Anniston, Alabama — closed 1999. What the official record documents at this site, which diseases are tied to those contaminants, and which pathway a claim from here has to travel.
This is the installation record for Fort McClellan in Anniston, Alabama — closed 1999. It sets out what the official environmental and regulatory record documents at this site, which diseases are tied to those contaminants, and which of the two pathways — presumptive or facts-found — a claim out of this location actually has to travel. Everything on this page is written from the site record, not from what gets repeated in veteran forums.
Read the pathway section before anything else. A base name on a DD-214 is not proof that you were exposed. What decides a toxic-exposure claim is the combination of your unit, every location you were physically at, and the job you actually performed there. A duty station on its own does not establish exposure, and neither does an MOS on its own — the three together are what a rater can act on.
Location and record window
Anniston, Alabama — closed 1999
1917 – 1999
Pathway at this installation
Facts-found / direct service connection
No presumption applies here. Exposure and nexus both have to be proved.
Radiological training sourcesCBR school agents + smokePACT Act study cohortFacts-found claim
The site record
What the record documents at Fort McClellan
Fort McClellan hosted the Army Chemical Corps School, the Military Police School and radiological training. Documented hazards include cesium-137 and cobalt-60 sources, controlled mustard and nerve-agent training, fog oil and hexachloroethane smoke, and off-post PCB concerns in Anniston.
Conditions tied to these contaminants
There is no general VA presumption and no registry for Fort McClellan. A PACT Act-mandated epidemiological study covers service from January 1, 1935 through May 20, 1999 — a study is not a presumption, but it is citable context.
These are conditions the science and the regulations associate with these contaminants. They are not a diagnosis and they are not a prediction. If something on this list matches what you are living with, that is a reason to be seen by a clinician — not a reason to assume you have it.
The rule that governs this location
Which pathway applies
Facts-found pathway
Facts-found / direct service connection. The claim turns on which school, range, unit, barracks, field exercise, security post or occupational task actually put you near the hazard.
Facts-found means there is no presumption for this location. You have to show the exposure reached you personally and produce a medical opinion connecting it to the disease. It is a longer road and it is absolutely winnable — it is how most toxic-exposure claims are actually granted.
The evidence that moves this claim
School and course records, unit assignment, barracks location, range and field-exercise records, dates, and a nexus opinion tied to the specific agent or source.
Build the file
Pulling the paperwork for an installation claim
This is the same six-part file for every installation on this site. Gather it before you file, not after the denial. The order matters — the records that place you at the site come first, the records that show what you did there come second, and the medical evidence sits on top of both.
01
DD Form 214 and the full personnel file
The 214 gives your dates of service. The Official Military Personnel File gives the assignments, duty stations and effective dates that physically place you at this installation. Request the complete file, not the summary.
02
Every set of orders, including TDY
A short temporary-duty stay can matter as much as a three-year tour — Camp Lejeune turns on thirty cumulative days. Permanent-change-of-station orders, TDY orders and travel vouchers are what prove the short stays that never show up as a duty station.
03
Performance evaluations and award citations
A duty station only says where you slept. An evaluation says what you actually worked on — the flight line, the hangar, the motor pool, the engine room, the building number. This is usually the strongest exposure document in the whole file and almost nobody submits it.
04
Buddy statements from people in the same unit
Where the paperwork is thin, sworn lay statements fill the gap. VA Form 21-10210 is the lay or witness statement form. Someone who worked the same shop, the same watch or the same shift can describe the conditions you were in.
05
The diagnosis and the treatment records
A pathway is only worth something if there is a current diagnosed disability attached to it. Pull the private records too — VA does not automatically have them, and a condition treated outside VA is invisible to the rater until you release it.
06
A nexus opinion — only if you need one
If your condition is presumptive at this location, you do not need a nexus opinion and nobody should charge you for one. If the pathway is facts-found, the medical opinion is the piece that decides the claim, and it has to address exposure, diagnosis and the link between them.
Two different things — never combine them
A presumption and a TERA determination are not the same thing
These two get mixed together constantly — by veterans, by service officers, and sometimes in the decision letter itself. They are separate mechanisms that answer separate questions. One asks where and when you served. The other asks what you did while you were there. Treating either one as a substitute for the other is how a winnable claim gets prepared the wrong way and comes back denied.
Here is the fastest way to tell which lane you are standing in. A presumption almost always comes out of a deployment or an assignment to a place that has already been named — Vietnam, the Gulf, the Korean DMZ, the burn-pit countries, Camp Lejeune. Congress or VA drew a box around a region and a set of dates, and if your service falls inside that box and your diagnosis is on the list attached to it, you are in the presumptive lane and the law does the connecting for you. TERA is for everything else. If your exposure did not come from being sent to one of those named locations — if it came from the aircraft you turned wrenches on, the fuel you pumped, the foam you sprayed, the paint and solvent you stripped with, the engine room you stood watch in, the stateside installation where the work itself was the hazard — then no list is ever going to carry your claim. That is a TERA case, and it is proved with your duties.
Read both columns before you decide what to gather. If you are in the presumptive lane, the work is proving your service facts — orders, dates, locations. If you are in the TERA lane, the work is documenting what you actually did and then getting a medical opinion that ties it to the diagnosis. Those are two entirely different piles of paper, and preparing the wrong one costs months. And plenty of veterans are standing in both lanes at the same time — one condition that qualifies off a deployment, another that only ever gets connected through the work.
Set by law — where and when you served
A presumption
A presumption is written into statute and regulation. It has three moving parts and all three have to line up: a specific place, a specific date range, and a diagnosis that appears on the list attached to that place. When they do, VA presumes the exposure and presumes the connection — you never have to produce a medical opinion tying the disease to the service.
It is decided on service records, not on medical evidence.
Miss the location or the date window by anything at all and the presumption simply does not apply.
The condition list is closed — a diagnosis that is not on it is not presumptive, however strong the science behind it.
If you do qualify, it is the fastest route to a decision that exists.
Based on what you actually did
A TERA determination
TERA stands for Toxic Exposure Risk Activity. It is VA’s finding that your service involved an activity that put you at risk of a hazard, and it comes out of your duties, your assignments, and the work you actually performed — not out of a list of places and dates. It is not a presumption, and on its own it does not grant service connection.
What it does: it puts the exposure into the record, and under 38 U.S.C. § 1168 it generally obligates VA to obtain an exam and a medical opinion when there is a current disability and the file is otherwise short of proof.
What it does not do: it does not concede the medical link. VA can find TERA and still deny the claim for “no nexus.”
It is also used on the health care side, to establish eligibility to enroll and to get the toxic exposure screening.
It is frequently missing from the file, or built off your primary job code alone — which misses the duties that actually exposed you.
Keep them apart — four rules that decide claims
No presumption does not mean no claim. It means your claim is facts-found, and the link gets built with evidence instead of handed to you by regulation.
A TERA finding is not a presumption. It never removes the need for a nexus opinion — it is what forces VA to go get one.
You can be in both lanes at once. Presumptive on one condition and facts-found on another, inside the same application.
Serving somewhere with a documented hazard is not the same as qualifying for a presumption. The presumption needs the exact place, the exact dates, and a listed condition — all three.
Go deeper on the hazard itself
The contaminants named in this record
Each of these is a full breakdown on this site — what the substance is, who was around it, what it is linked to, and how the claim is proved. No forums, no off-site reading.
Most veterans served at more than one place. Every location on your record is worth checking — a claim can be built off an installation you were only at for a few months.
Reading a symptom list changes nothing on its own. A dated note in your medical record does — for your health first, and years later for a claim. Below is every route to an appointment, the phrase that gets your exposure history written down, and the numbers to dial. Nothing on this page is a diagnosis, and none of it replaces your doctor.
Some things do not wait for a scheduler
Chest pain or pressure lasting more than a few minutes, or chest pain with sweating, nausea, or pain spreading to the jaw or arm
Sudden trouble breathing, or breathlessness while sitting still
Face droop, weakness or numbness on one side, slurred speech, or sudden confusion
Coughing up or vomiting blood, or bleeding that will not stop
A first seizure, or fainting you cannot explain
Call 911 or go to the nearest emergency room. Do not wait to reach a VA facility first, and do not drive yourself. Tell VA as soon as you can afterward — VA asks to be notified within 72 hours of emergency care received in the community — and keep every discharge paper and bill.
Call your VA medical center
Fastest
Calling your own VA facility is the quickest way to get an appointment. VA Health Connect gives you round-the-clock phone access to a scheduler, a nurse, and in many regions a provider.
Do not know your facility's number? Call MyVA411 at 800-698-2411, any hour, and ask to be connected to your VA medical center's scheduling line.
Say you are an established patient if you already have a primary care provider, and ask for the next available appointment with that provider.
If nothing is available soon, ask to be added to the cancellation list and ask whether a nurse can advise in the meantime.
Call VET-HOME — VA's exposure team
Exposure-specific
833-633-8846, Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET. VET-HOME stands for Veterans Exposure Team — Health Outcomes Military Exposures, and it exists for exactly this conversation.
Say: I want a military environmental exposure assessment. The intake center schedules you with a clinician specially trained in military environmental exposures — by telehealth, so it does not matter how far you live from a medical center. Any veteran enrolled in VA health care, anywhere in the United States or its territories, can use it.
The clinician documents your exposure history, answers exposure-related questions, and recommends follow-up. If labs, imaging, breathing tests, or a specialty consult are needed, they say so. Afterward VA mails you a letter with your results, what they mean, and the recommendations.
Two limits, so you are not surprised: VET-HOME clinicians do not prescribe medication and do not complete disability claim forms. What they produce is a dated VA record of your exposure history — which is the piece most claims are missing.
They also handle the environmental health registry evaluations, and those do not require VA health-care enrollment. If you would rather be seen in person, ask for the environmental health coordinator at your own facility instead — the list is further down this site's Talk To Your Doctor page.
Schedule online or message your care team
Sign in on VA.gov to schedule or request many appointments yourself. What you can book online depends on your facility and the type of care.
You can also send your care team a secure message through My HealtheVet. Use it for non-urgent things — replies typically take up to three business days.
Secure messaging is not for anything urgent. If you need an answer today, call instead.
Locked out or cannot find the option? The My HealtheVet help desk is 877-327-0022.
Not enrolled in VA health care yet
Call the VA Health Benefits Hotline at 877-222-8387, Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET, and say you want to enroll in VA health care.
Enrollment is what unlocks VA primary care and the toxic exposure screening. Under the PACT Act many veterans who were turned away years ago are now eligible, so do not assume an old answer still applies.
Enrolling does not mean giving up your own doctor. Plenty of veterans keep a civilian provider and use VA alongside it.
Enrolling in health care is separate from filing a disability claim. One does not require the other.
You see a civilian or private doctor
Ask the front desk for the next available appointment and tell them why: a symptom that has lasted weeks, plus chemical and airborne exposure during military service.
Bring this page, or write the exposures and years on one sheet of paper. Hand it over and ask for it to be scanned into your chart.
A community provider can order tests, refer you, and write your exposure history down — all of which helps. What they cannot do is VA's toxic exposure screening, which only happens inside VA's own record system.
Ask for a copy of the visit note and every result. Those copies are yours, and they are what a claim is eventually built from.
If you are in crisis right now
24/7
Dial 988 and press 1, or text 838255. The Veterans Crisis Line is staffed around the clock.
You do not need to be enrolled in VA health care, and you do not need a service-connected rating, to use it.
You can also start a confidential chat from VA's crisis line website, or ask any VA staff member to walk you to someone.
Ask for your toxic exposure screening
The PACT Act requires VA to offer this to every veteran enrolled in VA health care. It takes about five to ten minutes, and it is the cheapest way to get your exposure history into VA's own record in VA's own words.
What it is
A short set of questions asking whether you believe you were exposed to open burn pits and other airborne hazards, Agent Orange, radiation, Gulf War-related hazards, or contaminated water at Camp Lejeune.
Who can get it
Every veteran enrolled in VA health care. If you are not enrolled yet, enrollment comes first — call 877-222-8387.
How often
An initial screening, then at least once every five years. If you answer that you do not know whether you were exposed, VA schedules you again a year later.
How to get one
It is often done during a primary care or specialty visit — but you can ask for it sooner. Ask your primary care team directly, or ask your facility for its Toxic Exposure Screening Navigator by name.
What it is not
It is not an exam for any specific illness, and it is not part of the disability claims process. It is optional, and declining it does not affect your health care or your benefits.
Why bother
It creates a dated VA record that you raised military exposure. Years later, that entry is evidence that the concern predated the diagnosis.
A civilian or community provider cannot perform this screening — it lives inside VA's own health record. If you only see a private doctor, that is a reason to enroll in VA health care as well.
The burn pit registry: you are probably already in it
Since August 1, 2024, VA and the Defense Department enroll eligible veterans and service members in the Airborne Hazards and Open Burn Pit Registry automatically, from deployment records. For most people there is nothing to sign up for.
Automatic enrollment covers service between August 2, 1990 and August 31, 2021 in the listed operations and locations — Desert Shield, Desert Storm, Iraqi Freedom, Enduring Freedom and New Dawn, the Southwest Asia theater, Egypt, Afghanistan, Djibouti, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen, and the associated airspace and waters.
You do not need to have been knowingly exposed, and you do not need any current health problem, to be included.
If you enrolled yourself before the redesign, your enrollment carried over. There is nothing to redo.
To check your status, contact the Environmental Health Coordinator at your VA facility.
The registry holds deployment and demographic data only. No medical information is stored in it.
Participation is optional and you can opt out. Being in the registry is not required to file a claim, and it does not affect your eligibility for care or benefits either way.
Being in the registry is not evidence of exposure on its own, and it is not a claim. Treat it as a research tool, and do not let anyone tell you a claim depends on it.
What to take with you
A one-page list of the chemicals and hazards you worked around, with the years and the base or ship
Your job title and MOS or rating, written the way the military wrote it
The symptoms that brought you in, and roughly when each one started
Any breathing tests, blood work, or imaging you already have, including from civilian doctors
A short list of what you want out of the visit — usually: document the exposure, order these tests, refer me
Someone who has watched the change in you, if memory or breathing is the concern
Write your time at fort mcclellan and the job you did there at the top of that sheet, in the words the military used for it.
Before you leave, and afterward
Ask for a copy of the visit note before you leave, and actually read it.
Check that your exposure history is in the note. If it is missing, say so and ask for it to be added — politely, but ask.
Get a copy of every test result, including the numbers, not just the word normal.
Keep your own folder. Paper you hold is worth more than paper you assume exists somewhere.
If a symptom persists after a normal test, go back. A normal result rules out some things, not everything.
The numbers, in one place
VET-HOME — VA's exposure team
833-633-8846
Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 7:30 p.m. ET
The number to call about a military environmental exposure specifically. VET-HOME books a free telehealth evaluation with a clinician trained in military exposures, and that clinician writes your exposure history into your VA record. Say you want a military environmental exposure assessment.
MyVA411 — VA main line
800-698-2411
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
The one number to call if you do not know who to call. Ask to be put through to your VA medical center's scheduling line, or press 0 for a person.
VA Health Benefits Hotline
877-222-8387
Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 8:00 p.m. ET
Enrolling in VA health care, health-care eligibility, VA medical bills, and community care billing.
Veterans Crisis Line
988, then press 1
24 hours a day, 7 days a week
Any crisis, and you do not need to be enrolled in VA health care to use it. You can also text 838255.
My HealtheVet help desk
877-327-0022
Monday to Friday
Trouble signing in, secure messaging, or online scheduling.
VA Benefits Hotline
800-827-1000
Monday to Friday, 8:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m. ET
Claims, ratings, and back pay — the benefits side rather than the medical side.
TTY
711
Relay service
If you are deaf or hard of hearing.
These are VA's own published lines. If a number ever gives you a runaround, MyVA411 at 800-698-2411 will transfer you — it is staffed every hour of every day.
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