Letter From Md On Service Illness

[john6012]

A doctor I knew while in the military sent me a letter that states, "I had a degree of inappropriateness and lack of professional decorum, experiencing paranoid ideation and emotional upheavel ranging from joyfullness and elation to dispair accompanied by uncontrollable weeping at work and at home. It is my professional opinion that the individual has a long-standing history of somewhat debilitating clinical depression, manifested by a degree of paranoid ideation and bipolar features with significant mood fluctuations which interferred with his job performance. Unfortunately, due to the intense work atmosphere, the individual was neither identified as being impaired, nor was he properly treated for symptoms of his disorder. As a result, his judgement was degraded at times he was required to perform effectively in a highly important and taxing position. There is no doubt in my mind that the work environment contributed adversely to the individual's psychological condition.

In retrospect, I render the following minimal diagnosis: Clinical depression with paranoid and bipolar features.

I sent the letter to the regiuonal VA office with a short cover letter indicating I would like to reopen my rating file. My question is, is the letter adequate for them to take action and what would be the potential outcome? Do I need to take a letter to the C&P exam and hand it to the examiner? Thanks in advance, John

[john6012]

Thanks John, I've created a letter of my symptoms and will take it along when I go to my C&P and have the examiner attached ti to my workup. You folks have been a great help, not just to me but other veterans.

[john6012]

If an incident such as a work detail occured with the service in Vietnam and resulted in a horrible memory, and one does not know who the senior leader is or anyone else associated with the event, how in the world does a veteran prove this?

[Berta]

Your unit might have a web site where you could possibly find someone to give you a "buddy statement"- an eye witness account that put them and you there and then.

It should be detailed and they should tell VA in the statement of their MOS and describe what happened with date and place.

If their MOS is not same as yours they should tell VA why they were there.

There could be a log of the work detail -or maybe your inservice personnel record might offer some help as to names of anyone who witnessed this also-

Also many vet sites and veterans magazines have a "looking for" section where you can place an ad to attempt to find someone to corroborate this.

I helped a vet find some buddies through the VA itself-

it worked-

If a vet is enrolled in VA health care, and if you wrote to the VARO you deal with asking them to help you contact a veteran for a buddy statement- they will do this-

(of course they need name of the buddy and the Unit info, the vets MOS, anything to help identify them)

You need to send the buddy a letter asking them to reach you and give your phone number, email addy and address and a brief message-put this into an unsealed envelope with your return address and postage on it- enclose it with a cover letter asking the VA to help you reach this vet-

If the VA has this vet on their enrollment (they check the whole data base in the VA) they will send the letter to the vet and it is then up to the vet to contact you.

The vet I helped found 4 or 5 men in his unit- he used other means of finding them too-

but the VA did help find 2 or 3 of them-

he was able to send them info on awards they got from the Vietnamese government-which they never knew they got-

and he- due to my daughters help too- got the Distinquished Flying Cross-2 years ago-presented over thirty years after service-long story- all of these vets got awards they never knew they had-

not a buddy statement for a claim- but this shows that the VA will really help on finding vets if they can.

Another vet I helped -just by giving the above advise to-

contacted me in a few months to tell me that not only did the VA find the vet he was looking for- the vet also had PTSD from the VA for the very same stressor.He said they talked for hours on the phone and even were going to get together that summer.

The Buddy vet in his statement told the VA the whole story and gave them his c file number and many details as to what happened.He even remembered names the other vet had forgotten.

He got his signature notarized and gave the VA his phone numbers and email addy too if they had any questions at all about his buddy statement for this stressor.

The stressor-consistent with the ops involved and the detailed buddy statement

helped the vet get a PTSD rating.

It is a lot of work someimes to get corroboration for a stressor but -without it- the VA will deny a claim based on something they have no proof on.

Edited February 6, 2007 by Berta

[john6012]

I was enroute to a new duty station and was in the transit barracks. Who knows who was on the work detail? Apparently they were grabbing up people on the street who appeared to be off duty. I left the next morning. Thanks Berta

[markr62]

Your unit might have a web site where you could possibly find someone to give you a "buddy statement"- an eye witness account that put them and you there and then.

It should be detailed and they should tell VA in the statement of their MOS and describe what happened with date and place.

If their MOS is not same as yours they should tell VA why they were there.

There could be a log of the work detail -or maybe your inservice personnel record might offer some help as to names of anyone who witnessed this also-

Also many vet sites and veterans magazines have a "looking for" section where you can place an ad to attempt to find someone to corroborate this.

I helped a vet find some buddies through the VA itself-

it worked-

If a vet is enrolled in VA health care, and if you wrote to the VARO you deal with asking them to help you contact a veteran for a buddy statement- they will do this-

(of course they need name of the buddy and the Unit info, the vets MOS, anything to help identify them)

You need to send the buddy a letter asking them to reach you and give your phone number, email addy and address and a brief message-put this into an unsealed envelope with your return address and postage on it- enclose it with a cover letter asking the VA to help you reach this vet-

If the VA has this vet on their enrollment (they check the whole data base in the VA) they will send the letter to the vet and it is then up to the vet to contact you.

The vet I helped found 4 or 5 men in his unit- he used other means of finding them too-

but the VA did help find 2 or 3 of them-

he was able to send them info on awards they got from the Vietnamese government-which they never knew they got-

and he- due to my daughters help too- got the Distinquished Flying Cross-2 years ago-presented over thirty years after service-long story- all of these vets got awards they never knew they had-

not a buddy statement for a claim- but this shows that the VA will really help on finding vets if they can.

Another vet I helped -just by giving the above advise to-

contacted me in a few months to tell me that not only did the VA find the vet he was looking for- the vet also had PTSD from the VA for the very same stressor.He said they talked for hours on the phone and even were going to get together that summer.

The Buddy vet in his statement told the VA the whole story and gave them his c file number and many details as to what happened.He even remembered names the other vet had forgotten.

He got his signature notarized and gave the VA his phone numbers and email addy too if they had any questions at all about his buddy statement for this stressor.

The stressor-consistent with the ops involved and the detailed buddy statement

helped the vet get a PTSD rating.

It is a lot of work someimes to get corroboration for a stressor but -without it- the VA will deny a claim based on something they have no proof on.

i am in the same boat my unit has just been recently retired and i did not have any quote un quote

buddys. i realy didnt get along with any of them and i did try my old units web site. and got no where so i am beetween a rock and a hard place!

[john6012]

i am in the same boat my unit has just been recently retired and i did not have any quote un quote

buddys. i realy didnt get along with any of them and i did try my old units web site. and got no where so i am beetween a rock and a hard place!

You are in the same boat as I am. If you were wandering around Tan SanNhut (SP) AB or any other base and didn't look like you were working and a gung ho sneior miitary memer saw yau and need a "hand" you were at their mercy. We didn't know enough to get a deposition or name or address or anyhting, we just followed orders adn got away as quickily as possible. It sure wasn't a democracy! Besides, during the fall of Viet Nam, do you really think they thought to gather all teh morning reports and orher data? Not on your life!