Veterans "gaming" the system for PTSD claims?

[Jimmer]

Hi Everyone, I wanted to share with you a article that I read on military.com in which a Bruce (whatever his last name is) testified to a group on how the veterans are "gaming" the system, and getting PTSD claims approved.  First of all, I would like to meet this guy face-to-face and tell him what an idiot he is. (I would like to do more, but restraint  would be necessary).  First of all a V.A. doctor has to determine that you have PTSD, not someone from the outside.  Does this clown think the V.A. doctors are willing to "look the other way" on claims?  Quite the opposite.  Then you have to have a "stressor", that ties the PTSD with an military event related to the PTSD.  It took me four years to get PTSD disability, and the V.A. went thru everything with a fine tooth comb.  Lucky, I c-file confirmed my "stressor", and I had been going to the V.A. mental health facilities, meeting with various doctors, sessions, etc.  I still see them three times a month, and take five different  medications.  This guy, Bruce, based his information on veterans talking to one other about applying, saying it was easy, blah, blah, blah.  I don't know of any vet that has received disability compensation for PTSD, that had an easy road, and I have talked to a lot of them.   It is comments like this, that really anger, me, and gives the false impression, that vets are just "scamming" the system, and a way to give fuel to cut disability benefits.   I would love to here you comments, especially those of you getting PTSD disability benefits.  I am sure you did not have any easy road, the V.A. makes sure of that!

[Victor Ray]

Buck.

I have my DD214, copies of original 1 and certified copies of #2. I was expert with rifle and have the Vietnam Service medal. They withheld the Vietnam Campaign Medal and National Defense Service Medal and Vietnamese Counteroffensive Phase VII, at least they weren’t issued on the DD214. Almost anything putting me in Vietnam was hidden or barely noted. I have the form to request the Campaign Medal, but I kind of don’t care anymore. The VA lied to me, deceived me, and cheated me out of so much, that I am on a roller coaster of emotions, caring and not caring what they do with them. If they don’t think I deserve them they can keep them. It’s a lifetime of deceit and everything they say in my opinion, is a lie sprinkled with a speck of truth.

Veterans are a byproduct and waste, left over of what were good young men and women at one time and it’s just a damn shame the extremes they go to in avoiding those regulations. 

I got my records from the VA on a CD and some on paper, so sending them back seems ridiculous, but they keep me confused intentionally anyway. I don’t know what good the certificates of training would do though Buck, I really don’t. I don’t there is a question of my military service, or me being “Boots on Ground” in Vietnam, or even that I was hospitalized a month over there and Japan.

I think it has always been connecting Agent Orange with the disabilities I developed from it. In 1983, all AO Disability claims were still denied automatically. The VA was sneaky and would pry any records you had out of you hands if possible. They have the facts, the proof they need. I have to get a doctor to say Victor developed Chloracne as a result of service in Vietnam, even though I have only known him for a couple years. 

It pisses me off that they had the Gaul to refuse me service connection after suffering with their skin disease because they deprived me of the records, the evidence, and all medical care all my life, then demand treatment records for evidence. I think it will require a malpractice suit against them, because they are sneaks, cheats, and liars right to your face,

here is one example....Victor

 

 

Edited July 15, 2018 by Victor Ray
Added info

[Victor Ray]

23 minutes ago, Buck52 said:

VictorRay  Not sure this will help  I been researching things about Presumption of facts to adjuicate claims 

This is a long read but you may wan to just scroll down until you come to some interesting reading.

https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R41405.pdf

Will check it out Buck. It comes down to an honest employee taking 5 minutes of their busy schedule to look at a couple documents, that’s all. When a hundred employees look at the facts, but only one of those has any integrity and honesty, you keep getting run through the cycle til you get one that’s honest or you die. 

I think I will write up a short letter and spend about five hundred dollars on nice copies of it and my treatment records and send each government office a copy addressed to the supervisor, and to the TV stations. I know they don’t care, but you know, I don’t either. 

I was 19 years old when they deprived me of the records and now going on 67, and they contemplated litigation all these years, so I may as well give it to them. Thanks for the read.

victor ray

[Victor Ray]

Buck. I read enough to get pissed off, but will go back again and again anyway. I went to the clinic several times for the numbness, the feeling of getting shocked, the skin conditions that were embarrassing from the acne, the blistering of the skin on my hands. They kept me covered from head to toe in calamine lotion in Vietnam to help with the oozing blisters and eruptions and it’s all documented and the DoD, Army, VA, NPRC, NARA, DAV, VFW all have it on file. Nebraska, Kansas City, Atlanta Georgia, Waco Texas, St. Louis Missouri all have looked over the records, and awarded me 10 and 20% increments to now, except when DAV told them to deny my unemployability and remember that I dropped them as my VSO when distrusting any benefits and to complete all progress as soon as possible. That time I got “0” increase and denied unemployability but was disabled from strokes for 5 or 6 years at that point.

I dropped DAV for being dishonest and lying, besides delaying all progress, throwing my claim in the trash after keeping me from filing for 4 months. I went to them to file in March and by November my claim still wasn’t filed. They are corrupt in Kansas City as well as St. Louis Mo. 

I know that in time, Justice should prevail, but it doesn’t always. It depends on who is handing out justice that day, and not so much on the law or evidence, but when your evidence is intentionally withheld by the government and you sue the government to get it, they will take care of their own, because it’s in their interest, as always.

I will see what the hot line call does and probably get a lawyer for many things. I’ll see what happens. Thanks Buck!

[Buck52]

Again Victor Ray

I advise you to get a good Attorney  or Certified VA Rep  with lot of adjudication experience.

you need to get your mind away from this for a little while take a trip go fishing do something...or it will get you down my friend...

a Good Attorney should be able to expedite  all your claims because of the severity of them and your age &   that all can be done with an experience Attorney.

I had the DAV Rep me he was useless he never did anything to help me  just scribble my name and claim # on the claims forms and that was it  never ask me about any kind of evidence or what , just filed my claim,

of course I was denied...the reasons and bases of the denial was yep you guessed it  no evidence to back up my claim.

..I drop him like a hot potato and I did go back to his office and let him know about the denial in case he never bothers to look and now I'm in the Appeal Lines  Thank you very much sir,

THIS IS WHEN I JUST STARTED WORKING MY OWN CLAIMS AND FOUND HADIT, back in 1998 Tbird had just started Hadit  because she too was fed up with all this BS veterans have to put up with, she sit and talked to a veterans stories at her VMC and she came to the Ideal...''Well Ive HAD IT.'' ....>..HENCE  hadit .com was born

. The next few years I was in Appeals and got advise from Hadit members. because.part of my appeals took longer is because we had to save up for my IMO's I was not working I had to stop working b/c of of my disability's.

 My spouse carried the load Working barley making ends meet ..I did what I could  mowed yards and clean peoples yards sold aluminum cans ..we lived on Bread and Bologna for a few years literally.

I felt like less of a man my spouse working & me not, we had got a good deal of 5 acres of land/oak trees with a Mobil Home on it  for 5.000$$, they let us pay it out over time  it was an older Mobil Home 1957-- 12 ft wide 35 ft long old turquoise color it was down right ugly it was small,  but it was a roof over our head  we lived in it for 8 years with no A/C We used electric fans  but it was still hot and humid  very very uncomfortable

since I got my comp, we paid it off and sold the Mobil Home Did improvements to the land   fenced it all in with gates, cattle guards, got a lawn started up with garden, planted red tip patinas  bought a Double Wide..with A/C  Man we were shi*** in high cotton.....since then my spouse became disabled and had to stop working and she had a lot of medical problems hit her all at once  heart by pass surgery started it all it seems like it now looking back...but we sold the place land and all & moved closer to town and so she could be close to her Dr's

.I got a VA Home loan and we live fairly comfortable now in a new home.  just out side of Ft Worth Tx  South to Burleson Tx

I use to play guitar and sing a little bit  but my hearing is so bad I can't tell if its in tune or not  spouse looks at me and shakes her head no...I know then I'm only making a noise...so I gave up music  but I do like to tinker a little with it...I go fishing and sit on the River Bank or lake banks think of what might have been  and just live out my life until the old dirt nap  not much of a life but we both try to be happy and enjoy our sons and grandsons when they come to visit.

I get on hadit to do what I can and give my 2 cents worth  if any advise I give helps out a Veteran  then that makes us happy.

I think every veteran deserves his/her benefits and its just a damn shame the VA System is like it is..some Veterans never got their benefits because of the way the VA System is,  Were all hoping President Trump changes this. We'll see???

 

[Buck52]

Also Victor

If you have not already tried this?

Just a Heads Up.

Did you know you can go to your R.O. and View your C-FILE....

I remember years ago I was waiting and waiting on my C-File to come in the mail..I got tired waiting and just drove down to my R.O. ...I ask to see my C-File...they took me to this big room with VSO and I guess Guards...anyway they watch me like a Hawk and stood over me one guy on each side of me..they even turn the pages for me..we can't take any thing out of it  they have to do it and make a copy...nor can we put anything in it..it took me a while to find some records and Dr's Notes I needed  but I Found them and they made me copies and I left .... that help my claim 100%

Now days its better to call your R.O. and make an Appointment to come see it and have them to confirm its there before you leave out to come View it.

Any time you do any thing with the VA Always get a dated stamp of the date you were there ON ANYTHING  if you drive all the way to your R.O. And they can't find your C-File  be sure to get a REPORT OF CONTACT conformation that you were there and tried to view your C -File and they could not find it.....these conformations you get will come in handy later on during your claims process. and any proposals you might get in the future.    

[Victor Ray]

Buck.

I feel I know you a lot better now and I totally relate to you and your battle with the VA and VSOs, and see that we have had a lot of instances and issues in common. It’s great that you are at least comfortable now finally, after a long time coming, but a shame you still have claims waiting to be heard. These VSOs are trained by the VA so everything will be done according to the VA WAY.

IF the Army had not lied in January 1972 about my medical records being lost, this would have been resolved in 1972, but out of greed and self preservation, it hid, lied, and covered up facts that verified many actual in service documented cases, causing an already bad reputation to get much worse. By them Not releasing any records in 1983 and denying my word as being true, it only made me resent them, because it was a slap in the face and a kick in the gonads, but all I knew was the records must actually be lost, and I gave up.

From time to time all my life I have had crazy issues happen that could not be explained. At work one time I had my ankles swell so bad I had to have my boots cut off to get relief. Have you ever cut real leather with a butcher knife? I was lucky to keep the job, and I couldn’t work for eight months after the service because of various issues, and I had a bad experience with being comatose and fighting fever and infection just months after the service and about one year after Vietnam. The symptoms are exactly those of cerebral malaria, and I would bet everything I have that the Army knew it and is covering it up to this day.

So besides having contact with Agent Orange and ingesting it, and undercooked food, I know I had some sort of parasites. For several years I could feel like worms crawling in my eyes, and I had complained it in the Army, but none of the medical officers seemed to be up to par for a doctor. They didn’t take any serious interest in medicine that I could see. Cars were much more interesting it appeared, than investigating or hunting for possible parasites. I don’t think those doctors knew I was medivac’d out of Vietnam with many illnesses looking back. I believe they weren’t informed and knew nothing of me being very ill before being assigned on their base, or they were told I simply had an allergy to Chloroquine, and believed it. 

My kids were affected too. One time her face swelled and I pushed on her forehead, and the intention took quite a while to go away, and one of her daughters was born with hip dysphasia, and the other heart issues.

I think the St. Louis Regional Office has manipulated my records too, putting the blame on others. I had sent a stack of doctors reports and exams to the Janesville WI office like I was told, for them to have for a decision coming up. When I got the lowballed decision rating six months later, I called St. Louis to complain and was told they didn’t receive the records in time for that decision, but they would pu me in for reconsideration. That’s bull. I called Janesville and they said all documents are scanned into the system in 21 days or less. ST. LOUIS LIED! They have manipulated my case for four years now, besides the previous forty three.

I am hoping President Trump does improve the system, and I know he wants to, but the thugs at the top are rotten to the core, and like scamming the gov. and want it to continue. The “SWAMP IS DEEP AND WIDE”. Thanks Buck and enjoy what you can, while you can before we take the nap.

victor ray