Ol’ Alan Jackson must have written this one for my client. Well, actually. Maybe several of them. I’ll just talk about one this today. In this ever-increasingly insane world of the new AMA system, where up is down and everything goes sideways, we almost need something tall an’ strong to keep our wits about us. Because by law I am not allowed to reveal the identity of my clients or their personal information. I’ll refer to her as Jacky-or Jackie. Dealer’s choice. It isn’t her real name so it’s immaterial.

This will tear your heart up. Imagine a young, naïve Army FNG arriving in Germany on her first tour right out of AIT. It’s 1985. She’s a motor pool expert- a deuce and a half truck driver. They’re out on NATO maneuvres in the hinterlands of Germany somewhere in late summer and that evening, she and her fellow transportation experts are gathered around the fire shooting the shit and having a brewski.

She’s 18 and has never been drunk in her life. She’s a farm girl and this is her first time off the reservation. Suddenly, she feels the effects of what she perceives to be the beer kicking in and asks a fellow soldier to help her back to her tent. The next morning she wakes up about 250 yards away from where she’d gotten woozy. She’s buck naked and her clothes are strewn all about her. She quickly dresses and races back to the Company area so as not to be counted as AWOL.

She’s morbidly embarrassed and ashamed of what she perceived as her allowing it to happen and never says a word to her superiors. Sound familiar? About a month later, it dawns on her she’s missed her period. Another month goes by and she decides maybe it’s time to go down to sick call and find out whazzup. Sure enough, the rabbit dies and she finds out she’s pregnant.

The Army doctor decides to fabricate a story and avers she told him it must have been her boyfriend even though she insisted they always took precautions. The only problem with that version of history is her boyfriend is back in Washington state- over 3,500 miles away- and has been since June when she began outprocessing from Fort Dix to report to Germany. This, of course, is all unbeknownst to her as she won’t see her STRs until I unearth them in the VBMS efolder thirty six years later. Which leaves us with something right out of a Jeopardy TV show- I’ll take Immaculate Conception for $200, Alex.

Sure enough, almost nine months later -give or take a week- her daughter is born there in Germany. Her depression ratchets up. She’s falling apart. Suddenly Miz PFC Perfect is getting Article 15s for being out of weight compliance and other minor infractions like failure to report for a formation on time. It eventually costs her that hoped-for career in the military. She finishes her three and separates in ’88. Then her life descends into a horror story of major depression, failed marriages ad nauseum.

Jackie finally filed for PTSD/MDD for this MST event in 2004 and got the poopy end of the VA punji stick. No evidence. Never happened. Just another welfare queen trying to get service connection for an imaginary event. You know Vets. Now imagine Indian Vets! They’re all trailer trash and shop at Dollar Generally™ and Wallmarket™. Nothing to see here. Move along. Just another charter member of the Piggy Wiggy slip-on-the -floor lawsuit club.

Fast forward to 2017 and Jackie decides to try again. Someone had mentioned  they’d liberalized the regulations on MST that came out in 2010 in §3.304(f)(5). I reprint it here below but note the bolded portions…

(5) If a posttraumatic stress disorder claim is based on in-service personal assault, evidence from sources other than the veteran‘s service records may corroborate the veteran‘s account of the stressor incident. Examples of such evidence include, but are not limited to: records from law enforcement authorities, rape crisis centers, mental health counseling centers, hospitals, or physicians; pregnancy tests or tests for sexually transmitted diseases; and statements from family members, roommates, fellow service members, or clergy. Evidence of behavior changes following the claimed assault is one type of relevant evidence that may be found in these sources. Examples of behavior changes that may constitute credible evidence of the stressor include, but are not limited to: a request for a transfer to another military duty assignment; deterioration in work performance; substance abuse; episodes of depression, panic attacks, or anxiety without an identifiable cause; or unexplained economic or social behavior changes. VA will not deny a posttraumatic stress disorder claim that is based on in-service personal assault without first advising the claimant that evidence from sources other than the veteran‘s service records or evidence of behavior changes may constitute credible supporting evidence of the stressor and allowing him or her the opportunity to furnish this type of evidence or advise VA of potential sources of such evidence. VA may submit any evidence that it receives to an appropriate medical or mental health professional for an opinion as to whether it indicates that a personal assault occurred.

In 2020, an Indian tribal member who was an accredited VSO contacted me and asked if I’d be interested in helping her out with Jackie. While it isn’t my forte, and I personally get embarrassed discussing these things with women, I sorta accidentally might have said I’d be willing to guide her and give her advice. Well, that’s what I thought I said. Jackie was my second MST case… but I didn’t know it yet. She and her husband came over to our place and she started crying uncontrollably about how this was so unfair. Boy howdy it was all over when the tears started. I was dog meat. I chieu hoi’d and said I’d take it. But get this. She really wasn’t crying about the MST claim. The  VSOs and her had pretty much pissed on the fire and called in the dogs on it. She did get her NPRC file and the VSO said the STRs showed she’d wrenched her back trying to hook up a heavy trailer. But that was all she hoped to win. I was going to refer her to another fellow member of an organization I belong to but agreed to at least take a gander at her VBMS file to see what VA had up their sleeve. The Tribal VSOs had no access to VBMS themselves so they were flying blind.

I got into the claims file and was astounded at what I read compared to what she’d reported to me. Not about her back but about the gang rape. She had no idea what the pregnancy in the STRs meant legally. Hell, she didn’t even know what a claims file was. Apparently, neither did all the Tribal VSOs she’d been using. When I asked her about the boyfriend being the father, she explained it geographically and time wise. She never would have said that to the doctor. After parsing the language of the regulation above, and seeing that she’d reported to sick call and had the pregnancy test right there in the file, I convinced her the back claim was a 10% nothing burger compared to the MST.

I immediately set up a phone meeting with my favorite psychologist and briefed her in on the circumstances. Meanwhile I refiled Jackie for it and got the brand new bum’s rush. VA gave her their version of a dog and pony PTSD/MST c&p and miraculously declared she’d  had some kind of untoward “diagnosed” MST/PTSD event but it sure didn’t fit the exacting metrics of §3.304(f)(5). Worse- maybe she just disremembered. Might be it had happened after service… They freely acknowledged the pregnancy test but that was an outlier and didn’t really prove anything because, shoot, Immaculate Conception shit happens. Right? And besides, why would the doctor lie about the boyfriend story? Evidence? What evidence? Thank you for your service. Next?

I promptly refiled with the brand spanking new “ACE review with a phone call” IMO from my Doctor T. Two weeks later, that fell flatter than a cheese soufflé in a daycare center,  too. VA was still on that jag about the boyfriend being the father.  And now, with the Covid, it had to be done via telehealth video to be a valid IMO. Since Jackie had been unaware of the significance of the Army doctor’s notes until this point, she was a bit miffed to put it very mildly.

She put on her best war paint and drove over unannounced an hour later. She lives about half an hour away from us. She plopped her daughter’s original birth certificate down on my desk and pointed to the blank area where the father’s name would normally be entered. Holy shit, Batman. It was blank. She began bawling all over and said “Don’t you think I’d put his name in there if I knew who it was? There were four of them from what I dimly recall and I had no idea who was the father so I left it blank.” Shoo doggies. I just about began bawling too.

I immediately called Dr. T and asked for a do-over and a Zoom with this new evidence in hand. Jackie lived in rather primitive conditions without internet so we had to hold the video here. I got Dr. T to crank out a most excellent addendum IMO and submitted it with the birth certificate in the evidence venue at the Board. Then we all sat back and waited patiently for the Corona Pandemic to subside. Et voilà.

Three and one half years later, she won. If she hadn’t, I would have taken this one up to the Court in a heartbeat. I honestly believe there was more afoot on the denials below but I can’t prove that. Native Americans, like the Philippine Guerillas in WW II, get short shrift in this business.  Besides, VA-hired psychologists don’t make you raise your right hand and swear to tell the truth so help you Denis the Menace. Maybe they should. It’s a Rodney Dangerfield thing. They don’t get no respect.

Anyway, this is a wonderful ending to what I’d characterize as a never-ending nightmare. Remember the old ’60s TV show Branded with Chuck Connors? What do you do when you’re branded and you know you’re a man? I reckon this story bears some resemblance to the circumstances. I know how I felt in 1994 when the VA told me I’d never served in Vietnam and my 214 even proved it. It plumb sucks to be called a liar.

Anyway, I had to go through another crying session with Jackie and assure her this wasn’t a nasty April Fool’s joke. I expect she won’t believe me until that retro check hits her bank account. That ought to roll her socks down. Like I said, it’s five o’clock somewhere. Let’s all hoist a shot to her victory over VA stupidity and intransigence. Jackie’s case is why I love my job. Making VA eat crow is ever so satisfying. It’s a dish best served chilled as Bill Shakespeare was fond of saying.

redact Jackie MST

Redact Jackie RD

But, just to be safe, remember what Commando Craig advises- Don’t poke the Bear!

P.S. As usual, Ed the LRP sends me this thought-provoking video. It’s not something a lot of people can stomach to watch. I will warn you of that. We don’t do or allow politics or religion here on asknod. It’s too devisive.

However, this week I have seen my country being torn apart once again much like what we experienced in the Sixties during the Vietnam War. It culminated in Kent State as most remember. Rejecting America’s involvement in Vietnam was a legitimate reason to protest it. What I see today is ignorance and a blind belief of injustice being perpetrated. In war, soldiers fight soldiers. They don’t launch attacks on innocent, unarmed civilians or rape and pillage.

We haven’t always been a country to look up to until more recently but we’ve always outshined the rest. We’ve outlawed slavery, hate crimes and most other offensive behaviour of our ancestors. We’ve granted women the right to vote. States are free to choose what’s best for them for the most part. And most importantly, freedom of religion is inviolate.

We fought World War II in large part to eradicate Adolf Hitler’s Fascist regime and all it stood for. We’ve tolerated other repressive regimes, but we have never as a Nation advocated for the erasure of an entire race of people. Who could ever conceive of such a level of vitriol?

But, any group of people, regardless of religion or any other principles of humanity, who would assassinate their own countrymen defies any definition of cruelty. Regardless of your political bent, seeing our younger generation of college students profess allegiance to Hamas, or shout ‘Death to America”, defies who we are as a Country. From what I see, Hamas’ goals differ little from Hitler’s aspirations. Hitler extinguished 6 million Jews conservatively. The folks in this video aren’t even killing Jewish folks.  They’re killing their own countrymen. Next week, or next month or five years from now, they’ll resume trying to kill Israelis again. As my dad used to say “You have the right to remain stupid. No one can take that away from you. This is America, son.”

What separates us from viscous animals is a very fine line, apparently. This video more than substantiates that fact. I apologize in advance if this offends anyones’ sensitivities.