If your military service records are missing — whether destroyed in the 1973 NPRC fire, lost during transfer, or incomplete for any reason — your claim is not automatically dead. The VA has specific obligations and alternative pathways when records are unavailable.
When the VA determines that service records are missing through no fault of the veteran, a heightened duty to assist kicks in. The VA must make more extensive efforts to help you build your case through alternative evidence. The VA must also clearly inform you about what alternative evidence can be submitted.
Alternative evidence sources include buddy statements from people who served with you and can attest to the event, injury, or condition. These carry significant weight when service records are missing. Morning reports and unit diaries may document the event even if individual medical records are lost. Personnel records sometimes survive when medical records do not, and they can show duty stations, assignments, and unit information that supports your account.
Civilian medical records from shortly after discharge are particularly valuable. If you sought treatment for a condition within months or years of leaving service, those records can support the argument that the condition originated during service.
Personal journals, letters written during service, and photographs can serve as contemporaneous evidence of your service experience. A letter you wrote home describing an injury or exposure carries weight because it was created at the time, not years later in support of a claim.
The VA must also apply a more favorable standard when records are missing through no fault of the veteran. While this does not eliminate the need for evidence, it means the VA should give more weight to the veteran's own account and any alternative evidence submitted.
If you believe your records were lost in the 1973 fire, request a search through the NPRC specifically noting this possibility. NPRC sometimes finds partial records or reconstructed records that were created after the fire using alternative sources.
Note: This article references sections of the VA's M21-1 Adjudication Procedures Manual. The VA periodically reorganizes the M21-1 and section numbers may have changed since this article was written. For the most current section references, visit the VA's public M21-1 Web Automated Reference Material System (WARMS).