Missing Personnel/Medical Records? Please Help !!!!

[AirForceVet81]

Hello......does anyone know a different route to try to get active duty service records other than the national archives?.im having a terrible time getting the national archives and the v a to locate my  active duty service records, basically meaning they cant...i served active duty air force from oct 81 -feb 85 ,and ga air national guard from mar85-mar88. i have received all my records from the national guard but none from active duty, and i have made at least 4 attempts to retrieve them from the national archives. every package sent to me contains my entrance physical, exit physical dd-214 and records from the ga national guard. its like there is a 3 year and 4 month gap in my military service...... the DAV has been no help at all either. please help........

[john999]

You could write to the individual bases where you served and ask for any records they still have.  I tried to get records of my father's military disability from the VA and they just ran me around and around for years.  His records were burned in St. Louis Fire 1973.   I know that all my basic and AIT records from the Army are lost.  Most records from stateside duty have gone missing except those the army wanted to make sure got into the records.  I might go to my congressman and try to get them to help.  That may be all they are good for us vets.

[AirForceVet81]

thanks john.....i fear mine r lost also, those records contain a big part of my claim that i was denied, and i have a bad feeling my appeal will be denied because of that same reason also......i ordered my cfile and the records were not in there

[Gastone]

Have you filed the respective VA & DOD FOIA requests?

Has anyone with the AF given you any credible excuse for the elusive files?

Have to say, I would think the AF would be more squared away regarding records. Then again, maybe the Phantom Records are trapped in the digital hinterland, being processed. Did the Files you have received, arrive on paper or CD?

[john999]

It has been over 45 years since I was discharged, but I filed a claim during the first year after getting out.  This may be why most of my army records survive.  The fact that most of my stateside records disappeared makes me wonder.  The army put a whammy on me as well that I found out much later when I filed a claim for TMJ.  The dentist who did the exam failed to make a DX or any other records of my exam.   My stateside psychiatric outpatient records were not available on orders of my military shrink.   He did not want to testify at a trumped up special courts martial the army had for me because I was demanding care and was insistent about it.  I took a plea and got out of the army which was not a big deal at that point since I only had a few months left and had already been to Vietnam.    I found this out when I requested all my personnel records.  The army chose which SMR's to keep and which to throw away.  I did not get a copy of my records.  All I got was a ride to the gate there in Ft. Stewart.   I had just enough money to get home.  I was so screwed over it just took me years to really get over it.  The army and VA were only interested in writing me off and not having to spend any more money on me.  This is what has driven me to file for everything I think I can get the way they just threw me on the garbage heap.  I did get a discharge upgrade to full honorable within a couple of years of my general discharge.  I was lucky since I did not get a LTH discharge.  They don't call the army and military the green machine for nothing.   It is a giant grinding machine that lives on human flesh and blood.