Va Envelope Recieved, Need Massive Help Please

[usdart]

They want more Evidence so I have to fill out some forms.

21-0781

21-4138

21-0781a

Since my VSO has flown the coup I am lost.

What are some key words I should use in my descriptions that will help?

I do not have a puple heart or any of the list of Service medals.

Is a Viet Nam ribbon a Combat Action Badge?

Can I use my DD214 which says I participated in 'Operation Rock Crusher'.this was the routing of the enemy during the incursion into Cambodia. The last major campaign of the War. Wikipedia has a very good discription of it that I can also include. I was never officially awarded this either and should have been according to my DD214.

My 'stressors' were incured during this Offensive so I want to describe them using the right verbage to shine the brightest light I can.

Edited January 17, 2014 by usdart

[Notorious Kelly]

Might consider getting a county VSO or other help with these forms in person if you don't feel confident from what you get here.

Others should also chime in here with more advice so don't rush those forms off.

Good luck!

[Berta]

“Is a Viet Nam ribbon a Combat Action Badge? “

No. If you feel the CAR should be on your DD 214, by all means fill out and send a DD 149 ) available here under a search)to where the form directs you to, and ask DOD to update your DD214 to reveal any additional decorations or awards you received.

Sometimes Vietnam vets are very surprised to get 215s that hold more decorations/ribbons.

If we could read your actual denial here (if you can scan and attach it-cover your name, address, C file Number first)we could help more but I a,m assuming the VA needs proof of your combat participation in Ops Rockcrusher and/or Tet.

You sure might need a buddy statement for each offensive,in my opinion.

Buddys can be found:

http://www.woolybullyvets.com/3/guestbook.htm

http://www.vetswithamission.org/guestbook/index.php?page=114

(I assume you were with or in support of the Woolybullys-US Army)

Tet........ The 46^th anniversary of Tet is on January 30,2014.

I am sure many Vietnam Veteran units on line will be recalling their experiences during Tet .

You could google your unit to find their web site (were you Quang Tri or Hue ?)

and units often have “lookin for” areas and reunion rosters and even email addys of members who might have been in your unit and could provide you with a buddy statement.

TET is not a place but is a Vietnamese word for the Vietnamese lunar New Year.

To claim participation in the TET offensive would be too broad a term for JSRRC to search the history of the war. I would think even Operation RockCrusher would be too broad,as well.

My husband was Ops Starlight, First Wave but he never used those terms for his claim , because they did not reveal his stressors.He gave detailed accounts and also used a Wall tracing to prove his buddy was killed, and also he could prove he retrieved the buddy's body, among others......he also detailed a 'volunteer' mission the first day he ever went to VA and the Director of Psychiatry at that VAMC immediately verified this with his own VA 'buddy statement' because this VA shrink was with the 1st MarDiv, Ist amphibious tracter battalion ,when this horrific event happened in Vietnam and concurred with the details my husband had never revealed to anyone before.

Ironically 10 years later he sent in a DD 149 and their were many additions to his DD 215 that his original claim never revealed.

That doesn't happen too often , to get a conceded stressor from a VA doctor who also was incountry same time and place)

but I still have his stressor form he had to fill out for the PTSD inhouse program. He already had PTSD SC but each additional stressor he listed could have been verified, if needed, with a little leg work.

I am assuming a lot here but I do feel it will take an eye witness account from someone who served in your unit, exact same time and place, to support your stressor.

Then again if we can read the decision it will tell us more.

You do need a PTSD diagnosis from a VA MH professional and your stressor must comply with the new PTSD regs here at hadit.

Here is one of many topics at hadit on Buddy Statements:

Also Personnel files are often as helpful as ones actual SMRs so it pays to ask for both when filing a SF 180.

[Berta]

to add ....JY24USN is sure on the mark......details are everything......

I used to ask local vets.....did this happen before or after the monsoons , what was Hanoi Hannah talking about ...as to news from back home???

Can you remember anything in Stars and Stripes or on the radio about big news events back here in the 'world' at time of the stressor?

Do you have a good handle on the actual place you were in when the stressor happened?

I have used a War Map of Vietnam (attached it here a few times) but they are available to line,too to make sure vets were getting the proper spelling of the specific vills and songs and bongs they were at or near when a stressor occurred.

Also incoming and ambushes etc etc are found noted in unit Morning reports.

I sure would not rely too much on Wikipedia for a description of any war op.

That means nothing to the VA as far as conceding your stressor.

I even bet many VA employees these days were not even born when the Vietnam war began.

And dont overlook the historys of the war prepared by each branch of the Mil.........just focus on the time period and place that you were in there in these ops and something might sure ring a bell.

Also

[Philip Rogers]

Sorry, I don't give key words to help fabricate a stressor letter. The best thing to do is just tell the truth. That should be fairly easy for someone who "spent the entire year out in the Field under constant fire." You should be able to describe almost any day and that should suffice.

jmo

pr

[stillhere]

As PR says there are no magic words so to speak "What are some key words I should use in my descriptions that will help?"

​Explain the situation and why you are now 44 years later still having a problem with it or how it effects now.

Writing a movie script from Platoon is not what they are looking for, just your words of how and why and that should do it. Remember in your own words and you should be fine.

Goodluck

Stillhere

[usdart]

Sorry, I don't give key words to help fabricate a stressor letter. The best thing to do is just tell the truth. That should be fairly easy for someone who "spent the entire year out in the Field under constant fire." You should be able to describe almost any day and that should suffice.

jmo

pr

Man that hurts, I am struggling with Vocabulary, I m not trying to cheat or fabricate anything. I don't read much and I don't know the VA jargan or even how grafic to get. Just stressing out more as I write. This is even harder than talking to my shrink, didn't sleep all night last night and have to keep going on this crap.