It took 8 years but I got a win
I joined the reserves to help pay for college at 17. It was great until I had my first panic attack at 21. This lead to a pretty bad spiral that resulted in a bipolar diagnosis and an axiety disorder. The military did not like that so I was medically discharged.
I spent the next year in a medicated haze. By the time I was able to advocate for myself and pursue VA disability, I realized that I never received any discharge papers. No DD214 or reserve equivalent. Also my chain of command said the civilian doctor's diagnosis was enough and that I did not need a medical board.
The VA only accepts discharge papers as proof of service. I spent the next 7 years trying to recover my paperwork. My old unit could not help me because they switched to a digital system and Marine headquarters would not repond to dozens and dozens of paper applications sent through snail mail. So many phone calls gone unanswered. I don't understand why they bother having a phone line.
The national archive had no record of me. I wrote my congressman. I wrote my senator. I paid a third party organization to recover my paperwork. None of it helped. I tried to hire a lawyer but no lawyer would talk to me until the VA gave me my initial disability rating decision. Which I couldn't get because I couldn't prove that I served. Many times over the years I became disheartened and gave up.
My dad then calls me 7 years into this process and says he met a guy at a bar that works for the NCIS. He pulls my records and tells me that my discharge was incomplete. It was not filed correctly.
8 years of my life spent in squalor due to me being unable to work living off of $1,100 a month from social security.
After finally understanding what the problem was, I filed a complaint through the inspector general of my first unit. I got a response from a Seagent Major. He personally contacted Marine headquarters and had a discharge certificate made for me the next day.
From there the VA process went smooth and I was quickly awarded full disability. Expedited filing due to my homeless status. I was living on a friend's couch. The VA classifies that as homeless.
All is well that ends well I guess, but fuck am I still peeved about it.
4 years and 7 months of service followed by 8 years of the worst hardships that I ever imagined that I would face. The immense feeling of hopeless that I felt on a day to day basis had me wishing for death. And it was only fixed because my dad got drunk with a guy at a bar that happened to work for the NCIS.