But yet when the VA computer theft occurred last year, 
they were able to notify me and millions of others via 
direct mail that our personal info may have been 
compromised.

Paul D. Scotton
Associate Professor of Classical Archaeology and Classics
Classics
California State University
1250 N. Bellflower Blvd.
Long Beach, CA 90840-2404


On Mon, 28 May 2007 03:22:11 -0400
  Ron May <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> 
> In a message dated 5/27/2007 6:31:53 P.M. Pacific 
>Daylight Time,  
> [log in to unmask] writes:
> 
> does  anyone know if any of the later service records 
>are included at  all?
> 
> 
> 
> The sad tale of the Viet Nam service records is a 
>cautionary tale for  
> computers. There were two enormous computers created in 
>the 1960s to handle Viet  
> Nam service records; one in the U.S. and one in Saigon. 
>Saigon fell to North  
> Viet Nam and that computer was captured or scuttled. The 
>one in the U.S.  had 
> been modified so many times to upgrade the hard and 
>software that the tons  of 
> records saved during the fall of Saigon could not be 
>read on the U.S.  
> computer. Those records are sitting gathering dust in a 
>warehouse. Fortunately,  
> service people had their own file they personally took 
>out of Viet Nam and  copies 
> of some of that material followed them through the rest 
>of their career.  It 
> is that paltry amount of records that survive today.
> 
> Ron May
> Legacy 106, Inc.
> 
> 
> 
> ************************************** See what's free 
>at http://www.aol.com.