john999

Bob When things get tough you can depend on the Chamber of Commerce to be there for you!

Were any of your injuries combat related or due to dangerous duty assignments. If so you might be able to get your regular retirement pay and your disability pay without any offset. You have to finish your 20 years if you are able. I would do as you have been told and keep documenting all your medical problems. Your command may not like it but you need to look out for yourself because, as you know, once you are discharge the military is through with you. You are delivered into the loving hands of the VA. You came into the military able bodied. Why should the AF just be able to dump you back into society without making effort to fix you?

I think you have to do 20 years to get CRSC. I think if you really want to win at BCMR for this issue you will need a lawyer. This is what I was told. I tried myself and failed. The BCMR is not like the VA. There is no benefit of doubt. I talked to a lawyer about this issue of getting a honorable changed to medical and he said only about 2-5% of vets win this who try because you have to prove the military made a mistake.

The real shot caller is Wall Street. They don't want a default and that is where all the money is for both political parties.

Just be very, very sure the VA knows where you have moved to recently. Try and stay put until you get your decision. When you move a lot the VA has a habit of sending important mail to old addresses. The USPS will forward your mail for one year. The more it has to be forwarded the better the chance of things getting screwed up. I mean if you need a C&P exam in two weeks the mail may not get to you for a month if it has to go through forwarding by the USPS. I think I would go to my VARO and make sure they have your correct address. The VA changed my address via a screw up and it caused me no end of trouble.

I like to hear good news.

It is better for the VARO to send your claim back for a C&P now than for them to make a bad decision and you have to appeal it based on no C&P. It is a waiting game. This happens to most of us.

You don't have to live near a vet lawyer to use them. They get your C-File and they do the work. You just have to show up for BVA Hearings or DRO Hearings. They will come to you. I think you will be much better off than using some VSO. If you don't win at BVA they will represent you at Court of Vet Appeals.

Default day is Ausgust 2nd and we get our checks on the first so we are ok for now.

If people in federal management positions do something bad they get transferred. Firing them is really almost impossible. We had a manager who brought a gun to work at the post office. He got fired but got his job back.

Well, if you ask for reconsideration the VA has to review and consider your new evidence before they can rate you. I don't think it they have to go all the way back to the beginning of the claim but I don't think it is that fast either. If vets are looking for a real short cut to getting a rating they want I don't think there is a short cut.

I am sure it is a pretty weak agreement as union contracts go. There are civil service rules for employees anyway. I was a member of postal workers union. They did bargain for wages and hours. If there was an impass it went to binding arbitration. I don't think this agreement contains that, but I have not read it.

The thing is with those medical discharge upgrades you get a pretty fast decision but 98% of the time it is against you. Do you have a lawyer for this review?

Well, he needs to document his pain levels month by month which is what you can do if you get on opiate program and/or use the pain clinic. The thing is he needs to go to the VA and complain about his pain so that it gets documented. If they give him pain meds that don't agree he just needs to keep complaining until he gets something that helps.

Allan We are getting there if we can just live long enough.

Berta You know people should go to jail over something like this because it is so grossly negligent. Doctors and hospitals are always crying about having to carry malpractice insurance. I have been a victim of malpractice by a private doctor and the medical establisment does not give a damn until you hire a lawyer. Most vets don't even believe you can sue the VA.

If you get pills they should see you at least twice a year for blood work. When I started to go to the VA psychiatrist it was once a month. Then it was once every two months, and now I am lucky to see him once every three months. Is this therapy? No just med check. The doctor says I am stable. If they ever call me in for an exam I am going to be very unstable.

Allan Why don't you hand this thing off to a lawyer? Too many things have happened to your claim for you to stress out over when someone else can do it for you(for a price, of course). If we here at Hadit are often screwed to the wall think how vets without resources and information are treated. No matter what we do we cannot make this thing go faster. You file your claim. The VA makes errors and you get denied. You file an appeal and the VA makes errors and you get a remand. You end up in court and the court finds errors and sends your claim back to the VA. While they fix the errors that the court identified they make new errors that end in a remand. The hamster wheel.

With the money that is pouring into the VA to fix it how can things get worse? I know the VA medical is trying to hire more staff, so where do they try and save money: The VBA?

If the government defaults and shuts down will work on VA claims stop? Will we even get our checks? The default date is August 2nd 2011. Do they send all non essential workers home from VA? I can't believe these idiots will let that happen. I don't want to get into which side is at fault just informational question.

For direct SC death the VA pays for funeral in part.

If you have very high blood pressure or cholesterol get a CT scan of your legs. That is where the first signs of future heart disease often show up. If their is hardening of the arteries it will show in your legs.

You can go to a book store and get a book that describes all the universites and colleges that offer distance learning. Many very well known schools offer distance learning even in subjects like computer science and other science things where you can make some money.

The vet gets a 2 hour exam on PTSD. If he does not answer every question to indicate he has all the symtoms of PTSD his claim is denied. The VA knew what they were doing with this rule change. How many symptoms of PTSD are there.....20-30. You must have all of them? They just do not want to DX PTSD because it looks bad to the public and they have their orders. If they say the vet has anxiety and depression due to combat experience but not PTSD what is the difference except perceptions.

I can tell you the havoc untreated or undiagnosed TBI can cause of vets and their families. My father-in-law had it. He had seizures and bizzare behavior at times. He appeared as normal as heck one moment and was doing crazy stuff the next. He was wounded in the Pacific in WWII by an explosion. The Marines said he "recovered" and then he got in trouble and got kicked out which is why he did not get benefits. I found this out 30 years after the facts when I married his daughter. A buddy from Nam got blown off an APC when it hit a mine. He complained of headaches, but they took him out of the field so it must have been worse. I don't think he got a dime then.