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vet2010

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I know this is not the right FORUM however I need to know. I am thinking of joining the DAV and I want to know the pros and cons of this organization before I become a member.

vet2010

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The DAV is good for providing transportation to and from medical appointments. Also, an anonymous donor paid for my lifetime membership.

The bad-took 6 months for the DAV to reply to my request for assistance...I was homeless at the time. The DAV chapter in ABQ brought a mobile van to my town, took the information and names of veterans in need of assistance with their claims . Once they left, they never returned my phone calls after repeated calls to their office. I had to drop them as POA because what good is there having a POA if you can never speak with them? They told my sister that she did not have a chance to win her IU claim, so she proceded without their assistance and was awarded 100%. I appreciate the free rides, but I would not use them for anything else.

Definitely understood. God Bless and Good luck with all that you desire.

Thanks for your service.

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I have done a lot of reading on this site and have learned a lot. I ever tried the DAV but did use the State Veterans Services here in Nevada. I sent him an email letting him know the C&P was coming up and he knows I have to stay overnight. He said come up the day before early and meet with me lets go over some things. Now if I remember to take the list of questions I have from studying on here.

Thanks to all of you folks for getting us informed

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I went to the DAV at the Manhattan NY RO, 9:00 A.M. Friday morning, another vet was already there. The receptionist asked us both if we had an appointment, since I have been calling for the last 2 months and had not talked to anyone, because no one answers the phone, I said no and the other vet said no also, we have no appts., we are both told to come back in 2-3 hours. The funny thing is that NY is going thru a massive heatwave and I got their early so I could be home before I was roasted. I walked across to the RO and asked about my claim and was told I should have a rating by next week, being pessimistic, I checked Ebennies and lo and behold my claim moved from Prep for Decision to Pending Decision approval. In the 90's the DAV provided me with a lot of help, but the organization has really deterioated.

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First I want to say, I keep seeing people talking about signing up for a membership and then getting VSO assistance. You do NOT need to be a member of any of the vet organizations in order to use them as a VSO. The only requirement is to sign the POA so that they legally have the right to talk to the VA on your behalf.

That said, I did my first claim on my own, and made a few mistakes but I did come out with 60%. I decided to go with a VSO for the second round, originally VFW (I was a member at one point, it lapsed) but I couldn't find the contact info I needed from over here (I'm in Korea as a contractor still). I had gotten a card from the DAV, so that seemed like an obvious choice. It didn't take long and I was assigned a rep at the Pittsburg office (which is where all overseas claims go through).

Now, he is hard to get a hold of, but I attribute much of that to the time zone difference, it's not easy for me to call and if he's with someone at the time I generally do not request a call back. I hate getting calls at 3am for some strange reason ;).

Over all they haven't done too much for me, besides direct me to do an FDC instead of an appeal (C&P didn't do some of the tests that they should have done, so resubmit as a new claim) due to the massive backlog (stats show average wait on appeal at that VARO is 1441 days). I agreed, even if it does risk losing the effective date (but from what I've read, it shouldn't). That's where I am now, working on getting everything together. I prefer to be in control, but a little more assistance from them would be nice.

In my case, being that they are local, they have one MAJOR advantage. I have given my fedex account number to my rep so that he can fedex (at my expense, I don't care) anything from the VA to me. Regular mail takes 2 weeks, up to 2 months, to get over here. My 20 day letter (original claim) when they LOST my medical records (digital ones too, they didn't bother asking the Army for a new copy) got to me 21 days after it was sent... The ability to get me VA correspondence (from and to) in a timely manner is more than enough to make me happy.

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  • In Memoriam

I am glad this old post came up. I didn't reply when it was around early in the year. This is just my opinion.

I was with the DAV for several years. Only one person helped me file the original claim and that was all they did for me.

Time Zones have nothing to do with the DAV reps not returning you calls. The DAV never returned a call that I made to them except to tell me my claim was denied.

I won't mention names but one decided to withhold a valuable piece of evidence, while my claim was being considered, on his desk for six months until my claim was denied. He was given a promotion and moved to DC. This is the way that it is with this organization covers its reps.

VFW was much worse. I am a life time member of the VFW. I asked that I be removed from their membership years ago only to find out that the VFW put me on a transit list when I moved. They guys are harder to get rid of than the Readers Digest once you join.

Joseph A. Violante, the director of the DAV, speaks for all veterans within congressional hearing. All you have to do is listen to some of the hogwash that he speaks in the name of all Veterans at the congressional hearings. He uses the membership for issues that most veterans would find entirely wrong. He agrees with the VA the majority of the time. I have listened to him time and time again in these hearings take the side of Princippi, Nicholson, Shenseki, and many others. These hearings, in Congress, will make you sick just as it does many of the Congresspersons and Senators. Senator Murrey has even moved on to the Veterans detriment.

Join and you give these people the right to speak for you.

You can listen to some of these hearings here:

http://veterans.house.gov/

and here:

http://www.veterans.senate.gov/

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