I have to say that some in the past doubted my word that vA was very inquisitive about your life post-service and often goes afield looking for you or a footprint in the sand to show your passing.

The CAVC has repeatedly admonished the vA that they are allowed to collect evidence in the normal course of their investigation of your claim but under no circumstances are they allowed to ever go out and purposefully develop negative evidence . Basically, they are required to play fetch with anything you identify and inform them of. That’s why the vA has Form 21-4142. Private expeditions are frowned on. Strike that. They are forbidden. This has rarely deterred the boys and their exploits are legend as are their losses at the Big House up at 625 Wagon Burner Ave. NW.

So what did my eagle eye run over and back up to for a second gander? Why, the apparent ignoring of this important precedent in search of something useful enough to convene a good old fashioned Florida necktie party with one of St. Pete’s finest as the guest of honor.

The Board notes that, in a May 2008 notice letter that

describes VA’s duty to assist in the development of his

claim, the RO requested that the Veteran complete a

hepatitis C risk factor questionnaire. The letter was

returned by the United States Post Office as not

deliverable as addressed.

In his May 2008 substantive appeal, the Veteran

said that he did not receive a hepatitis C questionnaire

In December 2008, the RO resent its notice letter to

the Veteran and requested that he provide information

regarding his risk factors for hepatitis C. That letter was

returned by the United States Post Office as attempted

but (addressee) unknown. In a May 7, 2010 signed

statement, the Veteran provided VA with his current

address change. The Veteran should be provided with new

notice letter that includes a hepatitis C risk factor

questionnaire sent to his most current address of record.

A December 2008 VA and SSA State Prisoner

Computer Match shows that the Veteran was

incarcerated in the Central Florida Reception Center,

PO Box 628040, Orlando, Florida, from September

[redacted], 2005 to December [redacted], 2006. All

medical records associated with his incarceration

should be obtained.

The law is quite explicit on this. If you do not submit evidence requested, they rate on what they have to go by. They are not entitled to flit about in the field and go on a fishing expedition. Why would they be searching the VA ‘s State Prisons Computer Match if this was a truly nonadversarial  environment in which the Veteran is accorded every benefit of the doubt? Why would they need a computer database search capability or more appropriately, under what tortured interpretation of the regulations would they be allowed to go fishing for his medrecs while he was incarcerated? Please also note the date of the request. It’s the same month as his substantive appeal. If you fail to give them evidence, they deny-period. Wait. That is an oxymoron. They always deny but if you don’t send in what they need, they are under no obligation to go out of their way to help. Absent a request to look, trying to find anything out is unheard of. They roll up the file and stamp denied on it. What they sure as hell never do is start trying to find out how to find you to mail you a copy of a denial.

I couldn’t beg loudly enough or in earnest to sufficiently arouse the interest (seven times) of the RO to go back to Thailand to find my medrecs-even after I gave them a small sample proving their existence in 1991. Here we have the the jackbooted vA Gestapo off the reservation trolling  for anything useful to give our Tampa Vet a compensation haircut.

I rest my case.

Notice any similarity?