U.S. Military (Ret.): Make personal copies of your military health records - Military Retirement - Navy Times

U.S. Military (Ret.): Make personal copies of your military health records

I receive a fair number of inquiries from retirees who had medical conditions before retiring but never made personal copies of their military health records and had trouble locating the originals.

This is potentially a bigger issue for younger retirees who served in Iraq and Afghanistan than for retirees of earlier eras because VA data show that young retirees are filing much more complicated disability claims.

Claims from Iraq- and Afghanistan-era veterans cite an average of nine separate medical conditions, compared to fewer than four conditions per claim for World War II and Korean War veterans and fewer than six for Vietnam-era veterans.

It’s a hard lesson to learn, but when you deal with the Veterans Affairs Department disability claims process, your medical records are extremely valuable. Those records are the evidence needed to establish disability ratings worth a lot of money over an average lifetime.

I don’t know how many times I have heard from retirees who have been told that VA, the National Personnel Records Center, or a military service branch has “lost” their medical records.

I would never accept at face value that kind of initial response. Pressing the request — and taking care to be as specific as possible about the records you are looking for — can lead to your records suddenly being “found.”

But even if the records well continues to come up dry, you can win a VA claims case if you can compile other evidence of your health conditions and the specific events of your military service that played a role in those conditions.

Dates, locations, names of units you served in, your commanding officers, names and addresses of hospitals where you were treated and any other details can make the difference.

If you served with people who knew about the situation or treatment, you can seek them out and ask them for an affidavit about their knowledge of your medical condition. Sometimes you may have to dig even deeper and show evidence such as emails or letters sent home, pictures or even news articles or information on the Internet.

What evidence you need will depends on your case and the evidence that is missing.

The VA does have a duty to assist each veteran who files a claim, but the best way to avoid these kinds of bureaucratic hassles is for service members to take it upon themselves to make and keep copies of their health records while they’re in service.

The VA disability claims process is slow enough, so anything you can do to speed up that process is worth doing. In this scenario, information really is power; knowing what is and isn’t in your records will give you the best chance to receive a favorable decision.

Retired Command Master Chief Alex Keenan served 28 years in the Coast Guard. Email him at retired@militarytimes.com.