Folks, this is like fishing with hand grenades. Having engaged in that very pastime fifty six years ago, I can say that truthfully. And I even got free beer and paid to do it but that’s another story for another day. I might even suggest it’s easier than playing Five Card Stud with kindergarteners and far more lucrative…if you already know what your opponent is going to do before he does. This ain’t Voodoo shit. It’s Déjà Vu shit, bubba.
I don’t mind sharing this one because VA figures out all my ruses eventually and just changes the game slightly to plug the hole. But this will require them to find and hire thousands and thousands of complicit psychologists and psychiatrits and pay them their 30 pieces of silver every two weeks. That I doubt they can do. Suborning regular people’s testimony is child’s play. Witness the Mafia. Suborning such a large number of self-convinced superior clinicians simply can’t be done. It would require a rewrite of the DSM 5.
The Punji pit obviously requires a real Veteran with a well-supported TBI which almost spawns a T all by itself everywhere…except in VAWorld. There you’ll find Judas Doctors willing to say or sign anything. And that what we have here. VA has finally cottoned to what I’m up to. Which is basically to get them to combine the two (PTSD and TBI) diseases and then try to swoop in and get the L and on up to T.
My client Dylan here had a minor TBI at about 4 years old. NCNS in doctorspeak (No complications/no sequelae). When he entered, he freely admitted it. They took him as sound and off he went. He had a couple of Motor Vehicle Accidents (MVAs) and noted TBI. All Line of Duty. They discharged him and he filed….and filed… and filed. And then we met and I started digging a hole, cutting bamboo and sharpening it… metaphorically speaking, of course.
First off we cleared up the headaches, the TBI and then maxed out the PTSD. And just as I’d predicted, they could not resist combining the PTSD with the TBI and calling both 100%s a single 100%. The urge to screw Welfare Queens … er…Veterans dies hard in a cold RVSR’s breast. Actually, it’s the Coach and the M 21 hanging over them but they naturally try to save the company (VA) money and get more attaboys and a raise. This loyalty to the VA Ethos is so predictable I can depend on it.
Notice in the code sheet also is the combo DC code showing 8045 (TBI) first ahead of the 9411 (PTSD). Truth be told, it makes no difference to me. I just use the argument that “Hey, you guys are the ones that said it was too speculative as to which is which. Not me. So if you can’t distinguish the difference, then you dang sure can’t suddenly change your story and say the PTSD did it now.”
Next, we storm the gates again and get them to declare Dylan incompetent to handle his VA check (but not incompetent as far as forcing him to get rid of his guns). What the hey? It was legitimate and his wife becomes the fiduciary so it’s not like they’re getting dinked $90 bucks a month by some sleezy fiduciary creature in Omaha, Nebraska. As you can see from the February 2025 Rating decision, just as I predicted, they walked right into the kill zone with eyes wide open. Why, they even slipped in a teaser and said ol’ Dylan needed aid and attendance but they weren’t in a giving mood.
Next, a body needs to move quick and spring the trap. You don’t waste a lot of time wondering what to do next. We nabbed the a&a and this is when I knew they’d taken the bait. They got anal describing why all a sudden separating the TBI from the PTSD was childsplay. Like unzipping a jacket. The need for that a&a was due solely to the ptsd and we have plenty of medical evidence we can manufacture to prove it. But then there was that nagging little problem on the way they’d written that diagnostic code with the 8045 in front of the 9411 way back on March 17, 2024. VA uses §4.27 to keep track of which disease is what and which one is related to which. If the PTSD had been the major need for a&a, then it should have been written 9411-8045. See what I mean about kindergarteners?
So when you’re shit out of ideas and ammo at Fort Fumble, you punt. The Coach will say “Let them appeal. That’s why they invented the BVA, right?” Again, this is all part of the very predictable fall into the SMC Punji pit. I know they’re never going to give my boy SMC T and they know I know. It’s all Kabuki theater and a necessary formality to get up to the Board and win. In a lot of respects, it’s like going to school. You ain’t gonna get to 12th grade if you don’t pay the piper.
Redact BVA 10182 filed 7.02.2025
The BVA appeal took 13 months (roughly) as I’d predicted. Because my clients trusted me, they weren’t on the horn to the (800) 827 Dial-a-Prayer every Monday morning asking for updates. They weren’t on the horn to their Congressman begging desperately for intercession and to pull it out of the Queue for Senator Billybob to say “looks like all’s in order here, Dylan.” … but six months later. No, this one went sailing through just as I knew it would.
Now, a word to the wise. Never tell a judge what he or she should do. Never say “The judge can only find that those chowderheads made a mistake and correct rating should have been…”. Always say positive things. Create a mini-chrono of the history of the crime so the idiot law dogs can “see” the crime and why it’s a crime. All those CAVC and CAFC cites are the fences on the BVA’s corral that instruct what they must or must not do. You don’t drag out the M 21 and start pissing and moaning. The M 21 isn’t law. It’s a suggestion and a damn poor one at that.
Dylan and I signed our POA on August 5, 2024. Almost two years to the day, he arrived at his T. It was a predicable win and carefully assembled. There was never any doubt. And best of all, it’s repeatable for any Veteran with a severe TBI comorbid with PTSD. Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a claims shark. I simply mean this path is what every Veteran who was injured like Dylan should be able to accomplish. It’s an art form like going to Denny’s as a kid and getting the paper table cloth with the labyrinth on it and a box of crayons. I can see the path to the center without having to draw it.
Well shoot. I’ve been doing this for so long it’s just like I said. Fishing with hand grenades. Playing VA poker with a couple of five dumb shit third string VSC/DROC Assistant Coaches who think I’m some rube FNG VA agent. I subscribe to the Sun Zhu News. One of my favorites is “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.” Another is “Attack him where he is unprepared, appear where you are not expected.” To that I can only add “Win or Die”.
It’s so rewarding to watch a good game plan come to fruition. Not the money reward but the planning, the execution of the attack and the complete route of the opposing force. The reward is getting to make the phone call. Too bad I can’t email the VA dicks at Fort Fumble after the BVA decision and say “Dude, I thought you might want to see how this is supposed to be done. Remember Dylan?
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