Vet's Disability Commission

[Guest Berta]

http://www.va.gov/vetscommission/documents...sted_Format.pdf

If you do intend to write to this commission they have the above format suggested at their web site.

I think this news is great for the vet re: success story today-

You can also write and sign a statement if you wish-I used this statement when I wrote to them-

"I testify that the above statements are true and factual to the best of my knowledge."

And I signed it so it could become testimony as well as letter for their consideration.

This is your chance to have some inut into the system that controls us.

[Testvet]

To Whom it May Concern,

I have written the Commission on several prior occasions, but due to recent events, I feel you needed to be updated on my situation so you can see how a claim the VA doesn't want to acknowledge is handled.

My Claim deals with the human experimentation tests that happened between 1955 thru 1975 at Edgewood Arsenal. I have been attempting for three years to even get the VARO to address the issue, they have just ignored it until October 6 2005 when I finally received a response , due to a letter I sent to Senator Larry Craig about the situation.

Yhe VA's solution was to have Renee Szybala, Director of Compensation and Pensions to send me a letter and a copy I would hazard a guess to Senator Craig's office.

Here is the simple paragraph used to address the issue:

"According to records at the Columbia Regional Office, you volunteered for medical testing at the Edgewood Arsenal Facility on July 10, 1974but were dischrged from the program due to illness before testing began. Based on evidence that you were not a test participant, there appears to be no basis to attribute any of your current conditions to testing. If you have additional evidence you would like to submit as part of your claim, please submit it to the Columbia Regional Office at the following address:

Columbia Regional Office

1801 Assembly Street

Columbia SC 29201

I hope this information is helpful to you.

Sincerely Yours,

Renee Szybala, Director

Compensation and Pension Service

Yes, I feel this letter will be very helpful to me at the BVA hearing, for three years they refuse to address the issues, then when forced to by the head of the Senate Veteran Affairs Committee, they out and out lie to him. My records at Columbia show no such thing.

My records reflect that I "volunteered in May 1974 at Fort Lewis Washington, I arrived at Edgewood on 25 June 1974, on the 3rd of July I was admitted to Aberdeen Proving Grounds and discharged from the hospital on 10 July back to Edgewood Arsenal, where I stayed until 22 August 1974, where I was then sent back to Fort Lewis, Washington. I was at Edgewood and used in the tests for 2 months. My records do not reflect anything near Ms. Szybala's statements and proves that the VA has gone to excessive lengths to deny claims surrounding the Edgewood test veterans.

I am in contact with five other Edgewood veterans and they are all having the same problems that I am in getting the VA to address the test issues, they claim we were not used, then they claim we weren't exposed to anything, they make it out like a lot of veterans just think they were used in secret tests, we were and have the records to prove it, everyone is now aware of what happened at Edgewood from 1955 thru 1975, it has been the subject of three investigations over the years, the Church Committe 1976, Veterans at Risk 1993, and the Rockefeller Commission in 1994. The VA promised Congress on March 10, 1993 that they would find all the Edgewood test veterans and get them medical care and compnesation if they deserved it. They have done nothing towards this goal in the past 12 years, it is not just the present administration it was also the Democrat administration of President Clinton. This is not political, these are 7120 veterans that were used in chemical weapons and drug test that violated the Nuremberg Codes of 1947, we are a signatory to the Helsinki Agreements that guaranteed medical care for subjects of this type of testing.

I do not understand the VA's refusal to address this issue in a decent manner, I don;t know if the influence is coming from DOD, or is it the VA acting on it's own. I find it hard to believe that Edgewood test veterans are all just the subject of a VA employee that mis-reads records, do they mis-read records in all the VARO's across the nation. If that is the case then some of these people need to be sent back to school for reading and comprehension.

This would not be as damaging as I have submitted claims that gave the VARO a way to approve my claims without addressing the Edgewood issues, and they chose not to do that, my cardioligist wrote a statement explaining that my PTSD from the assault and robbery in Alaska, either caused my current heart condition or aggravated it, I have hypertension, arthersclerosis, CAD, a failed triple bypass, 2 stents that have close off. They chose to deny it as a secondary condition.

My psychiatrist wrote a statement to the VARO that stated I was totally and permanently disabled by my PTSD and has given me GAF scores of 30-45 for the past three years, I asked him if I didn;t have the heart problems or back problems could I go back to work, he replied with a 4 letter word and NO.

The purpose of the claim is to compensate me for the current medical conditions caused by my service to this nation. To protect my wife and 13 year old son and to guarantee him a college education, since I will probably die before he goes, Chapter 35 benefits.

It really didn;t matter if they blamed Edgewood or the PTSD and the resulting heart problems to the PTSD and ignored Edgewood, I realize those tests are an ugly black eye for the American Military, but now to have the VA blatantly lie to a US Senator I realize that something here is not quite right.

If it turns out to be a rogue employee that is just lying about my claim, I feel sorry for him when Ms Szybala gets done wit them, but if this is a system wide attempt to deny all the test veterans compensation then there is something just plain wrong. The VA was created to protect and care for service members hurt while in service,, not to help the DOD protect their image. It is my feelings thay have decided to hang these 7120 vetrans out to dry, and ignore our claims and then just do what is necessary to keep the denials going. I wish I was wrong, but all the edgewood test vets that I am in contact with are having the same experience.

Michael G Bailey

[john999]

Testvet

I think the VA is hoping you and your fellow lab rats will die before you can prove you case, hence all the lies and BS. Lying for VA officials is like getting out of bed in the morning. Don't give up on this.