Researchers Unlock Index To 550,000 Secret Documents

How many secrets does the US Air Force have? OK, let's steer away from current, operational secrets like missile targeting data, or the cost of the coffee maker on the C-17. How many old, possibly out-of-date, possibly declassifiable secrets? According the researchers at The Memory Hole, more than half a million.

That's the number of classified or restricted documents that are in the hands of the Air Force Historical Agency (AFHRA): 550,000. These sensitive documents date from the 1920s to about 1981.

That immediately raises a number of questions. Like, what secret from the 1920s could still have any value?

Perhaps you'd like to look and see for yourself -- because the index to the archive is gradually being made available, thanks to The Memory Hole and the federal Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Just the index, mind you -- to actually see any of these documents, you'll have to file a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the AFHRA yourself. If you've never done it before, there's nothing to worry about: the Memory Hole explains how.

You can now download the first several files (at the Memory Hole AFHRA link below), and the remainder of them should be available soon.

Where did these indexes come from? In 2001, researcher Michael Ravnitzky used a FOIA request to secure a master tape of the index to all these documents. But that was only half the battle. The master tape was an odd type, with an even more peculiar format, and Memory Hole expert Brett Milner had to decode the data and "translate" it into a more accessible format. It's still not for those of you suffering from dial-up disease: the downloads average 12 to 13 MB.

The AFHRA gets these documents routinely from the active Air Force, as USAF historians complete their work documenting Air Force history -- or in great batches as offices or programs close. "[A]pproximately 2,000,000 pages of historical material each year," the agency says, is added to its collection -- making it unlikely that even the most dedicated reader could keep up. The documents include, according to The Memory Hole, "reports, memos, directives, histories, daily operations reports, oral histories, interviews, situation reports, intelligence summaries, speeches, chronologies, logs, minutes, briefings, correspondence, press clippings, newsletters, photos, slides, audiotapes, and more."

Documents that are classified are, or were at one time, national security information. The documents that are unclassified but restricted may include such items as accident reports, that may have been tightly controlled to protect the privacy of victims.

Some documents that seem on their face to be quite outdated might be withheld, for instance, if they might provide clues to intelligence sources and methods that are still used, or war plans that are still on a shelf somewhere. But many older documents have been declassified, and declassified documents from the US, Russia, and other countries frequently cast new light on history. It is likely that many, if not most,

But it's still pretty hard to believe a secret from 1920-something is worth keeping secret eighty years later.

FMI: www.thememoryhole.org/mil/afhra/, www.au.af.mil/au/afhra/