Is this “VA Benefit Rating” thing hard?

Not hard at all, and this is common fallacy that it is hard.

The law requires three components be proven as clarified by the Federal Circuit court in Shedden v. Principi, 381 F.3d 1163 (Fed. Cir. 2004). First a current diagnosis; second an event, injury, or disease which incurred in, or as a result of, service; and a relationship between the diagnosis and service.

And the court has specifically held that you didn’t have to get treatment in service. See Ledford v. Derwinski, 3 Vet App. 87, 89 (1992).

You need EVIDENCE of element two, but there is no requirement that the evidence be from your in-service medical record.

Here, let me post it for you:

Ledford v. Derwinksi, 3 Vet. App. 87, 89 (1992) (Contrary to the implicit reasoning of the [VA], we are unable to find in the statutes or regulations a requirement that there must be complaints or treatment in service before service connection can be found.)

What Congress actually said (38 USC 1154):

“The Secretary shall include in the regulations pertaining to service-connection of disabilities (1) additional provisions in effect requiring that in each case where a veteran is seeking service-connection for any disability due consideration shall be given to the places, types, and circumstances of such veteran’s service as shown by such veteran’s service record, the official history of each organization in which such veteran served, such veteran’s medical records, and all pertinent medical and lay evidence, and (2) the provisions required by section 5 of the Veterans’ Dioxin and Radiation Exposure Compensation Standards Act.”

It seems like there are MANY types of records that can be used to demonstrate the places, types, and circumstances of a Veteran’s service, INCLUDING lay statements, yet it doesn’t say that there is a requirement for anything in STRs.