My dude, KEEP YOUR RECORDS! You can appeal a VA rating decision within a year of it’s posted date. Compensation will backdate to the date of initial rating instead of the date of appeal if your rating is increased.

Also, it’s an absolutely pain in ye’ ol’ donk-oh-donk, but go through the process of setting up your access to ebenefits and iPERMS. You can access a lot of records there the vVA won’t bother to include in your case