Getting your records, and your C-file
Almost every argument you will make is already written down somewhere in a file you have never read. Requesting them is free, and the C-file in particular changes how an appeal is argued.
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) | Every medical encounter in service: sick call, exams, dental, immunizations, your separation physical. | The in-service event element of almost every claim. |
| Official Military Personnel File (OMPF) | Assignments, deployments, awards, evaluations, duty stations, MOS. | 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, internal rating worksheets, prior 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 through the National Archives milConnect and eVetRecs system, or on Standard Form 180. There is no charge to the veteran for their own records. Ask explicitly for the complete STRs including dental and mental health, and for the complete OMPF, because partial responses are common.
A fire at the National Personnel Records Center in 1973 destroyed a large volume of Army and Air Force records for service before the mid-1960s. If yours were lost, the VA has a heightened duty to assist and to consider alternative evidence, and your own credible testimony carries more weight than it otherwise would. Alternative sources include unit morning reports, sick call logs, Surgeon General records, pay records, and buddy statements. 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 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 worksheet showing which criteria the rater found met, 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 through VA.gov records, by mail, or in person at a regional office.
- An accredited representative with power of attorney can usually access it far faster than a FOIA request, which 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.
Requests can take months. File the request early, and do not let it stop you from meeting a deadline: your one-year appeal clock does not pause while you wait for records.
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 rating worksheet. Which criteria were found met, and which were not. This tells you exactly what 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. 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.
READY214 organizes documents by condition so the right record is attached to the right claim. Files are read in your browser and never transmitted or stored, so your records stay yours.