Common Requests Far National Records Center

[Tbird]

If you have requested any records from the National Records Center will you post

What you requested

What you recieved

How long it took

I am doing an informal survey, thanks for your assistance in this.

[rdawg]

TBird,

My story is the same as jangrin. It seems to be standard operating procedure for the VA.

Advertise that you can file a claim on-line.

Insrtuct the claimant to request his records by mail after submitting the claim electronically.

Obtain the SMR's before the claimant can. (IMO's are not probative without review of the SMR's)

Put his case in the ratings board and tell him that if he requests his records now it will take the case out of the ratings board and you don't want that to happen.

Deny the claimant on lack of probative nexus and hope he goes away.

I don't believe taht the VA is so inept that it cannot remove a folder from one room, make copies and repalce it without disrupting the claims process. I believe this is a tactic to delay and deny all claims.

Now that I have my SMR's (almost a year and 2 denials since using VONAPP) it's clear why they did not want me to see them. All of the evidence to win my claim is in thier. My condition was considered chronic in service which means I don't need a nexus. I just need a manifestation of the condition. Without intercurrent cause(I don't have any) it shall be considered service connected.

Suggestion....I would like to see the percentage of C&P exams that find the condition is not related to service. Then I would like to see the training materials for C&P examiners as well as raters.

Suggestion for the VA....as soon as a claim is recieved they should gather all of the SMR's and send them to the claimant with instructions on having the claimants Dr. review them and write an opinion of etiology. Or prefill the opinion and have the Dr. sign it with the gauranty that there would be no hearings or court actions against the Dr. This would be a true "duty to assist".

It sounds like the intro to a Beatles song. "Imagine no country, and no religion too. Nothing to die for." Too good to be true.

Rdawg

[Brandy]

I requested SMR's online, signed the bar code form and sent it in. Received the information in about 2-weeks. I had asked for in and out patient records. They send me out patient records (about 10 pages) from when my husband had his nose fixed. It was broke when he was a child and never set. Since it caused him to have breathing problems they set it for him. They did not send any service records.

What is strange is that they have these records but they included a letter with these pages stating that his other records had been sent to our VARO. I called and talked to someone there and they told me that if you are discharged from service due to disability that is claimed, that your records will be sent to your local VARO. I am just wondering why they did not get the above records (dated before the onset of his disability). Even though these records did not have anything to do with his disability from service, it makes you wonder if they pick and choose what records they pull from your file??? Why weren't these records sent to the VARO with the rest of them?

After that, I called the hospital where he was an inpatient for about 6-months and asked if they still had any records. They told me that all Army veterans records were sent to the VA in 1992 from any military hospital. NARA list this info as well. It depends on when you were in the service. I just wanted to confirm with the hospital that this was the case.

[Stretch]

I did what Hadit.com Michael Harris (Old hadit board), suggested. Mike posted a sample form 180 with a blank form 180. Via Snail Mail, I requested my records, awards, and MUC. My squadron yeoman told me that we had received this MUC, and he sent me the write up.

NRPC, sent back partial records with the back of my NEC (MOS) page blank, 6 months after my request.

Before I left service our squadron yeoman gave me an original copy of the NEC page. The BVA judge saw it and ordered a complete set of records, because of the NPRC's failure to produce, or maybe denial to produce, accurate records.

NPRC leaving the back side of a record off, is altering of records. This is an almost undetectable Agency violation of law. You must remember or find a good example, both sides, of the records from a buddy, to compare the single sided copy that the NPRC may give you.

All of the good stuff was on the back side of the NEC page. ie. firefighting schools, GTC-85 school diesel, NC5-6-7 schools diesel, JP-5 fueling school, rate advancements, and numerous other positive evidence.

There were also various records that I had kept, that were eliminated from my service records. ie commendations, flight-deck billets, Plane Captain school, and etc. I had service records in my C-File. Check your C-File.

The NPRC partial records came with an explanation that medals had to be requested from the CNO. I didn't do anything and the medals came 6 months after the records. They even sent me my MUC record DD-215 correction, without the write-up of coarse (Lam Son 719, Son Tay POW op., and Op Freedom Bait).

The write-up has the details (evidence) that, as a matter of record, could prove combat deployment and operations as well as campaigns. This combat relates to 1154 , which is supposed to be a relaxed rule situation. If you get the medal, ask a buddy for the write-up that your unit got.

What I am trying to say here, is that you had better find a service member, who served with you, and see if he has his records. Take what you can get from the NPRC. Every time the NPRC will send something else that has not been sent before. Obfuscation, without recording what was sent, means each time you order records you will get another piece. That is what I have heard from Vets at the VAMC.

Edited December 9, 2006 by Stretch

[dougbo1943]

I requested my military service records and smc on line. I received then in a little over a month. They was not complete. Just about a third of each.

I requested my C-file from Waco. I received it in 9 days from the date I mailed the request. It appears complete. I had no ones else papers in my file. A copy of my complete SMR was in my C-file.

Gunny

[Guest rickb54]

I requested my Grandfathers records from WWI, they were in the national Archives. I waited four years for them to be found then it cost me $20.00 to get them.

I request my fathers records from WWII, Korea, Vietnam in 1999, and it took about a month to recieve them.

I requested my records from teh regional office in Winston Salem NC and it took 6 months before I received them.

[Chuck75]

I requested my records (Vietnam service, Navy) originally from the NRC St Louis. They actually had them!

The original request was for specific items in the records, such as the DD214,etc. and had nothing to do with the VA. A second request was submitted over a year later, after the VA had awarded 10% compensation for diabetes. This time the NRC sent back a letter saying that the VA had the records. (VARO Decatur GA.) I copied the NRC letter, and wrote a FOIA letter, and included the appropriate VA form. It took the VA about one month to respond with the copy of my service records and "C" file. Are the service medical records complete? Yes and no. Military hospital records seem to be there, but records of treatment when I was serving on two ships are missing. We have partial deck logs for one ship. The more important ship (in my case) has no references in the medial records, and I don't have deck logs for it either.

These (I don't have) logs should show that "combat" conditions existed (under fire, etc.) and other occurances that are important in the VA's determinations. The problem is that the events occurred over a several month period in 1967, and you must request specific dates, or pay for research.

If you have requested any records from the National Records Center will you post

What you requested

What you recieved

How long it took

I am doing an informal survey, thanks for your assistance in this.