SLEDGE

Basically, that's how the government works at all levels. When you consider how congress treats our rights, the record that you quoted does not carry any surprises. And, 'nothing' will come out of it. U.S. Government 101. sledge

My co-pays refund was over 700 bucks. It pays to ask for them to be refunded. sledge

My own personal experience with regard to: "Who is your VSO? You need to write an Iris email to the Service center manager and complain?" was, "Please do not contact this office with questions regarding your claims" Also. I contacted my DVA POA and the DAV national office and they told me to shut up or the free help would dry up. I was already a life member at the time. "FREE" ?? Now I'm at the 'court' again. My 30 year old daughter was 12 years old when I began having serious unemployability problems. If I croak she will continue to pursue this mess until my estate receives the full amount of my legally earned benefits. Never give up sledge

Comment: "If I embellezed millions out of sick veterans I would be called an animal by the VA an sent to jail for the rest of my life. ' Opinion: If you were working for the VA, you'd get a bonus. If you were working in congress, you would have funded your favorite pork. If you lived next door to me............ Well, anyhow. sledge

I believe their refusal to operate on my spine was the biggest favor that the VA has ever done for me. (And the only one). The second half of the private sector procedure went exactly as planned and I am healing nicely. I guess the bill for 150 thousand is better than being dead. sledge

Once you get your SMR I don't know. The normal difficulty is just finding the SMR. An IMO that says "More likely than not" is 'supposed to be' as good as having it in the records anyway. My brother-in-law just found his SMR through info he found here. 2 tours in Nam and they said he was never there?? NOW he can go for service connection. sledge

Nam vet's PTSD is frequently difficult to treat by current mental health types because the older mental health types actually, more often than not, contributed to the severity of the PTSD by their lack of understanding of the medical and social mistreatment that helped create a case of PTSD in the first place. I was there. Being run by accountants more than medical types, the military and VA medical systems of yesteryear were more inclined to diagnose malingering than PTSD because malingering is more of a personality disorder and is, therefore, not compensable. Doctors that easily declare a service connected disability do not hold their jobs very long. I agree, nobody should be allowed to discount our symptoms or even diagnose us unless they have walked a mile in our shoes. sledge

tbird, Reading the oldest first is logical. giterdone sledge

Congress has done screwed up this time, they pissed off my Mother. She wonders why we can rebuild a flood plain (It WILL flood again) like New Orleans and we can't afford to give a disabled veteran a neck operation? She can't collect my old man's SSA because she worked for the Post Office, he died as a successful lawyer in 1965. We can afford to sink 300 million bucks worth of emergency dwellings in a mud-flat and disabled veterans have to buy most of their medications. Congress is populated with self-serving liars, my opinion. sledge

I belive this quote says it all for me. And it says a lot about the Honorable R. James Nicholson. Can you guess what I mean? "VA has established itself as one of the top health care organizations in the country," said the Honorable R. James Nicholson, Secretary of Veterans Affairs. "By putting health care facilities in more communities, we're enhancing veterans' access to VA's world-class health care." sledge

I'm in a plastic collar that has pads. It covers my entire neck, chin, back of the head and stops just below both ears. A big pad sits on my chest. Slept 14 hours. sledge

Finally, Yesterday morning the surgeon removed 3 bulging discs outa my neck. Now my arms and legs are working better and improving all the time. I'll be down for about 6 weeks and completely healed in about a year. Time for a nap. sledge

"an ex parte, non-adversarial system, with VA being obligated to provide all benefits allowable under the law." Well, that's a joke. The DAV should pull their heads out. sledge

"Although i agree I also think that ALL Politicians are AFRAID to look bad. Basically the real trick is to also start trying to get the facts to the media. News media love bad news." The fact that disabled vets get screwed is very old news. Screwing us has been the rule , rather than the exeption, to the general public for as long as I can remember. Congress has been LYING about it since before WWl. The only way to change this BS is to elect reps (Congressmen) that are sympathetic to our plight. And then we'll find out how bigga liars they are after the election. Alerting the media is not going to change congress or the apathy of the voters. (old news) WE have to support and vote for our own best reps. I've got my own list of pork that they could cut out of the stinkin budget and then fund everything that WE really need and legally deserve. But, I'm supposed to be crazy. sledge

Look at the big picture. Check out the history of the VA in general. Congress does not want vets to have anything. If not for the laws that the current congress can't erase, we would have considerably less than we now enjoy. WE cost the government money that congress wants to place elsewhere. My opinion. sledge

The BVA has increased my Fibromyalgia to 20 percent and service connected Briquet's Syndrome without setting a percentage of disability. An earlier effective date for TDIU was denied again. This 32 page document is full of wrong legal standards and medical decisions made by the raters. They missed (ignored) most of the favorable evidence toward a higher rating for PTSD and the earlier effective date for TDIU. It's also full of contridictions and doubletalk. They acknowledge their adjudication mistakes and then explain why those mistakes are (harmless?) We had challenged their last examination, only of the records, and they explain why that challenge is invalid as a result of this 32 page document. I thought Hitler was dead! sledge

I don't think for a minute that our personal info was ever secure in the first place. This is just another smoke screen. Something else to take our attention away from the other ongoing VA fraud. sledge

Is it true that the weight assigned to a medical record is not the same as totally ignoring that the record exists? sledge

As soon as you understand that the VA OWES you something, FILE AT ONCE. Like Alex Said, The effective date is the real issue, not clogging the system or muddying your claim. sledge

About 15 years ago I told'em I had PTSD and I have not heard from them since. sledge

Unless I'm sadly mistaken, You can engage a legal representative, a lawyer, as soon as the BVA issues a DECISION. That's what I did. sledge

Personally, I believe they are making up new reasons to distract us from the real issues. Those ignorant studies have no real purpose other than to scare us and piss us off. How many congressmen would get shot if we got screwed that bad? I don't think they really wanna upset that many PTSD vets. Stay focused on the real stuff like VA claims fraud. sledge

Ken Carpenter is my lawyer. We got TDIU and nobody owed him anything because nobody hired him. A GIFT is allowed if it's not tied to anything the lawyer has done for the vet. After the BVA issued a decision in my case I actually hired Carpenter. We are still fighting for my back pay. If lawyers were to be alloweed from the start veterans would benefit across the board. The VA would lose. Congress would lose. The DoD would lose. The president would lose. As long as the VA is not legaly responsible to any court we will never enjoy the same rights under the law as any normal private citizen, someone who never served their country. We were all ready to die for our country. We did not, however, know that serving our country meant that we would be treated like crap by the country we served if we got injured. Don't write your congressman, run for congess. sledge

Comrades, I'm very confused. The latest C&P examination says I suffer from poly-substance abuse. Being one of the few people in this country that has never used drugs at all, not even smoked pot, I wonder what-the-hell is going on with the examiner. Nowhere at any time has anyone ever accused me of doing drugs. Talk about bull-shit. sledge

I believe these statements are not compatable. They are, however, a fair representation of my own problems with the BVA and the RO. " the rating denied the claim and after a review the claim remained denied". VA is required to provide a written statement of the reasons or bases for its findings and conclusions on all material issues of fact and law presented on the record. The statement must be adequate to enable a claimant to understand the precise basis for the VA's decision. In making findings of fact, VA is to consider and discuss all evidence on both sides of the issue, and to reconcile any conflicts among such evidence or, alternatively, provide an explanation of the reasons for rejecting evidence favorable to the claimant or determining that such evidence is of little relative weight or probative value. sledge