r/VAClaims

I need some advice or shared experiences. I served about 10 months in the Marines and received an Entry Level Separation with an uncharacterized discharge. My DD‑214 clearly says "Uncharacterized."

I filed claims for PTSD, TBI, depression, anxiety, and MST. Since I live overseas, VA couldn't find examiners here, so they sent me DBQs to take to a local doctor. I completed 8 DBQs and the doctor said my conditions are more likely than not caused by service.

After I submitted everything, VA sent me a letter saying they are doing a Character of Discharge (COD) review and asked me to explain why my service was honorable. I was confused because I thought uncharacterized discharges were automatically considered "under honorable conditions" for VA purposes.

I reached out online and two VA employees who process CODs told me that my case should not have triggered a COD review. They said per the M21‑1 manual, uncharacterized discharges are just updated to "under honorable conditions" without a formal review.

They suggested I schedule a VERA call to see what's going on. I did. The VERA representative told me that in their system, my discharge is listed as "Other Than Honorable" (OTH). I said that's not right and asked her to look at my DD‑214. She pulled it up and then got rude and started gaslighting me. She wouldn't explain why the system said OTH when my official record says Uncharacterized.

I called VERA again, different person. Same thing – system says OTH.

So now I'm stuck in a COD review that shouldn't exist, because someone at VA apparently coded my discharge wrong. My claim has been pending for about 8 months and I'm getting nowhere.

Has anyone else dealt with a VA internal coding error like this? How did you get it fixed? Should I go straight to DAV or is there a faster way to get the code corrected? Any advice on what to say to VERA or who to escalate to would be really appreciated.

Thanks

Any current or former raters out there? How impactful, positive or negative, can personal statements be for a claim?

For anyone who has submitted claims, did you submit a personal statement and do you think it helped or hurt your claim?

Long story short, I was granted 90% for legitimate reasons but I was denied my wrists.
I have medical proof but my VA Rep suggests I shouldn’t tamper with my current rating. At the risk of it going down.

Has anyone ever tried appealing?
Did your rating drop?

I’m in a lot of constant pain & would like to be compensated for such. Thanks guys

Started on January this year and decision made on May 15th with a positive result!
So don’t give up things are moving at the VA!

I had a virtual C&P exam scheduled this morning but never received a call in the window. My exam was with Leidos, is it normal for them to not call? This is the first virtual one so I'm not sure if this is typical.

First time claiming with little to no evidence besides deployment. Will a personal statement help at all? And also how does TERA benefit us?

Current ratings-10% Tinitus
10% Right ankle
50% combat PTSD.

I was awarded the above, 2017.

I am looking to file for the following ailments left ankle pain, lower back pain, with radiculapthy left leg. And IBS-C and Gerd.

In my military records, I have been treated for my left ankle, and back, so I think I have my nexus complete in terms of service connection for those 2.

My biggest concern is I have not gone to my primary doctor or any dr for those conditions. Over the years they have started bothering me more frequently.

My plan is to put in an intent to file, and make an appointment with my VA Dr to address/document/ recieve treatment for them and within the next year finally file as a claim.

I utilized the DAV for my first 3 ratings above, do I use them again or just do it myself? Pros or cons?

Is this a good plan? Would any of you do this differently? Any tips, insight is greatly appreciated.

Diagnosed in service with ADHD. I’ve heard horror stories of people going to their C&P exams and once the rater sees an ADHD diagnosis they will blame everything on that and slap you with a 0% rating. I have severe anxiety, depression, and PTSD from verifiable events. Should I be concerned?

I feel so lost on this process. I applied before I separated and was assigned 80%. Went back to claim unclaimed issues with the DAV and got 90%. I eventually went for an increase on current issues (again with DAV) and was challenged on 3 of my worsening issues. DAV wasn’t every helpful at explaining much and I felt so alone in the process. I fought back and was decreased back to an 80%. Now I feel a bit silly for this but I’m scared to file. I depend on this money to survive since my disabilities impact my ability to work. Any one else ever had to overcome this or have any advice?

I have a documented in-service event while in the reserves. It has also been listed as a Favorable Finding on multiple claims. No LOD. When I filed a claim it came back as no in-service event. I believe this is because the time has not been converted to Active Duty by a VA Form 21-6789. Does this have to happen for the VA to recognize the time, even though it has been found previously as an in-service event while Active Duty? I do have other time that was converted with a VA 21-6789 but I did not initiate it, the VA did. If it is a requirement, how do I get it done?

Hi everyone.

Just curious.. Have any of you been suffering from chronic shortness of breath?

I've been diagnosed and have had it basically weekly since 2019. It started off only twice a year around 2012 but increased to chronic the last 8 years. Sometimes it'll last a couple days. Sometimes I have a good couple of weeks without it. I've done pulmonary test, x-rays, blood tests. The doctors can't find anything.

It triggers anytime. When I'm relaxed at home drinking a beer. When I'm eating dinner with my family. And especially when I'm sleeping. I'm constantly having to switch positions. I've learned to live with it but it sucks! It's so frustrating, and I'm so tired.

I was in the Army from 2000-2004. Combat Engineer. I did engage in combat in the Iraq invasion 2003.

I guess it's just really bad anxiety, but maybe it's not. Can anyone relate? Is it gulf war syndrome?

Thanks

Former VA Rater and Navy Vet here,

One of the most underrated pieces of evidence in a VA claim is a GOOD lay statement.

Not because it sounds medical.
Not because it uses legal terminology.
And not because it’s 10 pages long.

The strongest buddy statements usually focused on simple observations:

• “I witnessed him hurt his knee while loading equipment.”
• “He started snoring loudly after deployment.”
• “He became more withdrawn and angry over time.”
• “He constantly complained about headaches.”

That’s credible because it’s based on what someone personally saw, heard, or witnessed.

Where veterans sometimes hurt themselves is when the statement suddenly starts sounding like a doctor wrote it:

• Diagnosing sleep apnea
• Discussing range of motion measurements
• Using terms like lumbar radiculopathy or tendinitis
• Giving medical conclusions outside their expertise

Your buddy is not there to diagnose you.

They’re there to explain what they observed and how your condition affected you over time.

In my experience, the most believable statements usually sounded natural, specific, and honest.

After months of stressing, checking claim status 50 times a day, thinking every step movement meant disaster, and convincing myself the VA was trying to keep me from 100%… I finally got my HLR decision today.

Not only did they grant my neck claim and some secondary conditions… they INFERRED a 40% upper extremity radiculopathy rating I didn’t even formally claim. Ended up at 100% P&T.

The craziest part? I spent the last two days convinced that going from Step 7 back to Step 6 meant they were lowering something. Meanwhile they were actually finalizing one of the biggest ratings in my entire file.

Also validating: the decision specifically acknowledged the earlier exam/opinion was insufficient. Trust your gut if an exam feels wrong.

I know a lot of people on here are in the doom spiral phase of the VA process right now. I was too. Just wanted to post something positive tonight because this subreddit helped me through a lot of dark waiting periods.

Honestly still doesn’t feel real.

My sleep apnea claim got denied because the VA said they couldn’t prove it was service connected, and honestly I don’t understand how.

While I was deployed, I was basically on call 24/7 for months straight as comm troop troubleshooting network outages and mission systems on base. There were times during high ops tempo where I got moved to night shift too, so my sleep schedule was completely destroyed for about 6–8 months. I barely slept the entire deployment.

When I got home, my wife started telling me I snore insanely loud and stop breathing in my sleep. That’s what finally pushed me to get tested. The sleep study came back moderate to severe sleep apnea.

The reason I never went to medical while I was in is because, honestly, the culture was just “keep working.” We were undermanned, always busy, and I thought being exhausted all the time was normal from deployments and shift work.

Now I barely sleep. Sometimes I wake up gasping for air and it honestly gives me anxiety about falling asleep.

Has anyone else dealt with getting denied for sleep apnea even with deployments, shift work, and documented diagnosis after service? What did you use for your nexus/service connection?

What can I do to appeal this?

Got my decision on my supplemental claim six days after my C&P exam. Denied again.

I submitted what I know now to be a very incomplete claim for OSA (secondary to a service connected disability) that was rightly denied this winter without even a C&P exam. The only evidence I submitted was my sleep study.

After that denial I found this group and learned about the importance of buddy statements, nexus letters, etc. So, I submitted a supplemental claim and added my own support statement, additional medical records, a buddy statement, and a nexus letter to my claim. I also had a C&P exam.

The denial I got today says there is no basis to change the original decision because I did not submit any new evidence as part of my supplemental claim. It claims that the buddy statement and my support statement were both part of the record the VA used to make the original decision. That is not only untrue, but it physically impossible that my April 2026 letters were part of the record when the original decision was made in February 2026. They don’t even mention the nexus letter at all.

Looks like I now have to go there HLR route.

I know we all want to get those decisions quickly, but I’d rather they take longer if that means that they’ll actually do their job.

I went in for tinnitus not hearing loss. They gave me all the beep tests & repeating back the words you hear test. I was told my hearing is fine by the end but did they test for hearing loss afterall or does that mean im not getting rated for tinnitus. Im like I know what I have.