Hadit. com will be moving into a new format with a live broadcast. I had hoped it would be the one we did last Wednesday. Unfortunately, the electronic gremlins got to us and we had to revert back to the old format. Here’s a link to the 1/8/2014 show. If you look back in the library, I’ve also done some shows on other topics.

4/17/2013 —-Independent Living Program

4/10/2013 —With Bob Walsh, my attorney

8/28/2012— Hepatitis C filing and the intractable problems with VA

I wish to thank Jerrel, Mike and the Radio Rangers gang for having me on. Most of you do not realize how new this banding of Brothers is. Seventeen years ago, Tbird began what would be considered brand new territory for us to meet in and compare notes. There have been other venues, forums and formats that attempt to connect us with one another but none so Veteran- friendly as Hadit.

When I first entered this arena, I initially touched on Hadit, but, to be truthful, could not find any focus on Hepatitis C and the host of problems that plagued Vietnam Veterans relating to the rainbow defoliants. Patricia Lupole of HCVets gave me a forum from which to help others but it was a disjointed effort with some of the animosity you find on Peggy’s Pink Site.

My wife, Cupcake, advocated for an informal blog site that would still allow for anonymity as many were not comfortable with this disease and society’s approbation and fixation on it as a drug abuser’s disease.   In my mind, a go-to place for anything about Hepatitis and AO would be more focused -like going to a hardware store versus a grocery store. Since I’m big on humor and pictures, what we came up with is very different. Wouldn’t it be boring to hedge hop from one forum to another?

Another important aspect to consider is that I have no experience in the field of mental issues and am uncomfortable dispensing advice on it. I know what I came home from Southeast Asia with but that in no way, shape or form prepares me as an expert to discourse to others on PTSD. Hell, I sat in the desert and talked to tortoises and sidewinder rattlesnakes for two years after I got my General Discharge in early 1973. I’m hardly the one you want to ask anything of regarding that subject.

With what we gather and present, we hope to do a great service to Veterans. It doesn’t require money or volunteers. It simply entails paying what you learn forward for the ones who will come behind you. No one is fighting for a ratings percentage or viewership. No one seeks a bigger market share. We don’t have to get high-handed and take umbrage with any perceived slight to our persons or our mission.

At asknod, many of us hold the unenviable position of dying from our ailment which makes it all the more personal. I’ve lost three friends since I started in 2008 and there are more on the cusp. We won’t dwell on that.  With the advent of the new NS5A inhibitors, Hepatitis C is on it’s way out like Polio or Smallpox. It won’t be soon enough for some of us as the damage is already done.

I thank all of you for what you do to further Veterans rights- be it by giving of your time, donations to worthy causes or simply a sympathetic shoulder to cry on. Some may say we volunteered to serve and knew what we were getting into. True, but the contract we signed had a little codicil that said if we were damaged by our service, we would be remunerated. I suspect that facet of our work here will never be done as long as VA exhibits the usual intransigence and indifference to our plight.

As many of you heard on the show, VA is trying to weasel out of the Porphyria Cutanea Tarda disease and use semantics to avoid paying what is due. Allow me to introduce asknod “member” Jules, who acted unilaterally on his own claims without any consultation until he had won wholly by himself and it was a fait accompli. Six CUE claims won with nothing more than reading a book and visiting this website. He has volunteered to help me in his position as a PA-C and dermatologist to right the wrongs VA has visited upon me for twenty years. The disease seems to leave a trail on the skin regardless of VA’s attempts to ignore it at C&Ps. This is the power of Vets helping one another. We strive for no Bozos and a win for all of you. We don’t expect a $353 K/year salary for it either. Remember-a win at the VA ? Priceless. For all other things there’s Master Card.