Did you wait till you were out to get your disability rating? If so, how long before you made your first claim?

File your claim before you are separated. Many commands have VA offices attached that can help you with the claim. Under VA regulations the date of claim (date benefits are awarded) is the day the claim is received by a VA facility...not a state facility or a service organization.

The sooner you get it in the better. You may need to get documents for somethign that happened while on AD, but don't have any medical notes on how it happened. Now you need witness statements. The longer you wait the harder it will be to get those witness statements.

I had all my disabilities documented before retiring. So making my claim was easy. It took 6 or 7 month for the VA to award my claim of 50% or higher. However while going through the VA medical process and medical testing they discovered I've had Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia since at least 2012 or 2014. So with a few months I was bumped up to 100%. It's taking more time to get the Army to retroactively grant me my medical retirement and adjusted retirement pay...

I did not claim, I was accused. All I have ever wanted is to go back and fight. The chain of commands are humans and are fallible. My actions at the time were to prepare myself to deploy. However, those actions were interpreted as not wanting to PCS. They called me crazy and tried the physical evaluation board. I passed. So, they tried the mental evaluation. All because I did not have political skills to maneuver through big command's offices. I was told that I was done. And again, called me crazy, so I said pay me. In the end, I got my raiding before I got out. The command looked at my rating and asked how I got that much. I said, "I may be crazy, but I ait stupid. And I wasn't the one that called myself crazy. All I have done was being damned for who I am."

Watch the "Expanse". It is the best example of what happened when each individual does what he/she believes is right and looking out for his/her own people's interests. The show is brilliant. I hope there are more out of it.

Waiting until after ETS was the only way to file a claim that I was aware when I got out (in 1988). I waited entirely too long before filing my first claim. The ill-informed physician's assistant (and a warrant officer) who did my ETS physical led me to believe that I would not be compensated for any claim I would file for hearing loss unless my hearing loss was 50% or more. I already had service connected tinnintus (ringing in the ears) at that time and could have filed a claim for that right away. I don't think I pursued my first claim until 2014. I'm at 50% now due to tinnitus and some other issues.

I had injuries on active duty so I went through an evaluation as soon as I got out. I was rated a 10% then, but over time, the rating was bumped up. Hubby also had an evaluation as soon as he got out and it later got bumped up. Then we had a friend who had been out quite a few years before he applied. It took him a year to get a response to his application.

Still waiting. Condition deteriorating

I submitted my initial claim while on terminal leave, the VA Rep who gave the TAP presentation at NAS Pax River walked it through.
My rating was subsequently increased as my knees got worse, after having them both replaced I was upgraded to 100%

I didnt file until about three years ago. Wish I had done it earlier.I am getting 50% for mental health issues. One thing to note. If anybody took an early out and received a bonus for getting out early, you have to pay it back Didn't see a disability check for about a year and a half.

I left the service in June 1970 and never had a reason to file a claim. Then in the fall of 2015 a friend was diagnosed having prostate issues. He served 15 miles from me in Vietnam and suggested I file for Agent Orange issues myself. This was November 2015, I filed, testing and exams followed and four months later I got a letter from the VA with a 90% disability. It was 46 years since Nam and it was a blessing that I talked to my friend.