New recruits who come into the military are immediately entered into the Department of Defense system. VA has knowledge of them if they seek our services, but we could not access their records if they did not seek our services. There are some VA benefits available to service members before they become veterans. These may be non-health care benefits in the area of veterans' benefits administration--for example, there are some housing modifications they might be eligible for when they're still on active duty.
We have a new secretary--Secretary Shinseki. He has made a proposal that we do become informed of that service member upon entering the military. But at this time, unless they sought our services, we would not know about them.