Service Connection, When Does It Start?

[Guest Jim S.]

This sibject has bugged me for some time when discussing Severance of Service Connection and not Service connected.

When does Service Connection (SC) begin? Does it begin the day of discharge, by reason of a Medical Evaluation Board (MEB), or only when the VA decides the matter after discharge?

Case in point, two service men/women are both discharged by the same MEB, both with same diagnosis. One decides to opt for a disability check from the service, the other desides to opt instead to apply for a VA compensation check, (I won't go into details, like the second one was told the VA pays more for the same disability, or that they wouldn't have to wait to be discharged and go home, instead of waiting for further development for a rating from the military.

We all know what happens next: the one who opted for the VA, if their lucky and not denied the first time and you then took it to the BVA, they may remand it, or they too may deny it. either way you have probably seen a couple of years, again if your lucky at the VARO level, if you appealed directly to the BVA , then your probably looking at around three years for that decision and it could be a remand with more time at the VARO, I won't go further, we all know what the deal is for them.

When does SC actually begin. Does a MEB mean nothing, having no weight at all, any legal standing as to being SC?

I can understand certain disabilities that don't lead to a MEB, and need to be found service connected by reason of medical and or service records, but when you are medically discharged or discharged for medical reasons, with a diagnosis or the MEB summery lays it all out as to tests, evaluations, labs, physical findings, etc. why then is it necessary for the VA to do other than determine the rate of disability at the time.

If their is any question of the MEB decision and diagnosis, then isn't it required of the VA to find those findings and/or diagnosis as clearly and unmistakenly in error, before they can sever SC for a first time claim of a Veteran who was medically or for medical reasons, discharged from the service?

Ranting again, the waiting game is murder on the nerves and I keep wondering how my claim ever got this far, when all I can see is that some joker of a Rater said their was change in the diagnosis made by the VA C&P Examiner, for which I can not find any thing that rebuts the original diagnosis let alone the presumption of sound condition, before, during, and up to the day of my hospitalization.

04:05 or their abouts, I want to sleep, but I got my mind on this and it won't go away, anyone have a way to get their mind off their claim so they can sleep?

Night Night,

Jim S. B) B) :P