FROM THE TALL TALES REGIONAL

OFFICE IN HOUSTON, TEXAS

I write occasionally of the VA Backlog. I write sometimes about “frivolous filings”. Rarely do I come unglued and blow an ass gasket over Vets who legitimately (although mistakenly) attribute their ills to their time in service. We are not doctors but sometimes we disremember things and the memory box doesn’t serve us well.  

And then there are another class of humans for whom the expediency of financial remuneration becomes immediate. These brave individuals operate on a different plain than you and I and regular rules do not apply. They are entitled to claim anything and everything they want and often get away with it. This simply provokes more of the same until the baggage exceeds the design limits of the aircraft. When this happens, you don’t become airborne at V2. You crash.

Mr. Tall Tales Vet in Houston here has woven quite a web of deceit. Taking just enough factual information to make it plausible, he weaves a tale of automobile accident, exposure to Agent Orange and chronic, perennial psychiatric woes to create the perfect storm. Unfortunately, none of it is true.

VA is not your BFF. We accept this ugly truth. We have to work around the fact that they do not believe a thing we say. We must prove it all just to win it on benefit of the doubt. We must provide documentation that purports to show we are being truthful. As the courts remind us, this is a two-way street. Apparently Johnny Vet here is impatient and has a few mental aberrations. These two character defects, in combination with a decided propensity to rewrite history each time he files, does not go unnoticed by the raters. After decades of deceit, they assemble it all and call him a liar.

C-files are usually a huge mish-mash of facts in no apparent order. Nevertheless, all the facts are there if one bothers to sort them out. If they are not, the VA is willing to go to the wall and dig for them. They aren’t thorough and often are sloppy. But eventually they ferret out the facts from the older records and build timelines that prove what has been reported isn’t possible. This case illustrates that in spades.

Here’s John-boy’s timeline.

1973- January- Join service. Combat training @ Ft. Dix

April — AIT at Fort Sam Houston. Flunked out of EOD

June-July  — AIT cook school at Ft. Ord (passed)

1973–July– Assigned as cook to Ft. Benning

1974-May- Went AWOL

1974- First MVA (motor vehicle accident)

1975- Discharged from service honorably at Ft. Dix after finishing up “commitment”

1978- first filing for bad back

1979- October–first filing for bent brain

1980- January–second  ”                       ”

1984- June–third filing ”                        ”

1990- second MVA (in Mexico) with spinal fracture X 2.

2003-second filing for bad back

2008- BVA denial on back claim

2008– file for DM2 due to AO exposure at Eglin AFB (Florida) and reopen psychiatric problems claim

2010-CAVC remand for more info on back claim/DM2

2013 -current claims reopenings denied

In a nutshell, Johnny is history-challenged. Apparently they sprayed the Roundup down at Eglin AIR FORCE BASE three years before he joined the ARMY. That popped up later when they tried to find records assigning him there. VA is so sweet and polite when they tell you your memory’s chords are less than perfect:

There is no question that the Veteran is competent to relate events as he remembers them. Thus, his competency is not at issue with regard to his current account of the events of service. Rather, it is the accuracy of the Veteran’s current account which the Board finds is lacking. Simply put, the report of medical history at separation from service is more convincing than statements made decades later in support of a claim for monetary benefits. The report of medical history is further bolstered by normal clinical findings based on an examination at the time. In addition to the normal psychiatric findings on the separation examination, the record contains the February 1975 counseling report which includes a detailed contemporaneous account of his problems in service. Notably absent from this report is any mention of psychiatric hospitalization or treatment. The finding of acute situational maladjustment, coupled with severe deficiencies in attitude and motivation is considered conclusive as to the extent of his psychiatric or mental symptomatology at the time. As noted above, to the extent that there were psychiatric or mental symptoms in service, they were not chronic.

In short, the Veteran’s account of symptoms and treatment has been entirely inconsistent. In fact, it is difficult to piece together any consistent narrative as to his asserted onset of symptoms and initial treatment. The Veteran has reported that he was hospitalized in service for psychiatric complaints; he has reported that he was not hospitalized in service, but was treated for psychiatric complaints; he has reported that he was hospitalized in service, but it was not for psychiatric complaints; and he has reported that he was not hospitalized in service for anything. He has variously reported that his initial post-service psychiatric treatment was in 1975, 1976, 1978, 1979, and 1984; however, in the earlier accounts, he asserted that these treatments were for alcohol and drug abuse, and not for psychiatric complaints.

I find it amazing that this Veteran has cut a swath through the VA adjudication system for thirty five years and appropriated it for his personal gain. In all that time he has not made any headway and has misrepresented himself, his case and the facts to the VA as well as his VSO- the Disabled American Veterans. At what point do you ask for his bonafides? VA has an extremely complete case file on this gentleman but I suspect he is going to go back to the CAVC and continue his quest. At what point do they point out his pants are on fire?

The parties to the March 2010 Joint Motion stipulated that VA should verify that archived records at the Albany VA Medical Center were checked to determine whether there was any record of hospital treatment from 1974 to 1976. The RO requested a search of the archived records and received a negative response from the Albany VA Medical Center in September 2010. The Board finds that this negative response is consistent with the Veteran’s report in his September 2005 substantive appeal that, upon seeking treatment at the VA Hospital in Albany, he was told that he could not be treated by VA because he was still in the service, undermining the foundation for the joint motion utterly. Thus, notwithstanding the stipulation of the parties that such records were likely to exist, the Veteran himself indicated that he did not receive treatment at the VAMC in Albany in 1974, and it is therefore logical that there would be no treatment records.

As, in each case, VA has been informed that the requested records do not exist, no additional efforts and obtaining the records are necessary. Based on a total review of the record, the Board makes the following factual finding: there are no additional records that can be obtained by the RO in this case.

 Seems like someone should tattoo “incorrigible liar” on this guy’s forehead and deny him entry into a VARO for filing purposes. Fortunately for the rest of us, it won’t happen. The nonadversarial nature of the VA precludes it. This causes untold delays for the rest of us with legitimate claims. Were it to disenfranchise even one of us, we’d be screaming bloody murder- and rightfully so.

Thus we accept the good with the bad and soldier on. However, there is one powerful tool that would have prevented this. Any service officer, agent, lawyer or other official associated with the process of applying for, or aiding others, in the pursuit of benefits is admonished to examine a claim closely for fraud. If the claim doesn’t hold water or the claimant’s assertions are inherently incredible, the advocate is obligated to investigate whether he should proceed. Obviously someone dropped the ball on this one so many times they should have broken toes for life. Were our Johnny boy just a pro se filer, he could be excused for having an “active” imagination. It’s clear from the record that he purposefully sought out information about AO spraying at Eglin AFB in order to include it in his claim. That facet alone should have set off alarm bells. AWOL Army troops do not go TDY to Air Force bases-ever. Do I even need to point that out? 

Say. Did I mention I was
exposed to AO in, er, 73?