Well Steve it was a bunch of "hooey". I received a letter and documents detailing what was available from NARA on Saturday. Seems there are numerous documents at my disposal. Because of the volume, I think I will contact Georgetown University and have a research student copy the designated docs. I could have NARA copy the files, but I am limited to five and it wouldn't do me much good unless I could get ALL of them.
I just got back from a business trip to DC, where I extended my stay for one day just to take a visit to NARA at College Park, MD. After re-reading this thread, I see that I probably should have contacted you before hand to see if there was anything you might want----but as you pointed out, they have lots of records and I couldn't copy all that I wanted.
I wanted to describe my trip and relieve some of the worry some may have about going there in person. First, one important bit of info that I learned:
NOTE: There will be a re-organization at NARA in OCTOBER 2006 and the people who work Reference will be assigned to work on the floor. If you can go now, then you might get more help.
I was very hesitant about taking time and spending money on Hotel in order to visit NARA. I was afraid I would miss a bus or miss my flight(like I did at the last time) or the Archives would be full of people and not enough copiers. You know the usual thing that goes on at a library when your term paper is due.
Well, it was really a breeze. There is a free shuttle bus from the NARA on the Washington Mall to College Park that left at 8am. Take the METRO subway to the ARCHIVES--NAVY MEMORIAL stop on the Green & Yellow lines. When you exit the subway on the escalators, the Navy Memorial with blue-dyed water fountain will be on one side of Pennsylvania Ave and the back of the National Archives is directly across the street. Cross the street to the left and go to the bus shelter to the left of NARA, or East corner, only 30 yards off Pennsylvania Ave. A small (20-seat) bus marked "Archives" will stop there.
The trip takes about 20 minutes. I got to Archives #2 building and checked in at the registration desk just behind front door security. You watch a brief computer presentation on their rules and security. Then you get a photo ID made that becomes your charge card. You pay a cashier on the 1st floor who adds credit to your ID card.
You won't believe security and rules. The following are FORBIDDEN in the research rooms.
. . . pens, folders, sticky notes, more than 1 book,
. . . back packs, cameras
. . . Food & drinks.
Some people had their cameras approved to use for photographing documents; I'm not sure what that takes to do that. They have Lockers (free) in the basement for you to store your belongings. There is a cafe with hot food and sandwiches on the 1st floor.
By 9am I had completed registration. I went through the main security and reported in at the 2nd Floor, where the WW2 documents are stored. The staff(I'm not sure what his title was) was friendly to help out the new guys. I gave him a list of 3 items that were priority on my list. He filled out the Form for each box or file. They are detailed in the info they want on the 3-part Form, so their assistance was appreciated. Their first document pull was at 9:30am and I had my form ready in time for this first pull.
They only pull a few times a day once every hour. You usually have to wait up to 1 hour to get your documents retrieved. But they do skip some hours. One guy missed the 2:30 pull and had to wait until the 3:30 pull which meant he didn't get his documents until nearly 4:30.
While I waited, this staff gave me a badge and escorted me to see a Reference Staff who was more expert on WW2 documents. I told him what I was trying to do and what I had already pulled. He showed me indexes for more files and helped me with my 2nd document pull. The index had subjects such as Maps and Divisional Artillery records and such.
With my Luck, my first pull went wrong. This was not the fault of the staff who filled out my form, either. They pulled from the 84th Division instead of the 85th Division. I went back to the staff who immediately corrected it and returned the correct files within 15 min. Out came a cart with 24 boxes of files.
You check for your name on the Pull log. When they enter your name, you ask for your files. You sign the pink copy of the form to check out the files. You can return the files and they will hold it for 3 days, thus eliminating the 1-hour pull, again.
Each Box is a only 6-inches deep and hold legal size documents that are in folders. Again the rules require you to remove ONLY 1 box and ONLY 1 File (folder) per box. They give you a laminated file marker to mark where it was removed. Oh, they watch you with personel and security cameras so you won't do anything sneaky or stupid.
The Research room is very nice. It has glass windows with a high ceiling which gives great light. There are tables with 4 work stations on each.
Copying Data-- When you find a file you want to copy, you take the Box with you to either the 5-minute copiers scattered around or the Bulk Copy area located at one end of the room. You show the desk the documents and he checks to see if the documents have a Security Classification. If so, they give you a small Declassified label to tape to the glass of the copier. You swipe your card and start copying; again one File folder removed at a time. Cost is 15 Cents each copy and every copy is Legal size. They only start timing your copier use when a line forms behind you. I got carried away and they had to tap me on the shoulder once.
I had some Maps to copy. Some maps were spliced together with glue. In some cases the glue came apart and I could copy each sheet. You can not copy any document UNLESS it hangs over the copier too much---it could damage it. Generally, check with the desk to make sure you can copy it. Some that would not fold out, I took to the bulk copy area where they had a copier that photographed it from above.
One map was larger, so I took it to the 3rd floor Map room. That copier feeds the page thru a copier, so there dimension are limitations for that, too. My map would easily unfold, so it could be copied. The cost was $2.70 a linear foot; total was $5.40. It was a map of the position of all the German units north of the Arno River in August 1944 for the II Corps sector.
Some of the data I retrieved was all the files on the 328FA, including Ops Reports, Journals and general history. I requested the General Orders for the 85th Division which was a thick stack of all the memos that issued awards & decorations----too thick to copy it all. A few Maps from 85th Division Itelligence. Some were marked and some were just extra blank maps. The overlays were brittle and some were faded. Others were great but without the map they are not useful.
The last shuttle back to DC departed at 5:00pm. Sometimes the Archives stays open to 9pm. That would be a great day to go and spend 12 hours there. Of course the cafe closed at 3pm or so. When you go back through security, they check your material to ensure you haven't taken anything and you have all the Declassified stamps.
A day at the archives is sufficient time to collect a lot of useful info. I would highly recommend it. Two days would be better, but you might have to take a day to read your material and decide where to continue. It all depends. Then there is a question as to how much of this can you afford to copy.
A helpful Hint: Copy what you need and don't take time to read it.
Copying Hint: For old, yellow documents, set the copier to Light (2 out of 7 setting).
Hope this helps.
Steve