Why will the Air Force not release the Medical Records of my son?

Thank you sir, for your reply.
I am elderly and of extremely limited means. The last lawyer (former Air Force), cashed my check prior to my appointment and failed to show up. I waited 1 1/2 hours and did not receive an apology or a call to say he was detained. My US Rep faxed my 4th formal request to San Antonio. I received a written reply that Minot, AFB had the records and calls and emails were not returned. Prior to that, San Antonio, referred me to people who did not exist and phone numbers that were connected to unidentified answer machines.
Thank you for your suggestion.

Neither his dad nor I was named his contact person. I am the elder of us and in my 70th year. He chose his sister. She was his beneficiary. She kept me out of the information loop when he died, she traveled to Minot, used my POA illegally, and will not give me any information. I obtained police reports, his personnel file, suicide videos, toxicology reports, body cam footage, etc on my own. There wasn't an autopsy done because it was an apparent suicide. There is no official County Coroner in the county where Minot AFB is located in ND. Doctors rotate and "fill in". I found that strange. I believe Minot AFB has the highest incidence of active-duty suicides in the United States. The CAO only speaks with the contact person, I was told. The contact person is to disseminate the information to the family. I'm sure she has, to everyone but myself.

I was told the IG at Minot will respond with 30 days.

Thank you for taking the time to answer my questions.

Diane Junk Ma'am, Sorry to hear about your loss and the subsequent difficulties you have had receiving his records. What else are you looking for that you don't have? Regarding his suicide or other care? It looks like you have pretty detailed records from the acute situation and I am not certain there would be more to gather from that incident. Other care quite possibly was in the civilian sector either at Bismark or Grand Forks (merely a guess) and maybe more difficult to obtain by the military to share with you. If you have been requesting these records over the past ten months, COVID-19 surely has played a part in the delay. So much care has been delayed in living patients because of COVID and medical records of a deceased are likely to be delayed even more. It does not help that people do not understand HIPAA and use it as an excuse not to help. The purpose of HIPAA was to make records easier to move, not harder and not the excuse people use to make it difficult. Now matter who you speak to, I would not expect any movement until after COVID panic slows or goes away. Sorry I cannot really be of assistance.

Well, Major, the story gets more complicated. In his suicide video, he mentioned names up the chain of command that he didn't trust and told his sister not to trust them either. He had told her last year that he felt he was being retaliated against for reporting something. What that something is, I do not know. I can only speculate. I can tell you this, my son was in AMMO. By strange coincidence the day his cremains flew out of Minot, there was a hangar fire/explosion. It was reported that it was basically an unused hangar and had minimal content. Months later it was reported as a 7 Million Dollar fire. https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/2128995/osi-answers-call-amid-covid-19/
Are Two snowblowers worth 7 Million??? Nothing about this adds up. I hope I can find some clues in his Medical Records.

Diane Junk - I hope you find your answers but I don't know where you are going in regards to the Hanger fire.