ptsd No Nod...totally Screwed

[sjh4951]

Looks like my late husband never filed a NOD to his ptsd denial although he did submit new evidence within that time frame.

All this worry about the va not accepting the amended 214 and now I find it's the lack of NOD that got my claim for accrued screwed up. Bill had a rep for his claim...why did the vet rep not tell us that a NOD was needed???? How were WE suppose to know that a NOD was needed??

Not to mention the last denial stated that Bill had one year from that date to submit and now I'm being told that that was an administrative error and the date was actually 6 months prior to that. All this down the drain because proper procedure was not followed?? I'm so upset.......all those years he (and my children and I) suffered from ptsd and this is how it ends, all over because of one missing form? For all I know he did send it and it was shredded...regional is Columbia so who knows?

Anyone have any advise........I'm not ready to give in or up.

[Commander Bob]

Good Morning Ms. Susan, I have followed your ordeal with the VA and your posts here at Hadit. I am an AO upper respiratory cancer, boots on the ground, combat wounded Vietnam vet, old solider. My heart goes out to you and to the memory of your beloved Bill. He was blessed to have a loving and caring wife. I' am disturbed by the problems you and many other caregiver survivors of Vietnam vets, who have suffered at the hands of the VA, and the vet having combined disabilities of AO cancer and PTSD. I am walking in Bill's boots as I write you this note. When you came aboard here, you were delivered into the hands of angels. I assure you that in no way they would try to make you feel stupid or being less than truthful here at Hadit.. Don't be so hard on yourself. ***[Footnote to Berta. ( You are truly an Angel on earth). A Vietnam vet could serve more than the one year rule in country. 2,3,4 years in Vietnam was achieved by volunteering to "extend". **It also appears that Bill may have been drafted. Draftees had a 2 year active duty commitment. And though the majority of draftees were placed in the Army, Some poor draftees were dispatched over to the USMC. Volunteers usually signed up for 3 or 4 years and had a choice of occupation. When I joined the army in 1966 for 3 years, with the occupation choice of becoming an Airborne Ranger, Light Weapons Infantry. I only served 2 years due to chapter 61 retirement.] ( I never got to go to Airborne school). *** Your experience has inspired me to put to together a "Check Out" file with all the DIC info,... etc. that my precious wife will need when I will have to leave her behind. On a personal note, I am very proud of you, Susan, and your commitment to fulfill Bill's wishes for you to receive DIC. I wish you Peace, Cmdr.Bob

Edited December 28, 2008 by Commander Bob 92-93

[Commander Bob]

Good Morning Ms. Susan,

I searched around hadit's archives, and found skeeter's posting of Mar. 26, 2006; [ "In this case I found out that if your appeal is filed late, you can get around the filing date if you can show that the late filing was directly due to a mental disorder or or to being tricked or misled by an agent of the VA." ] I don't know, it could be another rabbit trail. Maybe you could check into this approach with the PTSD, NOD issue. Best wishes for a successful New Year, Cmdr. Bob

[sjh4951]

Good Morning Ms. Susan,

I searched around hadit's archives, and found skeeter's posting of Mar. 26, 2006; [ "In this case I found out that if your appeal is filed late, you can get around the filing date if you can show that the late filing was directly due to a mental disorder or or to being tricked or misled by an agent of the VA." ] I don't know, it could be another rabbit trail. Maybe you could check into this approach with the PTSD, NOD issue. Best wishes for a successful New Year, Cmdr. Bob

Thank you...I will check that out. I did file my appeal on time...Bill never got that far. As for the NOD, if he did not send it, that would be understandable given that he was going through many things with his cancer which made his ptsd worse and visa versa.

[sjh4951]

Good Morning Ms. Susan, I have followed your ordeal with the VA and your posts here at Hadit. I am an AO upper respiratory cancer, boots on the ground, combat wounded Vietnam vet, old solider. My heart goes out to you and to the memory of your beloved Bill. He was blessed to have a loving and caring wife. I' am disturbed by the problems you and many other caregiver survivors of Vietnam vets, who have suffered at the hands of the VA, and the vet having combined disabilities of AO cancer and PTSD. I am walking in Bill's boots as I write you this note. When you came aboard here, you were delivered into the hands of angels. I assure you that in no way they would try to make you feel stupid or being less than truthful here at Hadit.. Don't be so hard on yourself. ***[Footnote to Berta. ( You are truly an Angel on earth). A Vietnam vet could serve more than the one year rule in country. 2,3,4 years in Vietnam was achieved by volunteering to "extend". **It also appears that Bill may have been drafted. Draftees had a 2 year active duty commitment. And though the majority of draftees were placed in the Army, Some poor draftees were dispatched over to the USMC. Volunteers usually signed up for 3 or 4 years and had a choice of occupation. When I joined the army in 1966 for 3 years, with the occupation choice of becoming an Airborne Ranger, Light Weapons Infantry. I only served 2 years due to chapter 61 retirement.] ( I never got to go to Airborne school). *** Your experience has inspired me to put to together a "Check Out" file with all the DIC info,... etc. that my precious wife will need when I will have to leave her behind. On a personal note, I am very proud of you, Susan, and your commitment to fulfill Bill's wishes for you to receive DIC. I wish you Peace, Cmdr.Bob

Thank you and I am very sorry to learn that you, too, are walking the path. The checklist is a wonderful idea. For some reason the VA expects us to know the proper channels, when in fact, many of their reps don't even know. I just found a manual on line that is a blow by blow of exactly what they are to do in claims. I didn't have that manual to go by so I was flying by the seat of my pants so to speak. Bill's rep ran hot and cold so no help there. I have yet to find the POA that he signed with her and the VA states he had no representative for the ptsd.

Bill did enlist in the Marine corp. I will answer Berta's questions that address that in my next post.

Thanks for your patience with me...I, too, suffer from ptsd due to the issues Bill had.

[sjh4951]

I met Pete over 20 years ago at Prodigy vets BBS- there is no way that we want to make anyone feel stupid or appear that we doubt what they are saying-I'm sorry that I interpeted it that way...bad "pity party" day I guess. I seem to have quite a few of those..

I am just trying to determine how you could possibly obtain DIC.

I see no basis for any accrued award unless somehow you can prove that a NOD was filed.I have tried to verify that..as yet, to no avail other than he did file an NOD for the cancer and included more evidence with that NOD for the ptsd but never specifically stated that he disagreed with their denial for the ptsd decision. Bare in mind that he did have problems from his ptsd so could have thought he sent it but didn't. I should have been on top of things but busied myself with researching his cancer instead. At the time that was my only concern. **I did just find a letter that Bill sent to the VA dated Feb.24, 2005 that states "Request to re-open compensation claim based on VA overlooking DD215".(this was not the DD215 with the CAR..it was something else and I don't know what.) Could this not be considered a disagreement with their decision?

When I focused on PTSD as a direct SC death- it was because you said you had proof of SC PTSD for 10 years prior to death.

You have a good handle on the 1318 DIC award criteria.But we are trying to determine what evidence you can obtain to support that type of DIC claim.

I dont turn on my email thing here - I certainly hope you didnt think I rejected your email-I dont use this format at hadit.

I could make a mistake in email advise that no one here would see to correct-That's completely understandable.

and besides that-

if you have significant information of a personal nature that could help your claim-by all means tell the VA.

They know my husbands and my whole life story by now I think and I assure you they should be trusted with any personal or sensitive info that would possibly help your claim.

You need to realise that there are many seasoned claims advocates here-with decades of VA claims experience-

I questioned the fact that it appeared you said your husband's Vietnam service was 1967-1969- when this is over the usual TDY period for the Vietnam War.I have a copy of his original sitting before me and will answer your questions based on that.

But you then said he enlisted in 1967 and then was discharged in 1969-this too is unusual because ,up to 2003, USMC enlistments were almost always for four full years.Term of service: 2 yrs. Total in Vietnam: 1 yr. 28 days. Discharge date: Janaury 13, 1969

We cant help but notice these things that give us a confused picture of his service.

"I HAVE MEDICAL RECORDS AS EVIDENCE PLUS THE AWARD LETTER FROM SOCIAL SECURITY DISABILITY WHICH HE WAS RECEIVING SINCE 1992 UNTIL HIS DEATH IN MAY OF 2006. ALSO ONE OF HIS CURRENT TREATING PSYCHIATRISTS STATED IN HIS LETTER TO THE VA THAT BILL HAD HAD PTSD FOR OVER A DECADE"

What did this treating psychiatrist attribute his PTSD to? Surrvivor guilt relative to his Vietnam combat experience. Doctors letter states:He has carried a number of diagnoses but I have been working him on dealing with the signs and symptoms of a Dissociative Disorder. Many times he has dissociated into a personality state relative to his Vietnam combat experience. He suffers trememdous surviror guilt relative to the loss of two comrades, which he continues to believe were the result of his failure to act against what could be conceived as direct orders. The mental health problems that he has suffered becasue of his combat experience are certainly aggravating and complicating his overall psychological dysfunction.

HIs second doctor sent a letter which states "Mr.XXX is totally and permanently disabled and has been for (15) years. His Vietnam experience was a significant cause of his PTSD and other diagnoses.

On his DD 214 it should state his period of oversease service in Vietnam in the boxes on the right hand side.

1 yr. 28 days(foreign and/or sea service)

Total active service: 1 yr 6 mos. 24 days

If you have those dates and the full designation of his unit-

(I mean like my husband's the whole designation-like-

IstMARDIV,First Amphibious Tracker Battalion)

what ever that is in his Mil records, perhaps I could find more as to the Rockpile incident-or at least some firefights that he could have possibly been in-or something that his entire unit experienced during the actual dates he was in Vietnam.

USMC LCpl E-3

305 CofG Auth Par 6012.1a MARCORSEPMAN, MCBUL 1910 of 17Jun68 & MCO 1900.2E

CoC, 7thMTBn, FLC

3531 MtrVehOpr (Bill said he had two MOS: one being(330(?) machine gunner

Then it lists medals, etc:

Then Name,Grade and Title of Authorizing Officer

D. F. Rousseau, CAP"T USMC, AsstOIC

Still this might reveal nothing that could be proven as his personal stressor experience.

Where was he during the TET offensive?Yes, 1968 ICORP near the DMZ

CAPS - if he was in the CAPS program I am sure he would have talked about that.It was part of my husband's unit's PUC citation. I don't recall that...what does it stand for?

[Berta]

"Surrvivor guilt relative to his Vietnam combat experience. Doctors letter states:He has carried a number of diagnoses but I have been working him on dealing with the signs and symptoms of a Dissociative Disorder. Many times he has dissociated into a personality state relative to his Vietnam combat experience. He suffers trememdous surviror guilt relative to the loss of two comrades, which he continues to believe were the result of his failure to act against what could be conceived as direct orders. The mental health problems that he has suffered becasue of his combat experience are certainly aggravating and complicating his overall psychological dysfunction.

HIs second doctor sent a letter which states "Mr.XXX is totally and permanently disabled and has been for (15) years. His Vietnam experience was a significant cause of his PTSD and other diagnoses."

Did the VA disregard these opinions because he did not have proof of stressor?

Or did the VA fail to even consider these important medical opinions?

http://www.leatherneck.com/forums/showthread.php?t=8468

These are old posts at the Leatherneck site as to the Rockpile-and it looks like the dates of 2 Marine deaths there might correspond with your husband’s Rockpile stressor- hard to know-was he in a convpy in support of Recon forces?

The Leatherneck site has mre up to date forums and could perhaps help you find some info as to the Rockpile incident.

But the men he had survivor guilt over might not be the men who died at the Rockpile-

I worked at a Vet Center with the PTSD Vietnam Combat Group-

Many men felt at some point able to reveal stressors that even their wives didnt know of-the SSA records could certainly have some key information that might help narrow his main stressor down to time and place.

I assume your husband’s full Unit designation would also put him into H & S company-

But I could sure be wrong-

http://www.grunt.com/scuttlebutt/marine-corps-bs/3rddiv1.asp

This site might have some info and names as to the 3rd MARDIV in Quang Tri-Hue Province-

If there are vets there whose dates correspond with your husband’s dates in Quang Tri this could possibly lead to a buddy statement.

As to the two names he mentioned- if I were you I would try all sorts of different spellings and then see if that might bring them up on the Wall or if there is any Marine site with these names on it.

The medical statements you stated here are quite significant- they do not prove the stressor but still- how did the VA disregard these-