AFHRA information requests

[Paul Clouting]

I have recently been requesting digitised aircraft accident report files from the Air Force Historical Research Agency (AFHRA) at Maxwell, Alabama as part of a research project.
My request to the membership is this. Does anyone have access to a definitive list of reel numbers and more importantly the associated Iris numbers for these reels.
I cannot manage to find anything out there on the web, and nothing on the AFHRA website. Did manage to find a list of most of the standard accident report reel & Iris numbers from NARA, but this list does not include the minor accident report reel numbers, or their associated Iris numbers. Can anyone help?
My last few requests for reels were made quoting only the reel numbers and these came through just fine, but on my last request they asked for the Iris number as well, and I have no idea what this would be as it does not appear anywhere on any of the reels that I have. Thank you.

 

[Sabrejet]

I use this search tool: Air Force History Index

On a related topic, have you experienced patchy AFHRA response lately? Usually I'd receive a response within a couple of days but recently it's up to a month. I understand staff shortages maybe, but the responses are often terse and whereas previous requests only required an IRIS REF, I'm now being asked for IRIS NUM, reel, dates - you name it.

 

[Paul Clouting]

Thank you Sabrejet. This was the same webpage that I managed to find some of the accident report reel numbers from, but it does not include those for 1945 onwards, nor does it list the minor accident report reels.
On the subject of AFHRA requests, when I first started requesting reels you were allowed 10 reels per month, this was later dropped to 5 reels per month. The current policy is you can request 10 reels at a time, then request 10 more once you have received those. Like you say, the wait can be lengthy. My last request was on 13th January. To date I have only received 4 reels, and one of these was the wrong one. Sent two further e-mails regarding my request and have not received a reply to either e-mail, and this was 3 weeks ago. I think the current policy of 10 reels might have drowned them in requests which they can't cope with.