Just Another Noob

[Joe Everyman]

I'm nothing and nobody special, but I'm here because I'm angry and have to speak up. This seems like a good place to say what needs to be said, and then maybe it will be easier for me to deal with life.

About me: I joined the service during the first Gulf War, but spent my entire time in the continental U.S. I enlisted in Mortuary Affairs and worked on a rotation to the local county morgue as part of a joint training program between the army and local government. During my time at the morgue, I saw all manner of wonderful things, including the frozen screams which you may often find on the charred faces of little babies killed in a fire. I also saw fathers and mothers killed by criminals and little children beaten to death by those who should have protected them. I never served in war, but I never can forget their faces just the same.

The army couldn't send everyone in my occupational group to the morgue all the time, so we were put to work in other useful ways, such as picking up cigarette butts and parading around to the satisfaction of touring generals. The other days? Inspection, equipment maintenance, reefer unit packing and unpacking 101, and, best of all, inventory--how many times do we have to count these body bags, sarge? Until I get tired, private. I joke, but this was life. Can't believe it? Oh, beautiful Fort Lee, how I've missed you. Only two hours from Washington, D.C. and no real peace time missions for my MOS. One day, they asked for volunteers and I, desiring a more meaningful service to our nation, stepped forward. That was my first mistake I guess. I was assigned to a battalion task force that would save Uncle Sam money by taking over the duties of a particular service mission that was previously contracted out to private industry. I possess an award certificate with my name on it proving that my efforts helped save our government $350,000. I did not serve in battle or take a bullet in the hip, but I was injured during the mission--doing my job and attempting to fulfill the honorable obligation of serving my country. I will not explain how I was injured, because it is a very personal matter. I will say that it was caused by another soldier through no mistake of my own manufacture. I was utterly blameless in the matter, and for my pains (pun intended) received an injury of a humiliating and intimate nature.

I was no longer able to perform the functions of my MOS (heavy lifting a requirement) and remained unable to do anything, sleep on my back, or sit down for a period of about two months. Did the army send me home with a disability rating so that I could sponge off the government for the rest of my life? Did I meet sympathy or support as a result of my sacrifice? No, quite the opposite.

I was put out of the army for failure to pass a physical fitness test and branded with "unsatisfactory performance" as the reason on my official paperwork. I did not know my rights or that I should have been examined medically to determine whether I was fit for service. I have lived for almost twenty years with the results of my decision to serve: constant pain and memories of mutilated babies. My VA disability rating upon exit from the service for my "service-connected" (non-combat related) injuries? 10%--that's right, I received about $90 a month and the humiliation of explaining to every potential employer why I was put out of the army for unsatisfactory performance.

My problems and the $90 did not seem equitable, so I requested that the VA reconsider my rating 9 years ago. They rated me 30% at that time, which was still very poor compensation considering that I wasn't disabled enough to get social security, but was essentially prohibited from ever making a living wage. I have been unable to keep a job long term because of the limitations of my injuries, but I know that all of us veterans are just sponges soaking up tax monies so that others can work to support our lazy butts (SARCASM) and that VA workers really do care about us... (gag me, right).

At that time, I also asked the VA to look at my depression symptoms, for which I was humiliated and called a liar by those wonderful VA representatives. One good and wise soul went so far as to claim that I was attempting to scam the government and should be ashamed of myself. I fought this battle for seven years, and won in the end. I also appealed the reason for my discharge (which has always been honorable) and was finally rewarded last year with a decision stating that I had not been treated fairly and the reason for discharge was changed to "physical standards". Basically, it means that the army was right to put me out of the service since I can't prove that I was unable to do my job when they made the initial decision, but they don't feel comfortable laying the blame entirely upon me.

I am now receiving an 80% disability rating and cannot get a job. I cannot provide health insurance for my family. I do not get loads of wonderful benefits. I get $1800 a month and accusing looks whenever I attempt to get help for my pain. Even so, after almost twenty years on disability, the money I helped save the government in six months of my three years ($350,000) of active duty service is still much more than I have received (wonder how much interest they made on that money I saved them).

I am currently dying of unrelated illnesses, so my family will be left with nothing shortly, as they get nothing unless I am rated at 100% disabled for at least ten years prior to death. So, it's a shame that I could not have died on the battlefield twenty years ago and saved American taxpayers all the money they've had to spend on me. Now, the punchline to this joke is that those unrelated illnesses are the result of a genetic condition that manifested during the service, but of course they denied my claim... immediately after I requested a congressional inquiry into why they were dragging their feet on the claim. Then they denied an increase in my service connected disabilities rating, and the reason? Well, if I'm reading the explaination letter they sent correctly, their reason is because the rating personnel misunderstood what the examiner put in her notes--which are quoted in the letter, and which the examiner explained to me during the C&P exam. Funny, huh? But the joke is one me, and all of you other vets who have been defecated upon by some drudge hack pissed about their boring government job and all those lying, complaining veterans like me (SARCASM AGAIN). Oh, yeah, while I'm at it... I had sleep apnea in the service but didn't know what the heck that even was... my bunk buddy complained about my snoring constantly, but no diagnosis until 5 years after service... I'm not even going to try to get that one service connected. But I'm a lazy sponging slug who is just trying to get over on the system, so don't mind me.

[Pete53]

Ask for a Hearing. That is only way to have direct contact with the person deciding your claim. After the Review Officer decides you are service connected it is sent off somewhere else to be rated. Those people are unreachable.

[broncovet]

Justrluk

Yes, what you are asking would be nice. If there is someone we could talk to that is handling our claim, then we could possibly straighten things out. With my bank, for example, I have a "personal banker" that I always deal with that knows my situation and helps me take care of any issues that happen. It builds a position of trust. The VA, however, wants to go another route, and wonders why they have lost Veterans trust. They want us to be a number, and the employees, also are a "number", so that there is never any personal relationship or any way ever to fix problems. They just have Vets fill out still another form which, more often than not, gets lost in a "sea" of lost forms, creating a bureaucratic nightmare with appeal after appeal being the norm. The Va insists on doing things the most complicated, least efficient way possible. It took them 3 decades to reduce the application form from 23 pages to 11..I should think this should take one or two months, tops.

If you ever do reach someone on the phone who could or would be helpfull to you, they make sure you dont have his or her phone number. The VA works very hard at making sure you dont know who made the decision on your claim, in part, because they know you may well be mad at that individual VA employee (often for some very good reasons).

It is just one of the things wrong with the Va...one that could be fixed, but WONT be fixed, in part out of fear that a Veteran is going to get mad and possibly be violent. Of course, judges, police officers, etc., can/do make people mad, but they dont seem to get killed that much more than anyone else. By the way, did you know what one of the most dangerous occupations is? Convenience store clerks are murdered doing their job more often than the police. I think the Va should instill some pride..enough pride to put your name on that decision. If a police officer can wear his name tag if/when he arrests you, I think that Va employees should put their name on the decision they write. JMHO

[rotorhead]

Welcome Joe to this great web site. We sure could have used some of this info 35 years ago. Is it me or do I detect a "we are really mad and not gonna take this stuff anymore" from veterans?

[justrluk]

I don't think we're the "just mad" crowd - I think we're the "let's share, compare and beat 'em at their own game" crowd. Unfortunately, just from reading some of the posts, some of us get caught in the gears, either too weak, too tired or too late in the game to keep fighting. I think our best strength is in mutual support, advice from elders, and good news when any one of us scores a win.

JMHO...

[Joe Everyman]

Thanks everyone... I do appreciate your words. I'm not sure where to begin with my situation in terms of posting specifics. As for the terminal part, I ruptured my pancreas in 2006 and almost died then. I have had repeated bouts of pancreatitis since then. The majority of individuals who get chronic pancreatitis do not live beyond seven years from the original diagnosis. When I think about taking the quick escape from pain, I sometimes stop taking my other medications. If I do that for three or four weeks, there is a good chance that my pancreas will finish the process it started. I have seen the results in my blood work from not taking my meds for two weeks and this last time it almost put me in the hospital. I made the mistake of telling the lady at the VA clinic that I sometimes think about stopping my meds and she put my name on some VA suicide watch list... said someone would call to check on me. That was four months ago and they still haven't called once (If I am rated service-connected for depression and take myself out this way, will my family get any benefits as a result of my death being due to service-connected illness? Wouldn't that be a laugh? I might end up doing my family a favor by going out with style, whereas if I keep fighting the VA and they turn me down and turn me down, I'm really just a burden to my wife and kids. Evil are the days which tell a man he is worth more to his family dead than alive.). Of course the pain involved with pancreatitis always pushes me back in the other direction. And, if I live long enough, I'll be a good candidate for pancreatic cancer. Either way, my path is the path of pain.

I have familial hypertriglyceridemia, a condition which first manifested during service--though they deny that fact. The VA doctor at the clinic even said it was familial, but hey, why should the VA care what their own doctors say? I have the lab results from my service exit exam to prove it, but they say it was just some elevated results on bloodwork, and that hypertriglyceridmeia is just a fancy way of saying "excess triglycerides in the blood". My hospital records from the pancreatitis show "triglyceride induced pancreatitis". The diabetes is a result of the pancreatitis, but I cannot prove it. I will think about what all to post here for the other decisions. Thanks for the advice and info... I need to think about this some more before I do anything else. I'm not sure the best way to proceed on these claims. I think I need some insight and advice on how to respond.

Please don't mind me. I'm so mad right now I could spit nails. I hate the fact that my family is going through hell while some jerk at the VA, who couldn't care less about the damage his or her flawed decision has done to us, goes on down the road to do it again to some other poor grunt. We really needed that money. Some day, somebody who doesn't have a family to think about or anything left to lose is going to send a message to the United States, its people and its government, that you cannot treat veterans this way any longer. Why can't somebody take steps to correct the problem now? Why do we always wait until we're in a crisis to respond? Julius Caesar came to power in part because he cared for his soldiers. He promised to look after the veteran--a thing which the quibbling petty senators found contemptable to do... America is on a course that will lead to great changes--either we can choose to make the right choices now or we can let the winds of change dictate our future. And history will repeat itself again.

[broncovet]

Joe

I agree with you, and think you have gotten some great advice by some of the best at hadit. We all know that the VA will "delay you to death" if they get a chance.

Dont let em "sit on your claim". Secretary Shinseki wants to be able to "stay" Veterans claims not because they are not already doing that now, but because he knows Veterans do have some remedies for these delays. My suggestions:

1. Stay on top of your claim and respond promptly to any letters they send you. (VCAA letters, for example, have a form you need to sign and return) The VA would LOVE to be able to put your file in the "abandoned claim" file.

2. "Stir things up". Did you know, for example, you can apply for an "Advance on the docket" at the BVA if you have a "hardship" and certainly your "medical conditions" warrant an Advance on the docket. Be careful tho, and remember DOCUMENT EVERY PIECE OF PAPER YOU SEND TO THE VA by keeping a copy and sending it certified return receipt requested, and/or send it through your VSO who can sometimes document VA repeipt of your document for you.

3. Consider filing a Writ of Mandamus at the CAVC, tho that needs to be done last, after the other stuff.

4. If you think stuff has been shredded, go ahead and file a "Special Handling Request" (SHR) per Dr. Peak's fast letter 08-14. Even tho you may not qualify for Special handling based on their limiting dates, there is some doubt that the VA can limit this to shredded evidence only to 2008-2009. It was illegal for the Va to shred evidence prior to 2008, and it is still illegal after 2009. If you do file a SHR, you can send an IRIS every couple months or so and check on it, stirring things up. (The VA wants to make the shredding incident "go away" very badly). If you are not sure you have shredded evidence, you probably do, since this shredding was widespread, with the VAOIG finding evidence of it in something like 41 of 58 Regional Offices.