So's

[carlie]

I know the advise is usually, if you get a service officer try to meet a couple of different ones and pick the one that seems best to meet your needs.

I have found this to be quite difficult as it seems most organizations ASSIGN you

a VSO -- so no chance to try and pick one.

Well recently through American Legion my SO changed again. This one tells me he really likes to investigate each claim and he was supposed to begin working on my 646 about 2 weeks ago. I called him and left a message last week, he didn't call

back. I called again today and he DID call back. I asked him for an email address,

he had me hold on to locate it so I don't think he uses it much and he told me he didn't know it by heart because he never emails himself.

The new SO told me they are very busy. I requested he call me and I come in to

visit - go over the paperwork before he sends it in and could I come in to bring copies of info. I feel are very important. This info. is only found in my medical

records. It should also be in my claims file as I presented it to DRO Aug.2004.

I went and looked at my claims file just last month at VARO and the info. I

presented the DRO from Aug. 2004 was not there.

The new SO tells me that when he's working a claim he doesn't answer any calls

or see any vets as this would distract from his concentrating on whatever

particular claim he's working on.

I think I'm being fed some BS.

Any suggestions ?

Best to all,

carlie

[Ricky]

I agree with all above. After having my stroke and losing the use of my left hand and left foot, SO that was assisting me (an Alabama state employee) told me that I should accept the 10 percent rating VA allowed me cause that took me to a total of 40 percent. He went on and said that he new thousands of vets that would be happy with an overall 40 percent rating. He would not assist me with a NOD. Oh well I am now my own SO. Yep we need someone to go public and expose this massive black hole who's only mission is to continue to suck up all the power they can which allows them to violate every right that American Vets have fought for while thumbing their nose at us and the U.S. Constitution.

[Hoppy]

I know the advise is usually, if you get a service officer try to meet a couple of different ones and pick the one that seems best to meet your needs.

I have found this to be quite difficult as it seems most organizations ASSIGN you

a VSO -- so no chance to try and pick one.

Well recently through American Legion my SO changed again.  This one tells me he really likes to investigate each claim and he was supposed to begin working on my 646 about 2 weeks ago.  I called him and left a message last week, he didn't call

back.  I called again today and he DID call back.  I asked him for an email address,

he had me hold on to locate it so I don't think he uses it much and he told me he didn't know it by heart because he never emails himself.

The new SO told me they are very busy.  I requested he call me and I come in to

visit - go over the paperwork before he sends it in and could I come in to bring copies of info. I feel are very important.  This info. is only found in my medical

records.  It should also be in my claims file as I presented it to DRO Aug.2004.

I went and looked at my claims file just last month at VARO and the info. I

presented the DRO from Aug. 2004 was not there.

The new SO tells me that when he's working a claim he doesn't answer any calls

or see any vets as this would distract from his concentrating on whatever

particular claim he's working on.

I think I'm being fed some BS.

Any suggestions ?

Best to all,

carlie

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Carlie,

SO's can be perplexing. I was thrown out of the office of a supervisor for a large Veterans organization. He asked me if I was treated for the condition I have today while in srvice. I said no. Before I had a chance to explain that I knew I had the disease while in service he started yelling and screaming at me. Red faced and slobbering as he screamed. I decided I needed to talk to another representitive.

What I learneds was depressing. I had a previous case for another condition on appeal. Until the appeal is finished on the previous case the VA will not recognize a new SO for any reason. I was stuck with the first SO. When my medical records came in I noticed that I was treated in service and given the same medications I had been given for 26 years post service. I did not even tell the first idiot SO. I waited for the appeal to end a got an SO that I met during the waiting period.

MY new SO was highly qualified. However, he did have some biases. None of the biases were a major problem. His biasis were more condusive to settling the claim. My biases would get on to other levels. I wanted to have adjudicators put in jail for fraud. Believe it or not I might have been able to do it. I was also highly trained as an insurance fraud investigator. I know fraud when I see it.

MY new SO sat at a desk in an office. I or anybody else I saw could walk in and see him usually with a short wait. If he was at a hearing or not at work then I went back at a later date. The great majority of the time he was available. I always took new reports or saw him about progress on the claim. He had confidence that I would prevail the entire time. As time went on and I found lost records and got better medical evaluations I became his favorite project. He could see that he would be getting me a good settlement. I am sure SO's have favorite cases.

Although Berta is right that you would do best to work your case, I am of the opinion that my SO could get things done faster because he knew the system. Thus do your own work but submitt it through an SO. The SO should give you a time stamp[ed copy of all documents filed shortly after you give the document to the SO. My SO did it immediately because his office was 50 feet from the RO. Before I appealed my claim I read many BVA appeals decisions I found on a link here on hadit. I read the entire M21. I found and read many CFR's and COVA decisions. It became a full time job for several months. I was tired of being lost in the maze of medical/legal futility.

I had a break through in my case when I realized that the adjudicators had confused two unrelated reports causing them to think that the disease began after I was discharged. When I figured this out which was difficut because the SOC was vague as to their logic for the denial, I found a report from a doctor that unraveled the confusion. It was submitted as evidence of an error on the part of the RO and not as new and material evidence. I am of the opinion that my SO walked the new report right into the office of the DRO and told them to read it and weep and to get on the stick. My claim was settled within 30 days after eight and a half years of BS. My point being that the SO knew where and how to put the pressure, Something I could not do by my self.

Hoppy

100% for Angioedema with secondary conditions

[SeattleShay]

Let me tell you a little story about the service officer, Jane Sammon, in Rice County, MN.

Eight years ago she was a married e-4, wanting to be a warrant officer, working for my husband, a W-4. I was living in Chicago at that time taking care of my mother who had terminal brain cancer and my husband and I were only seeing each other on weekends and holidays. Ms Sammon decided that the quickest way to pass the warrant board was to have a W-4 on her side so..............., the next thing you know my husband is writing her letters of recommendations and doing correspondence courses for her and the two of them are having an illicit affair while both still married. She gets divorced and informs everyone that she and my husband are engaged...I still don't know anything about this I'm busy helping with hospice care for my Mom and working full time. I finally find out,my husband drops her, but she gets her warrant commision because I didn't turn them in for fraternazation and of course she lied on her oath about breaking any regulations.

My husband and I split, the Army finds out about them and despite direct orders to have no contact she can't follow them and moves from MN out here to Seattle.

Luckily, the people out here see her and my husband for what they are. She slinks back to MN and my husband is "kicked" off of active duty.

Both are such shining examples of enlisted and officer material.........

Now Ms Sammon is to be trusted as a Service Officer.

This is why no one should EVER trust a service officer.

Edited September 15, 2005 by SeattleShay

[Alex]

Carlie --

The 646 and $2.75 will buy you8 a cup of coffree at Starbuck's.

Aled

[Guest jstacy]

Carlie --

The 646 and $2.75 will buy you8 a cup of coffree at Starbuck's.

Aled

Does anyone ever wonder why the VA uses service officers to represent Veterans with claims???

Imagine all the Vets on a ship. The ship is going around in circles. The So"s are the anchors and they are dragging the bottom thus slowing the ship and muddying up the water. Not all So's are bad but I have yet to find a competent one. Their excuse is that they are overwhealmed by the volume of claims. What we need is to have service officers that are crackerjack vet reps that Know the system and Know what it takes to get claims properly written and do a good follow. That should be the expectation for a SO. I have learned more from Hadit than I would ever learn from a SO. And by the way. all of the representative bodies are Political.

We vets dont have the interest or the time to play this game.

[timetowinarace]

I could write a book about SOs - but the best bet is not to depend on them-

they have hundreds of claims and a veteran usually only has one, their own medical records to study and their own c file to check-and the regs are available for everyone to learn as they apply to each claim.

My vet rep gets so busy answering calls and seeing vets with new claims that he doesnt have much time to work on re-opens which are so important too.

YOU are the BEST vet rep or SO you will ever have.

I'm afraid that it may be true in most cases that VETS are their best reps, but I cannot learn what the VA wants fast enough to do me much good. If I had waited to refile when I knew what I was doing I would lose years. No one else is doing this for me except my SO, who has been doing a poor job. When I pointed out to her that the first time I filed for brain damage someone in the VA should have realized that maybe I could not do things like find missing records on my own, she admitted that was her job, and felt so bad she actually cried. (I had written a full page description of the events of my injury including dates, which hospitals I was in, for how long, and when I returned to duty in my initial claim form. I did not know I had done that. They had the information, decided the case from my service records that do not show hospitalizations in areas of conflict, did not inform me that they could not find these records) I tried to find records and was told the VA had ALL my records, so I gave up. My SO got a copy of my denial, but never checked it against the claim form or called to ask me about it. My memoroy is so poor I did not know who my SO was. actually last week at the clinic someone asked me if I had an SO and I did'nt think so untill they gave me my SO's card.

Point is, it's easey to say do it yourself when you can actually do that. Some Vets are going to need SO's that are compitent without the vets help. I believe that should be addressed.

Of course, maybe if those that could, did, then the SO's would have time for those that can't.

Time

Edited October 25, 2005 by timetowinarace