Mark C

This week I'm waiting for 2 things, one is the result of my remanded lumbar disc claim for my VARO. The other is a confirmation of my stressor from one of the record centers. I knew I had some emotional/mental changes happen to me in the latter part of my second enlistment, but after what the people did to me I was determined that I'd never contact them as long as I could work and pay my own way. Like I say, In 2000, I herniated L5/S1 at work, the MRI reviled the bad state of my lumbar discs, and after I had the C&P for my back, I came and discussed filing for PTSD with my Wife, than I did just that online. For some reason I'm really sensitive about the circumstances of my PTSD. Just bringing it to mind throws me into bottomless depression. It's very strange, I've been all around the world, experienced all kinds of things, but rehashing the experience I had just cuts into me like a knife.

I want to thank carlie, Testvet, Pete992, Pete53, Josh, bufloguy, halos2, Commander Bob, broncovet, shag, Cool Breeze, Tbird, allenwilliams42 and Hoppy for taking the time to respond. Thank you all very much. You guys are the greatest. I needed somebody really bad to talk to about this and you guys came through. Hoppy, a special thanks for the offer of your personal knowledge to assist, I might be taking you up on that. You folks are great, if any of you are ever in the Philippines, come on by for a visit.

Thank you T-bird, thank you mods. I saw it linked back to our family album but I couldn't delete it. If anybody would like to take a gander at their decision let me know and I'll figure out a way to do this. Cheers, Mark

I'd like to post the doc I just received in the mail. It's a privacy redacted decision by the BVA. What they've done is to send the claim back to the RO that did it, anybody that would like to please check it out and let me know your opinion. Hoppy, can I contact you?

Thank you Carlie, I'll get busy on that today. Can I ask for benefits to continue until the BVA can get to my claim? They've been paying me 70% for 3 years. I've got damaged and herniated discs in my lumbar back so I can't really do a lot. Also, for the past 10 years my family and I have been living on my Social Security, so not much money either. Thats why we moved here to my Wifes province in the Philippines. It's much cheaper. We were doing good on the SS disability, until the dollar took a dive. Now we're just making it.

Part 2: In the 2nd Seal platoon I was in we were given an E-9 Master Chief as our platoon chief. The E-9 they assigned to us was a Vietnam veteran who had spent most of his time since than working at admin jobs. He was a nice enough guy, but when it came to anything mechanical he was completely lost. But, he was a senior Seal, known by everybody from his time working admin at staff in Coronado. In that platoon, I was an E-5 and primary pilot for the SDV. My self and the platoons OIC were the dive pair that did the most dives. The final phase of pre-deployment training for us was a MAC flight for us and our SDV up to Washington State where we did our final dives in cold water in Hood Canal at the sub base in Bangor. On the final dive there, we were to be evaluated by members of staff that would fly up from Coronado to observe us in a full mission profile dive. The day of our dive a cold front came in with lots of snow. The plane from Coronado was delayed for a day, so it was decided on the day of the dive that the secondary pilot/navigator would dive and the primary pair would do support and not dive until the cold front passed and the graders arrived. I found out about this change of plans on the morning of the dive. I had already set up my Mk15 diving rig and had it ready to go. The navigator of the secondary pair was a well liked Lt.jg and a good friend to me. He assumed my diving rig and asked me if the Mk15 dive rig was ready to go, I told him it was but it's up to him to fill out a new pre-dive check off sheet. Later that afternoon before the dive I helped him into his drysuit and helped him don his Mk15 for the dive. It was snowing hard that evening when we used the base crane to put our SDV in the water. The E-9 I had previously had mentioned was to be the supervisor of this dive. Things started bad from the start. After we had the SDV and divers in the water at Delta pier there was a delay because the E-9 had forgotten to give a copy of the dive profile to the base operations people. The divers had already been in the ice cold water, on bag for 30 minutes plus before permission to dive was granted. break time, more to follow...

Thank you folks for replying. You don't know how much it means to me. It's like 3am here at our home, I live on the island of Negros here in the Philippines. I'm wide awake over worrying about this. I've got a long and convoluted story. But let me try to cover the highlights of my situation. In the late 70's I quit high school and my Dad, a union seaman, got me my seaman's papers. I sailed out of the Gulf for 4 years on merchant ships as a deck hand (ordinary seaman). I decided to do a stint in the Navy as an EM (Electricians Mate) so I could come out and sit for my merchant marine electricians exam. So in 1981 I entered the Nav, I loved it. I had great evals and took honor man in my A-school. Everything I did, I did to the best of my ability. They sent me to a ship in overhaul in Bremerton, Wa. There, I got an idea and, along with a couple of friends, I tried out for and passed the screening test for UDT/SEAL. I was liking the Nav back there enough to start thinking of maybe making it a career. I passed BUDS (SEAL Basic) in 1983, I was sent to a UDT/SDV Team. This is an SDV: I was selected soon after arriving at my new command for a platoon deployment. An SDV platoon is a SEAL platoon that totes around that little sub, there are 12 SEALs to a SEAL platoon, so we get pretty close to each other. My first deployment was to Subic, where UDT/SEALs had facilities on the base there. One day, we were up in the jungle training and in a freak accident, a grenade I had thrown took a bad bounce and my dive buddy caught a piece of frag in his throat. We emergency medivacked him from the jungle to the base hospital by boat. He underwent surgury to remove the frag, and recovered. The doctors had cut him open from his ear to his collarbone to remove the frag from his neck, left him scarred up really bad. But thankfully he survived. The rest of that deployment was uneventful and in early 1985 we went back to our command base in Coronado where I was immediately grabbed up for deployment in another platoon. During that platoons training, in August of 1985, I reenlisted for another 4 years. I'll post this and come back for the "rest of the story"...

I just received word from my VARO in Manila that my benefits would be severed come January. The statement of an active-duty commissioned officer and a recently retired command master chief mean nothing.

Thank you Shag

Or something like dat'

Thanks everybody for the kind greetings and responses. My appealed, remanded claim has been sent back here to the "AOJ" (original doctor). I should get his "reconsidered" report and letter soon. The question BVA is asking the doctor is if my Seal Team service is, is it more likely than not the cause of the origin of my degenerative disc disease was the physical demands of Seal training and service. I would think the answer would be an easy yes. But....

That's been exactly my experience Chuck. I realize they have a job to do, but they talk to me me like I'm a criminal or con man. Your post is a great relief to read, it's a minor comfort to know they're prickish to everybody. What a shame. Thank you, M

How in the world can I get Navpers to respond to my stressor verification request, for 2 years I've been trying with no response whatsoever from them.

So, the VA doesn't believe the word of an active duty Lieutenant Colonel? Who do they consider trustworthy?

Greetings everybody, I was in the process of getting verification for a stressor incident. 2 years of trying and Navpers does not respond to my request, but I was able to find and get hold of a former member of my unit that was an eyewitness to the incident. This fellow had stayed in the service and is now a very high ranking officer, still on active duty. He has written a very good statement verifying the incident, does this settle the issue? I guess what I'm asking is a sworn statement from an active duty comissioned officer count as verification from a federal source? Thx in advance... M

Boom, there it is! Thank you very much JustPLS. that's exactly what I needed to know. You folks are super!

Thank you very, very much Berta and Tbird. That's excellent information.

Thank you in advance to anyone that can give me any information on that.

Question for somebody... Will the VA consider as evidence verifiable medical studies by legitimate organizations gleaned from online sources? Such as this one relating to my situation... Cumulative occupational lumbar load and lumbar disc disease – results of a German multi-center case-control study

But between the degeneration, and the 2 herniations. I'm a hurting unit and it's getting more painful every year. I can feel the pain moving higher and higher up my backbone. Without the Oxy's the VA here gives me, I'd be in big trouble.

Thank you everybody for the replies. Yes, I'm 70% PTSD service related. I first put in for my lumbar ddd in 2005, when it was originally denied in 06 I put in for my PTSD, which I was approved for at 70%. I've been receiving that compensation for 2 years now while awaiting an appeal decision for my back from BVA. I finally received my brown envelope from BVA, and they're remending my claim to the doctor that originally denied my service connection. I don't understand the reason for this. I live in the Philippines where I moved in 2000 to be around my wifes family to help us with our kids. My degenerative disc disease was uncovered when I herniated a disc at work in 2000. I have MRI evidence of a severe degenerative condition with dessication on all the levels of my lumbar spine from that time (2000). That was only 12 years after I was discharged, and the only job I had in the interim was a sedentary marine electricans gig. I sure didn't get it from that, all I did was carry a cup of coffee and bag of lightbulbs. And no, I never had back problems serious enough to see a doctor about while in the teams. But I am sure that the ddd is from my Navy time, to be more specific, there was a period where I was involved with doing long range, open ocean high speed zodiac navigation and we used to get the shit pounded out of us sitting on that thwart of that rubber boat for hours on end. That and the marathon back flutter kicks was hell on that lower back of mine.

Greetings everybody, I need a bit of advise here. I did 5 years active duty with SEAL Teams in the 80's, I got out in 88. In 2000 I was at work and helped my boss pick up to move a heavy parts box, as I did so I felt a pop in my lower back followed by enormous pain. I went and had an MRI done, and the pop I felt was L5-S1 herniating. But what the MRI also uncovered was a well established case of degenerative disc disease with dessication, on every single level of my lumbar spine. I've been waiting 3 years for my appeal for service connection to be heard, and just today I get the brown envelope and they're remanding my claim to my local VA for them to make a decision, so I'm right back to where I started. It would seem to me that the training we went through would be an obvious possible cause for degenerative disc disease (beach runs with telephone poles on shoulder ect...) but what can I do to get my VARO to see the light? Any advice much appreciated. Cheers, Mark

I'm Mark C, former Navy, UDT/Seal Teams West coast. Hello to everybody. I joined Hadit to get some help with getting a service connection for back problems that have got me laid up nowadays. Been going on 4 1/2 years trying to get this. Somewhat frustrating to say the least.