CRSC before you retire: build the case while you still can

Who this is for

• Anyone in the medical-board process — MEB, PEB, or the full Integrated Disability Evaluation System (IDES). You're likely heading toward a Chapter 61 medical retirement.
• Retirement-eligible members closing in on twenty years and starting to plan the transition.
• Anyone with combat, hazardous-duty, training, or instrumentality-of-war conditions — blast exposure, rucks and body armor, vehicle or aircraft duty, weapons noise — who will one day retire and want that history documented while it's fresh.

You do not need a Purple Heart or a deployment for a condition to count as combat-related later. What you need is a record that proves how it happened — and that record is far easier to build now than after you're out.

Why CRSC starts before you separate

CRSC is decided years from now by a board that will never meet you. It reads paper. Whether it approves a condition comes down to one question: does the file prove the injury was combat-related? Every piece of that proof is easiest to gather while you're still in uniform:

• Your ratings get set during separation — a condition left silent now is a condition you'll fight to add later.
• Your records — service treatment records, line-of-duty determinations, incident reports, deployment orders — are all in reach today and scatter after you leave.
• Your witnesses — the squad that was there for the blast, the rollover, the jump — are a phone call away now and a needle in a haystack in five years.

Build the causation on paper now, and the CRSC packet you file the day you're eligible almost writes itself.

What to do before you retire

• Get every condition documented and rated. Don't tough it out and leave conditions off your exam. Silent injuries can't be rated — and can't become CRSC later.
• Nail down combat-relatedness now. Write down the dates, locations, units, and specific incidents behind each condition, and collect buddy statements while people are reachable.
• Understand Chapter 61 vs. a 20-year retirement. Medical retirees have a longevity cap that shapes what CRSC restores — knowing it now shapes how you plan.
• Use your separation health assessment and final exams. They're your best shot to capture everything on the record before you out-process.
• Keep personal copies of your whole record. STRs, PEB findings, LOD determinations, and your DD-214 — save them somewhere you control.

The honest part

CRSC is a Department of Defense benefit you apply for through your branch after you retire — not the VA, and not something anyone can file while you're still serving. Standfast is a veteran-owned packet-preparation company; we're not a law firm and we're not affiliated with the DoD, the VA, or any government agency, and we never promise an outcome.

So what can we do while you're still in? Orient you, point you to the right steps, and help you build the foundation — so the day you're eligible, you're ready. If you'd rather learn the whole process yourself, the Standfast Claims Academy walks through pre-separation preparation and CRSC step by step.