ptsd My Ptsd C & P Is Coming Up

[nlualum82]

Notified by mail recently that I will have 4 C & P's this month, the last one is for my mental state.

My only SC is 50% for hearing loss that started as 0% in '78 when I got out.

I never thought I'd be in this position, but as the years rolled on and I finally admitted I couldn't handle it, it turned out I hadn't been handling it for years! I am lucky to have a devoted wife and a son who inherited her all around goodness.

I would rather stay in bed than do about anything, and mostly do except for going to my hell of a night shift job at the Post Office! I hate going but am afraid to lose it. I feel sure that if I wasn't a SC vet at the PO then I wouldn't have a job at all - no place not bound by their rules and such would keep me.

I sought help as a last resort because I was not a combat vet. Served 76-78, Ranger Bn. until my hearing caused a problem. In a regular inf. unit I had a high speed jeep rollover (my records for treatment of my knee just say MVA for moving vehicle accident) and was held hostage at gunpoint with others featuring MST. Fortumately Rep. DeFazio was able to get my deposition and testimony for me, so evidence of that stressor is pretty solid.

I hope this is a one shot deal, I haven't enjoyed rehashing any of it. I wasn't really functioning but the numbness is better than the reliving. I have been told that my first PTSD C & P is likely to be the beginning of a series before the decision is rendered in my favor.

The stressor I'll never prove is being railroaded into a false art. 15, sealed by an NCO threatening a soft PFC into writing and signing what he was told - instant witness! Some of you may know that kind of helplessness and abuse of power.

Would be a slam dunk if I could find the guy but have had no luck so far.

I always run long - have trouble linitting and tell myself I need to include the whole story for those who are new or don't remember.

I dream of TDIU, but even that could be a nightmare if I ceased to get out of bed at all!

[john999]

Notified by mail recently that I will have 4 C & P's this month, the last one is for my mental state.

    My only SC is 50% for hearing loss that started as 0% in '78 when I got out.

I never thought I'd be in this position, but as the years rolled on and I finally admitted I couldn't handle it, it turned out I hadn't been handling it for years! I am lucky to have a devoted wife and a son who inherited her all around goodness.

    I would rather stay in bed than do about anything, and mostly do except for going to my hell of a night shift job at the Post Office! I hate going but am afraid to lose it. I feel sure that if I wasn't a SC vet at the PO then I wouldn't have a job at all - no place not bound by their rules and such would keep me.

    I sought help as a last resort because I was not a combat vet. Served 76-78, Ranger Bn. until my hearing caused a problem. In a regular inf. unit I had a high speed jeep rollover (my records for treatment of my knee just say MVA for moving vehicle accident) and was held hostage at gunpoint with others featuring MST. Fortumately Rep. DeFazio was able to get my deposition and testimony for me, so evidence of that stressor is pretty solid.

    I hope this is a one shot deal, I haven't enjoyed rehashing any of it. I wasn't really functioning but the numbness is better than the reliving. I have been told that my first PTSD C & P is likely to be the beginning of a series before the decision is rendered in my favor.

    The stressor I'll never prove is being railroaded into a false art. 15, sealed by an NCO threatening a soft PFC into writing and signing what he was told - instant witness! Some of you may know that kind of helplessness and abuse of power.

Would be a slam dunk if I could find the guy but have had no luck so far.

    I always run long - have trouble linitting and tell myself I need to include the whole story for those who are new or don't remember.

  I dream of TDIU, but even that could be a nightmare if I ceased to get out of bed at all!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

82

If you get at least 70% SC put in for disability retirement from the USPS. Once you get the retirement and stop working you can get TDIU from the VA and probably get SSDI. As long as you are working at the USPS (I worked there too) you won't get 100%. I got OPM disability, SSA and then TDIU in that order. You are very near your goal so just stay the course and you can get away from the USPS and start living.

[Testvet]

you were in 2/75 when the guys in the pig masks robbed the guys in the commo truck at Yakima? Man that was a long time ago. Wasn't that about the time the Ranger CSM dropped dead of the heart attack on the morning run, you all were just up the street from us, I was in 2/1 Inf back then. You suckers were nuts with all the snakes, explosives and guns they kept in the barracks, stuck in the ceilings and air ducts. I laughed like He33 when they did that shake down on you all. I thought half the battalion was going to the stockade.

[nlualum82]

Don't have a memory of any of those incidents. I arrived at B 2/75 in early Nov. '77 and went on what I am told was the last Jack Frost held in Alaska - later Rangers have told me they shifted to Michigan because we had such a warm winter when I was there Jan 7, '78 - Feb 2.

Pig mask robberies and shakedowns? I thought the stories about the blowguns were funny!

In Alaska I failed to hear a password given by my fireteam leader and when he charged from the bushes I popped a blank on him. Makes me wonder if my hearing was lost due to sinus presuure as well as noise on that long, loud plane ride up there. He nulled it awhile after returning and sent me down the road to CSC 3/60 where I got some of what I hear is the standard greeting from a leg unit grunt "Hi, I'm new in the platoon, my name is..." "I BET YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUGH S**T WITH THOSE WINGS, JUST F*** WITH ME AND SEE IF I DON'T BEAT YOUR A**!!!"

My Yakima incident was being held by an armed nutcase who was waiting on his rival to show up so he could humiliate him or possibly shoot him. Me and an NCO were the first 2, by the end he had 12.

Another ex-Batt guy I had befriended in jump school ended up in prison for armed robbery of a U-Haul place on S. Tacoma Way.

John, thanks for the good words. Perhaps you can e-mail me privately with some more info.

[Guest Berta]

nlualum-

I posted the PTSD C & P under reply to you in Comp and Pension Exam Posts (i think?)

I see you clarified your claim here-

I would think that the tinnitus and otitis is certainly secondary to your SC hearing loss.

Did you tell them in your claim that the hearing aids are causing the otitus problem? Has a doctor documented that?

Your PTSD info above is good evidence and certainly the hearing problems in service support this as well as your other information.

The 'false Article 15?'- does that appear in your military personnel records at all? It could be evidence of beginnings of anxiety or PTSD due to hearing problems.

"In Alaska I failed to hear a password given by my fireteam leader and when he charged from the bushes I popped a blank on him. Makes me wonder if my hearing was lost due etc....."

This certainly is proof of hearing loss in service as contibuting to a state of anxiety-the out come could have been vastly different.

On this one

"Fortumately Rep. DeFazio was able to get my deposition and testimony for me, so evidence of that stressor is pretty solid."

That is the stuff that the VA MF (mysterious force) likes to lose-

Make sure they get a copy but that you have the original.

I am wondering , men and women, if this vet should bring this stressor info with him to the PTSD C & P exam. Especially the deposition stuff.

The doc wont read it probably, but it would show the doc he has evidence.

Do you have copies of all of your service records?

WHat I see hear is the hearing loss is already granted so the tinnitus, otitis, and PTSD due to stressors -to include the hearing loss itself - all supports a very good claim for more compensation.

If you were not presently working I would advise that you apply for TDIU and SSA benefits.

On SSA- I know 2 people who get SSA for hearing loss- but it seems to me that they get it as the hearing loss has profoundly affected their speech. These are not vets.

So- if you ever apply for SSA, the PTSD award you will hopefully get from VA might well help any SSA award.

I dont know if the SSA views hearing loss as a total disability unless it affects speech or the inner ear problems cause balance problems, etc and other things that a hearing aid cannot correct.

[Magoo_Mr.]

Don't have a memory of any of those incidents. I arrived at B 2/75 in early Nov. '77 and went on what I am told was the last Jack Frost held in Alaska - later Rangers have told me they shifted to Michigan because we had such a warm winter when I was there Jan 7, '78 - Feb 2.

     Pig mask robberies and shakedowns? I thought the stories about the blowguns were funny!

    In Alaska I failed to hear a password given by my fireteam leader and when he charged from the bushes I popped a blank on him. Makes me wonder if my hearing was lost due to sinus presuure as well as noise on that long, loud plane ride up there. He nulled it awhile after returning and sent me down the road to CSC 3/60 where I got some of what I hear is the standard greeting from a leg unit grunt "Hi, I'm new in the platoon, my name is..." "I BET YOU THINK YOU'RE TOUGH S**T WITH THOSE WINGS, JUST F*** WITH ME AND SEE IF I DON'T BEAT YOUR A**!!!"

    My Yakima incident was being held by an armed nutcase who was waiting on his rival to show up so he could humiliate him or possibly shoot him. Me and an NCO were the first 2, by the end he had 12.

   Another ex-Batt guy I had befriended in jump school ended up in prison for armed robbery of a U-Haul place on S. Tacoma Way.

John, thanks for the good words. Perhaps you can e-mail me privately with some more info.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I was never threatened in the military like that ... and I am not too sure how I would have handled a ... "DIRECT THREAT" ... like you mentioned.

I did see some heavy bickering in the air and especially on the ground (out in the bush) in RVN ... but NEVER something like that.

Personally ... I think that if someone made a ... "DIRECT THREAT" .. (with implied physical violence) ... directly against another soldier ... they might not make it back.

Everybody was already on the "edge" in the field and when you add a threat from ... "within" ... that would have been big trouble .. in my opinion.

Magoo aka Bill ....

PS: That high school stuff of wanting to .. "whip someone's azz" .. in the field would NOT have gone very far.

I knew some in the field that would have .. "shot their azz" .. if they felt threatened by ANYONE.

Edited September 17, 2005 by Magoo_Mr.

[Robert Thomas]

Fortunately, "fragging" to settle a score was not the norm.