I would have named this one Back Door Man by Jim Morrison of the Doors but it didn’t involve an extramarital affair. I will say, this is a first for me because prior to this,  you’d have needed a perfect storm to get this benefit. I had no cases  with quite so many service connected conditions that could benefit via the “backdoor SMC P” technique. Well, that is, until the Barry v. McDenis the Menace Fed Circus Decision- Barry v. McDonough, 101 F.4th 1348 Fed. Cir. (2024)- permitting endless half step bumps under §3.350(f)(3). Correction. Endless half-step bumps like this case until you hit the wall at SMC O. Read on.

In a grand effort to confuse us, the Secretary chose the term “SMC at the maximum rate” at some time in the distant past. To Joe average Vet, maximum translates into Boone and Crockett points or actually getting the Power Ball on top of the other six numbers. However, truth be told, the maximum rate is actually SMC at the O rate. It’s some serious baksheesh. Don’t get me wrong. A married Vet with an empty nest draws $6903.42.

It’s just that an Afstan Vet from 2008 with TBI and SMC at the T rate with a chestfeeder and three rugpersons can get north of $11,506.15 a month. From where I stand, $11.5 K beats $6.9K every time just like a full house beats two pair. Maybe the VA defines maximum like the rearview mirror does on your car door. Objects may appear larger than they actually are…

But let’s talk about Mark. Mark was a 95 Bravo 20. For those of you uninitiated into MOS, that’s a military po-liceman. As boots-on-the-ground Vets like us know, these guys almost always ended up being employed as an 11 Bravo 10 when the Long Binh Repo Depot ran out of Infantrymen. But hey. They usually got a CIB and an ArCom so they can’t bitch too loudly. Well, unless they caught a dose of lead poisoning.

Mark did his Eleven months and 28 days, snagged 4 bronze stars on his VCM and made it home in one piece… or so he thought. Now he’s the poster child for Agent O. Chronic Lymphocytic Lymphoma (CLL), Parkie’s, DM II, PN in all four extremities, PTSD, gee did I miss anything? Yep. OSA, a bunch of musculoskeletal shit and loss of use (LOU) of all four extremities. He got his wheelchair driver’s license almost a decade ago.

I filed him for the LOU of the uppers and lowers and rolled one last Hootch popper in low on the floor- aid and attendance for the CLL. I figured that would get their attention the most. It did. Mark’s been pursuing an old Legacy claim for the PN in his lower extremities and one hand since 2010. It’s now in the second SSOC iteration and headed back to the Board. So, in our new AMA world, a claim for LOU of the extremities cannot exist in space at the same time as an antique request for a higher rating concerning your legs (due not to Parkie’s but to DM II) from 10% to 20% for the finite period of 2010 to 2014 when they increased it to 20%.

So I sat back and began to contemplate my navel. The first thing was VA declared a CUE over the old award for a&a back in 2023. They suddenly decided to start “gifting” us the bumps under §3.350(f)(3) and (f)(4). Instead of a&a, Mark was gifted a bump from SMC L for a&a to SMC M for his 100% CLL which VA said didn’t need a&a. Actually, they screwed up and gave him M 1/2 but who’s counting anyway. It wasn’t R1- that’s for sure.

How do you make lemonade out of these lemons? Adding vodka would be one method. Get drunk and give up on ever seeing R1? Oh hell no. I came from the Win or Die™ Combat School of VA law. With the Barry precedence and Mark’s code sheet, I cobbled together what I thought was a pretty good backdoor way to sneak up on the chowderheads. This was almost as fun as dropping CBU 26-49 (cluster bomb unit with 665 individual bomblets- half of which were 45-minute delayed fuses) up in Laos where… Togetherweneverserved.©

SMC M plus another 50% or greater rating , separate and distinct from the index need for a&a (Parkie’s) equals SMC M 1/2. Lather, rinse and repeat three times with three ratings that are different from Parkie’s and you have SMC N 1/2. Add in SMC K for loss of use of Winky and you have what we refer to as the ‘maximum rate of SMC at the P rate”. If by some offbeat chance you arrive as the maximum P, you automatically “jump” to SMC O.

Col. Sgt. Major with the CIB in the wrong place and the medals upside down.

Now, here’s the sleight of hand that allows you to bump up to R1 with only one SMC between the rates of SMC L and N. §3.350(h) permits you to utilize your original a&a for the Parkie’s as the entrance ticket (with the O) to get to SMC R1. Who ever said you can’t pyramid your VA ratings?  We’ve discussed in earlier blogs how you could be blind and get an L. Then you could have mega bent brain and need a&a to get a second L. Two Ls equals O. As long as one of the Ls is for a&a, you advance to Boardwalk and collect R1. Here, the second L is that mythical, formerly unattainable maximum rate of SMC P which converted to O.

Now, I realize the above is about as clear as the Mississippi River to most Veterans. SMC is like trying to learn Greek and Latin at the same time. Relax. You don’t have to understand. There are SMC Jedi Knights out there just waiting to lead you to riches-assuming you qualify. And by SMC Knights, I am not referring to a very large swath of folks who profess to be VA law gurus. There aren’t exactly a shit ton of us out there.  This is an art form- like waiting until you get all the gooks into the kill zone before the three pumps on the clacker. But the results are every bit  as predictable as the sun rising tomorrow morning.

So, here’s my opening gambit

redact a&a filed 10.14.2024 –

Here’s the bag of lemons they handed us .

redact CUE Retro for M 5.09.2025

Here’s the Barry bump flanking maneuvre to go around them and do it with only one SMC at the L rate;

redact BVA 10182 Filed 5.17.2025

I really expected I’d pancaked on this one because it was distributed to a Judge about a week or two after I sent it in. Usually, it’s gonna be a denial and get done in no time flat like this. Big Ticket items like SMC are analyzed like a Rubik’s Cube® from every angle to find a way to legally poke holes in it.  Turns out it was nothing more than my old friend Veterans Law Judge Jon Hager just itching to write a good Barry Bump decision.  I like Judge Hager. Him ‘n me are like peas and carrots.

Redact R1 Barry style

So… another happy ending here in the unicorn world of SMC where everyone’s a winner except for the chuckleheads down at the corner of 810 Delay and Deny Ave. NW. I wish to thank Mark for allowing me to be the one to make a speshull flavor of Lemonade for him. This is better than Leroy MacKlem’s adventures in CUE. Today’s teaching lesson is “Be careful when you declare a CUE because it can provoke unexpected downstream complications.”

P.S. We’re doing a Zoom TV show this Thursday evening at 1900 Eastern Time with John  Stacy and Ray Cobb of Exposed Veterans if anyone is interested.

Here’s the link:

https://riverside.fm/studio/exposed-vet-productions?token=3a179102156285a045fa8cab9afe461599a346b9