john999

My claim has been gathering evidence for a year. Now they are sending me for a C&P. They are gathering more evidence.

Just wait for your decision and be ready to file your NOD. This is your thanks from Uncle Sam for your service.

If I had a serious claim I would either hire a lawyer or do it myself if I could with help from Hadit. I would not trust a VSO to do it. VSO's have caused me a world of hurt. The VFW even filed an appeal with the BVA on my behalf years ago claiming I was a personality disorder. I lost , of course. I don't trust them to file papers on time. There is nobody at the VA that I trust except when I get a decision in writing and money in the bank.

Right, the military takes you as being 100% healthy, and fit unless it is noted otherwise in your entrance exam. If there is no anxiety disorder in your entrance notes, and when your are discharged you are found to have an anxiety disorder then it is service connected especially if you were treated or DX'ed with it in service. The one situation the army, and VA like to go for is the Personality Disorder. This is a constitutional abnormality that you are either born with, or develop as you grow into an adult. You cannot be compensated for a PD. It is funny that it often take the Military years to discover that the combat vet who begins to have problems has had a personality disorder all along since birth. The Army made the remarkable discovery that I had a PD after serving 6 months in Vietnam. According to the army shrink I was not fit to serve because of this PD. The Army decided to keep me in Nam anyway. It was after I embarrassed them by writing my congressman about drug use in Nam that they trumped up charges on me and threw me out as a PD. I had eight months left in my enlistment. Now I overcame that PD diagnosis, but it still shows up in my records from time to time when the VA wants to try and deny me some benefit. Since Vietnam the VA has DX'ed me with schizophrenia, depression and anxiety, bipolar disorder, PTSD, Major Depressive Disorder, schizophrenia and anti-social personality disorder, dissociative disorder, and now back to GAD and depression currently. Does it seem like they have any idea what they are doing?

As long as it is service connected they could have DXed you with depression and/or PTSD. When the C&P doctor asked you how much you drink what did you say? Since you were denied you file your Notice of Disagreement and start the appeal process. We have all been through it. Once you file the NOD you can hire a lawyer if you wish. The VA has set themselves up as the only entity that can DX PTSD. They don't want to DX PTSD and you found out that fact. There are many other emotional disabilities like depression and anxiety disorder that can be service connected however. When I was discharged neither the VA nor the Army knew what PTSD was, but I still got service connected. We have vets here who have waited since Vietnam for a PTSD diagnosis. Just hang in there. Do you have a CIB or Combat Action Badge? John

Maybe we can keep the pressure on by writing our congressmen and senators and telling what we really think about VA health care and the VA disability system. It will take a lot of pressure and scandal. These things usually last a few weeks until some new scandal or disaster chasing them off the front page. I would even rejoin the American Legion and VFW if I thought they were going to fight for us. The DAV seems to be in the bag for the VA as usual.

I also wonder about the BS the military pulled to get rid of sick soldiers via all those PD, Unsuitability and Failure to adapt discharges the military handed out back in the day. I was kicked out while being treated for a psychiatric condition for "failure to adapt to a military environment" after 28 months of service. I only had 8 months left, and I got kicked out for embarrassing the army. If not for the fact I was admitted to a VA hospital within a year of discharge I am sure I would never have gotten any sort of rating at all. As it was it took me nearly 30 years to get a decent rating. The army and the VA almost ruined my life. I filed so many appeals along the way I have lost count. The only reason now that we hear anything is because we have a professional military with no expendable draftees. There is a cabal between the DOD and the VA to undertreat and undercompensate military veterans that really is a crime. The generals and high level civil servants get rich in massive conflicts of interest and the guys who fight the wars get scraps and crumbs.

I think Shinseki will be the next head to fall. When the team loses you fire the manager. Just because the team is rotten and the owners of the team don't give a *&&^% the thing to do is find a lamb and sacrifice it. Unless there is unrelenting pressure from the veteran community and the public the VA will return to business as usual in a few weeks.

If I could get a card with at least as much zip as Medicare with the drug benefit and no co-pay since I am P&T I would never darken the VA's door again. I don't want to travel to the VA hospital to get substandard care or even standard care. I have Medicare so if the VA would provide me with medigap that included dental, vision, drugs etc. I would gladly release the VA from any further care. However, since the VA does provide long term care a provision should be made for us P&T guys. Let the VA hospitals exist for homeless vets and for those so sick they need a hospital bed. If a vet wants the standard VA care let them choose it. Let the rest of us go (sung to "let my People go". Since I have medicare and a medigap policy via my retirement I would be willing to release the VA for a fee from my future medical care. The bricks and cement that goes into building ever larger VA medical centers is just a waste IMO. The VA could decentralize and become medicare, Tricare, or ChampVA for all. Since the VA is supposed to "own" my medical care I believe I could get it cheaper via the private sector with a little help from my friends at the VA. Now there is all this hoopla going on about waiting lists. I wonder what will happen after a few weeks. For over 45 years I suffered lack of care at the VA and now when I don't really need it they are going to reinvent it. Just pay me off and I will go away. Send me my compensation check and pay for my medicare and medigap and I will be happy. John

That is true to the extent ChampVA will pay allowable charge. While my claim was on appeal for TDIU I had dental work done by private dentist. The VA paid the "allowable" payment to my regular private dentist. This was about 50% of what the dentist actually charged me. Not many dentists do crowns for $700 bucks.

I think Petzel is going to be on the board of WWP. You know Peake works for QTC. Is this a conflict of interest? There is so much corruption at the VA that the last person to get help at the VA is a disabled vet. Everybody else comes first in the gravy train. Every leech that has a sucker can hook onto the VA for a free lunch and I don't mean the vets with claims. John

This really shows the evolution of PTSD in the military. After Vietnam for the first few decades in order to get a PTSD rating you almost needed hand-to-hand combat with the NVA. I can't tell how many false rocket and mortar attacks we went through in Nam, and this never would have risen to a PTSD event. The VA almost demanded you have a CIB or PH. However, I have learned it is not the event so much as how the person interprets the event that can cause PTSD.

When you get OPM approved it means you cannot do your job as a federal worker due to your disability. It does not say there is no work you can do like SSDI. Many get OPM approved but turned down for SSDI. OPM is pretty easy to get as feds are glad to get rid of disabled workers because they are then done with them. Just try and get OWCP (fed version of worker's compensation) and keep it for more than a few years. Then the feds get very tough. If a vet can get OPM, SSDI and TDIU they can usually replace or even increase their lost income. If a federal employee only gets OPM disability they take a good beating. John

I agree that the statement "there is some evidence in the literature of an association etc." is really not strong enough. I would get a strong IMO/IME that hits all the VA buzz phrases and refers to the vet's SMR's and personnel records to locate him at Camp Lejeune during the offending time. You want this air tight as you can get it or you may end up having years go by.

Bob They just expect us Vietnam vets to go quietly like Korean war vets. I don't think so Mr. VA Man. I would like to speak up for our generation and for the younger vets as well to warn them that they will be swept under the rug just as soon as some other conflict pops up and USA troops are called. Every lesson from every useless war has to be learned over and over on the bodies of the young. John

Every time a vet successfully challenges one of the VA's arbitrary regulations it is a win for all. I remember that for those ETS'ing out of Vietnam they were told that if they wanted an exit exam they would have to wait a few months in the military to get the exam. The army knew that guys who had were ETS'ing out of Nam were not going to hand around for weeks or months as a casual on KP to get an exam. Just another calculated way the G.I. gets screwed. I never had an exit exam, but the army declares I had a physical and psychological exam. Does anyone here remember getting a psychological exam when they were discharged from the army after Vietnam? My lawyer based a large part of his argument on Cushman, but the judges said there was no similarity between excluding evidence, and altering evidence. What can you do but go to court? How many billions of dollars has the government saved by screwing vets all the way to the grave and then screwing their widows?

Quite a few years I believe Pete53 got hold of one of the VA secretary general's email, and shared it here until it was changed. I actually emailed the VA secretary and got an answer and got fast results. It was like the voice of God. My claim was decided within a month.

My lawyer is taking my CUE that was denied by the COVA to federal court. I don't want to give up. I am going to fight until I can't fight anymore on these issues because it not only affects me, but affects possibly hundreds of thousands of older vets. To set a date and say that prior to 1990 you don't have due process and after 1990 you do is just arbitrary. All my evidence prior to 1990 means nothing, and does not even need to be listed much less considered. Where is the justice in this? All the claims filed by WWII, Korea and Vietnam vets who filed claims before 1990 don't have the same due process rights as vets who filed one day after the VA decided they needed to actually list all the probative evidence in a claim. If evidence is not listed then there is no way to prove it was considered or not considered. These rules of assumption are opposite any consideration of due process. In fact, in my cue the CAVC shot down each and every argument we brought up. I cannot believe that in a case where it is obvious that important facts were just excluded can just be disposed of like trash. All our arguments{ there were many} were either interpreted as " duty to assist", "untimely", "debatable" or some other non CUE argument. John

Bob The army manipulated my medical records and the VA does it also to put a spin on your treatment to relieve them of responsibility. The program they use is just to CYA. If you were to get depressed and blow your brains out I am sure your VA records would show "No Suicidal or homicidal plan or ideation noted". The VARO's are just plain criminal while the VAMC's are often negligent, or guilty of malpractice. If a doctor hurts you and you sue you will find out how hard it is to prove malpractice. People think that if a doctor injures you it is easy to get other doctor's to speak out against malpractice. Not so! They circle the wagons. The AMA in every state pours money into state legislatures to make it harder to sue hospitals and doctors and nursing homes. The Feds are in a world of their own protected by law from their deeds.

I had to call and cancel a dental appointment just to have my teeth cleaned. It will take me 4 months to get another appointment. As it is I get only one exam every two years. The VA refused to do an implant for me or do a crown on another tooth that had a root canal. What standard of dental care are they using.....early Soviet Union? I will just go private from here on the dental. The VA refused to do cataract surgery on me though I had 20/800 in my right eye. Medicare did it and I got a great doctor to do it but there were costs not covered by Medicare. I really would not let the VA do any major surgery on me if I had some alternative. I don't even want them to fix my ingrown toenail. I might get another staff infection. These staff infections are no joke. I am lame in one foot due to one of these infections. In a place like the VA where thousands of patients come and go the chances of getting MRSA is quite high. You can lose a foot or an eye pretty damn quick. Substandard care at the VA has been around for years. It is also a problem at private hospitals and doctor's offices. Don't let a doctor do in office surgeries. I wonder at all the cataract surgeries where staff is a risk. The operation I had to remove the necrotic tissue in my foot from the staff was major to me. I was laid up for six weeks. John

To suddenly cut you off your narcotic pain meds after ten years is malpractice. The VA has an obligation to help you withdraw safely from these narcotics.

Many of them also will pack the pounds on you. All the SSRI's help you gain weight. I went to a weight clinic and the doctor said the Cymbalta would put the pounds on and advised I talk to my VA doctor about it. He gave me appetite suppressants and a diet and exercise. I have that awful feeling of impending failure. This doctor takes only cash. He is a shrink. Maybe I could dump him and just get the diet drugs from my regular shrink. He charged me $350 for the first visit and pills. Now that will help me lose weight from worry.

That's true and the vet's family should not suffer just because he'/she commits a crime. I have met quite a few vets who have done time and it was due to drugs and PTSD. If the vet is getting 100% and his/her wife and kids depend on that money and Chapter 35 the should not suffer.

My brother-in-law, Larry Freeman Faulkner, was dressed his Marine dress uniform after being sent back from Vietnam. His family got a free burial and ten thousand dollars for him. He was a brave and fine young man. He has a nice tribute on the Virtual Wall. John

All I could have done differently is to have filed an appeal within one year of my decision. CUE claims are based on the evidence and the law at the time of the decision. I had the evidence, but I did not know the VA could just ignore it. If I had appealed the original decision in 1973 I probably would have gotten a higher rating at BVA. Since I did not appeal I was screwed because of the law at that time. My lawyer told me if we lost my CUE he would never do one again he was so sure I had one. CUE is really the last resort and only affects final and unappealed decisions. If I thought I had a CUE I would file instantly. John