"No Evidence of an In-Service Event or Injury"
Why records are silent
Injuries treated at the unit level, self-treated, or reported to a corpsman without a chart entry rarely appear in the file. Records from field hospitals and temporary duty stations often never merged into the personnel file, and the 1973 National Personnel Records Center fire destroyed a large share of Army and Air Force records for earlier service periods.
The combat presumption
For a who engaged in combat, 38 U.S.C. § 1154(b) and 38 CFR § 3.304(d) require VA to accept satisfactory lay or other evidence of service incurrence if it is consistent with the circumstances, conditions, or hardships of that service, even without official record support. The presumption addresses the in-service event only — it does not establish a current disability or a .
Corroboration that carries weight
- Personnel records: assignments, deployment orders, hazard pay, and awards establishing where and under what conditions you served.
- Unit histories, after-action reports, and morning reports.
- Statements from people who were present, describing what they observed rather than offering medical conclusions.
- For PTSD stressors, 38 CFR § 3.304(f)(3) relaxes corroboration where the stressor relates to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity and a VA psychiatrist or psychologist confirms it is adequate to support the diagnosis.
Frequently Asked Questions
References & sources
- 38 CFR § 3.303 — Principles relating to service connection — Code of Federal Regulations
- 38 CFR § 3.159 — VA's duty to assist — Code of Federal Regulations
- 38 CFR § 3.2500 — Review of decisions (AMA lanes) — Code of Federal Regulations
- Caluza v. Brown, 7 Vet. App. 498 (1995) — U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims · Sets out the three elements of service connection.
Useful Tools & Topics
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