john999

Buck You must use BCMR for that, my friend. They handle cases that are more than 3 years old meaning 3 years after discharge. There was a guy here on Hadit who not only beat BCMR but got a medical pension to boot. What on your DD-214 do you want corrected? It will become your DD-215 if they agree to make corrections. After 15 years you will need to show it is a really horrible injustice or for good of the service. The BCMR is not friendly to vets and that is who you must appeal to in order to get awards or anything else that is not on your original DD-214. I been there and tried to do that. Is it some sort of gross injustice. I have been trying to get my father's discharge changed from WW11 to indicate medals he should have gotten being member of 320th Glider Artillery who spent his time doing fire control for big US guns about 1000 yards from German front lines and getting shelled for weeks. So far it has been 8 months without a word. My great, great grandfather got a pension from the state of Georgia as a disabled confederate solider faster than BCMR works. They told me my grandfather was never in the Army and I had his discharge papers and enlistment papers right in front of me. John

I think that is great. Wonderful hobby! I have zero mechanical skill but the wife and I wanted a Suicide Door Lincoln to fix up just because she loves that car. I had 1956 Chevy Belaire in high school and sold it for a song when I joined the army in 1969. One dumb move after another. My main skill is getting money out of Uncle Sam and insurance companies. If you are getting 100%, SSA and some sort of pension you are better off than about 75% of Americans.

Iraqrecall You know the Terraplane is the car Robert Johnson sings about in one of his songs he recorded around 1936 I think. I think it is called "Terraplane Blues" . Show us a picture of that car, please! I think at the time they were a cheap car but now I am sure they are worth big bucks fully restored. Are many Terraplanes still left in existence? John

Buck You will have to appeal to BCMR for the Army. If it has been longer than 15 years since your discharge they do not have to even consider your appeal. They might if it does not cost them a single dime. I asked for a pension about 15 years ago and this was to the BCMR. They laughed at me and told me I better get a lawyer because the facts as they were when I was discharged are the absolute truth as far as they are concerned and I would have to prove otherwise according to their rules witch I did not fully understand. I thought if the Army had made a gross mistake then justice might prevail. I was wrong about that. I did talk to a lawyer about it and he told me it would cost about $20,000 just to get it going. You have to pay for representation in these sorts of matters. DAV and all those guys are totally useless.

The sooner a vet can get there discharge in front of a Review Board the better. The BCMR are not, IMO, vet friendly at all. The Review boards might grant an upgrade from LTH discharge to General under honorable as long as you don't ask for a pension to go along with it. I had my General Under Honorable discharge upgraded to an Honorable discharge but this was within a year or 18 month of my discharge back in 1972 when horrible memories of Vietnam were still fresh in minds of the public . Years later I tried to get a medical discharge alone with a pension and a couple of badges and medals I should have gotten and BCMR was like a Pit Bull that had been starved and beaten and saw me as red meat. They tore me to shreds. So the lesson is get your discharge upgraded fast. My requests were quite reasonable I thought, but you would have thought I had tried to bugger George Washington with my outrageous demands for a little justice. We as a nation were better off with a draft army. Civilians in military uniform have some empathy for average G. I. Lifers running the military these days have none. Many are androids that just look like human beings.

The sooner a vet can get there discharge in front of a Review Board the better. The BCMR are not, IMO, vet friendly at all. The Review boards might grant an upgrade from LTH discharge to General under honorable as long as you don't ask for a pension to go along with it. I had my General Under Honorable discharge upgraded to an Honorable discharge but this was within a year or 18 month of my discharge back in 1972 when horrible memories of Vietnam were still fresh in minds of the public . Years later I tried to get a medical discharge alone with a pension and a couple of badges and medals I should have gotten and BCMR was like a Pit Bull that had been starved and beaten and saw me as red meat. They tore me to shreds. So the lesson is get your discharge upgraded fast. My requests were quite reasonable I thought, but you would have thought I had tried to bugger George Washington with my outrageous demands for a little justice. We as a nation were better off with a draft army. Civilians in military uniform have some empathy for average G. I. Lifers running the military these days have none. Many are androids that just look like human beings.

I got a CCW permit here in Florida because it is just so easy, and the legislature may wake up one day and make it much harder. I want a small pistol or even revolver as a pocket gun. Plus I like to have a full size handgun by my bedside at night. There are just so many choices and I am not so familiar with handguns as with long guns. I have a Remington 870 Marine Magnum 12 gauge for last stand home defense. It kicks like a mule. Shoot fifty rounds through that gun and you won't be able to use you arm for a week. It is the "kill or be killed" weapon I have. This is a much better shotgun that a Mossberg 500 and resists rust from humid climate in Florida where I live. I don't keep it loaded. The consequence of negligent misfire are too horrible to think about since I use 00 buckshot. So what are favorite handguns for carry and home defense out there? John

Do you have Medicare and Medigap insurance? I have so if I need real medical care I would not go near a VA hospital or expect anything from those jerks. The dental care I am entitled to from VA is so poor I bought dental insurance and use a private dentist. They cut off my pain meds and left me hung out to dry. They can't even fill a cavity without screwing it up. Somethings cannot be fixed. The VA is one of them. We will have to destroy it to save it. If Trump does that then he is OK in my book but I doubt it. Talk is cheap. When the military is done with you they the government is done with you. I just want my damn check each month.

Somehow my pain meds got lost during the shipping process by UPS. I just don't know, but the VA refused to replace the meds that were lost. I told them that for ten years I had never had a dirty urine test or broke any of the rules for use of opiates prescribed by the VA. No dice even though I was starting to have withdrawal symptoms from the Oxycodone. They would not lift a finger to help me in any way, shape or form. So all you vets who may depend on the VA for pain meds just forget about it because they are just scared to adequately treat your pain and will stop your meds for any minor excuse.

Send one to your VARO as well. I need to send in mine as well, Buck. I sometimes send two a year. I wrote to Janesville trying to get a copy of my father's VA claim information. I got something back that did not even address what I was asking about since they somehow read my letter as a request for DIC for my father and he and my mother are long dead. All I wanted was his C-File and they turned it into a claim for benefits. It is not so I am not sure if Janesville is open but big deal. John

I have Pes Cavus and I though everyone's feet hurt all the time. It was when I got a job at the Post Office and after one long night on my feet I found I could not walk to my car that I knew something was really wrong. I knew that when I was in the Army I had a hard time with long marches and had knee problems. I think since my military service was 46 years ago it is too late for me. The VA considers Pes Cavus to be a congenital deformity. However, if your duty aggravated it and you filed within one year of ETS you probably have a good chance. One thing you want to avoid with Pes Cavus is weight gain. I had it when I was 6 foot and weighed 160 lbs. Now it is much worse since I am not that slim. The medical interventions to fix Pes Cavus are probably worse than Pes Cavus. John

I have found it very hard to get a sleep doctor or pulmonologist to say exactly what causes my OSA. I asked them if DMII could cause it and they shrug. OK, if you are obese that is a big risk factor but does DMII make you obese or do you get obese because of DMII. I am also SC'ed for CAD. Now it is no stretch to say OSA can cause my CAD to become fatal but what about the other way around. You won't get a VA doctor to speculate on causes of service connected OSA.

I bet if you asked 100 people on the street only half would have even heard about the War in Vietnam and maybe 5% would know anything about agent orange. Probably 3-5 million vets were exposed to AO including all the brown water and blue water navy. The companies that produced this deadly poison and sprayed in near, around or on Americans troops, sailors, marines, and airmen and women knew if was bad stuff. They got away with pennies on the dollar in compensation to their victims. We taxpayers are left to pay ourselves for our own losses. Why would anyone volunteer for this sort of abuse and yet we find 9/11 military gets basically the same treatment because " We go to war with the military we have" according to former Secretary of Defense.

I was able to use my DD214 to help get "Concealed Weapons Carry Permit" . It was so damn easy and relatively cheap I would advise all Florida vets to get a Carry Permit before the state comes to their senses and makes it much harder. I made an appointment at one of the stations you can use to have the whole process done in less than an hour. It cost me $102 for a seven year permit. This also means no 3 day waiting period of me now. Plus it is not just for carrying a pistol. You can carry knives, stun guns, bras knuckles, billy club or anything short of an atomic bomb. In Florida there is a ongoing legal debate about how you can carry a knife or gun on your person or in your car. Once you get the permit to carry that is all pretty mute. You just got to be careful to hand your carry permit with your license to a cop if he stops you before you tell him you have a gun on your person or under the seat or any place else in your car. The cops here the word "gun" and you are liable to get shot. it is much easier now to get a carry permit than to get medical care in Florida.

Has anyone heard of cases of AO exposure of Air Force enlisted on Okinawa or related to service on Okinawa?

Buck I need to find a doctor who will make a connection between DMII and OSA with OSA being a secondary condition. I have not even tried locally since all the doctors who have treated me for OSA will not even hazard a guess as to the nexus regarding my OSA except being obese or having some problems with my breathing from injury to my nose that is not SC. The DMII is SC as is the CAD so the OSA is aggravating my CAD and it is a chicken vs egg situation. The thing is that the final result of my OSA, DMII and CAD will probably me dying which is a bad secondary symptom or secondary result. All the problems I have now that are life threatening result from agent orange DMII and numerous secondary conditions which add up to an 80% rating all on their own. That is how I got SMC "S". I had 70% TDIU and then the AO disabilities started to kick in with results of an extra six disabilities from fairly minor to major. I have been P&T since August, 2001, so I have to really want to file a new claim to make the effort since it will not result in an increased compensation amount on the first of the month. If I die from something related to my service I would at least like to make sure the VA accepts responsibility. John

Is spending $100 a year worth it to join the Vet's Law Blog Premium service? I may be filing a OSA claim and I am going to need plenty of help. I lost my long time psychologist to sickness and old age. I need all the help I can get to go forward these days. I am running as fast as I can just to stay in one place.

I developed sleep apnea after I was service connected for DMII. Do you think there is any medical evidence that a lawyer could use to make a connection, so I could get the OSA as secondary to DMII? I know I will need strong medical opinions and a strong argument to do this. I have found most doctor very reluctant to make these sorts of connections. They are only interested in doing sleep studies and getting you a CPAP. Is there a lawyer here that has worked with these kinds of cases who could advise me? I know it takes money to prime the pump on these sorts of cases.

An IME or IMO is an exam by a doctor you choose who has some understanding of what the VA wants to see in a report. I got them for a mental health condition in Tampa because I did know a couple of shrinks and lawyers who directed me and helped me. Without them I would have been screwed. The VA decided very early on that I was a personality disorder with slight mental health issues and they just would not change their minds until one of their own dorks said I was bipolar and that meant automatic 30%. I worked with that and when I was fired due to my disability I went for TDIU. I was seeing non-VA shrinks who were pretty smart and they wrote reports for me that concluded that I was unemployable due to SC conditions. The TBI vs PTSD thing is a real problem for the VA and they would rather sweep it under the rug. My understanding is that TBI and PTSD are totally different and should get separate ratings.

Buck PTSD meds and prostate meds are probably the culprits. You do need a doctor to say that your ED is caused by the drugs you are using to treat your PTSD and prostate meds. I would try and get an outside doctor who is not afraid of losing their jobs if they were to possibly support your claim for $100. About half the meds I take would put a horse to sleep. Get that $103 a month. You deserve it. All of us with these drug induced problems deserve it. Opiates and any of the Benzo's tend to aggravate OSA. This is what my VA doctors tell me. Do you have DMII from AO exposure? John

So let us say a Vietnam vet was at a firebase, support base or airbase that was under ground attack but who did not have 11B MOS. I guess he must relay on After Action Report. We had no combat action type badge and since I was not in an infantry outfit I could not get CIB even if I got shot at all day long. I know back in the day there were vets who claimed PTSD from being under mortar and rocket attacks. The VA fought this and the vet almost had to get wounded to get the PTSD claim unless he was in direct combat with the enemy. From what BCMR told me was that a soldier had to be in an infantry unit; have an infantry MOS and have proof that he was in combat eyeball to eyeball to get CIB.

It is well know in medical literature that all the SSRI inhibitors cause ED. Opiates also cause ED and loss of interest as well. If you have DMII due to AO that is a cause of ED. Many causes of ED due to wonder drugs VA uses. Do you use any of the Prozac family of drugs for depression? If so that is direct cause of ED in males and lack of ability to reach orgasm in both females and males. They used to use the Prozac type drugs for premature EJack. Too much of a good thing and now no ejack. This can be good for some females as males works away and cannot himself achieve orgasm while woman has about ten in a row. Frustration for poor old guy who can sometimes be hard as a rock but never get off. This happens to mostly younger guys.

Just do not accept the VA's judgement about your impairment on a C&P exam unless it really reflects it correctly. You should have your own private neurologist for the TBI so he/she can give an opinion besides just VA opinion. They is a world of difference between the VAMC and the VBA. The medical side of the VA is usually concerned with treating you as cheaply as possible and the VBA side is concerned with paying you as little as possible. I have been P&T for 15 years and I used IMO/IME for 75% of my claims. If I did not have a team of outside doctors working for me I would be sitting at 30% to this day. You simply cannot trust the VA about anything. Their goal it seems to me is to just save money at your expense.

Bronco Since their is a union involved it will be more complicated than just "liking or disliking" you as an employee. I had a great work record, but when I filed for workers compensation in order to get reasonable accommodation I became an "enemy of the people" on all sides. Nobody but my psychiatrist and the orthopedist that understood federal worker's compensation rules lifted a finger to help me. I was a man without a country so to speak. The union hated me because I was messing with seniority system and employer just hated me for bucking their system and for filing workers compensation. When I realized they did not like worker's compensation claims I filed about five more and got paid for each one via schedule awards etc. I first formally asked for a reasonable accommodation and when I was turned down flat I filed for worker's compensation. When I won the USPS were flabbergasted and even more so when I brought to their attention that when they moved me back from nights and weekends off I lost money for night pay and weekend pay. It was right in their book of rules they were too dumb to read, but I read it. Before this I had been a union steward so USPS did not love me and afterwards the worker's compensation case they wanted to get rid of me. They did but they paid more than if they would have just accommodated me with a real job. The union fired me as a steward also so I hated both teams. I still hate them 15 years later.

Are you a probationary employee or full bargaining member as in permanent employee? I worked for USPS and was given what they called Reasonable Accommodation. To get it I had to file for workers compensation due to the same problem as yours being night work. I had been an employee for about 12 years and was on day shift. Then my bid was abolished and I was sent to night shift with days off opposite my wife's days off. I had to actually file a OWCP claim and hire a psychiatrist to fight a case for aggravation of bipolar disorder. I did win the case and the USPS shifted me to days, but with permanent and opposite days off from my wife's. I filed an EEOC complaint and in my complaint I said that the job the USPS created for me on days was a imaginary job which it was. I had no real work to do and no chance of ever getting another bid job or any best qualified job. The EEOC judge said all the USPS had to do was give me 8 hours of imaginary work and pay me and they were living up to their Reasonable Accommodation requirements. I was pissed because the judge would not even concede that I was disabled because I could wipe my own behind. I wanted to kill that judge and that smirking employer rep. who pretended to be Perry Mason. I was out soon on total disability with federal worker's compensation paying the bills. However, I found that if I was getting full disability from fed. work comp. I could not get SSDI or my federal disability pension. I ended up getting TDIU from the VA and got SSDI and my federal disability pension. I was actually making much more than when I was working because I also had a private disability insurance policy that is paying me to this day. All this because the USPS wanted to make an example out of me. They could have created a real job for me. I wanted to keep working, but I had chronic pain issues and depression so it was hopeless. I hope your employer is more enlightened than mine who were and still are living in the stone age. I don't have experience in worker's compensation or reasonable accommodation in private sector, but I bet it is just as bad as government sector. If the union is involved don't expect them to spring to your aide because reasonable accommodation usually messes with their seniority system. Often the people you have worked side by side with for a long period will turn against you if your reasonable accommodation gives you better hours or days off than they have. If you want friends get a dog. Co-workers for big corporations are not friends. Just in it for number one like all of us I guess. I could write a book on this subject but the cuss words would make it unpublishable.