Document Your Illnesses, Injuries & Exposures
Your future self may need the record you create today.
Military culture teaches service members to push through pain, finish the mission, and keep moving.
Sometimes that mindset is necessary. But it can also convince people to ignore injuries, minimize symptoms, avoid medical care, or assume they will remember everything years later.
You may not know today what will still hurt five, ten, or twenty years from now.
If something happens to your physical or mental health while you serve, get care, document it, and keep your records.
Good documentation can help your future doctors understand what happened to you. And if you later need to establish that an illness, injury, or exposure was connected to your military service, records created while you are serving may become important evidence.
The Most Important Thing: Get It in Your Medical Record
If you are injured, become ill, develop new symptoms, experience a mental-health problem, or believe an exposure may be affecting your health, seek appropriate medical care and explain what is happening accurately.
Don't minimize symptoms because you're worried about looking weak.
Don't tell the provider you're fine when you're not.
Don't assume you'll remember the dates, symptoms, circumstances, or treatment years from now.
VA may later consider records including your service treatment records, VA and private medical records, and supporting statements when evaluating a disability claim. Veterans Affairs
Your health comes first. Documentation follows from getting the care you need.
Keep Your Own Records
Military records can follow you across installations, deployments, medical facilities, and eventually into veteran status. You should understand what is actually contained in your record.
The MHS GENESIS Patient Portal allows you to access and download health information, review clinical notes and certain test results, and communicate securely with your health-care team. TRICARE
[ACCESS YOUR MHS GENESIS HEALTH RECORD]
https://tricare.mil/mhsgenesis
Consider keeping track of records related to significant illnesses or injuries, including:
Medical appointments and clinical notes
Diagnoses and test results
Referrals and specialist care
Prescriptions
Profiles, limitations, or changes in duty
Emergency or civilian medical treatment
Mental-health treatment
Follow-up care
Relevant personnel or incident records
If you receive treatment outside the Military Health System, make sure you know how to obtain those records as well.
Use authorized systems to store or transmit protected information. Do not remove, photograph, email, or retain classified, controlled, operationally sensitive, or otherwise restricted information in violation of military rules.
Document Exposures, Too
Not every service-related health problem begins with an obvious injury.
Military service can involve occupational and environmental exposures during deployments, training, maintenance, garrison duty, and other assignments.
The Department of Defense and Department of Veterans Affairs maintain the Individual Longitudinal Exposure Record (ILER) to consolidate documented occupational and environmental exposure information over a service member's career. ILER can include information related to deployments, duty locations, occupational history, known exposure events, and exposure registries. Military Health System
Current service members can review their own ILER and may add self-reported information when they believe exposure information is missing. Health.mil recommends reviewing the record periodically, particularly after deployments, changes in duty station, and before separation or retirement. Military Health System
[REVIEW YOUR EXPOSURE HISTORY — ILER]
https://www.health.mil/Reference-Center/Frequently-Asked-Questions/ILER
If you believe an exposure is missing, document what you know as accurately as you can.
Useful details can include:
Where you were
Approximately when it happened
Your unit or assignment
What substance, hazard, or environmental condition you encountered
What you were doing
How long or how frequently you were exposed
Any symptoms you experienced
Anyone who witnessed the event or experienced the same conditions
Health.mil notes that ILER is not necessarily a complete record and is intended to complement clinical histories and individual reporting—not replace them.
Mental Health Counts
Mental-health injuries and illnesses are health conditions.
If you are experiencing depression, anxiety, trauma symptoms, suicidal thoughts, sleep problems, panic, significant changes in mood or behavior, or another mental-health concern, seeking care creates an opportunity to get help and creates a contemporaneous medical record of what you are experiencing.
You don't have to wait until things become unbearable.
And you do not need to pretend that an experience did not affect you just because other people went through it too.
If you are in crisis, dial 988 and press 1 to reach the Veterans Crisis Line.
Write Down What Happened While You Still Remember It
Medical records aren't the only kind of evidence that can matter.
Sometimes the people around you know exactly what happened because they experienced it with you or saw how it affected you.
Army veteran and VALOR creator El Garcia-Powers recommends documenting significant experiences while memories are still fresh:
“The more detailed your account, the better. Note what you saw, smelled, heard, and felt.”
Her advice comes from personal experience. Years after leaving the Army, she began pursuing VA disability benefits and found herself trying to establish what had happened during service despite rarely seeking medical care at the time.
Military culture had taught her to “suck it up and drive on.”
That made the record harder to reconstruct later.
[READ EL GARCIA-POWERS' “I BELIEVE YOU”]
Your Fellow Service Members Can Be Witnesses
If you and someone you served with witnessed the same significant event, injury, conditions, or changes in one another's health, consider documenting what you personally remember.
The Department of Veterans Affairs provides VA Form 21-10210, Lay/Witness Statement, for people providing statements in support of a VA claim. These are sometimes called “buddy statements.” Veterans Affairs
[OFFICIAL VA FORM 21-10210 — LAY/WITNESS STATEMENT]
https://www.va.gov/forms/21-10210/
There is no magic number of statements you need.
What matters is that a witness describes what they personally know.
A useful statement may describe things such as:
An injury or traumatic event they witnessed
Conditions you experienced together
Symptoms they observed
A noticeable change in your behavior or mental state
Statements you made at the time
Difficulty performing normal duties
A medical or mental-health crisis they witnessed
Changes they observed after an event or deployment
Friends and family members may also have relevant firsthand observations. VA recognizes supporting statements from people including family members, friends, clergy, law-enforcement personnel, and people you served with. Veterans Affairs
Every witness should tell the truth in their own words. Don't copy statements, exaggerate events, or describe something you didn't personally observe.
If You Don't Have a Form, Write It Down
You do not need to wait for a future VA claim before creating a personal record.
If something significant happens, write down what you remember while it is still fresh.
That could be in a journal or another secure personal record.
Consider recording:
The approximate date and location
What happened
What you saw, heard, smelled, or physically experienced
What symptoms began afterward
What you told other people
Whether you sought care
Who was present
Whether the problem continued or changed over time
A note you create for yourself is not the same thing as an official medical or military record. But memories fade, and contemporaneous notes may help you accurately reconstruct events later.
Again: never put classified, controlled, or operationally sensitive information into an unauthorized personal record.
Before You Separate or Retire
Don't wait until you've taken off the uniform for the last time to start thinking about your health records.
Review your medical history and exposure record before separation.
If there are continuing medical or mental-health problems, make sure you're receiving appropriate care.
If you're planning to seek VA disability compensation, learn about the process while you're still serving.
Eligible service members with 180 to 90 days remaining on active duty may be able to file through VA's Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program. VA says the program may help speed the disability-claim process. Veterans Affairs
[LEARN ABOUT BENEFITS DELIVERY AT DISCHARGE]
https://www.va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim/when-to-file/pre-discharge-claim/
If you have fewer than 90 days remaining, that does not necessarily mean you must wait until after separation to file. VA provides separate guidance for pre-discharge claims outside the BDD window.
Understand What VA May Need Later
Not every illness or injury results in VA disability compensation.
But if you eventually file a claim for a condition related to your service, documentation can matter.
Depending on the type of claim, evidence VA considers may include:
Service treatment records
Military records
VA medical records
Private medical records
Medical opinions
Supporting lay or witness statements Veterans Affairs
[VA: EVIDENCE NEEDED FOR A DISABILITY CLAIM]
https://www.va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim/evidence-needed/
Don't Let “Suck It Up” Become a Missing Record
There are times in military service when you have to push through discomfort to accomplish the mission.
That doesn't mean you have to pretend afterward that nothing happened.
An injury isn't weakness.
Getting mental-health care isn't weakness.
Reporting symptoms isn't weakness.
Documenting an exposure isn't complaining.
Keeping a record isn't malingering.
Taking your health seriously is part of taking care of yourself, your family, and the veteran you will someday become.
You earned the right to be believed.
Give your future self the evidence to tell the story accurately.
Start Here
[VIEW YOUR MILITARY HEALTH RECORD — MHS GENESIS]
https://tricare.mil/mhsgenesis
[REVIEW YOUR EXPOSURE HISTORY — ILER]
https://www.health.mil/Reference-Center/Frequently-Asked-Questions/ILER
[VA FORM 21-10210 — LAY/WITNESS STATEMENT]
https://www.va.gov/forms/21-10210/
[LEARN WHAT EVIDENCE VA MAY USE]
https://www.va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim/evidence-needed/
[LEARN ABOUT PRE-DISCHARGE VA CLAIMS]
https://www.va.gov/disability/how-to-file-claim/when-to-file/pre-discharge-claim/
About This Resource
This page was developed by VALOR Media Network, a veteran-led media company, with input from veterans who have navigated the transition from military service to VA care and benefits.
It is intended as general educational information for service members and military families. It is not medical advice, legal advice, or individualized assistance with a VA disability claim.
For medical concerns, speak with a qualified health-care professional. For official information about veterans benefits and disability claims, use VA.gov or consult an accredited Veterans Service Organization, accredited claims agent, or accredited attorney.