Noteboom The Law Firm

Destroyed Records Mean Denied VA Benefits

February 21, 2011 - American soldiers have paid a huge price to accomplish their missions in the Gulf in Operation Desert Storm. The war itself caused almost 160,000 injuries and since 1990 has caused service-related injuries and/or illnesses in over 10,000 soldiers. Once enlisted, every solider knows it is possible they will face deployment and return injured or even worse, not return home at all.

What they don't expect, however, is for the military to destroy their service records leading to them being denied their VA benefits for combat-connected injuries. More and more soldiers are seeing the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) deny their benefits because their service records simply do not exist. Not all records are missing, only the ones for everything that occurred while deployed outside the United States.

This is not the first time the VA has fielded these types of complaints. Things are different now, however. A newly released letter from the Department of the Army confirms what soldiers have been claiming for years: service records have been destroyed. In direct violation of Army regulations, units in Desert Storm were ordered to destroy soldiers' records because the room necessary to transport the paperwork back to the States was unavailable.

It is wholly surprising the Army would actually put this in writing. There is no way to know how many thousands of soldiers were affected. Without records of service, the VA has to decline medical claims. At this point in time, these soldiers may very well have no recourse against the VA or the military while some of these soldiers were undoubtedly injured during their time in the Gulf.