Personnel Records And Medical Records

[ScottCGAS]

I was using a search engine to search CG veterans info and I saw The National Archives.gov to get copies of your personnel records. Is this necessary or is your health records the ones you need? Do most people here on this site have both??

If I need both, what would be the advantage and possibly a scenario where it would be beneficial. According to the NatArch site you will not be given all the content of Service Records, just important stuff, no leave records, clothing issues,ID card applications, etc... Thanks

[Berta]

VA is supposed tpo get copies of your SMRs (Service Medical Records)

but if you have to prove an inservice nexus ist is always best to try to get a copy of them yourself.

Often when a vet realises they need to get them from NARA-the SMRs are already with the VARO for the claim.

Our active military is told to obtain copies of their SMRS before they leave the service these days. They will surely at some point -need them.

VA often skims over SMRs and they dont take the time to fully read them.

There is nothing better than be able to highlight copies of SMRs that are important to any claim needing the inservice nexus and to send the copies to the VA to support the claim.

VA is quick to say "the veteran's SMR's are silent for any back injury medical care or treatments" when the SMRs might well reveal the veteran was hospitalized for days due to inservice back injury.

Or they could say "the veteran's SMRs were destroyed in the St Louis Fire."

I have SMRs from veterans right here that they told this to and we got the SMRs from NARA.No char marks no water marks.

[Berta]

one vet (I bet this happens more then we know) I was asked to help as we had the same rep on POA-I read the denial-

they said "Your military records were burned in the St Louis fire."and noticed how young this vet was-not Vietnam Era-so I asked him his birthdate-

Neither the rep nor the vet realized that he had enlisted after the fire even occurred! DUH!

He got his SMRs from NARA himself.

[LarryJ]

I was using a search engine to search CG veterans info and I saw The National Archives.gov to get copies of your personnel records. Is this necessary or is your health records the ones you need? Do most people here on this site have both??

If I need both, what would be the advantage and possibly a scenario where it would be beneficial. According to the NatArch site you will not be given all the content of Service Records, just important stuff, no leave records, clothing issues,ID card applications, etc... Thanks

Download, from the VA.gov site, under the heading "forms", Form # SF 180. They are "fillable" and "printable" but not "savable".

Do TWO of them. Check ALL the little boxes where it asks what you want. The last little checkable box under section II, item 1, is where you request ALL of the available records that exist, if you want to receive ALL of your records, else they will send to you what THEY think you need.

standard_form_180.pdf

Send one to the Dept of Veterans Affairs Record Center in St. Louis. #11 on the second page of the form.

Send on to the Military Records Div., National Archives, in St. Louis. #14 on the second page of the form.

Correct. Two Different places, both in St. Louis. The reason that you want to send

your records request to BOTH places, is, first of all, one may have records the

other one doesn't, secondly, your records could have been sent by one, TO the other.

CYA!

You CAN use the vetrecs on-line request but you will only "get covered" the part of your

ass that happens to be in the NARA archives, and not that portion that resides down the road

in the VA, St. Louis.

Edited January 17, 2010 by LarryJ

[ScottCGAS]

Download, from the VA.gov site, under the heading "forms", Form # SF 180. They are "fillable" and "printable" but not "savable".

Do TWO of them. Check ALL the little boxes where it asks what you want. The last little checkable box under section II, item 1, is where you request ALL of the available records that exist, if you want to receive ALL of your records, else they will send to you what THEY think you need.

standard_form_180.pdf

Send one to the Dept of Veterans Affairs Record Center in St. Louis. #11 on the second page of the form.

Send on to the Military Records Div., National Archives, in St. Louis. #14 on the second page of the form.

Correct. Two Different places, both in St. Louis. The reason that you want to send

your records request to BOTH places, is, first of all, one may have records the

other one doesn't, secondly, your records could have been sent by one, TO the other.

CYA!

You CAN use the vetrecs on-line request but you will only "get covered" the part of your

ass that happens to be in the NARA archives, and not that portion that resides down the road

in the VA, St. Louis.

Thanks all for the info. Thanks LarryJ for the link. I have requested my Medical records quite a while ago but I have still not received them. Should I wait, or should I mail it in again?? I had my VSO fax my request after I did the Vetrecs online thing and was then told to fax verification in. The VSO did this so he would have a record and I would have one. LarryJ, can I just order my Personnel Records? Would I check the box "All Documents in Official Military Personnel Record(OMPF)" I know it takes so long to get copies, I want to make sure I do it right! Thanks

[LarryJ]

Thanks all for the info. Thanks LarryJ for the link. I have requested my Medical records quite a while ago but I have still not received them. Should I wait, or should I mail it in again?? I had my VSO fax my request after I did the Vetrecs online thing and was then told to fax verification in. The VSO did this so he would have a record and I would have one. LarryJ, can I just order my Personnel Records? Would I check the box "All Documents in Official Military Personnel Record(OMPF)" I know it takes so long to get copies, I want to make sure I do it right! Thanks

Yes, and also the SMT records.

[Tbird]

i had to request my military records from npr last year, it took some time and i received a letter that the navy had transferred the records to a different place and they had forward the request awhile longer and i received my smrs on a cd.