AFWarrior

I am starting to see that, the whole system appears to be designed to have vets give up. I am awaiting my DD214 and hopefully it should be here soon. The letter I received was specifically about the health record. I have both fax and email confirmation for both heath and personnel requests. This forum is great, so many vets have gone through hell with the VA, it's a shame. I had my knee and shoulder examined a few years ago at the VA, x-rays didn't see anything, as expected, but they won't pay for an MRI, looking into private radiologists if I can afford it. My shoulder still pops out of the socket and occasionally I have great pain. Thank you for the advice and encouragement.

Thank you, I have contacted the local VSO office, so hopefully I can get some help. If I'm not mistaken, filing a claim will generate the records request, however I'm afraid the records won't be located even if I do file again. I did the SF 180 and requested full full personnel and medical records, and to date have not received them, just the letter I mentioned previously. Excellent info, very helpful, thank you,

Thank you for you questions, clarification is required I only filed one claim in person at the Winston Salem location in 2010. ( I made a typo in my original post of 2015, apologies).. I heard nothing for months. By May of 2011 I became homeless and had been admitted to the VA-Asheville in June 2011 for mental health issues. i have no proof of the original claim due to homelessness and the loss of my personal affects and records. I began working a new job, stabilized a bit and in May 2012, an email from National IRIS response center manager stated no open claim is on file. I decided to seek my records on my own, and since 2012 I have submitted Vetrecs requests a few times on line, without success. My job went out of business July 1st, so I am taking some time to try again. I was active duty from January 1983 thru Oct 1992. I haven't been to St. Louis, but the NPRC is usually where I am directed by Vetrecs. I don't know the difference between VARMC and NPRC, and both are in St. Louis. I'm confused and lost at this point. Big thanks to you for your response, much appreciated. :

Greetings, I filed my claim at the Winston-Salem VA location in October of 2015. In may of 2012 I received an email response notifying me there is NO OPEN CASE on file. I called and it was confirmed there is no record of a claim. Since then, I have attempted to acquire my medical and full service records, with no success. The latest attempt at records retrieval was also unsuccessful, however I did receive a letter from NPRC informing me my health record “may” have been sent to the regional office where my claim was filed. The letter came from St. Louis, Mo and indicated that my records could be at VARMC in St. Louis. I’m confused, tired. And emotionally drained. I am a 52 year old Air Force veteran (1983-1992) dealing with several service connected injuries that continue to get worse as I get older. I have received both inpatient outpatient mental health care at the VA here in Asheville. So far, I have managed to survive and cope with these conditions, but my pain and psychological issues (including PTSD)become too much to bear at times. In short, I need help. I feel like the government has given me the runaround for 20 plus years and I don’t know what else to do. I have called the veterans crisis line and spoken to local case workers here at the Asheville VA, however I have not heard from them in over 3 weeks. I think they forgot about me (again), or maybe they are understaffed. There have been recent tragedies in recent months committed by veterans, and those incidents have spurred me to again seek help, I don’t know where to start and I’m slowly losing my mind! Veterans who proudly served this great country are being cast aside, adrift in a sea of red tape. Any advice would be appreciated. Keith F.