LOD Status

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JakeTrilla

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National Guardsman here.

I "filed" an LOD while I was active duty for overseas deployment with my state med det before leaving country. This was a number of years ago.

I have not heard anything since. How do you go about checking the status of an LOD? I have my submitted paperwork but no findings/official resolution. Is that information available to me?

Thank Ya'll for your help!
 
Phew man. You are stepping into a crap show with LODs. Are you Army or Air Force? That will change how you go about finding resolution.

- Do you have any evidence to show you applied for an LOD?
- Does your medical record reflect your injury while on active duty?

@retiredguy another one to add to the books.
 
Best guess, if it's been a "number of years" and you haven't heard about it, it doesn't exist. Never approved, lost in admin hell, never routed...whatever.

Did you keep copies of everything you submitted?
 
Guardguy11 said:
Phew man. You are stepping into a crap show with LODs. Are you Army or Air Force? That will change how you go about finding resolution.

- Do you have any evidence to show you applied for an LOD?
- Does your medical record reflect your injury while on active duty?

@retiredguy another one to add to the books.
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I'm Army Guard.

I kept all of the documentation I submitted, but did not get any official confirmation that things were submitted. I saw a screen with my LOD's in the states Med system and got a call from a state rep a year after the deployment to "follow up" but it was just a question about one injury and if I had seen a Dr.

I used the LOD documents to submit my VA claims (all found to be service connected)

I've made statements to the PCM during yearly PHA's every year since the deployment. I do not receive any documentation from the PCM to verify if there are LOD's on my record.
 
The fact the VA accepted these documents and found them to be service connected is great. Are you trying to stay in the Guard or do you feel like your LOD condition makes you unfit for service?
 
Guardguy11 said:
The fact the VA accepted these documents and found them to be service connected is great. Are you trying to stay in the Guard or do you feel like your LOD condition makes you unfit for service?
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I believe that my time to be an effective part of my unit is coming to an end. "The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak" as it were. If I can complete 10 years (February 2024) I'd prefer that since it would allow me to train my replacement. I've been hoping that the MEB process would not begin until I could ensure I could stay at least that long.

So yes, short answer is; It's becoming increasingly obvious to me that it's time to get out.

I've read AR 40-501 and I believe that my lower back issues and previous cold injury residuals will qualify me for discharge. But I could be wrong? Both injuries are detrimental to my ability to safely do my job and to deploy. The lower back issues are not getting any better and I fear further injury by continuing to participate in training activities.

I've spoken to my PCM who has placed me on temporary profile but that has been ongoing for about 250 days at this point, it's only written for my back, and they have stated "it doesn't matter what the VA rating is: we do our own evaluation". I'm being asked to submit civilian and VA doctors notes to the PCM to continue a valid profile. I visit a Dr every 90 days for re-evaluation to fulfill that requirement. The VA ratings sheet says that these injuries (based on their exams) are "static".


Should there be a contact at the state level that would be able to access my medical records to see if those LODs exist? Would that be my PCM?

i assume that if the LODs existed, they would play a part in my temporary profile?

Is there a "resolved" status for LODs that the Army just doesn't worry about them any more?

Is there a possibility that they don't see those injuries as in the line of duty even though they were reported while I was in a combat zone under active orders?

I thought that the VASRD governed the rating regardless of DoD or VA?
 
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@Provis, can you share your Army expertise with our friend here?
 
Guardguy11 said:
@Provis, can you share your Army expertise with our friend here?
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So for the IDES part its about unfitting or not. The issue is about profile. You are on track on that front. For Army Guard/Reserve you need to submit paperwork along with a profile packet. They send it up and decide on a profile and if it should be forwarded to MEB. I am not sure on the Guard side but on the Army Reserve side your commander can request a fit for duty exam. This in some ways bypasses part of the process because your commander believes your health conditions are causing you to not be able to do your job.

Now the bad news. Since you are guard everything with the LOD is processed locally and the states sucks at doing it by the book compared the USAR. The only way to check on this would be to ask your medical readiness NCO or S1. Not sure on that front which one it would be since the USAR doesn't have a medical readiness person. Just know that the LOD's are supposed to be filed by your unit but they rarely happen and when they are filed usually somewhere along the way up it gets messed up and forgotten. So just having medical documentation from a deployment or when on active federal orders doesn't mean you have a LOD for it. I would focus on the LOD part since you don't have much control over the being put into IDES.
 
Awesome! thank you for your help!

I'll follow up here when I get more information from my state about whether they have recorded my LODs or not.

If they are recorded, but forgotten, what would be the next step?

Is it likely this is a months long process or a years long one?
 
JakeTrilla said:
Awesome! thank you for your help!

I'll follow up here when I get more information from my state about whether they have recorded my LODs or not.

If they are recorded, but forgotten, what would be the next step?

Is it likely this is a months long process or a years long one?
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So if LOD's are done then you are covered if they try to send you to IDES. Without that they would send you to non duty related IDES where if they find you unfit they discharge you with no benefits.
 
Cool.

Is there a physical copy of LODs I can get my hands on? Or does it all only exist on Genesis/some State med system?
 
JakeTrilla said:
Cool.

Is there a physical copy of LODs I can get my hands on? Or does it all only exist on Genesis/some State med system?
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I doubt it is in Genesis since that is medical records. LOD's are considered administrative paperwork. I would ask for copies and your unit should be able to provide them to you if in fact you do have them for your injuries/illnesses.
 
Thank you everyone!

I'll follow up once I get further details from my unit
 
Just a follow up:
I was able to request a "audit" of my current LODs that the state is tracking.

Here is where it stands: all have been put in "administratively closed" status.
Some of the issues were reported incorrectly: for example a back injury was reported as "loss of feeling in legs". Other issues were simply left out.

I'm being told that as long as there is a LOD, I can reopen the case...

The questions for the group are: How vital is it that I have these LODs that currently exist are reopened and corrected?

and

If the VA has service connected issues that should have gone unrecorded, what steps need to be taken to get the LODs that should have been included years ago input to reflect as an LOD "on the books"?
 
Getting a LOD is paramount! If you don't make it to retirement your saving grace is the LOD to be medically separated or retired if DOD is 30% or greater. The NG sucks at this and they don't want to bother but I would pursue it until you get a LOD. You risk getting up in a non duty related IDES designation if they find you can't do your job for those conditions where a LOD is not there.
 
Provis said:
Getting a LOD is paramount! If you don't make it to retirement your saving grace is the LOD to be medically separated or retired if DOD is 30% or greater. The NG sucks at this and they don't want to bother but I would pursue it until you get a LOD. You risk getting up in a non duty related IDES designation if they find you can't do your job for those conditions where a LOD is not there.
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What is the process of correcting a non-input LOD by my state? or in other words what does "pursue it until I get an LOD" look like (in ELI5 form)?

In 2019-2020 I made the submission of LODs that are not now reflecting. How do I submit the past LODs in such a way that the state will truthfully verify that my injuries occurred back then? Or do I need to report the issue getting worse while on orders and refer back to the injury start?

Sorry to be so slow but I don't really understand where the start point is for getting an LOD for injuries that the VA acknowledges as service connected since 2020, were submitted at that time, but then the state has "lost"/"lost track of"...


Thank you for your help!
 
JakeTrilla said:
What is the process of correcting a non-input LOD by my state? or in other words what does "pursue it until I get an LOD" look like (in ELI5 form)?

In 2019-2020 I made the submission of LODs that are not now reflecting. How do I submit the past LODs in such a way that the state will truthfully verify that my injuries occurred back then? Or do I need to report the issue getting worse while on orders and refer back to the injury start?

Sorry to be so slow but I don't really understand where the start point is for getting an LOD for injuries that the VA acknowledges as service connected since 2020, were submitted at that time, but then the state has "lost"/"lost track of"...


Thank you for your help!
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Talk to leadership and medical readiness person in your unit. May have to contact a congressperson for help. @Guardguy11 may have some other suggestions. My experience is from my wife that was in the USAR which isn't as difficult at NG mainly because NG is run by the state and they tend to not follow the regs as much as compared to the federal government.
 
Provis said:
Talk to leadership and medical readiness person in your unit. May have to contact a congressperson for help. @Guardguy11 may have some other suggestions. My experience is from my wife that was in the USAR which isn't as difficult at NG mainly because NG is run by the state and they tend to not follow the regs as much as compared to the federal government.
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Thank you.

I'll continue to follow up here as things progress in case anyone else runs into a similar situation.
 
The best thing I can tell you to start with is become an expert on AFI 36-2910. This is what your wing is supposed to follow when dealing with your LODs. I cannot stress enough how important these LODs are for your post military career and IDES if it comes to that. Learn that AFI and use it to hold people accountable in a diplomatic way. It may come to you filling complaints and congressional inquiries but for the love of Pete, please try to start at the lowest levels and show people the instructions. I have found in the Guard that sometimes, they don't know what they are supposed to know and can use gentle correction to help yourself. If you go in guns a blazing saying IG complaints, they will shut down quick and you made a really hard situation exponentially harder.

I watched a movie on a plane ride recently called Just Mercy. It's based on racism in the south and a single lawyers fight for justice. While the big picture is not comparable to this topic, what is comparable is the feeling of some of those prisoners' knowing they were right and should have had the law on their side and yet the system still fought them.

I cannot tell you how many times I have quoted directly from the AFI and DODI in the hopes that someone in power would see the injustice only to have it fall on deaf ears. This created an anger and passion in me that is why I still log into this website to help people like yourself. Our only option is to band together in unity and scream for justice to anyone that will listen. While not as societal impacting as racism, this is a huge issue for all veterans and deserves to be talked about.

I obviously stepped on my soap box on this one. Partially because I'm finally on a laptop and not my phone, the other is to give you hope for the inevitable fight you are in.

Godspeed and keep us updated.
 
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JakeTrilla said:
National Guardsman here.

I "filed" an LOD while I was active duty for overseas deployment with my state med det before leaving country. This was a number of years ago.

I have not heard anything since. How do you go about checking the status of an LOD? I have my submitted paperwork but no findings/official resolution. Is that information available to me?

Thank Ya'll for your help!
Click to expand...
Check your iPERMs. Typically, all formal documents are uploaded there. I hope this helps.
 
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