{"id":68421,"date":"2023-10-20T14:40:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-20T14:40:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/uncategorized\/2023\/10\/20\/fixes-could-cut-months-off-wait-for-vets-fire-damaged-service-records\/"},"modified":"2026-08-08T15:23:30","modified_gmt":"2026-08-08T15:23:30","slug":"fixes-could-cut-months-off-wait-for-vets-fire-damaged-service-records","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/marinecorpstimes\/veterans\/2023\/10\/20\/fixes-could-cut-months-off-wait-for-vets-fire-damaged-service-records\/","title":{"rendered":"Fixes could cut months off wait for vets\u2019 fire-damaged service records"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Frequent mistakes by <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/09\/25\/va-officials-sound-alarm-on-uptick-in-veterans-benefits-scams\/\" target=\"_blank\">veterans benefits<\/a> staffers are adding months of waiting time in some routine record requests made by elderly veterans, a department watchdog warned this week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Officials from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/oig\/pubs\/VAOIG-22-03522-209.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">Veterans Affairs Inspector General\u2019s office<\/a> said improvements in training and protocols could cut down those wait times by several months, but only if VA leaders put more emphasis on fixing the problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">At issue are requests for military records from the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.archives.gov\/personnel-records-center\/fire-1973\" target=\"_blank\">National Personnel Records Center<\/a> that were <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/07\/11\/families-seek-answers-50-years-after-fire-destroyed-veterans-records\/\" target=\"_blank\">damaged in a massive fire<\/a> in July 1973. The disaster partially or completely burned about 18 million official Defense Department personnel files, and has for decades led to a host of problems obtaining veterans benefits for those individuals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">On average, veterans filing for disability benefits <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/09\/21\/total-of-overdue-va-disability-claims-balloons-to-almost-300000\/\" target=\"_blank\">wait 146 days for their cases to be completed<\/a>, according to VA data. But for veterans whose records were damaged in the NPRC fire, that delay jumps to about 450 days because of the complexity of reconstructing records and determining individuals\u2019 eligibility.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">But the new inspector general report found that as many as 80% of those damaged records requests are being handled improperly by department staffers. Correcting some of those mistakes \u2014 things such as checking for backup copies of the files and making timely follow-up requests \u2014 could cut wait times by up to 73 days.<\/p>\n\n\n\t<aside class=\"smg-interstitial-link wp-block-smg-interstitial-link\">\n\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/militarytimes\/veterans\/2023\/09\/26\/lawmakers-demand-accountability-after-va-loses-track-of-vets-claims\/\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__inner\">\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__media\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"300\" height=\"181\" src=\"https:\/\/one.sightlinemg.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/AP_21720922750.jpg.jpg?w=300\" class=\"smg-interstitial-link__image wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" \/>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t<div class=\"smg-interstitial-link__content\">\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"smg-interstitial-link__kicker\">Related<\/span>\n\t\t\t\t<h3 class=\"smg-interstitial-link__title\">Lawmakers demand accountability after VA loses track of vets\u2019 claims<\/h3>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<p class=\"smg-interstitial-link__excerpt\">Nearly 100,000 cases were delayed because of technical problems with the VA&#039;s web site software.<\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/aside>\n\t\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cVeterans service representatives generally informed veterans of the actions necessary to complete a record request for fire-damaged or destroyed records,\u201d the report stated. \u201cHowever, they did not always complete required follow-up procedures, such as calling the veteran.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cVBA staff are not performing the steps in the order prescribed by the manual.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Part of the problem is that the damaged records requests only represent a small fraction of the total claims inventory VA staff handle annually. Total disability claim filings approached two million cases last year, while claims involving fire-damaged records total only a few thousand each year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Still, the added wait is potentially more harmful to those veterans than others. The inspector general\u2019s report said the average age for veterans requesting fire-damaged records is 87.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">VA officials said they are working on solutions. They hope to implement new training and procedures early next year, according to a statement from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.militarytimes.com\/veterans\/2023\/01\/24\/white-house-names-latest-pick-to-lead-veterans-benefits-operations\/\" target=\"_blank\">Under Secretary of Benefits Joshua Jacobs<\/a> to the inspector general\u2019s office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The inspector general\u2019s report said those changes need to happen as soon as possible to \u201censure these veterans receive compassionate service in a timely manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The full report is available on the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.va.gov\/oig\/pubs\/VAOIG-22-03522-209.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">inspector general\u2019s website. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>An inspector general report said frequent procedural mistakes are adding months to elderly veterans&#8217; wait for military records.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":107156,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[101,7,23,12,25,67,19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3226],"class_list":["post-68421","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-daily-news-roundup","category-education-transition","category-home","category-news","category-newsletters","category-pentagon-congress","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"TLRGA72O4RH2PH3KSKNLFRX4JE","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2023\/10\/20\/fixes-could-cut-months-off-wait-for-vets-fire-damaged-service-records\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v26.0 (Yoast SEO v28.1) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Fixes could cut months off wait for vets\u2019 fire-damaged service records - Marine Corps Times<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"An inspector general report said frequent procedural mistakes are adding months to elderly veterans&#039; wait for military records.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Fixes could cut months off wait for vets\u2019 fire-damaged service records\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"An inspector general report said frequent procedural mistakes are adding months to elderly veterans&#039; wait for military records.\" \/>\n<meta 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