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Support Letter Question

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Galen Rogers

Question

Hello All,

I am in the process of submitting a new claim and requesting old ones to be reopened. I have read a lot about the Buddy Letters and own own supporting lay letters. One site strongly recommended that you use a Sworn Declaration form instead of the VBA-21-4138-ARE form. The reasoning is that the VA supposedly sees those forms for so many different things that they really don't even read them. Has anyone found this to be true and is the Sworn Declaration form better?

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I am not an expert on VA matters. In fact, I wouldn't consider myself a journeyman either. My careers; however, have forced me to be a better writer. Sometimes, that could be the difference when communicating with the VA. It's the content that diminishes their effectiveness, not necessarily the methodology.

I have noticed 4 basic types of writers on here; good, passable, not so good and pretty bad. Most of the good writers know it. Many of the passable ones feel they need some help. A great deal of the not so good ones think they are good. The pretty bad ones are all over the map. All of them know what they want to project.

I would be willing to help the pretty bad writers, if they need a leg up. I have some free time and of course this would be free of charge.

To be clear, I am not offering to do the services of a VSO nor an attorney. I am not qualified. But, for those that are struggling with putting your thoughts to paper, I may be able to help you to help yourself. 

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EODCMC.......I agree with you totally that well organized and written claim packets makes all the difference.  I have the blessed advantage of being a journalist early in my business career.  I believe well written entries shows them (RO or BVA) that they are not dealing with a a clueless dummy and that can only help the cause.   I feel bad for the Vets who can't spell or write convincing copy.  My MOS in Army was 71Q20 - Information Specialist......civilian for journalist.  I would help others as well, but many I have found are reluctant to admit they need help presenting a claim.  Pride is one of those seven deadly. 

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Just my 2 cents  you guys are right on 

The Basics, the main thing dealing with the VA is those CFR's.

You can put a great well organized claim packet together and  make it easy for the rater to read & understand That's fine ...but it's those CFR's and well documented medical records /service records in favor for the Veteran and the way you present your claim with all your evidence and recite those CFR's back to them as to how this all works. (in a professional manner)

Good probative evidence and use of the regulations to what your condition is and why you what you expect your rating to be according to the criteria set forth in the CFR's

This is what the good Attorney's do they read the CFR'S and recite them back to the VA Using very good Grammar. 

 On some difficult cases Do Research of the BVA past decisions of claims famiular or similar to what your claiming  and remember how the BVA / V LJ adjudicated the claim  rather or not a denial  or a grant ,  you learn what to be expected by the Code of Federal Regulations and how the VA uses them.

All veterans will have a better chance winning their claim if they Read & Research the CFR's  To Include the rating percentage of your condition and read just how and what they expect from us  and you will be successful winning your claim or claims.

jmo

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Great advice here from everyone.

As a civilian (the only civilian at American Military University 2003-2007) I learned right away that my written workhad to be Perfect. My main professor, a AD Major, USMC, was offended that a female civilian thought she could succeed in a war college. He was Very tough on me -but  gave me all A's.

Two  of my thesis submissions  to a Navy Officer's course ,are used by AMU (with my permission) as examples of what a thesis must contain.

I have had to refrain from trying to help a few members here over the years because, although I gave the best advice I could, and made many replies to them, their replies were full of extemporeanous rhetoric- the very stuff that VA ignores....because it does not advance the claim.

Sometimes it takes us time to decifer what it is the veteran is actually seeking and when they are able to scan and post their decisions here- it helps tremendously.

I also have noticed that vets with what they feel is a CUE claim, unless it is quite obvious to us, and we can help right away-

are unwilling to read the info in the CUE forum, as to what a CUE is or isn't.

I have posted many BVA CUE awards as well as denials because the denials are as important as the awards-and they hold the pitfalls of CUE claims, that we should not fall into.

And a few vets and widows too ,have failed to comprehend the regulations, or even our explanations of them.

I KNOW how miserable it is .I was talked into filing a claim when my Army husband died, and my baby ( a USAF veteran now) was still in diapers.

I could barely understand the VA lingo and didn't know how to get his service records. ( No internet then as we know it(1981) and no help at all from the vet rep I went to. The VA denied the DIC claim but awarded me a War Time widows pension. Then they stated they could not pay me the pension because my income was too high.

Years later I married a SC veteran and he knew a little about claims because the Prodigy BBS for vets was online.He applied for a PTSD increase and also filed a 1151 claim. When he died I became the claimant, had all the evidence I needed to succeed for both claims, but still they took years.

Every submission I sent to them contained a cover letter (edited many times by me, to be as brief as possible, and directly to the point as to why the enclosed evidence I sent (in VA's possession in his lifetime) was probative. 

Except for my CUE claims- they were short and sweet.

A copy of the decisin was enclosed and I told them what legal error they had committed, and stated the regulation they broke.

 

My time lines for my FTCA case and my other claims ( AO IHD and AO DMII) never diagnosed or treated by VA at all, with significant evidence of those disabilities - in his VA med recs) helped considerably as well.

I know it isn't easy for many here- but  claims have to be worded well and be as concise as possible.

 

 

 

Edited by Berta
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Buck, your explanation is the best I have read anywhere. 

Berta, thanks! I too spent some time in Newport. I attended and graduated the Senior Enlisted Academy there. I still have my copy of Harbrace!

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I bet you do! I still have all of my AMU homework!

I think my AMU experience not only helped me , as a writer, but also bolstered my ability to handle MANY battles I have had with the VA.The VA paid for half of my degree under Chapter 35.

The DEA form asks something like what you want the degree for.....

I wrote that  , as I have been a VA claimant many times,, I felt  that my degree will help me, to help others 

get through the battlefield of the VA claims process.

I was fighting over my most important VA claim at the time....and for the whole time I was at AMU. It was not easy .

Smeone mentioned here something that is so important-

the claim has to be worded correctly.

It took me many drafts before I filed my AO DMII death claim.My RO refused to re-open it  at first, then refused to read my IMOs.I already had DIC under 1151 but this was for direct SC death- under Nehmer.

 

 

 

 

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