Service treatment records and your C-file: how to get them
Almost every argument you will make is already written down somewhere in a file you have never read. Requesting them is generally free, and the C-file in particular changes how an appeal is argued.
Service treatment records (STRs) are your in-service medical and dental records. You can request them, with your personnel file, from the National Archives through its online eVetRecs system or on Standard Form 180, and when you file a VA claim, VA has to try to get them for you (38 CFR § 3.159(c)(3)). Your VA claims file, the C-file, is a separate request to VA on VA Form 20-10206.
There are three separate files, they contain different things, and they are held by different people. Veterans regularly request one, receive it, and conclude the evidence does not exist, when the document they needed was in one of the others.
The three files
| File | What is in it | Why you want it |
|---|---|---|
| Service treatment records (STRs) | Outpatient medical and dental treatment in service, entrance and separation physicals where they were performed, physical profiles, medical board proceedings. Inpatient and mental health records are filed separately. | The in-service event element of almost every claim. |
| Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) | Enlistment and separation details including the DD214, duty stations and assignments, training, qualifications, awards and decorations, personnel actions. | Proves where you were and what you did. Central to exposure and stressor claims. |
| VA claims file (C-file) | Everything the VA holds on your claims: submissions, exam reports, examiner opinions, the full rating decisions. | Shows exactly why you were denied, in the decision-maker's own words. |
Service treatment records and personnel file
Where they live depends on when you served. Records for recent service are generally held electronically and may already be with the VA; older records sit with the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.
Request them online through the National Archives' eVetRecs system, which requires an identity-verified ID.me account, or on Standard Form 180 by mail or fax. Veterans discharged after certain dates (Navy after January 1, 1995, Marine Corps after January 1, 1999, Army after October 1, 2002, Air Force after October 1, 2004) can also pull personnel records themselves from the Defense Department's milConnect site. Basic requests are generally free to the veteran, and once a veteran has been discharged more than 62 years the file is open to the public through the National Archives. Ask explicitly for the complete STRs and the complete OMPF, and ask separately for any inpatient hospital or mental health treatment records, because those are filed apart from the STRs.
A fire at the National Personnel Records Center on July 12, 1973 destroyed about 80% of the records for Army veterans discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960, and about 75% of the records for Air Force veterans discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964 whose surnames run from Hubbard to the end of the alphabet. If yours were lost, the VA has a heightened duty to assist, including telling you that alternative evidence can stand in for the missing file, and a heightened obligation to explain its findings and weigh the benefit of the doubt carefully. That does not lower the standard of proof, but it does mean favorable evidence, your own credible statements included, has to be discussed rather than passed over. Alternative sources include unit records and morning reports, hospital admission records from the Surgeon General's Office, statements from service medical personnel, and buddy statements, and NA Form 13055 is the form the VA uses to ask the Records Center to reconstruct missing medical data. A destroyed file is not the end of a claim.
You do not have to hold these before filing. Under its duty to assist the VA will request federal records for you, and it has to keep asking until it concludes they do not exist or further requests would be futile. For a first claim letting it do so is usually the right call. Get them yourself when you want to build the claim properly before filing, or when you are appealing and need to know what is actually in there.
The C-file, and why it matters most
The claims file is the VA's own file on you. It contains the C&P examiner's full report and opinion, the rating decision that sets out the reasons for each issue decided, and every prior decision. Your rating decision letter is a summary of this; the C-file is the underlying record.
This is the difference between appealing on a guess and appealing on the actual reasoning. The decision letter might say the claim was denied for lack of a nexus. The C-file shows you that the examiner wrote a negative opinion citing an absence of service treatment records, without addressing the two buddy statements you submitted. That is a specific, arguable error, and you can only find it by reading the file.
Read the C-file before filing any appeal. It is the single highest-value hour in the whole process.
How to request it
- Use VA Form 20-10206, the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act request, and ask for the complete claims file.
- Submit it online through VA.gov records, or by mail or fax to the VA's Evidence Intake Center in Janesville, Wisconsin.
- An accredited representative with power of attorney can be given read-only access to the VA's electronic claims records for the veterans who appointed them, which lets them read the file without filing a records request. That is one of the practical reasons to appoint one.
- Ask for it in electronic form. These files run to hundreds or thousands of pages and a searchable copy is worth having.
File the request early, and do not let the wait stop you from meeting a deadline: your one-year appeal clock does not pause while you wait for records. Once it runs out, a Supplemental Claim can still be filed, but the effective date protected by continuous pursuit is lost, unless an extension for good cause is asked for and granted, by the VA or, for a Board appeal, by the Board.
Suppose a veteran's decision letter is dated March 3, 2026 and denies service connection for a knee condition. On March 10, 2026 the veteran submits VA Form 20-10206 asking for the complete claims file in electronic form.
- The deadline stays put. A Higher-Level Review request must be received within one year of the notice (§ 3.2601(d)), and a Board appeal filed within one year of mailing, presumed to be the letter's date (§ 20.203(b)). Both run to March 3, 2027.
- The file arrives. It comes on November 16, 2026, leaving 107 days: 14 in November, 31 in December, 31 in January, 28 in February and 3 in March.
- The gap. The file shows the VA never requested the knee treatment notes from the VA medical center the veteran listed on the claim. Those are federal records, which the VA must keep requesting until it concludes they do not exist or further requests would be futile (§ 3.159(c)(2)).
- Where that points. A higher-level reviewer who finds a duty to assist error that existed at the time of the decision, and cannot grant the maximum benefit, must return the claim for correction and readjudication (§ 3.2601(g)).
Had the file still been missing on March 3, 2027, the Higher-Level Review and Board deadlines, and the one-year window that protects the effective date through a Supplemental Claim (§ 3.2500(h)), would still have closed that day, unless the veteran asked for an extension and good cause was found (§ 3.109(b); for a Board appeal the written request goes to the Board, which decides good cause, under § 20.203(c)).
What to look for once you have it
- The examiner's opinion and its rationale. Does it address your lay evidence? Does it answer secondary and aggravation, or only direct causation? Does it give reasoning, or just a conclusion?
- The reasons for decision. Which elements were found met and which were not, and, where it applies, the criteria for the next higher rating. This tells you what a grant or a higher rating needs.
- Effective dates. Compare them against your Intent to File date. Mismatches are common and worth real money. See effective dates.
- Conditions rated 0%. Service connected, currently paying nothing, and often the easiest increase available.
- Anything never addressed. A claimed condition with no decision on it is still pending, which is a different and better situation than a denial.
- Records the VA never obtained. If the duty to assist was not met, that is an argument in itself.
Private medical records
Records from civilian providers are not federal records, so the VA will not chase them indefinitely: the regulation calls for an initial request and, generally, at least one follow-up, and the VA will not pay a provider's copying fee. Two options: request them yourself from each provider, which is usually fastest, or sign VA Form 21-4142 and 21-4142a authorizing the VA to request them on your behalf.
Getting them yourself has an advantage beyond speed: you see what they say before the VA does, and you can decide what supports the claim rather than discovering a problematic note in a denial letter.
Service records questions
What are service treatment records, and how do I get them?
Service treatment records hold your outpatient medical and dental care in service, entrance and separation exams where they were done, physical profiles, and medical board proceedings. Inpatient and mental health treatment records are filed separately, so ask for those too. Request them from the National Archives online through eVetRecs, which needs an identity-verified ID.me account, or by mail or fax on Standard Form 180 (VA.gov, request your military service records; M21-1, III.ii.2.A).
Do I need my service records before filing a VA claim?
No. In a disability claim, VA must try to get your service treatment records and other relevant federal records, and it keeps asking until it concludes they do not exist or further requests would be futile. VA also requests your DD-214 when it receives your application. Getting your own copy is still worth it if you want to see what the records say before VA does, or you are building an appeal (38 CFR § 3.159(c)(2) and (c)(3); VA.gov, request your military service records).
How do I get my VA C-file?
Send VA Form 20-10206, the Freedom of Information Act or Privacy Act request, asking for your complete claims file, ideally in electronic form. You can submit it online through VA.gov or send the paper form by mail or fax using the details in its instructions. The file holds your claim submissions, the C&P exam reports and opinions, and every rating decision. Your appeal deadline does not pause while you wait for it (VA.gov, VA Form 20-10206; 38 CFR § 3.2500).
What if my records were destroyed in the 1973 fire?
The fire at the National Personnel Records Center destroyed about 80% of the records for Army veterans discharged between November 1, 1912 and January 1, 1960, and about 75% of the records for Air Force veterans discharged between September 25, 1947 and January 1, 1964 with surnames from Hubbard to the end of the alphabet. File your claim with NA Form 13055, which VA uses to ask the Records Center to reconstruct medical data, and send other evidence, such as statements from service medical personnel, buddy statements, and accident or police reports (VA.gov, reconstruct military records).
Sources
- 38 CFR § 3.159(c) and (e), Department of Veterans Affairs assistance in developing claims. Federal records, including service and VA medical records, are requested until they are shown not to exist; private records generally get an initial request and at least one follow-up; the VA pays no custodian fees and must tell you which records it could not get.
- 38 CFR § 3.103(f), Notification of decisions. A decision notice, in the letter or its enclosures, must identify the elements not met for a denied claim and, where applicable, the criteria for service connection or the next higher level of compensation.
- 38 CFR § 3.2601, Higher-level review. The one-year filing period, the record closed as of the decision, and the return of a claim for a duty to assist error.
- 38 CFR § 20.203, Rule 203, Place and time of filing of Notice of Disagreement and § 3.109(b), Extension of time limit. The one-year deadline for a Board appeal, measured from the date of the decision letter, and under § 20.203(c) a written extension request filed with the Board, which decides good cause; deadlines to challenge a decision can be extended only for good cause shown.
- 38 CFR § 3.2500(h), Review of decisions. The effective date stays tied to the original claim only when a review option, a Supplemental Claim included, is filed within one year of each decision.
- 38 CFR § 1.600, Purpose (access to VA electronic claims systems). Attorneys, agents and accredited service organization representatives can be given read-only access, limited to the records of claimants who appointed them.
- VA.gov, Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) or Privacy Act (PA) Request, VA Form 20-10206 and the form itself (PDF). The form for requesting your claims file, with an online option; the form's instructions give the Evidence Intake Center mail and fax details.
- VA.gov, Request your military service records and Reconstruct military records destroyed in NPRC fire. eVetRecs and Standard Form 180 through the National Archives, and the discharge dates that open milConnect; the Army and Air Force discharge ranges hit by the 1973 fire, NA Form 13055, and the alternative records used to rebuild a file.
- M21-1, Part III, Subpart ii, Chapter 2, Section A, General Information on Service Records. What personnel records hold, including the DD Form 214, and what STRs include (outpatient medical and dental records, entrance and discharge exams if performed, physical profiles, medical board proceedings) and exclude (inpatient clinical records and mental health records).
- Board of Veterans' Appeals, Citation Nr. 1605406 (Feb. 11, 2016). States the heightened duty to assist and to explain findings when service records were lost in the fire, and that it does not lower the standard of proof.
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