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

I got out in 93 and didn't know about filing a clam until 2011.

I ETS'd from the Army in 1980... and retired from the USAFR iin 2003. I waited until after the PACT Act to file... A little over 20 years after I retired, I achieved my first VA disability rating. The VA denied a bunch of things that they were too lazy to search my VA records for, so I need to file a supplemental claim and search my own records to locate and attach the evidence to my claim. I suspect that my VSO should have coached me better so that I would have sought out the VA documentation and attached it for the initial claim... and knowing nothing about the system I let it fly. My initial rating is for 30% (which is deducted from my military retirement), however I am hoping that the supplemental filing (with attached evidence from VA records for every claim) will boost the rating to at least 50% so the disability pay will not be deducted from my retirement..

Much of the my delay in filing was based on the reputation of the VA for denials and run-arounds... and I was working nights so going to C&P appointments would have been very difficult... basically I didn't need the stress and hassle, and I was making decent money, so I didn't file until after I had completely retired from working.

About 20 years depending on how you want to figure it. My first injury was in 1978. I went to the VA between enlistments because I was having problems with it. Spent all day there saw a VA doctor for about 5 minutes. A week later I received a letter from the VA pretty much telling me not to come back and I didn't until 2002. About a year later I filed my first claim for that injury. VA disability ratings are not retroactive.

I never filed in '71. I got a 10% rating and got my first check for $32 a short time later. I'd never heard of the VA other than stories in national news about how bad the VA was for care. I stayed away for decades. I'm now enrolled but don't use VA much. I was a medic in Nam and 3 Purple Hearts.

I did all if it after retiring. If you are rated at 100% make sure you then apply for social security disability. Keep your tricare and if you get ss disability then you will get Medicare.

When I got out I wanted nothing to do with the U.S. Government. I was out 27 years before I joined VA.

It took me 38 years to file a claim.
I was detached from my ship and placed on medical leave, and then medically discharged in lieu of reenlistment and a $25,000 bonus. The DoD rated me 10% and the VA sent me a letter stating that I had a non-compensable injury.
In 1984, no one said anything to me when I was discharged. I received no paperwork or copies of any of my records. I went to the VA hospital one time in extreme pain and was given the standard military treatment of Motrin.
It took almost 40 years to learn that I could file a claim, over a year to get results, and was rated at 70%. The VA had my records in local storage and they were never scanned electronically and it took over a year to locate them. I was rated based on the evidence in my medical & service records.
My life may have been easier if I had known that you could contest the VAs rating, but you don't know what you don't know.
In 2014 I applied for VA healthcare and was accepted based on the medical discharge.
The care that I receive is light years beyond the care that I received from Cigna for 30+ years.
At times, the 40 year delay felt almost deliberate, personal; but it was my fault for interpreting the term "non-compensable" literally.

I did mine through the program in the Navy. They sat down and help me do the forms they help me get the paperwork from the hospitals. I got a disability rating within a year after being discharged, medically. Of course I pill it was very low, but it seemed to flow through pretty quick. One note is my claim was right at the beginning of the invasion of Afghanistan.

I retired in 96 completely discussed with medical hoops I had to jump through just to avoid a PEB. It was 21 years before I put in for benefits

I had 9 yrs active and got out in early 90s. I was never told I qualified for VA or anything. Around 2015 I ran into someone who asked what disability I am rated at. I said I didn't know what they were talking about. They said that as soon as I could that i should get to a VA center and apply for services/care and then inquire about disability. I brushed it off until about 2019 when the pain in my back really was impacting my lifestyle. I had already had surgery and repair on both my shoulders back around 2012. I brushed it off to just getting older. I was surprised to find that I qualified for full VA care and was rated at 40% disability. All those years I should have been getting disability and care but never knew any better. I just thought the pains were part of life and I needed to buck up and deal with it. I wish I had better advice/counseling when I ETS'd.