archivists: Randy Sowell and David Clark.
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ADMINISTRATIVE HISTORY
Harry S. Truman enlisted for service in World War I with the National Guard and received his
commission as a first lieutenant, Battery F, 2nd Field Artillery Regiment, Missouri National
Guard, on June 22, 1917. On September 5, 1917, Truman’s regiment was called into federal service
as the 129th Field Artillery Regiment. Truman was promoted to captain on April 23, 1918.
He commanded Battery D of the 129th Field Artillery in France during the War. Truman was
honorably discharged on May 6, 1919. He received his commission as a major in the Officers’
Reserve Corps in 1920. Truman remained an officer in the Field Artillery Reserve until he
retired with the rank of colonel on January 31, 1953.
The Military Personnel File of Harry S. Truman (Record Group 407) at first went through the
normal procedures of all military records. When Truman became President in 1945, his file was
transferred to the Office of the Adjutant General, as was customary with the records of especially
eminent officials. The file was later sent to the National Personnel Records Center in
St. Louis, Missouri, and then to the Harry S. Truman Library. In 2005, the Truman Library returned
the original documents to the National Personnel Records Center, where they were stored
with other military records of prominent Americans. The Library kept photocopies of the contents
of the file.
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COLLECTION DESCRIPTION
The Records of the Adjutant General’s Office: Military Personnel File of Harry S. Truman
(Record Group 407), contains correspondence, memoranda, cables, memos, military orders,
evaluations, oaths, handwritten notes, medical records, pay vouchers, and a clipping from
the Congressional Record documenting the military service of Colonel Truman. Truman
served during World War I as a Field Artillery officer, and continued in the Organized Reserve
Corps until he retired in 1953.
Documents contained herein detail various aspects of Harry S. Truman’s military career. The Awards
File details the awards given to him by the United States. Pay vouchers, discharge orders, and
an affidavit are contained within the Pay Records. The General Historical Files includes
correspondence between Truman and Army officials over various subjects, evaluations made during
his duty at the Reserve’s summer camps, requests from third parties seeking information on Truman’s
military career, and documents concerning Truman’s retirement in 1953.
The majority of the collection is contained within the Service Files and the Medical Records.
Included are documents detailing his promotion evaluations, an essay written by Truman concerning
trajectory, oaths, military orders, press releases written by the Army about Truman’s career, and
retirement documentation. The final two Service Files also incorporate documents created while
Truman was a United States Senator (1935-1940) and as President (1947-1950). His medical history
while with the Army is detailed in the Medical Records, which also contains documents pertaining to
Truman’s stay at the Army and Navy General Hospital in Hot Springs, Arkansas, while he was a U.S.
Senator.
The General Historical File, 1918-1957, and two other folders contain copies of photoduplicated
documents. In these cases, the original documents may no longer exist, or were subsequently
damaged so that the photoduplicated version is more legible.
Folders are arranged in alphabetically by folder title.
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Descriptions | Folder Title List ]
SERIES DESCRIPTIONS
| Container Nos. |
|
Series |
| 1 |
|
SUBJECT FILES, 1917-1973 |
|
|
Military personnel records pertinent to Colonel Harry S. Truman’s military service. Arranged alphabetically by subject and thereunder chronologically. |
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Series Descriptions | Folder Title List ]
FOLDER TITLE LIST
Box 1
- Awards File, 1944-1953
- [Copies of damaged original documents]
- [Copies of possibly destroyed original document]
- General Historical File, 1918-1957
- General Historical File, 1932-1973
- Medical Records, 1917-1955
- Pay Records, 1917-1933
- Service File
[1 of 3]
[2 of 3]
[3 of 3]
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Descriptions | Folder Title List ]
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