I'm Tired of Fighting for Accurate Records

Some days, I wonder if I will ever reach the point where I can simply request a document and trust that it is accurate.

Today was not one of those days.

I called the Department of Veterans Affairs because I needed a letter verifying that I receive Dependency and Indemnity Compensation (DIC) for my property tax paperwork. It should have been a simple request.

Instead, getting through the phone system was a nightmare. After finally reaching someone, I was told the letter would be emailed to me. Then I waited nearly an hour for it to arrive.

When it finally did, I opened it expecting to verify my information.

Instead, I found myself staring at errors that should never have existed.

The letter states:

• The Veteran died on Active Duty: No

• The Veteran died as a result of a service-connected disability: No

No.

No.

Both statements are wrong.

My husband, Sgt. Jeremy "Jay" Seals, died on October 31, 2018, while serving under Title 10 active-duty orders in the Army National Guard. At the time of his death, he was assigned to what was then the Warrior Transition Battalion.

His stomach cancer was determined on a DD Form 261 Line of Duty investigation to have been "In Line of Duty," tracing back to 2012 when he was serving as a full active-duty enlisted Soldier and Army Medical documented a mass but never told him or treated it (“Mass found follow-up is needed” was added to his medical records in English and French since he was stationed in Belgium at the time but no one followed up ).

His Army Transcript of Military Record (AHRC Form 1569) explicitly states that he died on active duty.

Yet here I am, years later, receiving an official VA document that says exactly the opposite.

To make matters worse, even the service dates on the letter are inaccurate.

The VA letter lists his Army service as May 27, 2017, through October 31, 2018.

His official Army military record lists his Date of Entry on Active Service as April 30, 2008.

How are surviving spouses supposed to trust official records when the official records contradict each other?

This isn't just about paperwork.

These records matter.

They affect taxes.

They affect benefits.

They affect historical accuracy.

Most importantly, they tell the story of a person's military service.

Every time an incorrect document is issued, it becomes one more record that can spread misinformation throughout the system. Then the burden falls on the surviving spouse to prove—again—that the government already knows the truth.

I have spent years fighting to correct records.

Military records.

Personnel records.

Benefit records.

Medical records.

Now I am once again trying to correct an official document that should have been right the first time.

It is exhausting.

People often assume that once a veteran dies, the paperwork is finished.

It isn't.

For many surviving spouses, the paperwork never ends.

Every new application, every request for documentation, every interaction with a government agency becomes another opportunity to discover a new error that somehow made its way into the system.

Then comes the familiar process of gathering evidence, making phone calls, sending copies of documents, explaining the same facts over and over again, and hoping that someone actually fixes the problem instead of creating another one.

I don't want special treatment.

I don't want shortcuts.

I simply want the government to accurately document the service and sacrifice of the man who wore its uniform.

That shouldn't be too much to ask.

Because every time I have to fight to prove that my husband died on active duty, or that his death was service-connected, it feels like I'm fighting to defend his service all over again.

And after nearly eight years...

I'm tired.