News & Announcements

February 28, 2025

ASLH Letter regarding destruction of personnel records at Travis Air Force Base

February 28, 2025
Laurence Brewer
Chief Records Office
National Archives and Records Administration

cc: Hannah Bergman, Acting General Counsel, NARA

Dear Mr. Brewer:

On behalf of the American Society for Legal History (ASLH), the Society’s Committee on Documentary Preservation objects strenuously to the destruction of veterans’ Vietnam-era flight records at Travis Air Force Base, Fairfield, California.

It has come to our attention that flight records for 750,000 veterans, potential claimants who could benefit from an Agent Orange class action lawsuit, have been, or are scheduled to be destroyed. This litigation terminated with a Final Stipulation and Order in Nehmer v. United States Department of Veterans Affairs, No. CV-86-6160 (N.D. Cal., Nov. 5, 2020), which required the U.S. government to identify exposed individuals and grant disability and death benefits where appropriate. These flight records could potentially constitute proof that such individuals served in Vietnam, so may have been exposed to Agent Orange and suffered significant health injuries. This identification and compensation process is still ongoing.

Regardless of the resolution of particular claims, identifying particular individuals who may have suffered injury in Vietnam is of great importance for future historians of wartime legal redress against the U.S. government. Information about the numbers and characteristics of injured veterans is crucial for understanding a period when the military’s legal responsibility for personnel health conditions was, and continues to be, highly contested.

Therefore, the American Society for Legal History requests that any existing flight records at Travis Air Force Base be preserved and made accessible to the public where not classified.

Thank you for your consideration,

Committee on Documentary Preservation, American Society for Legal History

Peter L. Reich, J.D., Ph.D., Chair