Missing Discharge Physical

[free_spirit_etc]

Looking through all my husband's C&P exams and decisions, it is starting to look like the VA may not have had access to his discharge physical at any point since he retired. What I find interesting is the lack of any discussion of his discharge physical. They would always say his SMRs didn't show such and such - but they rarely mentioned his discharge physical. On the C&P for fatigue (shortly after he retired) the examiner said "4/7/99 C&P exam “ This gentleman denies any symptoms associated with chronic fatigue syndrome except for the fact that he stated in his retirement physical he was tired all the time.” -- So it is kind of hard to tell if the examiner is referring to the discharge physical itself, or referring to what my husband said he reported.

And the 2002 opinion for cancer the examiner stated that my husband's discharge physical didn't show any respiratory problems in service. But this guy said a lot of things that were totally inaccurate. (For instance that my husband had no residuals from his lung cancer - though he had one lobe of his lung removed, and that my husband had no shortness of breath - though the pulmonary function tests done that day noted he had dyspnea on hills and stairs and frequent wheezing.) So I have my doubts that this guy actually looked at his discharge physical.

What I find odd is that they never mentioned it. It seems like someone - one of the doctors, one of the raters, one of the judges, would have noted that his discharge physical was missing while they were stating what his SMRs did or didn't show. Even the SOC and the SSOC I received after repeatedly trying to get a copy of his discharge physical remained silent on the issue. I did bring that up in my BVA appeal - that the SSOC doesn't indicate that my husband's discharge physical has disappeared from his file.

But I am really starting to think that my husband's discharge physical was never in his file - or at least never in his file by the time they started making any decisions, due to the fact that no one bothers to mention it.

So, if I can ever get a copy of his discharge physical, can I get some of the claims readjudicated based on a missing service medical record being associated with the claim file? Or does that right die with the veteran?