National Guard and Reservist Claims
Those who serve in the National Guard and Reserves who develop conditions related to their military service may apply for Disability compensation just like their Active Duty brothers and sisters in arms!
However, there is a lot more red-tape involved which can make getting Service-connection a lot more difficult.
In short, a Line of Duty (LOD) is something that will GREATLY assist in you getting service-connection. More information on LODs is available below.
IMPORTANT NOTE:
If you served in the National Guard or Reserves (not including the Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR)) AFTER you separated from Active Duty AND your claim is related to that period of Guard or Reserve service (Yes, even if you were on a Title 10 Deployment) it is IMPORTANT that you ensure the VA properly develops your claim! This is because DoD does NOT automatically release records to the VA in this scenario... and the VA has a knack of forgetting to request National Guard and Reserve records.
Submit a Personal statement with your claim requesting that the VA submit a NG1/RV1* request to NPRC to obtain your Service Treatment Records.
*NG1 for National Guard | RV1 for Reservists
Line of Duty (LOD)
An LOD means that an injury or disease incurred or was aggravated during a period of active military, naval, or air service and was NOT the result of the veteran's own willful misconduct or, for claims filed after October 31, 1990, additionally not the result of their abuse of alcohol or drugs.
A service department finding that injury, disease or death occurred in line of duty IS BINDING on the VA, UNLESS, at the time the injury was suffered or disease contracted the Veteran was:
Avoiding duty by desertion, or was absent without leave which materially interfered with the performance of military duty;
Confined under a sentence of court-martial involving an unremitted dishonorable discharge; or
Confined under sentence of a civil court for a felony as determined under the laws of the jurisdiction where the person was convicted by such court.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
LODs are NOT needed for Title 10 service.
An LOD will NOT automatically provide you with disability compensation if your character of discharge for the period of service was Other than Honorable! However, it may allow you to get Health care under Chapter 17.
LODs are NOT a silver bullet! It establishes that something happened during service! It does NOT provide presumptive status that your current condition is linked to the incident! Meaning, if a medical examiner says it is less likely than not that your current condition is related then you will very likely NOT get service-connection!
The Coast Guard will also call an LOD a Notice of Eligibility (NOE).
Initiating a LOD
LODs SHOULD be started by the Military Treatment Facility's (MTF) LOD clerk, after the Veteran is seen following an injury, disease, or aggravation of a condition. After being seen, an appropriate LOD should be created and if necessary, an investigation as to the Veteran's conduct surrounding the incident should also be done.
Depending on your Chain of Command (CoC), location, etc. you may find that none of this took place...
According to DoD, LODs MUST be completed within 180 days of you leaving the period of service in-which the LOD is needed. Except, in special circumstances such as the delayed onset of a condition such as PTSD.
If your CoC refuses to provide you a LOD then you are STRONGLY encouraged to submit Buddy and Personal statements with your claim attesting to what happened during the period of service.
Additionally, if you emailed your CoC about establishing an LOD around the time of the period of service, those emails CAN be submitted to the VA as evidence (as well as any other records that may have mentioned the incident such as counseling statements).
LOD Paperwork
Each branch (besides Navy/Marine Corps) has their own dedicated forms for documenting LODs.
If an investigation is required, a DD Form 261 will also be issued.
Alternatively, some units will just do their own thing and write an LOD on State Letterhead, saying in summary that X happened on X date and was in the line of duty - signed by the unit commander.
| Branch | Form |
|---|---|
| Air Force/Space Force | AF Form 348 |
| Army | DA Form 2173 |
| Coast Guard | CG Form 3822 |
Active Duty for Training (ADT)
ADT would be periods of:
Initial Entry Training (basic/boot camp);
Advanced Individual Training (MOS School);
15 days of Annual Training (AT); and
Other military schools (to include military academy preparatory schools).
For VA purposes, these count as Active Service, only when a disability incurred or permanently Aggravated during the period IS service-connected.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
Disabilities that are incurred during travel TO or FROM ADT CAN also be claimed! Just be sure to show orders to drill as well as evidence of the accident occurring in a reasonable time frame to/from drill.
Disabilities also include: Heart attacks, Heart stops, and Stroke.
If you did NOT receive a DD-214 for a period of ADT, submit your orders, retirement point work-sheet, or academy transcripts (showing that period of service).
Unless the VA grants service-connection due to a condition developing or being aggravated during a period of ADT, that period of service should NOT show up on any letters sent by the VA.
Inactive Duty for Training (IADT)
Your traditional drill weekends are considered IADT.To make a claim based upon a period of IADT, it is CRITICAL that you obtain a Line of Duty (LOD)! This will show the VA that your condition occurred/developed during IADT, and that it was not due to misconduct. Being seen for a condition during or after IADT is usually in and of itself not going to be enough.
Additionally, to help speed up the claims process - submit any orders sending you to training and/or your retirement point-sheet showing your IADT dates.
For VA purposes, this counts as Active Service, only when a disability incurred or permanently Aggravated during the period IS service-connected. ONLY* physical disabilities incurred or were permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
*Exceptions are limited to Heart attacks, Heart stops, Stroke, chronic complications from vaccinations, PTSD (MST), and Residuals of COVID-19 (if you served during specific dates - see previous link).
IMPORTANT NOTES:
SERIOUSLY take note: IADT based claims CANNOT consider diseases (outside the above exceptions). HOWEVER, once the period of service is Converted to Active Service - the VA CAN then consider diseases incurred during the period.
Disabilities incurred during travel TO or FROM IADT CAN also be claimed! Just be sure to show orders to drill as well as evidence of the accident occurring in a reasonable time frame to/from drill.
National Guard (Title 32)
When called to duty by your state's Governor. To help speed up the claims process - submit any Title 32 orders and/or your retirement point-sheet showing your periods of service.
For VA purposes, this counts as Active Service, only when a disability incurred or permanently Aggravated during the period IS service-connected. Any disabilities incurred or were permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
NOTE:
Full-time National Guard service is considered ADT under 38 USC 101(22)(C) if performed under 32 USC 316, or 32 USC 502, 503, 504, or 505.
If your Title 32 service is NOT considered ADT, it is CRITICAL that you obtain a Line of Duty (LOD)! This will show to the VA that your condition occurred/developed during this period of service, that it was the result of your duties, and also that it was not due to misconduct.
Active Guard Reserve (AGR)
There are two flavors of AGR:
Reservist - their service IS considered Active Service. Any disabilities incurred or were permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
National Guard - their service is NOT considered Active Service by default. Any disabilities incurred or permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
For National Guard:
If the rater determines a disability or injury occurred during a period of AGR service it will be be converted to Active Service for disability compensation purposes. That said, you DO get the consideration of any disability that occurs or manifests during this time as occurring within your line of duty!
If your claim is denied because the rater said the injury was not in the line of duty (and you had evidence showing it occurred during your AGR time) file an HLR and cite M21 III.i.1.A.2.f. Deciding Line of Duty Status for Claims Based on ADT or IADT:
"Note: “In the line of duty” does not always mean while the reservist or National Guard member was at work. Individuals with AGR service, INCLUDING in the National Guard, are on continuous duty 24 hours a day, seven days a week just as are their Active Duty counterparts. They receive the same pay and are eligible for retirement with 20 years of service. If no intentional negligence or willful misconduct is noted, an injury or disease that occurs during AGR service is presumed to be in the line of duty."
National Guard or Reserve Under Title 10
Service under federal orders, generally for overseas deployments or presidential activation.For VA purposes the service is Active Service (except in the case of ADT, which would not automatically be active), any disabilities incurred or were permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
IMPORTANT NOTES:
For the VA to consider the period of service as being under Title 10, your DD-214 or orders MUST state that the service is "under 10 U.S.C."!
If your DD-214 says the period of service was for training then the VA WILL consider it a period of ADT.
Coast Guard Reservists Under Title 14
Emergency activation during a, or to aid in prevention of, an imminent, serious natural or man-made disaster, accident, catastrophe, act of terrorism, or transportation security incident.For VA purposes this service is Active Service. Any disabilities incurred or were permanently aggravated during these periods they CAN be service-connected!
Inactive Ready Reserve (IRR)
Any disabilities that occur during a period of IRR CANNOT be claimed, UNLESS the condition is eligible for Presumptive service-connection.
Rater Insights
A lot of raters are not a fan of rating claims made by National Guard and Reservists. As mentioned previously, there is more red-tape and things to check to make sure everything has been done properly. And boy oh boy, do people absolutely lose their mind at the VA when it comes to developing these claims!
While you should not have to do the VA's job - for the sake of these claims, it would behoove you to hold the VA's hand when possible.
Ready for Decision
Outside of 'Normal checks', raters need to be extra careful on several things including:
NG/Reserve records;
Periods of service;
Medical opinions; and
Effective date considerations.
NG/Reserve records
This is the biggest development issue. Far too often claims get to rating without attempting to get all NG/Reserve records. This causes the rater to either make a partial decision on your claim or kicking everything back to development, so the VA can get those records.
One of the systems the VA should be checking is Veteran Information Solutions (VIS). This resource lists your periods of service. Specifically, it notes which periods of service are Active Duty service and Guard/Reserve Active Service (GRAS). Now GRAS... is actually a misnomer, in that it will list periods which are NOT Active Service for VA purposes. However, GRAS periods ARE periods for which the VA CAN convert to Active Service (usually periods of ADT or AGR).
IMPORTANT NOTE:
VIS does NOT generally show periods of IADT service, so if your claim involves such a period it would seriously help the rater to include your orders. While yes, your personnel records/point worksheets should have this information - not everything makes its way to your record.
From the rater's perspective, the VA needs either medical records from those GRAS periods or at a minimum a notice from DoD saying all records have been turned over that they have.
At issue here is if you previously filed a claim, the VA may have previously requested your records. BUT, if you served after that last request... the VA has a duty to assist in trying to obtain any possible new records! This duty exists, even if your claim is for a previous period of service. As it is possible the Veteran injured themselves in a more recent period of GRAS. This CANNOT be waived, even if you were to state you definitely did not hurt yourself in recent GRAS service.
Periods of service
In the VBA system, only periods of Active Service are 'valid' under current policy. Depending on how active your reserve or guard unit was, this can be very tedious process (lots of DD214 and prior rating decision checking). Oftentimes, the system will have invalid periods of service (unconverted periods) added.
Converting periods of service to 'Active Service'
For periods of service that are NOT Active Service by default, the rater must determine if a period of service can be considered Active Service. If the rater is granting service-connection for a disability incurred or permanently aggravated during a period of ADT or IADT they will 'convert' the period over to Active Service. This conversion is now nothing more than uploading a document to your file and updating your military service in the system. Previously, such a 'conversion' was done within the rating decision itself - in which the rater would state in the decision that X period of service is now considered Active Service due to a grant of service-connection of X.... But raters being raters, it was not uncommon for this declaration to be missing. So, making sure periods of service are correct in the system can involve a lot of digging in the record.
Medical opinions
It is CRITICAL that the rater review everything to ensure the medical opinion the VA gets is appropriate; With NG/Reserve claims, this is even more important due to the possible various periods of service.
Common issues:
Unfavorable opinion when we did not request all NG/Reserve records. Without all the evidence, an unfavorable opinion is generally premature.
If the opinion is favorable, then a grant can be made without getting the records.
Examiner stated no in-service complaints, when records show there were.
This is usually due to a sloppy request or sloppy examiner. The exam request should specify to the examiner 'Please consider the periods of service of X and Y to be active duty for the purposes of your medical opinion' For things that happened during periods of ADT/IADT. This is due to the fact that those periods of service cannot be added to the system till they have been 'converted'. Otherwise, the examiners are trained to not consider injuries outside of the periods of service in the VA systems as being during periods of Active Service.
Examiner provided a favorable opinion without opinion being supported by the record.
If they stated your right knee is due to a combat deployment and... there is no evidence of a right knee injury let alone a deployment, the opinion is not valid.
Condition is preexisting, meaning an aggravation medical opinion is required.
The curse of having so many medical records available to the VA outside of periods which can be considered Active Service is that you may have been seen for a disability BEFORE you were seen for the issue during a period that can be considered Active Service. That being the case, an aggravation opinion is required; which may not have been requested initially.
These issues may require the rater to kick the claim back to correct or amend the opinion/obtain records- which of course adds even more time to your claim's wait time! But it is better for a rater to catch the issue(s) than to deny your claim!
Effective date considerations
Click HERE to see the special cases.
Recap
Let's review.
If you served in the National Guard or Reserves (not including IRR) AFTER you separated from Active Duty AND your claim is related to that period of Guard or Reserve service (Yes, even if you were on a Title 10 Deployment) it is IMPORTANT that you ensure the VA properly develops your claim! This is because DoD does NOT automatically release records to the VA in this scenario... and the VA has a knack of forgetting to request National Guard and Reserve records.
Submit a Personal statement with your claim requesting that the VA submit a NG1/RV1* request to NPRC to obtain your Service Treatment Records.
*NG1 for National Guard | RV1 for Reservists
Submit personnel records, medical records, statements, and LODs that you have to support your claim. The record keepers for the guard and reserves are... as a whole not the greatest. So if you happen to have a copy, give it to the VA on the chance that the archives do not have something.
In the end, the VA as a whole struggles with NG/Reserve claims. If you end up being denied and file a Higher level review, it is very likely a duty to assist error will be found somewhere. This does not mean you are more-likely to then get service-connected, but it does mean that there is more to do before a proper decision one way or the other can be made - VA needs to turn over all the proper stones!
Frequently Asked Questions
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It means that the VA can consider all disabilities incurred or permanently aggravated during that period for service-connection. Additionally, if you developed certain conditions within a year of that period of service (if period lasted at least 90 continuous days and the severity evaluates at least 10%) then the condition would be presumptive. Click HERE for more information.
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You can file as soon as 180 days BEFORE the date of the end of your active period of service. If you file within 180-90 days from separation it will be considered a BDD claim.
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Periods of service that are ADT/IADT will NOT be added to your listed periods of service, unless the VA 'converts' the period(s) of service to Active Service. ADT/IADT is NOT considered to be active service by default.
If you have tons of short periods of Title 10 deployments, the VA is NOT required to list them all. Due to system limitations, it is not always possible or practical to list everything.