ptsd Ptsd And What Ur Up Against

[yoggie2]

More Dismantlement of Case Against Jailed Wisconsin Veteran

Madison, Wisconsin—An analysis reveals more corroboration of the account of a Vietnam-era airman who witnessed a colleague's death in a gruesome C-54 aircraft accident in 1969 at a Naval Air Facility in Naples, Italy and is now imprisoned for wire fraud.

The crushing death of Airman Gary Holland in the wheel well of the C-54 set in motion a chain of events that 36 years later led the US Veterans Administration (VA) and the US Atty for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in 2006 to indict and convict a veteran, Airman Keith Roberts (1968-71), diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), on charges of wire fraud, arguing that Roberts fabricated his role at the death scene and his relationship with Holland, defrauding the VA.

Roberts is currently is serving 48 months in federal prison.

The US v. Keith A. Roberts indictment on mail fraud (April 26, 2005) and later superseded by an indictment on wire fraud alleges in part that Roberts in his “(s)cheme to (d)efraud” the VA “falsely represented material information to the VA” including “that Roberts and airman Gary (Holland) were close friends and roommates.”

In fact, an analysis obtained from Roberts wife, Deloris Roberts, of the service histories Gary Holland and Keith Roberts reveals parallel military careers that would make it unlikely that Holland and Roberts were not at least friendly in their relationship, and that contradicts the prosecution’s indictment and trial statements.

Holland and Roberts:

- Took two weeks-long classes together while stationed together in Memphis, Tennessee in 1968

- Were quartered in the same barracks at Lakehurst, NJ where they also trained together for weeks

- Went into the Naval Air Force base in Naples, Italy together as two young airman

- Slept in close quarters (feet away from each other) while at Naval Air Station base in Naples, Italy

- Worked in the same and only base air hangar together

- Took an advancement test together on the morning of the day Holland was killed on Feb. 4, 1969

“I’d say there was a pretty good chance that Keith Roberts and Gary Holland were friends,” said Deloris Roberts. “The prosecution must know this fact.”

Very little exculpatory information was introduced at Roberts’ trial by his court-appointed attorney, and much exculpatory information was not introduced.

VA Policy

After being diagnosed with PTSD and granted disability benefits, Roberts had no idea that political and bureaucratic forces allied with VA Secretary Jim Nicholson in 2004-05 were determined to adopt the policies of the rightwing think tank, the American Enterprise Institute (AEI), ultimately resulting in Roberts’ prosecution after Roberts phoned the VA and complained that the VA were engaging in fraud in processing his PTSD disability claim.

Roberts's phone call and accusation of VA fraud sounded the alarm bells at the VA.

Under the Bush administration, the VA is using propaganda to defend a reduction in benefits to veterans with PTSD, and redirect blame towards the troops themselves, often dismissing the PTSD as a mere pre-existing personality disorder, not requiring VA disability benefits, as 100,000s of troops return home form Iraq and Afghanistan damaged and forgotten.

Roberts’ benefits were ultimately cut after his phone call, and US Atty Stephen Biskupic's office used the VA benefits-severed administrative fact as a means of prosecuting Roberts in a criminal process.

Biskupic is the enforcer of a new VA policy adopted from the AEI that veterans suffering from PTSD wallow in a "culture of trauma" and do not deserve "entitlements;" and what Roberts attorney calls "a VA culture of claims denial that has turned into a criminalizaiton of the disability claims process."

Roberts remains a warning to other Vietnam-era veterans suffering from PTSD to not file for PTSD benefits.

http://discuss.epluribusmedia.net/node/1266

Edited September 16, 2008 by yoggie2

[william n]

My sentiments exactly... Peace, William

[yoggie2]

kind of makes me leery about the iris I sent the varo yesterday telling them that the VCAA letter they sent me wasn't legal, and to please correct it and send it again. "F" the VA.

Brother my money is on you, coming correct. There's a difference pissing someone off and going to far and pissing someone off and knowing what your actually saying, but that man got it snapped off in him he didn't deserve that.

[Josephine]

I know that I have been trying to keep my mouth shut.

[Berta]

"kind of makes me leery about the iris I sent the varo yesterday telling them that the VCAA letter they sent me wasn't legal, and to please correct it and send it again. "F" the VA. "

Shane- when the VA has the audacity to send a vet a VCAA letter not in complaince with the VCAA (in a way that is prejudicial to the veteran)

the VA,in essence is saying "F" the vet.

I sure would not worry about the Iris if I were you-you did the right thing- this is the basis of an amendment I wrote to the VCAA and am still waiting for a Congressman to sponsor it-I even told Congressman Filner over the air-that the VA has turned the VCAA into a SCAM!(SVR Radio last year)

My amendment to the VCAA would put the onus of illegal VCAA letters onto the vet rep themselves (since they get copy of what the VA sends the vet- one main part of my OGC complaint -I complained to the IG Too and this is when VA and my rep decided to send my claim to the BVA)

BUT it also puts onus onto all of us-this way

what I mean is -if a vet or widow gets an illegal VCAA letter as I did in 2003----

the claimant themselves should be able to insist on a better one from the RO.

It should be part of our DTA rights-and spelled in the "we received your claim blah blah letter" before the VCAA letter even comes.

It took me -after many complaints to my POA director,also to the guy who trains their reps, then to the Governor,--- 4 (FOUR)years to get one of my POA reps to actually look at my VCAA letter that I was griping about-in their POA file on me-the guy suddenly said Hey this is an illegal VCAA Letter !!!! DUH

and then a few weeks later another rep suddenly revoked my POA.

This is CRAP and this is the main reason behind my 24 page OGC complaint against my POA.

And part of my rebuttal to the POA Motion at the BVA.

(they found out they had to file this motion from me- they didnt know the proper regs for revocations)

I told the General Counsel attorneys that this kind of crap has got to stop-

most vets and widows might well accept a deficient and prejudicial VCAA letter without knowing it- and a lazy vet rep might just look at it and just say Oh well----dont have to worry about this claim for years-

knowing that the prejudicial letter might surely cause denials , a long BVA stint, and then a BVA remand to fix the VCAA letter- years will probably pass.During which time the RO employees collect their salaries and they had prepared the deficient VCAA letter in the first place-

And if the VA conveniently fails to enclose the election notice- (as they did in my case and did not list it as enclosed in the VCAA letter-they gave me proof there)

their claim is DOOMED-unless they aggressively fight back when the VA says they did not respond to the election notice-which the VA didnt send-so they COULD response to it-

Double DUH.

I sure wouldnt worry about your Iris-

you have the right under 38 USC and CFR to get a proper VCAA letter that complies with Pelegrini, HArtman and Dingess, widows get one tpo comply with Huff-and countless remands show how deficient these RO VCAA letters have become- since the 2000 VCAA went into effect.

Edited September 17, 2008 by Berta