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

Retired in 2004 and filed by VA claim 4 month before I retired using the BDD process. As soon as I retired, took my DD-214 and medical records to the VA rep to finalize my claim. Worked perfectly. Had my rating back in 3 weeks and first disability check the next month. Zero issues in 17 years.

I filed within 90 days of separation. It took the VA over 3 years to tell me I don't qualify for anything. Waste of time.

I didn't file a disability claim until 23 years after I retired. My health was pretty good up until 2014, when I started having issues with my health as a VA employee and retired from there in 2014. It only took 1 year for my claim to be approved and I started receiving benefits 8 months later. My claims rep did an excellent job in helping me with my paperwork, and was also surprised in how quickly everything went through. I received 70% right off the bat. I have not applied more, as of yet.

less than 3 months.

Hi! Kiwi vet here. I realise it's a little different for us. There was no claim for military service injury as we have National Insurance called Accident Compensation. Tell you what though, when you go back to university to do your Masters you wave your service record around and you get a government family allowance equal to a basic wage! Do you guys get that in the States? One would hope so for service. Cheers from Roy in NZ!

I got my rating after I got out.

11 years for me. I ran from the VA, didn't want to face anything about my health until I was hospitalized. VA nurse told me to stop being an idiot so I filed, got 80% on the first go.

I got out in 1999 and the VA and my local VFW helped me submit the paperwork in 2018. I was always of the mindset that my issues werent that bad, I could deal with it and I could have\can but VFW & VA convinced me I needed to do it for other vets, ensure we are counted and the issues that effect us, even if only an annoyance it helps keep funding going for our future brothers and sisters.

I didn’t worry about it when I retired. Later, (years later) my primary physician suggested I file. I flew fighters for 10 years and got used to hurting. Never realized the damage it did to my neck and back. Still fighting with the VA over it. I didn’t want to get in front of any Iraq Afghanistan Vets and frankly never really was concerned about it. Seeing how the younger Vets work the system made me rethink the process.

Also like you I was diagnosed with diabetes during my retirement physical. The doctor made a copy of the necessary paperwork and directed me to go to the DAV Office on base (Norfolk) when I left the clinic. I was in and out of the DAV Office within an hour with my claim processed. Now, after I retired I started having medical complications associated with diabetes. I had to go to a VA Service Office and apply for a higher rating. It took a while because the VA sent me to outside doctors for evaluations and recommendations. I guess I was one of the lucky (?) ones. All of the doctors I saw were very helpful and eventually I got a 100% rating.