Jump to content
VA Disability Community via Hadit.com

VA Disability Claims Articles

Ask Your VA Claims Question | Current Forum Posts Search | Rules | View All Forums
VA Disability Articles | Chats and Other Events | Donate | Blogs | New Users

  • hohomepage-banner-2024-2.png

  • 27-year-anniversary-leaderboard.png

    advice-disclaimer.jpg

  • donate-be-a-hero.png

  • 0

Mst / Ptsd Covered Up - 2 Years Into Claims Process

Rate this question


MSTANDFEDUP

Question

I will try to make this as straight to the point as possible without triggering.

I have been patient and have waited over two years up until now without making a fus.

I've HAD IT. My case should be very cut and dry as I have a pile a mile high of evidence

to support my claim, however the VA denied.

(Air Force) In 2004 I was sexually harassed by my supervisor. The Military Equal Opportunity office

got involved and opened a case against him. After a one month investigation, he was

CHARGED with 4 counts of sexual harassment and one count of discrimination. He was then

DEMOTED in rank.

I then seperated from the military. Honerable Discharge.

Within 6 months, I went into severe mental stress, psychosis of the mind, due to trauma.

I checked myself into a mental health hospital and was there for 2 weeks. I had stopped

sleeping, had anxiety, flashbacks, was replaying the events again and again, the list goes

on and on.

Over the past 5 years, since the 2004 events, I've been homeless twice, I've been

unable to acquire gainful employment, I've been in and out of mental health and have

since finally in 2008!!!! received access to the VA for MST/PTSD mental health care (4 years

too late). Here is the series of events, and I swear that once I am finished with my claim

I will spend the rest of my life helping women and men who suffer from MST with their VA

claims. I am so upset at this point, today I am triggering all over the place and I'm finally

speaking up.

From 2003-2004 in active duty I was repeatedly harassed, threatened, the list goes on

and I don't want to get into personal details here about the assault by my supervisor.

I discharged in 2004, honerable

In 2005 I contacted the MEO office that held the MEO investigation into the harassment

and requested my documents per the FOIA (Freedom of Information Act). I have a copy

of this letter sent to them. In 2007 I received a letter back, stating the documents had been

destroyed. This was two years too late. I requested in 2005!!!! The letter told me to contact

the Secretary of Department of Defense and that under a 2 year clause the documents were to

be destroyed. I have a copy of this letter and have sent it to my claim file with the VA in 2007.

I also have a copy of the orginal claim statement from MEO during the investigation, I sent this

to the VA in 2007. (made copies at the time of the investigation, which goes over the harassment in detail,

times/dates/places, MEO investigated numerous other people who also confirmed the harassment before he was

charged with the crimes and demoted). I sent a copy of the investigation paperwork into

the VA when I opened my claim for PTSD/MST in 2007.

I spent 2005 until today in and out of mental health hospitals, clinics, etc. all of this documentation

has been sent to the va.

THE VA DOCTORS AT THE LOCAL VA CLAIM I HAVE MST/PTSD and rate me at 48% GAF SCORE.

Their own DOCTORS state that I have PTSD from MST.

I opened my VA claim in 2007 and I'm now at 22 months in waiting. It was first denied, and I sent

a notice of disagreement. It is now supposedly being "expedited" due to having ended up homeless

again. While staying at the homeless shelter, I had a fax sent into the VA claims stating that I was

homeless and in this shelter (letterhead from the shelter). This is when they said it would be expedited.

This was the second time I ended up homeless.

Now a few months have gone by and the VA telephone representatives say they have no record

of an original EXPRESS MAILED DOCUMENT that I sent in 2007 which contained 1) the MEO investigation

paperwork I had copies of 2) a letter from the acting commander at the time in which he talks about

the incidents in the letter. They said they have no record of that from 2007. So I then RE-SENT in

EXPRESS mail and registered mail AGAIN, copies of the same documents.

I finally got up the nerve yesterday to call the base where the events happened. As soon as I called

I triggered and began crying. I called the MEO office and asked about the case documents, again

was told there is no record anymore that they were possibly destroyed in 2005. I expressed my

feelings to this office and I'm now officially going to put in a written complaint to the base commander

about how the entire case was handled back in 2004, how fast it was swept under the carpet, and

how I should have immediately been placed into counseling/mental health treatment immediately

after the incidents occured and immediately after the MEO investigation. The investigation into the

harassment was as bad as the harassment itself. It was first turned on me, then after the month

went by, I was given an apology from the Wing Commander about how this sort of thing would

"never happen under his chain of command again". There is a zero tolerance policy alright, it's a zero

tolerance policy for anyone who SPEAKS UP about harassment/rape.

The VA says the claim is being expedited. They said they are now waiting for records from the

National Personnel Archive and Federal Archieve. Well one more ounce of proof is if they pull the

perpetrators personnel record to see he was DEMOTED.

They can destroy records all day, but if I learned anything at all it was make copies of everything.

I have the basic MEO investigation copies from the investigation, the commanders letter from official

govt email address talking about the events, I guess I have to prove a stressor. What else could

I have to prove, HE WAS CHARGED WITH FOUR COUNTS OF SEXUAL HARASSMENT AND ONE COUNT

OF DISCRIMINATION. I suffered through the harassment for one years time, then had to suffer

through the investigation for a month and come home in complete shambles. The VA mental health

doctors claim I have PTSD from MST.

Hello? The VA cannot possibly be this bad with their claims process. I'm at 22 months. I'm fed up

and I'm ready to start speaking out and I can assure these people that the last thing they are going

to want to be out in the news is information regarding how bad my case truly was, and to what extent

it got to. There was a point in 2006 that I began prostituting myself to put food on the table. I gave

up my life, my self esteem was gone, I stopped caring about myself, my life, I almost killed myself

at one point, I was in psychosis of the mind, hiding out in a hotel room afraid to death of anyone in

uniform. I was afraid to even go to the VA for help or anyone else at that point because I was so

mentally stressed and afraid and replaying the events, that I thought someone in uniform would come

hurt me again.

HELLO VA, IF YOU'RE READING THIS, I'm at my limit and I'm close to posting up information for the world

to see about how you, the armed services, and the DOD handles PTSD cases for women and men raped

and abused in the service.

I LOST MY LIFE FOR 5 YEARS!!!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • Answers 73
  • Created
  • Last Reply

Top Posters For This Question

Recommended Posts

  • HadIt.com Elder

I am not sure you should tell the VA that you prostituted yourself at some point. If they do not know that you did illegal things then they don't need to know. Do you have a criminal record now? You can't deny that. You have plenty documentation regarding the sexual harassment. You need a shrink's diagnosis that links the sexual harassment to the PTSD/MST. You need to tell the VA enough to get a rating for PTSD/MST but nothing more. If you use or used illegal drugs you don't need to tell them this if they don't know already. Don't spill your guts to the VA if you are looking for a rating. I used illegal drugs in Vietnam to self medicate my severe anxiety. The VA used that against me by saying I was a personality disorder. It took lots of medical reports to get over that hump. This is just my opinion about telling the VA you ever did anything illegal. I could be wrong. If I am wrong I don't mind being corrected.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HadIt.com Elder
Find a lawyer who does VA law. Those guys can find things in your records that you might never even grasp. You should get your personnel records as well. These older MST/PTSD claims that are not combat related need a lot of work. Sledge here was a combat PTSD victim. He did not have combat awards so he was denied over and over. He hired a lawyer and got 100%. You can win these things, but you need help. Some are strong enough to go throuh this process on their own , but many need help especailly with a MST. You need a strong advocate not some half ass VSO. If you don't like what the lawyer says you can file anyway.

I agree, John. Get a lawyer...

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • HadIt.com Elder

I can undrestand your frustration and what you have in development.

I encourage you to consider everything that Carlie and others have posted here.

jmho

All the best to ya,

Cowgirl'up2009!

Edited by cowgirl
Link to comment
Share on other sites

:) I am not going to file a claim for myself and PSTD and MST. It happen too long ago I have very little of medical records. I got a hold of my VA medical records the doctors made me look nuts there is shit in there that I never even said. So why drive my self over the edge about it. There is nothing I can do about. They have all the power as I am finding out. Hell I can not even get a Veteran Service Office to call me back, I have been to their Office I don't think they even work they are never there:. Good luck.

Carl

Please keep trying, don't give up! The more we fight this, the more likely in the future others wont have to go through the same thing or the military will become more strict about their policies on rape/harassment and stop sweeping things under the rug. I believe the more people that come forward and fight the VA, the more likely the DOD will be to stop hiding the cases that occur. Please stick with it and keep trying. I know how you feel though, the original C & P exam doctor (and the reasons for the denial) made me sound nuts "sleep disturance" being a reason for denial, well HELLO...of course I can't sleep but I sure as heck wasn't dreaming when the harassment took place. Hold strong!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thank you to everyone, I will try to follow up to all of the questions this evening.

I got a phone call from a service womans organization that has a legal team which

takes on pro bono cases against the VA. It looks like they have in processed me and

I will hear more in a few days. I think I definitely need legal at this point so I'm thankful

they got in touch and I hope they can sort through the VA process better then I can

It's beginning to get confusing to the point where you submit evidence and you need

to submit additional evidence just to prove the evidence, I am definitely at my point

and I trigger with each time I deal with this.

As for the illegal activities, I have no criminal record, the prostitution was actually

something I dealt with after the MST once I got to the lowest of low and couldn't

support myself anymore. It can be an after affect with MST, you get to the point

where you give up your self, your sexuality, you just don't care about yourself anymore.

I was never arrested for such, and didn't add it to records with the VA but the extent

to which I lost my life in the aftermath is great. Five years of pure hell after my mental

health went to shambles. I'm slowly getting better day by day but it's been a process

and I'm sure it's going to be years before I regain myself again. I've heard of other women

who went through PTSD/MST that even became dominatrices and some other stories

which were horrific in nature. It's so sad what can happen in the aftermath and it takes

years to regain confidence and a feeling of self again. Especially your own sexuality

and caring about your own body and life.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Don't give up because if you do, THEY WIN. I was also a victim of MST/PTSD and because I never reported it back in 1991 I was discharged with a general discharge under honarable conditions, because after the trauma, I didn't care about anything or anyone, my DD214 states pattern of misconduct. After years of thinking I was going crazy, someone at the VA asked me if I endure any form of MST while I was in the military, and ever since then my world has felt like it was crumbling down. I recieved help and counseling and decided to submit a claim but already I knew that it would be an up hill battle because I never reported the incident. One important thing that I did do was write my story. A very kind soul that I had chatted with told me to write everything down on a sheet of paper since my memory was getting worse because of the PTSD. I used my story along with a letter from my parents and husband stating the changes they had seen develop in me and of course the Phychologist's notes and by the grace of GOD, they approved me @ 30% in 2005, almost 14 years to the date of my incident. I recieve 30% for a neurological problem that a Dentist did to my mouth. So, anything is possible. It may take longer then others but PLEASE do not give up. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

Guidelines and Terms of Use