Where your military and medical records actually live

There is no single place that holds everything about your service. There are four, and which one you need depends on what you are trying to prove.

Your official service record, including your DD-214

The National Archives holds the Official Military Personnel File for most veterans. Two ways in:

• eVetRecs, the online request tool, which verifies you through ID.me.
• Standard Form 180, if you would rather send a paper request by mail or fax.

If you were discharged recently enough, milConnect may have your records instead, and it is usually faster. The cutoffs are by branch:

Branch	Discharged after
Air Force	1 October 2004
Army	1 October 2002
Marine Corps	1 January 1999
Navy	1 January 1995

Discharged before your branch's date, go to the National Archives.

Your service treatment records

These are the notes from every time you were seen while you were in. They are the single most valuable thing you can put in front of a rater, because they are where an in-service event is written down. They travel with your personnel file, so the same two routes above apply.

One thing worth checking when yours arrives. A DD-214 can list ribbons for a deployment without listing the dates of that deployment. If you are relying on where you were and when, the dates are what matters, and you may need the personnel file rather than the discharge paper alone.

Your VA health records

If you have been treated at a VA facility, those records are in the VA health system and you can download them yourself. Your Blue Button report is the usual export, and it is what we read when you add medical records here.

Your claims file

Your C-file is everything the VA holds about your claims: what you sent, what they gathered, what the rater wrote. VA Form 20-10206 is the form for requesting your personal records from VA.

This one is worth asking for before an appeal rather than after. It is the only way to see the evidence list a decision was actually built on.

What to do with them once you have them

Add them here and we read them, mask personal information, and sort the facts by condition, so you are not reading four hundred pages looking for one appointment. Nothing goes to the VA from us. You file on VA.gov, or your accredited representative files with you.