How can the VA not have backup for burned record?

[mfcorey1]

Woman fights for veteran husband's pension to save home

snip

Three months before he died, he was granted this (payments) by the VA, but he died before he received the first check,” said Taylor.

Taylor said when she and Brenda called the Department of Veterans Affairs, they told them sorry for their loss.

“They're saying they can’t get medical records,” Womer said.

Taylor said she pressed the VA for more information.

“They say they don't know where they’re at. There burnt. They say they don't back up and don't have any records from the St. Louis fire. I can’t remember what year the woman told me,” Taylor explained.

Lucie looked it up, and that fire occurred on July 12, 1973.

It destroyed between 16 million and 18 million military records at the National Personnel Records Center in St. Louis.

Byron Womer's records were among the millions, and it’s paperwork his wife needs to save their home.

http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local/woman-fights-veteran-husbands-pension-save-home/nJQtK/

[pecwae]

1. Some day the V.A. will

have to stop using "St. Louis" as an excuse for their screw ups. Even now too many of their computers cannot access information between hospitals and RO/CO.

[pinboy3niner]

2. Somebody's lying to her

If the husband served in the Army in Vietnam during the war, his records would not have been affected by the fire:

The Fire

A fire at the NPRC in St. Louis on July 12, 1973, destroyed about 80 percent of the records for Army personnel discharged between November 1, 1912, and January 1, 1960. ....

http://www.nvlsp.org/Information/ArticleLibrary/ServiceRecords/MILREC-1973FIRE-LOSTRECORDS.htm

In addition, if the VA granted benefits 3 months before the man's death in 2009, there is no excuse for not having a record of that determination.

[HereSince1628]

3. This story has a lot of missing info, I am not sure anyone lied

And lots of things get 'said' at the VA that get twisted/confused like a bad game of 'telephone'.

One of the things that regularly gets talked about is access to care of illness associated with Agent Orange exposure. That does include access to care and disability compensation. When first presented with this information by a VA hospital intake staff or a social worker, it can sound very promising...and a vet and his family might feel that help has been assured/promised. But there is the issue of getting the documentation, and usually it comes from the federal records center.

You can read background info on AO exposure benefits here.

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/PUBLICHEALTH/exposures/agentorange/benefits.asp

Those benefits could include compensation to survivors of a veteran that died of a condition related to AO:

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/survivors-benefits.asp

The basic issue for coverage of AO is being able to prove that the vet was in a place (in or out of Vietnam) with recognized exposure risk. The rules for a person who served in Vietnam are different from rules of persons were exposed in Thailand, Korea, etc. An introduction to those places and circumstances are listed here:

http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/militaryexposure.asp

[pinboy3niner]

5. What someone lied about is his records being destroyed in the St. Louis fire

The husband's discharge date was later than that of any of the records destroyed in St. Louis (an obit says he served from 1968-71, and he died in a VA hospital).

I agree that the rest of the details are fuzzy and may or may not be accurate--in addition to possible differences in what the widow was told and what she thought she heard. But if they're having trouble locating his records, it's not because of the St. Louis fire.

[HereSince1628]

6. This story is so incomplete, that I can't go there either...

The loss of the home to foreclosure is a tragedy for the family, I don't want to minimize that.

But, I think that the spouse/family of this vet seem generally confused about theirVA experience. I don't trust that they reliably reported what they were formally told about their vet's entitlement to benefits. I don't think what they reported about the St Louis national records fire relative to their family member is any more reliable than anything else. And that isn't to put them down...dealing with the information avalanche during a medical crisis is very likely to lead to confusion.

The things that are important for DU'ers who read this and have concerns about relatives who are vets or who are survivors of vets and who may find themselves in similar circumstances are

1) Benefits, including potential compensations to survivors of veterans dying from some illnesses is a reality--for those vets who qualify. The VA has social workers at the hospitals who will help a family understand all this.

2) Access to benefits through the VA requires proof of the veteran's service and in some cases, places of service and MOS as provided by the laws passed by Congress.

3) Many vets have lost their own copies of supporting documentation. They must request verification records from the federal government. Some of the veteran records used for that purpose were lost in a 1973 fire in the records archives in St. Louis, the fire didn't ruin service records from the Vietnam period.

4) The records lost in the fire can often/usually be reconstructed, based on information collected by the military other than personnel records. US military units/ships create many records that include the names of veterans things like morning reports, paycall records, some training records, and personnel transfers in and out of a unit are all recorded in the units historical records. These records exist outside of the national personnel records archive in St. Louis. Reconstruction requires information such as dates of service, locations and units, and especially last duty station. The verification and reconstruction of service records takes time.

[HopeHoops]

4. Ask the shrub. He was behind cutting their budget.