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

I tried when I got out in 1979. After 40 years I finally got 80%. They never cared if the Vietnam and Vietnam era soldiers.

YES, BUT I DID NOT REALIZE THAT THERE WAS ANYTHING "WRONG" UNTIL 18 YEARS LATER. GOT OUT IN 1971 SEPTEMBER.

I retired at 20 from the Army way back in 1997 from Ft Lewis. If I remember correctly the MHS was Madigan. I was given a copy of my med records and was evaluated at the same time for an initial claim. I did have to wait about 6 months for the claim to be processed.
I was taken care of correctly by the service of the military personnel there at that time with no issues.

I think way to many vets have a 'service connected' disability.

18 years. I was having trouble hearing and finally listened to my wife. Got ahold of the local state veterans rep and not only got a rating for my hearing, but for my back, too.

At Fort Knox after Army Physical I give VA rep at FT Knox my medical records the next day. The following month had my VA physical. Got 100%

No. I went through the DAV prior to retirement to file. I felt they did a very good review and returned a disability rating higher then I expected. But I also admit, we don't believe we are as broken as we actually are. My belief is the DAV is an underestimated organization.

As long as you file within 12 months of discharge, you will be back paid to the date you were discharged. Do not wait any longer than that or you will only be back paid to the date you filed.

Other than that, financially there is not a huge difference in when you file. You will still not receive any disability payments until you pay back any severance pay, and you will end up with the same amount of money whether it is paid out monthly for the first year or all at once as back pay.

I did it the same month i got out. I had appointments within a month. One warning if you got a lump sum when you got out and had to do Reserve/Guard they will take it back from your disability until they get every penny.

I finally filed 26 years after I retired because I couldn't take my wife bringing it up any longer. After I gathered all the records necessary I went to the VA Hospital and got the military liaison there to help me submit the request. As it turned out, I received a 50% disability rating and started receiving my disability check a month later. That was 26 years of lost disability checks, just around $250,000.00. I had to swallow my pride and tell my wife she was right once in 26 years.

The moral of this story is, don't wait, this is not a retro-active program. I just submitted a second request for ischemic heart disease which can be linked to Agent Orange exposure. There are other things that are showing up which the government has admitted are caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

Submit your request!