Amc Defies My

[Berta]

Apparently my evidence has been destroyed (AGAIN)

In spite of the fact that the BVA acknowledged in the Sept 2008 Remand that none of my medical evidence to include my 3 IMOs have ever been address by VA (filed this claim Feb 2003)

The AMC completely ignored it.I just got their decision.

The VA examiner was a Physician's assistant and his statements indicate he did not have any of the medical evidence.Even if he did- his opinion was outweighted by my 3 IMO doctors anyhow- but of course those IMOs are now gone again.

At first I cursed for 2 hours when I got the decision-my PC sat dish was full of ice and snow and that just melted so I could not even gripe on line.Then it occurred to me that the Shreddergate hearing is set for Feb 25th.

I have proof with this decision that in spite of the October Incident FAst Letter and in spite of the pending H Sub Com hearing and the IG audit that revealed VA had destroyed critical evidence from claims files-

even the AMU is unconcerned as to whether our evidence ever gets read.

They said they had not received this evidence in OCtober.

The Evidence listed is a letter I sent to Russo-SMC Director- on Nov 10th asking that this evidence be found and used for the claim. <_<

Most of this evidence also came from the BVA with the remand.

It is gone.

I am charging the VA with shredding it- they might as well have shreddered it because -if they dont acknowledge evidence,obviously it has no value to them to retain.

I can prove tham since February 2003 when I first started to send evidence, NONE of it -a very large stack by now- has ever been addressed at all by VA- except the BVA

specifically noted this in their remand.

This will be fun-

I have prepared a letter to the new Secretary,to the IG, to H VAC, and to the Sub COmmittee on investigations/oversight-

this comes on the heels of past letters I wrote to them as to the socalled "October Incident" an isolated event per the VA- Isolated my butt-

SHreddergate is NOT public info yet-only vets who are on the net are aware of it-the IG report has not been publically released yet.

Only Regional Offices got the Fast Letter # 08-41.I bet even many vet reps are unaware the VA was caught shredding critical claims documents-

A veteran advocate told me the other day that he had contacted VACO and they have not implimented the fast letter provisions nor did they seem to have a clue as to what to do about the fast letter. I found nothing yet at th Fed Reg site nor has M21-1 been changed to impliment a procedure to deal with claimants whose evidence has disappeared from the VA -to the detriment of their claims.

That fast letter should have been sent to every single vet or widow-in my opinion- whose claim was denied by the VA.

If probative evidence that supports your claim is ignored completely by the VA and never even listed in the Evidence section of your decision-you are-

more than likely- a victim of shreddergate and the VA has lost, misplaced or destroyed whatever you sent.

Although the AMC told me they had the complete record on January 12th-ready to decide- my call to them Friday revealed the claim is still in transit.

How did they decide it if it was in transit?

Because they were not going to consider my medical evidence anyhow.

Many when the October incident becomes public there will be more vets and widows who will take the time to aggressively complain.

The only way I succeeded in my past claims- when the VA did this same thing to me regarding my evidence was to get tough and use the phone and mail and contact anyone I could in the VA system who would listen.

it worked then and it will work again.

[Berta]

They asked me for my Bio-separately- and this is what I thought they would post- and refer to the testimony-I didnt realise such personal info would be at the web site yesterday-

I got such short notice from the H VAC that I didnt have time to prepare formal testimony so I told them my letter to Sec Shinseki was what they could use.

Cripes the 53 USPS slips were only for one claim-I didnt even count the stuff they destroyed (with USPS proof) for my other claims)

I sent this letter to the AMC and then formally asked them to cue themselves by mail yesterday-

and by fax too-

and maybe by personal courier.

As you heard Kilpatrick say-this crap "impacts on recruitment' as well as on our nation's veterans and their dependents.

Only tip of the iceberg- I think Congressman Hall NY said that and I have been saying that since October 2007.

and as that letter I wrote says-

only electronic internet vets really know of all this-

maybe it will get into the major news outlets now- and we will find out how it really affected the veterans and widows population.

I dont think many NSOs and reps even have a clue about all this yet.I was worried about the personal info they posted from me then I said piss on it-

VA has to worry about me.

I dont have to worry about anything.

Edited March 4, 2009 by Berta

[Stretch]

I knew you would worry a little, about that, but what really matters is that it is congressional record. Kurt did a good job with his testimony also. So many Vets don't even have a clue as to what is going on. It is a great thing that you have done, and this out weights any personal exposure. At least there was no security problems with the information.

Many of us have known about this shredding problem for years and now, that it is in the spot light, there needed to be examples to give credibility to the problem. Thanks for all you do lady.

Seems Congress people were all shocked to see that something like this could happen. Some of the Committee bought into the 'Mistakes were unintentional' statement. I can see some of the newer congressional members glaring naivety, with the ranking members trying to give off a phony sense of indignation. Larry was right, it was a Dog and Pony show. The only thing that was important was the examples given in testimony and not so important was the expressions of shock and horror.