john999

I know nothing about Detroit but the ST Pete Times just pounds the local VARO and VAMC's every chance they get. It works because they are afraid of that newspaper.

If you have evidence that you were diagnosed or treated for depression you can file a claim for it. If you have evidence to support a PTSD claim you can file for that. I would file for one or the other whichever I had the strongest case. They will both be rated as mental disorders and they will be rated together under one rating %.

It is a diet COLA. The government thinks a skinny vet is a happy vet. The skinny vet has skinny children and a skinny wife because he gets a diet COLA.

You can only file a cue claim on a final decision. If the VA had service medical records and they did not use them or even refer to them it their initial decision then that might very well be a CUE. Service medical records usually provide the nexus to a service connected injury. To ignore these records is screwy unless the VA's motive was to just deny the claim and let the vet figure it out later. This sounds similar to many claims made in the early years after the Vietnam war. Very poor and inadequate decisions that were just stamped "denied" and to hell with the vet. It is the responsibility of the VA to get the SMR's. There is no excuse for them to not have gotten and reviewed those records.

This means the doctor believes you are depressed and have a history of PTSD. These two conditions go together. The question will be what your level of disability is going to be rated at? Are you getting compensation for PTSD at present?

Ask for a personal hearing and see if you can get a medical opinion that will support a higher rating in the meantime.

Local VA bosses hate to be put on the spot by the people they are supposed to serve. They are not used to it. They can't hide as well as those guys in Washington. If you can get to the local guys you can really cook them in the local newspapers. Ask William who posts from St. Petersburg. He gets calls from the St. Pete Times looking for more dirt on the local VA.

I think it would be an inferred claim at least. Like Wings says the claim was not adjudicated so it is still open. I think you raised a claim for tinnitus in your first C&P. In the 70's this was so typical of the VA just denying every claim unless an arm or leg was missing.

They probably don't understand A&A claims. Keep looking until you find someone who understands that there is a payday in it for them if they win. That would be 20% of 11 years of backpay. Even a lawyer can add that up. That is good pay for just showing up with a brief and making a argument.

The way the NRA influences congress is with money. They reward their friends and help vote out their opponents. Vet service organizations don't give to their friends and punish their enemies. Groups like the Al and VFW support candidates who are anti-veteran. They wave the flag and grovel at the feet of politicans who don't give a damn about disabled vets. I do think that locally coordinated demonstrations by disabled vets at their VARO's would call attention to our issues. Half the vets want to vote for a guy who votes against their issues in congress. How dumb can you get? If the public could see an army of guys in wheelchairs and on canes that they could appreciate. We have to be visible to get help. Our VSO's will never get it. If you look at organizations or interest groups that succeed in influencing congress it is because they deliver votes and/or money. Poor people get the shaft because they don't have the money to donate to those who have power over their lives. Independent veteran groups would be attacked by the major VSO's and the VA. They would single out individual vets who are 100% and point out that if these vets can participate in political action then they are not disabled. It would take courage to really fight against this injustice to us. I believe they would go after individuals and you can bet the DAV and others would do nothing. 800,000 claim backlog??? They don't give a damn about us. If we don't help ourselves nobody will. I don't have a master plan, but 40 years of neglect by both parties shows what happens when vets don't fight for their own rights.

When you ask for an appeal for change of discharge character you want a hearing with people to hear your appeal. If you were mentally disturbed when you went awol then you probably have a good case. It costs the military nothing to grant you a general under honorable rather than an OTH. They get testy if you ask for a medical and a pension.

I think you should have gotten at least 10% for loss of ROM. You should have gotten Sc'ed for the Tintinitus also since the only real test for it is subjective. You can have normal hearing and still have tintinitus as far as I know. If you fired weapons on the rifle range you could have tintinitus. Acustic trauma is what it is. Tankers and artillery guys get it but so do people who just are around any loud noise. Were all these claims filed within one year of discharge? I don't know if there is enough for a CUE, but there might be. It seems to me they mishandled your tintinitus claim and the loss of ROM.

I hope we get a large cola considering the group of CEO's that have made off with billions of dollars who never served a day in their lives except to help themselves to government money.

The VA has been home for hacks and half-wits for decades. The VA has been used to reward political supporters regardless of their qualifications. So much for supporting the troops once they get home. The military has been used to help friends of the various administrations get rich probably since George Washington. It should get plenty of light and heat so people can see the way vets are treated. Most in high government office never even served.

Doing perimeter guard 12 hours a day and seven days a week would drive anyone crazy or to drugs. 99% of the time nothing happens and when something does happen your dead.

Simple Fly If you apply and are approved for disability retirement on the basis of your service connected disability then that would be good evidence for a TDIU claim even if you are only 10% now. I was 30% when I applied for disability retirement and it helped to get me TDIU. I also applied for SSDI as soon as I stopped working. If worse comes to worse you could also apply for workers compensation. If the harassment at work is aggravating your PTSD then that is a compensable illness. You can apply for both disability retirement and workers compensation. If you get workers compensation that is 75% of your gross income. That is what I did when my bosses started harassing me. File the EEOC complaint and file a grievance. All these things are used to determine a workers compensation claim. Like has been said you should start to keep a log of all these acts of harassment. When you bring this up to the supervisor make note of this and ask her to sign it. Your job now is to build a case for illegal harassment. Notify every authority in your job that this is going on and put them on notice.

For some getting SSD is pretty easy, and for others it is very difficult. I believe that at present their is a large backlog of SSD claims just like the VA. It is common for people to have to get lawyers for SSD. You can apply and then if you are denied then get the lawyer for the appeals. Just remember the SSA will only approve you if they believe you cannot do any kind of work for at least one year. You have to wait 6 months from the time the SSA decides you became disabled to get paid if you are approved. Then two years after that you can get medicare part A and part B. I got SSD in about 4 months without an exam. I was lucky I think.

Same thing sort of happened to me but it was in 1971. I was rated 10% for residuals of schizophrenia while the VA ignorned a medical report from my doctor saying I was totally incapacitated, and unemployable. 30 years later I get the 70% rating plus IU for the same disorder. I filed a CUE using a lawyer to be sure I got the pleading right. I was denied at the VARO and did not appeal because I did not even know that I could since I never got a regular rating decision with rights. You were denied and I was low balled. What evidence did you have that your bi-polar was service connected and what evidence did you have that you were totally disabled? We realize now that often the VA just stamps a claim denied hoping that the sick vet will just go away. This happens often and you and I are proof.

You need a letter from your doctor saying you are so disabled by your SC condition that you are unable to work. You need to spell it out for the VA. With 80% you should be able to get IU but you need a statement from a doctor saying you can't work.

It is easier to win a retaliation complaint than a simple EEOC complaint. Once you file the EEOC complaint if your employer retaliates against you in any way you then file another complaint for retaliation. I won one of these against the Post Office where I worked for 20 years. Most federal managers are just people who want to get along and not rock the boat. If your createa fire under them they will do what is necessary to put it out. As long as this harassment continues then continue to file complaints and take notes every time it happens.

Have you written a Stressor Letter to outline your verifiable stressor which would be the grenade attack to my way of thinking. Did you get any combat awards or were you in any firefights or rocket attacks you can verify? I think the grenade attack is enough to be a good stressor. For PTSD you need a verifiable stressor. That is the difference between a depression claim, for instance, and a PTSD claim. The depression claim could flow out of your wounds and the pain and disablility they cause, but that is another route towards a rating for a mental condition other than PTSD. The way the military treated you is the real stressor but that does not count in their military minds. I would stress the grenade attack and how your relive it over and over again every time you hear a loud noise. Just a suggestion.

An IU rating effective 1983 would also mean your rating is protected plus your husband is entitled to all the benefits of being P&T for 25 years. Perhaps you can try and get all your other medical problems SC'ed because of the effects of severe anxiety disorder on your health. Being in a high state of anxiety on a chronic basis could be a contributing factor in many disorders. All you need is a doctor to say it. You have the money to go doctor shopping. It is kind of like shopping for shoes except its doctors you are shopping for and someone out there with an MD will bite if you show him the money.

VAF Did you get a personal hearing or just a review? I would ask for a personal hearing with the DRO. If that does not work then go to the BVA. As long as you getting approved for a DRO Hearing then your BVA time limit is is a state of suspended animation as far as I know.

Just tell it like it is about your Vietnam experience and your wounds. If the wounds are SC'ed then I think that should be a verifiable stressor for PTSD. Google PTSD and read all the symptoms so you are familiar with it. They may ask you if you are afraid of crowds or if you have dreams or flashbacks to the events in Nam. They may ask if you are hyper vigilent and uptight and expecting combat situations to return. I would go easy on discussing my drug history. Focus on the grenade attack and how that has left nervous and unable to relate to others. You don't know if the VC or your SGT tried to kill you so you don't trust anyone. You need to have symptoms of PTSD. Don't let them steer you towards problems before the service in your childhood or high shcool or with the law.

When I call the VAMC I get a Hell-o that starts with "Welcome home OIF/OEF combat vets". This galls me since the VA never welcomed home the Vietnam vets. Now they just wish we would crawl off and die to ease the budget.