Am I Covered By The Va?

[gbachman]

I was injured while on Annual Training (two weeks in the summer training) for the National Guard as I was getting ready to go to Afghanistan. I have the memorandum stating that I was at Annual Training, so I was wondering if I am covered by the VA as far as being hurt while conducting annual training? If so, can someone PLEASE help me find out a reference that says such either on the VA website or through a book?

Thank you very much for any info you can provide.

[Notorious Kelly]

"Injured active duty service members, including National Guard and Reserve members injured in the line of duty, are eligible for comprehensive health care services beyond basic TRICARE coverage. You'll pay nothing out of pocket for these services and there is no benefit cap."

Tricare.mil site

Thank you for your service, G!

[carlie]

http://www.oefoif.va.gov/NationalGuardReserve.asp

[Carl the Engineer]

Your Unit should have started a LOD (Line of Duty). That will eventually go to your State Surgeon. He will state whether it occurred in the "Line of Duty", and whether it has been satisfied, r.e. you have healed and no more medical attention is required. Stay on your Unit until this is complete. It will take time, however, keep on them. Your Unit will have a RNCO (Readiness NCO). He is a AGR (Active Guard and Reserve), normally a E7, that is in charge of the full-time staff at the armory. Make him aware that you need an LOD if his admin NCO has not started one yet. I was both a Admin NCO and a RNCO in the Guard. I also get VA benefits for injuries that happened at Annual Training as well as Active Duty. The VA needs evidence, and there is none better than a LOD for a non-traditional Soldier.

Also, if you do get a disability from the VA and are still an active Guard or Reserve member, you cannot collect the disability and your military pay for the same time. You may have a choice to defer your VA disability pay so it dose not interfere with your military pay, however it is best to receive the VA disability pay and have them deduct it from you military pay as VA disability is tax free. We had several Soldiers that would not receive there military pay until their VA comp pay was satisfied for the year. We had others get out of the military as there disability pay was more than their drill pay, so it didn't make (financial) sense to remain in the military.

Hope this helps,

Hamslice

Edited May 4, 2011 by Hamslice

[jbasser]

If you incurred a disability while on a period of activation including driving to and from a scheduled tour of duty you should be covered. granted the injury has the chronicity to meet the requirements in t he title 38 part 3.

J

[broncovet]

Feel free to read over what Carlie posted. While it would appear you are covered, remember the VA has 10,000 rules and 20,000 exceptions to the rules, so the bottom line is you wont know FOR CERTAIN until you get a decision letter from the VA.

While you can find Vets advocates who want to give you a much rosier picture, there are many Vets who fought the VA longer to get their benefits than was required to win some wars.

The VA has hundreds of lawyers on staff, standing "at the ready" waiting to fight the next Veteran tooth and nail in order to be able to pay him at the lowest possible level the VA can get away with.

While I wont speculate if they will do that to you or not, they have done precisely that, or worse, with some Vets. I personally met a Vet who showed me a letter that awarded him benefits in 1973, and, as of 2010, the Veteran is still trying to get the VA to compensate him for the same benefit he was awarded in 1973. The VA claims the 1973 letter was "a mistake".

I think they must have "forgotten" the "one year and the decision becomes final" rule they use against us soooo so, often. Last I spoke with this Vet, who is quite obviously permanently disabled in his (motorized) wheel chair, his claim was at the BVA in Washington, DC.

His award, if granted, would likely be close to, or even exceeding $1 million, that is, if the Veteran does not expire first. Good luck.

If you are seeking medical care only, then it may not even take that long...just go to the local VAMC and ask them. Bring your id and discharge papers, (DD214) with you. Its the compensation part that takes so long and it is getting progressively worse.