BLUF
Access to military records is easiest on the day before separation and gets harder every day after. Some of that is unavoidable; custodians change, systems change, points of contact move on. But part of it is specific to aviators: aeromedical and flight-physical waiver history is often tracked in a system separate from the general medical record, and those records don’t automatically travel with the rest of the file the way a routine clinic visit does. Knowing what to copy before separating, not after, is one of the more practical steps a departing aviator can do for a future VA claim.
Why timing matters
Once separated, a veteran becomes a requester rather than a participant. Getting a copy of a record while still serving is often a matter of asking a local records office or downloading them directly; getting the same record years later can mean identifying the right custodian, submitting a formal request, and waiting…sometimes for records that were never centrally indexed to begin with. None of this is a reason to panic about older records. It’s a reason to treat the separation window as the easiest possible time to gather what will matter later, because it undeniably is.
Before separation
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Still a participant in local systems
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May be able to ask the local records office or download records directly
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Current points of contact may still be available
After separation
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Becomes an outside requester
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May need to identify the correct custodian and submit a formal request
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Custodians, systems, and points of contact may have changed
The separation window is usually the easiest time to gather the records that may matter later.
VA’s duty to assist has real limits
VA is required to help develop a claim, but that duty is not unlimited, and it is worth understanding exactly where the limit sits. Under 38 CFR § 3.159(c)(1), for records not held by a federal agency — state Guard records, private civilian medical records, some employer records — VA’s “reasonable efforts” generally means an initial request and, if nothing comes back, one follow-up request. If that follow-up also comes back empty, or the custodian indicates the records don’t exist, VA is not required to keep trying. Federal records get more persistent effort, but only for records VA knows to ask for — and VA can only ask for what they’re aware exists. A record VA doesn’t know about isn’t a record VA is failing to pursue; it’s simply missing from the claim.
Non-federal records
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For records such as state Guard, private medical, and some employer records, reasonable efforts generally mean an initial request and one follow-up request
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Efforts may end when the follow-up is unsuccessful or the custodian says the records do not exist
Federal records
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VA uses more persistent efforts for federal records
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VA must still know that the records exist and where to seek them
VA can only pursue a record it knows exists.
The aviation-specific gap: waiver and aeromedical records
The Department of War has moved to a single electronic health record, MHS Genesis, now deployed across every military hospital and clinic worldwide, including Air Force and Air National Guard treatment facilities. That consolidation is a genuine improvement over the older, fragmented system of local records, but it has three limits worth knowing before assuming it captures everything.
First, MHS Genesis only reflects care given at a facility from the date that facility switched over; the rollout ran from 2017 to 2024, so legacy paper and older electronic records from before a given clinic’s cutover are not retroactively pulled in. Second, it only covers care received at a military hospital or clinic — a Guard member whose primary care comes from a civilian provider the rest of the year will not have that care captured in Genesis at all. Third, and most relevant to aviators specifically, flight-physical and medical-waiver history is tracked through a separate, purpose-built system rather than the general health record. In the Air Force, aeromedical waivers are tracked through the Aeromedical Information Management Waiver Tracking System (AIMWTS), governed by DAFMAN 48-123. The Army and Navy maintain their own analogous, separately administered aeromedical processes. These systems exist to support the certification decision at the time, whether an aviator with a given condition can be safely returned to flying status, not to feed a future VA claim, and a unified general health record does not change that; the waiver history stays in its own system regardless.
An aviator’s complete history may live in more than one system.
MHS Genesis
Military hospital and clinic care from each facility’s transition date
Legacy military records
Paper or electronic records created before a facility’s Genesis cutover
Civilian medical records
Care received outside military hospitals and clinics
Aeromedical and waiver records
In the Air Force, AIMWTS; other services use their own separately administered processes
The aviator’s complete record
This matters because a waiver record can be some of the strongest evidence available for a later claim; it documents a condition, a date, and a formal medical determination, all created contemporaneously rather than reconstructed from memory years afterward. It is also exactly the kind of record that is easy to overlook, because it was never part of the paperwork a servicemember thinks of as “medical records” in the everyday sense.
What to gather before separating
One caveat before the list: not every category below will apply to every aviator, and this is not a claim that every listed record will exist or be relevant to a future claim. It is a starting checklist to review against an individual service and specialty, not a guarantee of completeness.
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Service treatment records, including any treatment received outside the primary military treatment facility
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Flight physical (PHA) history and any aeromedical waiver documentation, including the underlying medical summary submitted in support of a waiver
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Any Line of Duty determination completed during service, along with the underlying incident documentation
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FAA medical certificate history, if held concurrently with military service, and any related correspondence with an Aviation Medical Examiner
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Orders and duty-status documentation for any period of Guard or Reserve service — see “Understanding LODs, Title 10 vs Title 32, and Standard Drill Weekend” for why this category in particular tends to be the hardest to reconstruct later
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DD-214 and any amendments, and a full copy of the official personnel file
What this doesn’t cover
This article describes categories of records worth gathering before separation; it does not evaluate what evidence would support any particular condition or claim, does not provide instructions for requesting records after separation, and does not address how to correct or amend a record found to be inaccurate. VADE is not currently accredited to represent veterans before VA and does not provide individualized guidance on evidence-gathering for a specific claim.
Sources
38 CFR § 3.159 — VA’s duty to assist in developing a claim, including the limits on obtaining non-federal records
DAFMAN 48-123 — Department of the Air Force Manual governing medical examinations, standards, and the aeromedical waiver process (AIMWTS)
MHS Genesis / Electronic Health Record Modernization — deployment scope and what the unified record does and does not capture
VADE provides general education. VADE is not VA-accredited and does not represent veterans before VA.
Related VADE Learn articles
Before You File: Know Your Options
Understanding LODs, Title 10 vs Title 32, and Standard Drill Weekend
VA disability and FAA medical certification are different systems