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73-572: Its facility is located at 1 Archives Drive in Spanish Lake , a census-designated place in St. Louis County, Missouri , near St. Louis . Its former location was in Overland . The new Archival Records became open to unlimited access by the general public with all requests for information to such records responded by providing a copy of the entire file. Those seeking these records were required to pay

146-559: A NASA facility in Ohio for drying. After the fire, the NPRC began recovery and reconstruction efforts and established an entire new branch to deal with damaged records; staffers searched for alternate sources to supplement lost files, looking for information both within and outside of NPRC holdings. The National Archives has described the 1973 fire as an "unparalleled disaster" to "cultural heritage." In August 2004, an Internet hoax claimed that

219-527: A bad reputation as being non- customer friendly, with an average wait time of between 11 and 16 weeks for record responses. Until 1996, the Military Personnel Records Center operated through a complex system of paperwork forms with little computer automation. By the 1980s, serious complaints about the facility led the military service departments to develop procedures to hold their own records rather than have such records sent to

292-585: A fee, whereas the "Non-Archival Records", that is, the bulk of MPRC's holdings, are provided free of charge. As part of the Archival Records program, a number of notable persons' records were also transferred to the custody of the National Archives and open to general public access. The Military Personnel Records Center was designed by architect Minoru Yamasaki , and opened in the fall of 1955 after three years of construction. The building

365-528: A fully laden aircraft capable of flying from Singapore to Paris , against strong headwinds during mid-winter ; the MD-11 did not have sufficient range for this at the time. Due to the less-than-expected performance figures, Singapore Airlines canceled its order for 20 MD-11s on August 2, 1991, and ordered 20 Airbus A340-300s instead. In 1992, McDonnell Douglas unveiled a study of a double deck jumbo-sized aircraft designated MD-12 . Despite briefly leaving

438-414: A government building by Lieutenant Governor De Lassus De St. Vrain, the last Spanish executive to rule this section, was erected. Spanish Lake prospered in the nineteenth century, as a crossroads farming village came into being. The Bellefontaine Road area was settled largely after General Bissell relocated Fort Bellefontaine . Fort Bellefontaine was established in 1806 by Gen. James Wilkerson, governor of

511-528: A mass exodus of the white population, spurred on by blockbusting , a practice some U.S. real estate agents use to encourage white property owners to sell their houses quickly at a loss, implying the African-Americans moving into their neighborhood will depress their property values. This era of the city's history is chronicled in the documentary Spanish Lake , although its depiction comes with some disagreement from community stakeholders. As of

584-404: A monetary paycheck award. The bonus system was discontinued, and an interfile audit program was initiated. 38°46′25″N 90°13′51″W  /  38.7736°N 90.2307°W  / 38.7736; -90.2307 Spanish Lake, Missouri Spanish Lake is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in St. Louis County , Missouri , United States. The population

657-666: A partnership with St. Louis pharmacy chain Medicare-Glaser Corp. to form Express Scripts to provide drugs for the Sanus HMO. McDonnell Douglas acquired Microdata Corporation in 1983. The division was spun out as a separate company, McDonnell Douglas Information Systems in 1993. The corporation also produced the Sovereign (later M7000) series of systems in the UK, which used the Sovereign operating system developed in

730-542: A pitch for such a jet with Boeing wings, but nothing came of any of the proposals. In 1999, Boeing completed the spin off of the civilian line of helicopters to form MD Helicopters , which was formerly part of McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems. Starting August 17, 2006, Boeing closed down the Long Beach factory as orders for the C-17 ceased. Some of the company's lasting legacies are non-aviation related. They are

803-459: A rural refuge from St. Louis city and received an exclusively white population. The 1970s saw the proliferation of dense apartment housing to Spanish Lake. African-Americans fleeing the failed Pruitt-Igoe public housing high rises in the city moved into the apartments via the Section 8 voucher system which immediately struck racial tensions in the area, particularly in local schools. The 1990s saw

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876-603: A series of experimental high-speed jet aircraft in the Skyrocket family, with the Skyrocket DB-II being the first aircraft to travel at twice the speed of sound in 1953. Both companies were eager to enter the new missile business, Douglas moving from producing air-to-air rockets and missiles to entire missile systems under the 1956 Nike program and becoming the main contractor of the Skybolt ALBM program and

949-618: Is in the Hazelwood School District . McDonnell Douglas McDonnell Douglas Corporation was a major American aerospace manufacturing corporation and defense contractor , formed by the merger of McDonnell Aircraft and the Douglas Aircraft Company in 1967. Between then and its own merger with Boeing in 1997, it produced well-known commercial and military aircraft, such as the DC-10 and

1022-534: Is land and 0.2 square miles (0.52 km ), or 2.13%, is water. Spanish Lake, originally called Spanish Pond until the late nineteenth century, was named after the Spanish troops who stayed there while building a fortified post for Spain in 1768. Much of the area was once the property of James De St. Vrain, a brother of the last Spanish lieutenant governor of Upper Louisiana . It was in this district, near Spanish Pond, that an old log cabin, said to have been used as

1095-554: The Advanced Tactical Fighter and Joint Strike Fighter , severely hurt McDonnell Douglas. McDonnell Douglas built only a small wind tunnel test model. At its peak in mid-1990, McDonnell Douglas employed 132,500 people, but dropped to about 87,400 by the end of 1992. In 1991, the MD-11 was not quite a success; ongoing tests of the MD-11 revealed a significant shortfall in the aircraft's performance. An important prospective carrier, Singapore Airlines , required

1168-625: The Airbus A300 , but it never progressed to a prototype. Such an aircraft might have given McDonnell Douglas an early lead in the huge twinjet market that developed in the 1970s, as well as commonality with many of the DC-10's systems. In 1977, the next generation of DC-9 variants, dubbed the "Super 80" (later renamed the MD-80 ) series, was launched. In 1977, the KC-10 Extender became

1241-641: The MD-80 airliners, the F-15 Eagle air superiority fighter , and the F/A-18 Hornet multirole fighter. The corporation's headquarters were at St. Louis Lambert International Airport , near St. Louis , Missouri . The company was formed from the firms of James Smith McDonnell and Donald Wills Douglas in 1967. Both men were of Scottish ancestry, were graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology , and had worked for

1314-589: The National Archives shared this concern. When it learned of the hoax, the NPRC informed the Department of Defense and modified its online application process to minimize any excess requests. Also, to dispel the rumor, NPRC officials posted a notice on the eVetRecs website stating: Neither the Department of Defense nor the NPRC intends to destroy any [Official Military Personnel Files] stored at

1387-548: The Thor ballistic missile program. McDonnell made a number of missiles, including the unusual ADM-20 Quail , as well as experimenting with hypersonic flight, research that enabled it to gain a substantial share of the NASA projects Mercury and Gemini . Douglas also gained contracts from NASA, notably for part of the enormous Saturn V rocket. The two companies were now major employers, but both were having problems. McDonnell

1460-577: The census of 2000, there were 21,337 people, 8,381 households, and 5,673 families residing in the CDP. The population density was 2,900.4 inhabitants per square mile (1,119.9/km ). There were 8,852 housing units at an average density of 1,203.3 per square mile (464.6/km ). The racial makeup of the CDP was 42.25% White , 54.79% African American , 0.20% Native American , 0.66% Asian , 0.03% Pacific Islander , 0.46% from other races , and 1.61% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 1.03% of

1533-552: The territory of Louisiana . The fort served as one of the most important military posts west of the Mississippi River until the troops were removed to the Jefferson Barracks reservation in 1827. Traffic between St. Louis and the fort was busy; many officials had homes in both places, and visiting dignitaries usually went to both sites. The liveliest traffic was effected by the farmers riding back and forth to

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1606-645: The 1970s was a serious shock to the commercial aviation industry. McDonnell Douglas was hit by the economic shift and forced to contract while diversifying into new areas to protect against more downturns. In 1984, McDonnell Douglas expanded into helicopters by purchasing Hughes Helicopters from the Summa Corporation for $ 470 million. Hughes Helicopters was made a subsidiary initially and renamed McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Systems in August 1984. McDonnell Douglas Helicopters's most successful product

1679-548: The 747, but ultimately the double deck concept would not see the light of day until the Airbus A380 in the 2000s. Following Boeing's 1996 acquisition of Rockwell 's North American division, McDonnell Douglas merged with Boeing in August 1997 in a US$ 13 billion stock swap , with Boeing as the surviving company. Boeing introduced a new corporate identity based on the McDonnell Douglas logo, which showed

1752-768: The Air Force Records Center in Kansas City, Missouri . In 1957, the records were then transferred to MPRC in St. Louis. United States Marine Corps records had previously been transferred to the center, under Navy auspices, in 1957. Coast Guard records began to be received in 1958. On July 1, 1960, control of the Military Personnel Records Center was transferred to the General Services Administration . The three active-duty military records centers at MPRC—the Air Force Records Center,

1825-517: The Coast Guard notice in a September 22 article on the hoax. The Coast Guard remarked that the "confusion may stem from a recent DOD paper" which stated that Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF) would be retained by the National Archives, and that the military services would have the right to destroy source documents. The cautionary notice remained on the Coast Guard website until at least February 2005. The National Archives confirmed that neither

1898-411: The Department of Defense nor the NPRC planned to destroy any official files held at the NPRC. National Archives officials stressed that all records are permanently archived, meaning that they will never be destroyed and always maintained as historical documents. On September 22, 2004, the National Archives posted a press release on the rumor. The release read in part: There is a false rumor circulating on

1971-561: The Internet, in e-mails, and among veteran service organizations that Official Military Personnel Files (OMPFs) at the National Personnel Records Center...will be digitized and then destroyed. This rumor is NOT TRUE...The National Archives and Records Administration preserves and protects OMPFs that were transferred from the military service departments because they are permanently valuable records that document

2044-616: The McDonnell Douglas Corporation (MDC). Earlier, McDonnell bought 1.5 million shares of Douglas stock to help its partner meet "immediate financial requirements". The two companies seemed to be a good fit for each other. McDonnell's military contracts provided an instant solution for Douglas' cash flow problems, while the revenue from Douglas' civil contracts would be more than enough for McDonnell to withstand peacetime declines in procurement. McDonnell Douglas retained McDonnell Aircraft's headquarters location at what

2117-508: The Military Personnel Records Center was electronically scanning "all military records on site" and would "destroy all hard copies" when the process was complete. The source of the hoax was a sham email circulating online that advised veterans and dependents to request original records via the NPRC if they did not want them to be destroyed. The email had a header that read: "Destruction of Original Military Records, HQ AFR/DP/04-254". According to Scott Levins, assistant director of military records at

2190-479: The Military Personnel Records Center. In 2011, the Military Personnel Records Center moved to a new facility in Spanish Lake, Missouri. Beginning in 2015, the designation "Military Personnel Records Center" was dropped from most official correspondence, with the military records building in Spanish Lake thereafter referred to as the "National Personnel Records Center". Likewise, the civilian records counterpart

2263-540: The NPRC, officials at the center first learned of the hoax in late August, and began analyzing record requests to see if request volume had increased. Director Peter S. Gaytan of the American Legion National Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation (VA&R) Commission posted a bulletin, dated September 30, warning about the hoax and explaining that the NPRC would only perform scans to "minimize the handling of fragile documents or reduce

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2336-496: The National Archives and Records Administration director of congressional and public affairs, said: "We have a limited number of people to do the work and anything that ramps the requests up this quickly is a big production issue with us." Susan Cooper, the archive's public affairs officer, said that some records were being digitized "for reference and preservation" because frequent handling caused "some wear and tear." The Air Reserve Personnel Center also published Garamone's article in

2409-490: The National Personnel Records Center conducted a further investigation and revealed that an additional ten employees had most likely been involved with the improper disposal of records, with enough evidence from an audit to recommend that five of the employees be dismissed from their posts. The motivation behind the mishandling and disposal of records was found to be a "bonus system" in which employees who had interfiled documents more quickly into service records were presented with

2482-473: The National Personnel Records Center. The building became then known as the "National Personnel Records Center, Military Personnel Records" (NPRC-MPR). In 1965, when photocopy machines became widespread at the Military Personnel Records Center, it became easier to reproduce service records upon request from all interested parties. Even so, between 1965 and 1973 the Military Personnel Records Center gradually became overwhelmed by records requests. and developed

2555-693: The Naval Records Management Center, and the Army Records Center—were consolidated into a single civil service-operated records center. GSA placed the center under the administration of its National Archives and Records Service (NARS). In 1966, the military personnel records center merged administratively (but not physically) with the St. Louis Federal Records Center (later known as the Civilian Personnel Records Center or CPR) and became part of

2628-542: The November/December 2004 issue of its newsletter, and the U.S. Army and U.S. Marine Corps websites both continue, as of 2023, to display notices about the file destruction "urban legend." In 2014, two employees of the Military Personnel Records Center were discovered to have unlawfully disposed or destroyed over eighteen hundred documents by either abandoning them in lesser used areas of the MPR facility, removing

2701-636: The aircraft manufacturer Glenn L. Martin Company . Douglas had been chief engineer at Martin before leaving to establish Davis-Douglas Company in early 1920 in Los Angeles. The following year, he bought out his backer and renamed the firm the Douglas Aircraft Company . McDonnell founded J.S. McDonnell & Associates in Milwaukee , Wisconsin, in 1926 to produce a personal aircraft for family use. The economic depression from 1929 ruined his ideas and

2774-401: The average family size was 3.09. In the CDP, the population was spread out, with 30.4% under the age of 18, 9.9% from 18 to 24, 31.3% from 25 to 44, 17.3% from 45 to 64, and 11.0% who were 65 years of age or older. The median age was 31 years. For every 100 females, there were 86.0 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 79.0 males. The median income for a household in the CDP

2847-573: The breach to veteran privacy was considered minimal. U.S. Archivist David S. Ferriero commended investigators who “helped to stop the actions of the individuals involved, and to protect these irreplaceable records.” According to the St. Louis Post-Dispatch , the legal plea of one of the employees involved said that the center "audited records handled by 41 employees in 2011-12 and found that of more than 1,200 records assigned to [the employee], 850 were missing." After questions from Senator Claire McCaskill ,

2920-431: The center. The purpose of any electronic scanning would be to reduce the handling of fragile records during the reference process or to reduce the time necessary to locate and answer an OMPF inquiry. Despite the NPRC warning, National Border Patrol Council (NBPC) officials were deceived by the hoax and posted part of the sham email on their website. It remained posted until the news website Federal Computer Week advised

2993-421: The city. Spanish Lake became a well-developed neighborhood with the arrival of German immigrants. Farmland was intensely cultivated, and small businesses and industries sprang up around the intersection of Bellefontaine, Parker, and Spanish Pond roads, forming the village's center. The Catholic parish of St. Aloysius in Spanish Lake was founded by, and for many years served as, a mission of Baden , located in

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3066-612: The collapse of the A-12 program led to the layoff of 5,600 employees. The advanced tactical aircraft role vacated by the A-12 debacle would be filled by another McDonnell Douglas program, the F/A-18E/F Super Hornet . However the purchasing of aircraft was curtailed as the Cold War came to an abrupt end in the 1990s. This curtailment in military procurements combined with the loss of the contracts for two major projects,

3139-524: The company collapsed. He worked at three companies, joining Glenn Martin Company in 1933. He left Martin in 1938 to try again with his own firm, McDonnell Aircraft Corporation , this time based at Lambert Field , outside St. Louis, Missouri . Douglas Aircraft profited during World War II . The company produced about 10,000 C-47s, a military variant of the Douglas DC-3 , from 1942 to 1945. The workforce swelled to 160,000. Both companies suffered at

3212-440: The company's St. Louis headquarters where he continued sales efforts on the DC-10 and managed the company as a whole as president and chief operating officer through 1971. The DC-10 began production in 1968 with the first deliveries in 1971. As early as 1966 and for decades thereafter, McDonnell Douglas considered building a twin-engined aircraft named the "DC-10 Twin" or DC-X. This would have been an early twinjet similar to

3285-527: The computer systems and companies developed in the company's subsidiary McDonnell Automation Company (McAuto) which was created in the 1950s initially used for numerical control for production starting in 1958 and computer-aided design (CAD) starting in 1959. Its CAD program MicroGDS remains in use with the latest official version 11.3 issued in June 2013. By the 1970s, McAuto had 3,500 employees and $ 170 million worth of computer equipment. This made it one of

3358-479: The contract's termination: the government claimed that the contractors had defaulted on the contract and were not entitled to the final progress payments, while McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics believed that the contract was terminated out of convenience, and thus the money was owed. The case was contested through litigation until a settlement was reached in January 2014. The chaos and financial stress created by

3431-547: The council of the situation on September 21. Rich Pierce, executive vice president of the Border Patrol Council, said the email had come from what he described as "a really good source." The U.S. Coast Guard posted a notice about the hoax in the Military Personnel section of its website, warning of "false reports circulating around the internet to veterans' groups." Federal Computer Week discussed

3504-684: The decks of the World War II Essex -class aircraft carriers , the Skyhawk was small, reliable, and tough. Variants of it continued in use in the Navy for almost 50 years, finally serving in large numbers in a two-seat version as a jet trainer. Douglas also made commercial jets, producing the DC-8 in 1958 to compete with the Boeing 707 . McDonnell was also developing jets, but being smaller it

3577-463: The documents and then destroying them off site, or abandoning the records in a wooded area in western Illinois . 241 documents had been found discarded in the Spanish Lake area in 2012. The two employees were later charged and convicted of destruction of government records; an investigation revealed the majority of the documents had been administrative "interfile" material into military personnel records, most of which pertained to deceased veterans, thus

3650-635: The end of the war, facing an end of government orders and a surplus of aircraft. Douglas continued to develop new aircraft, including the DC-6 in 1946 and the DC-7 in 1953. The company moved into jet propulsion, producing the F3D Skyknight in 1948 and then the more "jet age" F4D Skyray in 1951. In 1955, Douglas introduced the U.S. Navy's first attack jet, the A4D Skyhawk . Designed to operate from

3723-430: The essential evidence of military service The U.S. Air Force website published an October 1, 2004 article about the hoax by military reporter Jim Garamone. Garamone said that, contrary to the "internet rumor," National Archives officials were not destroying any records. Also, he reported that according to NPRC officials in St. Louis there had been a "rise in the number of veterans requesting their records." John Constance,

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3796-425: The functional setup where engineers with specific expertise in aerodynamics, structural mechanics, materials, and other technical areas worked on several different aircraft. This was replaced by a product-oriented system where they focus on one specific airplane. As part of reorganization, 5,000 managerial and supervisory positions were eliminated at Douglas. The former managers could apply for 2,800 newly created posts;

3869-423: The globe being encircled in tribute to the first aerial circumnavigation which was accomplished in 1924 by Douglas aircraft. It was designed by graphic designer Rick Eiber, who had been the corporate identity consultant for Boeing over ten years. Between 1993 and just after the merger in 1997, McDonnell Douglas performed studies on the feasibility of a twin-engine jet using MD-11 components, and ultimately made

3942-561: The largest computer processors in the world during this era. In 1981, McAuto acquired Bradford Systems and Administrative Services for $ 11.5 million and began processing medical claims. In 1983, two principals of Bradford who had to come work at McAuto—Joseph T. Lynaugh and Howard L. Waltman —formed the Sanus Corporation, a health maintenance organization that was a wholly owned subsidiary of McDonnell Douglas. In 1986, after McDonnell Douglas reduced its control, Sanus announced

4015-450: The local fire department finally declared the fire over after a total of 42 fire districts had cooperated to stop it. Until late July, firefighters continued to spray water in order to stop periodic rekindling of the fire. Broken water lines also flooded the building, with the worst water damage on the 5th floor. Conditions arose for mold growth, and documents were sent to both McDonnell Douglas Corporation vacuum facilities in St. Louis and

4088-491: The market, the study was perceived as merely a public relations exercise to disguise the fact that MDC was struggling under intense pressure from Boeing and Airbus . It was clear to most in the industry that MDC had neither the resources nor the money to develop such a large aircraft, and the study quickly sank without a trace. A similar double deck concept was used in Boeing's later Ultra-Large Aircraft study intended to replace

4161-518: The northern portion of St. Louis. The Bank of Baden played a large role in farm financing in Spanish Lake, and many county farmers also had business interests in Baden. The German dominance of the region was almost complete by the 1870s, and most of the surviving farm houses and outbuildings are associated with that era. Spanish Lake was a rural farming community for many years, until the 1950s when neighborhoods of tract housing were built. The area became

4234-408: The population. There were 8,381 households, out of which 38.3% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 39.4% were married couples living together, 23.6% had a female householder with no husband present, and 32.3% were non-families. 27.6% of all households were made up of individuals, and 8.9% had someone living alone who was 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.54 and

4307-637: The remaining 2,200 would lose their managerial responsibilities. The reorganization reportedly led to widespread loss of morale at the company and TQMS was nicknamed "Time to Quit and Move to Seattle" by employees referring to the competitor Boeing headquartered in Seattle, Washington. Technical issues, development cost overruns, growing unit costs, and delays led to the termination of the A-12 Avenger II program on January 13, 1991, by Defense Secretary Dick Cheney . Years of litigation would proceed over

4380-540: The second McDonnell Douglas transport aircraft to be purchased by the U.S. Air Force, after the C-9 Nightingale/Skytrain II . Through the Cold War , McDonnell Douglas had introduced and manufactured dozens of successful military aircraft, including the F-15 Eagle in 1974 and the F/A-18 Hornet in 1978, as well as other products such as the Harpoon and Tomahawk missiles . The oil crisis of

4453-458: The time it takes to locate a record." The American Legion VA&R division had directly contacted the NPRC and "confirmed that the e-mail [was] a hoax." In September 2004, the NPRC had a backlog of roughly 120,000 record requests, and Levins expressed concern that the hoax could cause a large influx of new requests. Gaytan warned in his bulletin that a surge in requests could delay document retrieval needed for burials, benefits, loans, and employment;

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4526-484: The time of the merger, Douglas Aircraft was estimated to be less than a year from bankruptcy. Flush with orders, the DC-8 and DC-9 aircraft were 9 to 18 months behind schedule, incurring stiff penalties from the airlines. Lewis was active in DC-10 sales in an intense competition with Lockheed's L-1011 , a rival tri-jet aircraft. In two years, Lewis had the operation back on track and in positive cash flow. He returned to

4599-403: Was $ 37,410, and the median income for a family was $ 44,139. Males had a median income of $ 32,340 versus $ 26,644 for females. The per capita income for the CDP was $ 18,976. About 10.2% of families and 11.7% of the population were below the poverty line , including 18.4% of those under age 18 and 8.0% of those age 65 or over. The National Archives has a facility in Spanish Lake. Spanish Lake

4672-643: Was 18,413 at the 2020 census. The Spanish Lake community is located in the northeastern portion of St. Louis County. The community is bounded by the Mississippi River to the east, the Missouri River to the north, Highway 367 to the west, and Interstate 270 to the south. According to the United States Census Bureau , the CDP has a total area of 7.5 square miles (19 km ), of which 7.4 square miles (19 km )

4745-661: Was a stretched version of the MD-80, powered by International Aero Engines V2500 turbofans, the largest rear-mounted engines ever used on a commercial jet. The MD-95 , a modern regional airliner closely resembling the DC-9-30, was the last McDonnell Douglas designed commercial jet to be produced. On January 13, 1988, McDonnell Douglas and General Dynamics won the US Navy Advanced Tactical Aircraft (ATA) contract. The US$ 4.83 billion contract

4818-543: Was originally known as the "Department of Defense Military Personnel Records Center" and was designated as a joint military command housing three separate records centers for the Army, Navy, and Air Force. Air Force records were considered under the Department of the Army custody at the time of MPRC's opening and were stored at various facilities until July 1, 1956 when the Air Force took custody of its records and moved them to

4891-722: Was prepared to be more radical, building on its successful FH-1 Phantom to become a major supplier to the Navy with the F2H Banshee and F3H Demon ; and producing the F-101 Voodoo for the United States Air Force (USAF). The Korean War -era Banshee and later the F-4 Phantom II produced during the Vietnam War helped push McDonnell into a major military fighter supply role. Douglas created

4964-437: Was primarily a defense contractor, without any significant civilian business. It frequently suffered lean times during downturns in military procurement. Meanwhile, Douglas was strained by the cost of the DC-8 and DC-9 . The two companies began to sound each other out about a merger in 1963. Douglas offered bid invitations from December 1966 and accepted that of McDonnell. The two firms were officially merged on April 28, 1967, as

5037-671: Was renamed from the Civilian Personnel Records Center to the "NPRC Annex". The term "National Personnel Records Center" may now refer to both the physical military records building in Spanish Lake, as well as an overall term for the National Archives federal records complexes located in St. Louis. The National Personnel Records Center fire was a catastrophic fire at the records building in St. Louis that burned for more than four days in July 1973 and ultimately destroyed 16 to 18 million Official Military Personnel Files (OMPF). Specifically, it impacted records for Army personnel between 1912 and 1960, and Air Force personnel between 1947 and 1964. The fire

5110-432: Was reported after midnight on July 12 and firefighters arrived just 4 minutes and 20 seconds after the first alarm sounded, but smoke and heat forced them to withdraw shortly after 3 AM. Water was extensively poured on the building exterior and through windows to fight the blaze, which raged out of control for 22 hours. The fire became so severe that local residents were forced to stay inside because of heavy smoke. On July 16,

5183-441: Was the Hughes-designed AH-64 Apache attack helicopter. In 1986, the MD-11 was introduced, an improved and upgraded version of the DC-10. The MD-11 was the most advanced trijet aircraft to be developed. Since 1990 it sold 200 units, but was discontinued in 2001 after the merger with Boeing as it competed with the Boeing 777 . The final commercial aircraft design to be produced by McDonnell Douglas came in 1988. The MD-90

5256-486: Was then known as Lambert–St. Louis International Airport , in Berkeley, Missouri , near St. Louis . James McDonnell became executive chairman and CEO of the merged company, with Donald Douglas Sr. as honorary chairman. In 1967, with the merger of McDonnell and Douglas Aircraft, David S. Lewis , then president of McDonnell Aircraft, was named chairman of what was called the Long Beach, Douglas Aircraft Division. At

5329-691: Was to develop the A-12 Avenger II , a stealth, carrier-based, long-range flying wing attack aircraft that would replace the A-6 Intruder . In January 1989, Robert Hood, Jr was appointed president to lead the Douglas Aircraft Division, replacing retiring President Jim Worsham. McDonnell Douglas then introduced a major reorganization called the Total Quality Management System (TQMS). TQMS ended

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