VA’s ASYMMETRICAL LAWFARE

Posted on December 14, 2025 by asknod

Definitions from Oxford Languages

a·sym·met·ri·cal
/ˌāsəˈmetrək(ə)l/
adjective
  1. having parts that fail to correspond to one another in shape, size, or arrangement; lacking symmetry.
    “the church has an asymmetrical plan with an aisle only on one side”
    • having parts or aspects that are not equal or equivalent; unequal.
      “the asymmetrical relationship between a landlord and a tenant”

    • involving surprise attacks by small, simply armed groups on an opponent armed with modern high-tech weaponry; involving asymmetrical warfare.

      “an asymmetrical response to aggression.

      Jez, wouldn’t it be cool if we could go one step further and upload this concept into the brains of VA personnel and explain it’s terribly adversarial, Veteran un-friendly, and passive aggressive in nature? What I’m talking about is a spinoff of fellow VA Agent Wes McCauley’s recent article  on the subject of VA choosing to misinterpret any and all efforts at communication in a sane format.

      Imagine some of these calamities befalling you. You file a supplemental claim as described below to the chowderheads at the VA Puzzle Palace after your new win at the BVA. They managed to give you one tenth of what you deserve but, because of  Encarnacion v. McDonough, 36 Vet. App. 194 (2023), you have to get a new denial at Fort Fumble first before you pitch a bitch about it up at the Board again. Nobody explained that to you. So this costs you about 3 months before someone in DC sends you a letter canceling your 10182 Appeal.  If this seems like a similar  déjà vu of the old “Hamster Wheel”/Delay, Deny, until We Die technique, you’re not imagining things.

      So the “game” is you send in the right form (here a 995) and they cancel your claim by saying you used the wrong form. Proceed to GO!. Do not collect $200. Roll the dice again correctly. Submit the 526 form and wait two weeks to find out that, too, was the wrong form and your claim still has not been established. The new letter says you need to submit a 995. Grrrrrrrr. So now VA just gained six weeks of reprieve funning you about which form to use.  They also just screwed you out of two months of compensation in case you didn’t notice, too…

      I don’t get mad and I don’t play this game. I have access to the VA Rolodex. I look up the shit-for-brains who did this and straighten his/her ass out. It’s about as useless as screen doors in submarines to do so- but… it builds the foundation of stupidity I need to take it up the ladder and find a warm VA body with an IQ over 100 and the authority to fix it for me now- not in six weeks. Here’s a recent example.

      VA -me emails.

      Let’s look at another scenario. You’re in a nursing home in Anaheim recuperating from _____________ and they schedule you for a c&p 95.3 miles away in San Diego for your A&A claim. You have a VA-issue “Obama” freephone  that does basic voice. No text. No video. You never got the phone call from QTC™ because you were in Physical Therapy at Marlora and they make you turn off all phones during aqua therapy. Of course, your phone isn’t waterproof so it’s unlikely you’d have it in your pocket while swimming. Probably even worse, VA wrote your email address on the C&P Exam request wrong so you’ll never get an email.

      VA marks you down as a no-show. You get sicker and now have been in Marlora for over a year. They’ve scheduled you three times for a c&p but you keep failing to show up and you’re so well medicated for pain you thought it was VA calling about a claim for hearing loss- not the hearing you scheduled for CUE on the A&A since September 2023.

      It took me an hour of talking to the QTC Booth Bitch to even get her to transfer me to her supervisor. It took me 5 minutes to convince the Supervisor that ol’ Emanuel was not going to rise like Lazarus from his wheelchair and jog down to San Diego for the c&p. Three years wasted to resolve something so simple.

      Now imagine this. Ol’ Emanuel above knew there was some kind of hanky panky afoot when he entered the nursing home back in Spring of ’23.  He’d heard rumors of SMC. He and some of his more astute buddies had a laptop or a tablet and they’d found asknod. They knew there was way more to VA comp $ than VA or DAV were letting on to. They were on the hunt for what was in Monty’s Cookie Jar behind Door #3.

      Emanuel had filed for a&a on a hunch when he entered Marlora. VA smartly asymmetrically denied him because a)- his nurse had filled out the 2680 but put down a bunch of non-service connected disabilities ; b) he’d used an outdated form; and lastly, c) He failed to show for the c&p he didn’t hear about. They did accept the HLR claim but had denied it on January 20, 2024, faster than you could say Jack Robinson.

      Emanuel sure got that denialgram from VA and DAV filed a CUE saying, well, we’re unsure what they said. And then the funniest thing happened. They called him up asking about when he wanted the hearing. Once again, in a Dilaudid Daze, he said he’d never filed a claim for hearing loss. All he wanted VA to do was grant his A&A claim. Here’s the January 2024 denial (number 3).

      No A&A for you, sir.

      The VA “technician” interpreted this as a cancellation of the desire for a hearing and promptly put it in the cold file. A year went by and ol’ Emanuel was like a teapot on the stove coming to a boil. He felt he was such small potatoes that I would never talk to him or accept his POA. Perhaps worse, every VA attorney he’d called said it was a waste of time and to get lost. But he finally called anyway and we cut the representation agreement this Fall. I got a date for the hearing and called QTC to get my boy in the queue for a c&p in the nursing home.

      I did what nobody at VA had thought of. I did a forensic chronological dumpster dive on Emanuel’s A&A claim. Turns out he’s been spinnin’ the A&A Wheel of  Fortune for quite some time. That makes it a continuously pursued claim. But of even more import was that this dustup with Emanuel’s claim wasn’t a CUE at all. It was still a pending claim…

      Most all of you (VA and even Berta over at Hadit.com included) seem to think that if VA pulls a boner, it’s an automatic CUE. Newsflash. It is not. It’s a mistake. A CUE is something that was decided over a year ago and no AED paddles ever invented are going to bring it back to life. Your only hope is to file that motion to revise based on CUE or find some old Army medical records that have never seen the inside of the NPRC or your claims file. That’s a §3.156(c) claim but it’s story for another day. Or, keep it alive by continuing to fight. Or ask for a hearing…

      After Emanual told the VA “expert” that he didn’t want a hearing (claim), said expert promulgated a new rating decision and put that a&a on hold. In VAspeak, that’s called “deferred”. A claim deferred is also called a pending claim. A claim remains pending until there is some evidence it’s been decided. Pending claims have been known to go unnoticed for decades. That’s why I love VBMS. VA screws up and VBMS pours concrete around it to preserve it for posterity-even if it isn’t decided.

      A&A deferred

       I had my delayed hearing for Emanuel’s CUE and the Hearing Officer was adamant that we could only talk about the January 20, 2024,  rating decision that Emanuel and DAV had called a CUE. I’ve met narrow-minded people at VA but I’ve always prided myself on my ability to “draw the picture” for them. Felix kept going back to the 1/2024 decision and asking what the CUE was because we are required to prove it’s a failure to apply the right regulation or that the evidence was not before the adjudicator. Then we have to prove the error manifestly changed the outcome.

      I had to take him on a guided safari of §3.105(a) and explain a CUE is a final decision. Dead. Done. Fini. Mort.  Moat Lao. A pending claim, on the other hand, is a “live” claim. The August 5, 2024, rating decision put this puppy on ice until either VA figured it out or Emanuel did. It took me one and one half hours (0900 to 1030 HRS L) to get a concession out of Felix that we couldn’t very well discuss a CUE until we had a final decision to CUE. Then I pointed out all the things Emanuel cannot do including the fact that he’s in (wait for it) a nursing home where they are doing a&a for him.

    These tales are just a small sampling of how VA wastes your money and time as a taxpayer- and our time as Veterans or litigators. How about you file a claim for PTSD and you deployed to the Sandbox?  VA is going to pay QTC/VES/LHGS about $615.00 to do a Acceptable Clinical Evidence  (ACE) review on your records (without you there in person) and determine that exposure to Burn Pits did not cause your Bent Brain. Result? Denied. But you filed for it based on your Purple Nurple and the CIB. Tough shit.  If you file a 995 and complain a week later, $10 bucks says they’ll tell you to file it on a 526 a month or six weeks later.

    Welcome to the new Appeals Management Act and the “supplemental” PACT Act that purports to clean up the Agent Orange and Burn Pit shit. If this doesn’t convince you to hire an accredited VA representative to help do it, then you must enjoy failure. Even the much-vaunted Claims Sharks Sherpas cannot fathom the depths of this kind of asymmetrical lawfare. I love it. I conducted a-sym warfare for 2 years and it’s the only game in town. Or, as Forest Gump put it- stupid is as stupid does.

    As it’s Christmas, or nearly so, I’d like to wish all of my readership the best of the season and hopes for a heapin’ helpin’ of the same next year. We’re still batting a .1000 on SMC claims and Appeals at asknod so all of you waiting take heart. We always win because, well, we’re right and they aren’t. That’s why I compare it to fishing with hand grenades or 40% DuPont Stump dynamite.

    P.S. I reckon y’all have heard we’re having a long spell of rain and a lot of flooding. One of my local readers sent this in.

Posted in CUE, How to Qualify for VA SMC, SMC, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA special monthly compensation, VARO Misfeasance | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

VA-WHO DETERMINES THE EFFECTIVE DATE?

Posted on November 23, 2025 by asknod

Happy Thanksgiving to you all. I hope this finds you and your significant other in good health. Or if you live in lower Utah, ditto to your significant others. Since we don’t ostracize anyone for their religious/political beliefs or pronouns, we have managed to evade a lot of flak from those who take umbrage with us. Other Veterans help sites use the forum model and open themselves up to all manner of participants. And  no, I’m not schizophrenic and think there are more than one of me. We is Cupcake, Pickles and the horses. But now we’ve grown. We took on a few kitties to avoid them going to the gas chamber. Meet Coconut. Rainbow is a recluse..

Pickles and Coconut

I’ve even found a way to make peace with our resident Karen down in Melbourne Florida. She means well but obviously her upbringing was decidedly liberal. As Winston Churchill once said “They serve also who only stand and wait.” I’d add to that and say “for someone to say something that offends them.”  The world is populated with those who do… or do not do. To try is to fail. Trying implies ultimate defeat. Which is the subject of my diatribe today.

Going to work for VA in a GS-level position rather than an SES-level is immaterial. You’d think that Batchelor’s Degree you got in Haircombing 403 from Harvey Wallbanger University would be just the ticket to success. It probably will be if you’re willing to sell your independence to the VA for 20 years.

Let’s look at VBA “examiners”. This is a misnomer. A  VA claim, when it becomes “secondary ready for decision”, is assigned to a Coach. A Coach is a 10-year, delay and deny specialist. He makes the call as to grant or deny. If it’s “clean”, he sends it out to the Quality Control Freak. They/she/he send it through a computer program to search for a defect which might result in a too-high rating like SMC M instead of an L ½. Then, after 4 Quality control inspections, it goes back to a 14-year RVSR who probably will never make Coach for yet another gander. Finally, after incorporating six mistakes into the proposed rating, they hand it off to a 75 IQ VSR to write up. He uses the M 21 Adobe fill-in-the-blanks program and writes the decision. This is why the decisions read like Dick or Jane authored it. And guess what? The effective date will almost always be wrong and never in your favor either. Shut the front door.

This is what concerns me. Most Veterans, and their VSO representatives, are so overjoyed to get the dang thing done- and any rating- lowball or otherwise- that they don’t pay much attention to the date the VA assigns. VA is guaranteed to screw you out of a lot of money on this. The VSO dude will say “Don’t make waves by poking the Bear.” Funny. That’s what Combat Louie always used to say. It’s also what Ron Peterson, my DAV VSO rep said in 1992 when the Seattle RO handed me my 0% for tinnitus.

VA knows most of you are timid and not ones to confront authority. They hand you poor service, delayed medical care and interminably  long waits to grant your claims. An incorrect effective date is part of their criminal pattern. Their mantra is if the Vet don’t bitch, it’s the correct date. Right?

Let me give you an example. I represent Chris who filed in ’72 for getting hit by a jeep out on the PSP at An Khe one afternoon during a hot refuel of their Huey gunship. VA gave him a pair of Zeros and he got the standard ‘leave the bear alone” speech. Finally, in 2015 after he was still 0%, he figured it out and began filing. We finally got VA to go get his records down at Ft. Hood at the Wm. Beaumont Hospital in 2018. They granted each and every thing I filed Chris for but repeatedly granted on the date filed. They just ignored my §3.156(c) requests as if they didn’t exist.

The first admission of 1972 finally took place in DC and VLJ Evan Deichert agreed wholeheartedly. We got the grants for the disputed items (bad back with radiculopathy into the lower extremities) and Fort Whacko Texas immediately gave him the 2015 original reopening date even though the VLJ had granted 1972.

Back to the BVA for the 1972 date. I wasn’t going to waste time on a HLR. On remand, Fort Whacko yet again showed their prowess in ratings capabilities and lowballed him using the 2023 Diagnostic codes- not the 1972 codes in use at the time he filed. Yep. Back to the BVA. We didn’t get Deichert but we did get a high-IQ VLJ who agreed with my diagnostic codes. Back to Ft. Whacko. But Honey chile we’re not done yet. Oh, hell no.

One of the things we argued in front of Deichert for was a compensable rating for the hole in the roof of Chris’ mouth from the cheekbone falling out a few years after the shoddy 1968 surgeon’s work down in the heart of Texas. The other was for a&a- not Housebound but specifically for §3.350(b)(3). SMC L, babycakes. During each one of those above BVA expeditions, we kept doing the old granny thing in the drive thru at Burger King with “where’s the a&a beef?”. The VA raters would look up at the ceiling and mumble “oh. Yeah. That SMC. So it was no surprise when they finally handed out the shiny new SMC at the S rate. Yep. Back to the BVA.

Most Vets would have gone to the water closet room to shit or go blind permanently by the second trip. Not me. This turned into a pissing contest and each time I went back to the BVA, they’d AOD me and crank out another killer decision each time.  No remands for a duty to assist. Hell, one of the VLJ gals even went into capital letters to bold it just in case the Rocket Boys in Waco were suffering the illness for which there is no sympathy (hangovers) and needed more guidance. And then what?

Yeppers. Fort Whacko welcomed us back with- “Here’s your a&a dickweed and the effective date is July 25th, 2025- the date we got the remand back from the VLJ. Now get lost, bubba”. Roger that. File a new 995 and ask for the real date. This time, Ft. Whacko gave us a resounding Oh Hell no– a giant big step up from the traditional ‘no’ we’d been getting. Back to the BVA again for the correct date. I’d pointed out November 2018 as the date the Psychologist said he went plumb bugfucky and the TBI examiner suggested to his wife Robin that she might consider outfitting him with one of those dog shock collars when they went out in public.

Once again, as expected, our friends at the BVA were happy to see us to grant anything I put in front of them. By now, this must have provoked some betting on how soon his next appeal would arrive. We’re on #7 now, I think. Last but not least, we asked for that rating for a hole in his mouth. They sent him out for umpteen c&p exams and the actual oral surgeon who did the dental exam said “Whoa, dude. That’s waaaaaay past dental shit. We fill holes in teeth-not holes into the sinus cavity.” The experts at Fort Whacko took this to mean Chris wasn’t entitled to anything more than that 1972 rating at Zero percent for his broken jaw because… well because the jaw bone is all healed up and I guess they think he should have filed for a hole in the roof of his mouth back in ’72. You know VA ratings. They simply say “you don’t quite qualify” but don’t explain the secret handshake to win.

Back to the BVA. But this time we got a decision that agreed with the Puzzle Palace in Texas. Nope. The jaw was healed. Zero is the number and counting of the rating shall be Zero. Neither shall thy count NSC nor shall thy count 10%. Well shit. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters? No sir. You go to the CAVC and ask them why a hole in the roof of your mouth is noncompensable and better yet- why they don’t use a different diagnostic code if broken jaw ratings don’t take roof holes into account.

You don’t have to be member of Mensa to figure out what was, and still is, going on here. Effective dates are just the tip of the iceberg. VA tried like the devil to bury the 1972 §3.156(c) date and hoped we were just a couple of country bumpkins who couldn’t light a fart. Each time we prevailed, they figured they could still roll us like a drunken sailor at 2 AM on the effective date. Then the diagnostic code scam. I’d guess they’re plumb shitting bricks trying to figure out how much a hole in your mouth back to 1972 is going to set them back. But that is not the end of the matter. Ol’ Chris  (through me) hasn’t even begun to discuss his Barry bumps yet. We’re waiting for them to crank out the 2018 SMC L a&a rating and close out the claim first.

Another thing is the downstream effects of these retro claims. VA has now awarded Chris over 30% back to 1972. Actually, it’s 50%. We scalped them for that already but what about Wife No. 1, 2 and 3 and all the dependent children who grew up eating nothing but bread crusts and water? Right. We filed for that back in January of this year. VA put it into cold storage and doesn’t quite know where to start… or whether they want to.

So, the score after ten years is pretty impressive. Chris hasn’t yet gone out and bought an Electric Hummer for a buck and a half yet… but he could without even cutting into his 401K. He was a CPA. Chances are they’re still driving a 2001 Kia with the smaller 4-cylinder engine. I’m guessing it has about 205 K on the odometer and bald tires, too.  But for them this isn’t just a Happy 2025 Thanksgiving. It’s been a happy year and we’re still throwing rocks at the front window of the David Koresh Memorial Regional Office. Sometimes life hands you lemons. I know. I got 28 years of them- a veritable shit ton. The repair order is simple- you just need to find a good VA representative with bartender skills to mix in vodka, a soupçon of Cointreau and make Lemon Screwdrivers out of them.

 As an aside, John and Ray have asked me to join them this Wednesday next- the day before we give thanks for all our blessings, for a video Zoom show on Exposed Veterans. The time is the same as on Thursdays- 1900 hrs east and 1600 hrs out here on the wild and whacky west coast. If I didn’t know any better, with all the crazy shenanigans afoot these days, I’d swear old Dr. Timothy Leary was out here spiking our public water supplies with LSD. Good thing I have a well, huh?

https://riverside.fm/studio/exposed-vet-productions?token=5fd0e978d400ad0429f2f297687213271459bdc9

And lastly, I wish to thank all those who have, or will, put their trust in me and let me spank the VA for their sins. I can’t begin to tell you how blessed I feel to be allowed to do this. As John Belushi observed, “We’re on a mission from God”.

P.S. the LRRP sends us the usual humor fresh from Oregon (where else?).

Posted in Thanksgiving and war | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

FOR ENFILADING FIRE, ALWAYS PLACE YOUR PIGS ON YOUR FLANKS

Posted on November 16, 2025 by asknod

I know. That title sounds pretty onerous but it was a wise piece of advice in the 60’s that carries over into the litigation world. Meet Roger the chef. Roger enlisted in June of 1964 just in time to enjoy a year’s vacation in Sunny Southeast Asia. As most know, being a cook doesn’t mean you’ll never have to pick up your 16 and defend your base. Nevertheless, Roger did manage to avoid becoming a full time Eleven Bravo in everything but name only. Roger lives down near Biloxi, MS and has for a long time. He came to me because he’d hit the wall. No matter what he did, VA thwarted him. Stir in Multiple Sclerosis and you got me hooked like a smallmouth with a Mepps No. 2 through his lip. Read on.

Roger lived a good life and worked hard. Then, in 1989, he began to come down with MS. VA said it wasn’t on the Agent Orange list and to get lost. What he did have was a shit ton of other diseases that were on the list so it made sense to every one of his doctors except the VA’s Benefits Administration doctors. Long about 2019, Roger’s Chronic kidney disease  (CKD) which wasn’t on the AO list either, began to go south- most likely due to nasty DMII and tons of peripheral neuropathy. By now, Roger was stove up pretty bad from the MS and had gotten his wheelchair driver’s license. Sure enough he had the Diabetes but VA said No way that CKD has anything to do with DM II. It’s caused by HTN and McDonald’s. Claim denied.

Roger found me back in 2023 and after I did a LRRP on his claims file in VBMS, I constructed a perfect horseshoe ambush to draw them Raters into. Allow me to explain. In all my years of doing this, I’ve spotted VA’s technique to prolong a claim out a few years. Yeah. You’ll win sometime in the future but not this year, bubba. We’re in the delay and deny mode. Here’s how it begins. You go down to them chuckleheads at the DAV or AmLeg and they file something longer than a 18-wheeler and claim you for everything but your funny bone. Here, Roger filed for CKD and DM II and a bunch of other things. A big-ass bunch of other things including IHD. VA denied the CKD first, because… well, because they can. Shoot. That’s Duh!101 dude. Then they granted the DMII and IHD due to Agent Orange. He refiled for the CKD due to DMII as a secondary and they promptly 86’d it and said no- it was HTN.

First thing was Roger needed more $. He needed to get into R1 pronto but VA kept short-sheeting his bed. His house need a SAH grant. He needed an automobile grant. His wife needed a&a, too. God Bless Mednick Associates. They built a rock solid IMO and we finally prevailed at the Board the next year on his MS. Now, I had to do some sweeping up. I tried to go for the Loss of use as well as the Barry bumps but that pancaked for lack of a true diagnosis of loss of use. I was pretty confident- maybe too confident. I’d snagged the A&A for the IHD but they weren’t granting any more Ls or even Barry Bumps.  This time I was going for a second a&a.

So, while I’d been reconnoitering his efolder, I spotted that CKD≠DMII and devised the perfect ambush. I just knew if I filed him for the CKD again along with the HTN, they’d just deny the CKD and then grant the HTN under the PACT act. These bozos are very predictable.  So I did the HTN and got the grant about a week later. A Zero % of course but I planned on that. Next, I filed a supplemental for the CKD as a secondary to the HTN and used VES’s very own DBQ and medical opinion from 2019 for my IMO. I wish you all could have watched their gears grind to a halt. It was textbook shit or go blind. After about a month, with nothing for it, they had to grant. I mean, they’re the ones who opened their fat yaps and blamed it on the HTN, not me.

So Rog pulled an 80% out of that and then it was off to the SMC races. I started pumping  claims  into the chamber and held the release down while racking that slide back and forth and shot that magazine dry. You know what that does. It’s like poking a hole in one of them big wasp nests hanging off the barn. Every Tom Dick and Harry came flying out of the Jackson RO and formed up shoulder to shoulder. I’d gotten into a little bugtussle with them back in ’18 and almost got thrown out on my ear. I doubt they’ve forgotten that. Here I’d put the triple whammy on them and they were gonna show me. I’d hit them with Loss of use of both uppers and lowers as well as a double aid and attendance for the CKD and the MS. Holy shit Batman. I reckon they put every GS 14 swingin’ dick they had on this. The VBMS Notes section read like a Coach’s convention.

So they decided to just outright cheat. They started manufacturing VA regulations out of whole cloth. I mean, what could they do? They walked into this like babes in the woods. That’s why I chose the title about enfilading fire. You throw out the bait and they take it. Then they just run into the evidence they built. We called M 60s Pigs not because they were heavy or a bitch to keep working. They positively inhaled ammunition. In today’s parlance, it’s a .308 calibre and you can cut trees down with them. Used to be when the gooks heard that chainsaw fire up, they all kept their heads down. No banzai charges or excessive shows of valor.

The interesting thing you’ll note in the BVA decision is the whole big argument about “one a&a to a customer” was blatantly ignored.  The BVA hierarchy can’t have their Board Members calling the Secretary and his worker bees ignorant ladies of the night and raised by wolves.  Instead, the VLJ put on his blinders and focused myopically on the wheelchair thus ignoring decades of SMC precedence and §4.63 to declare he was wheelchair-bound thus proving beyond doubt that he had loss of use. This should be a teaching moment for all of you in this predicament. The correct cite is Hime v. McDonald, 28 Vet.App. 1, 7 n.1 (2016) . You can actually use BVA decisions to illustrate a point of law.

Here’s the reading list.

redacted RD 9.15.2025

Redacted 10182 filed 9.25.2025

Redacted BVA R1 11.6.25

I’m waiting on the Jackson 5 down in Mississippi to screw this up in their rating decision and only grant the O. Right now, they have all their coaches on deck pondering that SMC O and not knowing how to convert it to R1.  All they know is the SMC Ratings calculator doesn’t work after SMC M. But what does this say about the VLJ? Why didn’t he complete the SMC formula and take it to §3.350(h) an it’s natural conclusion? My guess, and it’s pure conjecture mind you, is he’s a former Marine JAG and he ate the crayon before he finished coloring in the decision…

Life is good. So is Elk meat. A happy Veterans Day was had by all. I passed on Applebee’s again for the free meal. They don’t have single malt scotch in their bar. The rain has been heavy and in copious quantities so the folks in California have been choosing other states to emigrate to. Boy howdy if them chowderheads ever discover we don’t have forest fires and power outages every afternoon, we’re gonna get flat overrun. Too bad it’s against the law to set up a horseshoe perimeter at the border on I-5 and place Pigs on both flanks of the Bridge…

P.S. LRRP humor from Ed.

 

Posted in BvA Decisions, PACT ACT, SMC School, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VBMS Tricks | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

THE SMELL OF NAPALM IN THE MORNING

Posted on November 11, 2025 by asknod

I reckon the only folks who would remember that phrase are diehard Apocalypse Now movie buffs or those of us who actually smelled it. I suppose it goes hand in hand with the old saw “”For those who have served, freedom has a taste — and a price — that the protected will never know”. There are many iterations of P. McCree Thornton’s fabled phrase but they all convey the same sentiment. Personally, I get way more goosebumps out of the fourth stanza of the National Anthem. As for napalm, it really just smells like burnt gasoline-lots of it. As for those of us who raised our right hand and swore to defend our Motherland? Try selling yourself into slavery for a few years and then report back and share your sentiments. The rewards of that service can never be measured in free meals at Applebee’s™.

Veterans are a special breed of human. Perhaps that’s why we’re becoming as rare as hen’s teeth. When there isn’t a draft or a war requiring a shit ton of young men and women to fight, the services actually have to devote an inordinate amount of time and energy trying to recruit sufficient numbers of souls to sign up. I get that. You’re right in the prime of youth and have enough testosterone or estrogen to cover the continental US about a foot deep. Your body is saying it’s time to practice procreation-and lots of it. The last thing it’s saying is “Gee. I think I’ll become celibate for a few years and get credits for free college”. Oh hell no.

Several days ago, our President attended a NFL football game and swore in 300 recruits to the military. He was met with boos from the crowd. It seems emblematic of a new National mood; one of dissatisfaction with anything political. Whether you think of him as “Orange Man” or as our Commander-in-Chief, one hundred years from now folks will remember that 300 aspiring members of our military were booed for their choice to serve their country and possibly forfeit their lives.

I guess I don’t have to point out that fifty or so years ago there were Americans who booed my fellow servicemen and me for our choice to do something very similar. George Santayana anyone? Regardless of who, exactly, they were booing, be it the President or the newly sworn in, their sentiment is frightening. Worse, we are required to acknowledge them as fellow Americans.

Some of us might aver that  a nation is judged by how it treats its Veterans. Our first President stated “The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war… shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of earlier wars were treated and appreciated by our nation.”

While most of us don’t carry a grudge forever, I know a lot of Veterans- myself included- who would give their eye teeth and large quantities of George Washington coupons for the great honor of being allowed to pee on Henry Fonda’s daughter’s grave. But that’s a subject for another day.

Much has been said about Veterans-both good and bad. Bill Calley got the short end of the stick after My Lai. Capt. Medina got medals. I admire him because I know the truth. I almost got the poopy end of the punji stick for calling in nape and frying a hoard of Pathet Lao on the verge of overrunning some SOG folks at Xieng Kouang near the Plain of Jars one morning. I neglected to ask permission before clearing Misty 22 in hot. I’d do it again even if it meant a guaranteed Court Martial. There were six of my fellow servicemen down there and they expected no less.

This illustrates the bond Veterans have with one another. Once you become one, you join what used to be called the 3 percenter club. It’s one percent now. After Sunday’s treatment of our newest recruits, I fear it may become a fraction thereof. When it does, we’ll be cluelessly questioning where America went wrong-and blaming each other.

America is a compendium of disparate faiths and races. We were once considered a melting pot but now it’s more a miasma of competing ideologies rather than a proud citizenry composed of many who consider themselves Americans. It’s my belief that when you move Heaven and Earth to get here to our shores, you might aspire to assimilate yourself into our society. That has changed.

Servicemen don’t have that problem. They’re on a mission from God to become… servicemen in defense of our country. When they separate or retire and become freshly minted Veterans, they don’t have that problem. It’s not some sick militarily-ingrained psychosis. It’s bred of a desire to keep America free. Face it, we have it cush here. I suppose there will always be dissent or a glass-half -empty mentality that somehow it should (or could) be better. One thing’s for sure. White entitlement doesn’t exist in the military or the Veterans ranks.

As our reward from a grateful nation, we get free food from so-so restaurants for one day of the year. We get a parade or two and a “Thanks for your service” or a “Welcome Home!” Don’t get me wrong. This isn’t a complaint blog. It’s an observation based on fifty-odd years of sitting in the bleachers watching. The truth is I’m a) not a parade kind of guy and b) I don’t need a bunch of attaboys to get through life. I’d bet the majority of America’s Veterans would second my emotion. Sometimes you can be happy just knowing you did something good for others without expecting a trophy or reward.

My greatest reward was making it home alive and being able to help Veterans get their benefits in a meaningful way-not a clean pair of socks and a new toothbrush at a VA standdown for the homeless. And bubba, when I say benefits, I’m not talking about a 10% rating for tinnitus or hemorrhoids. I’m talking the highest and best rating I can produce for you even if it means not getting a dime for doing it.

There’s also a unique difference between Veterans advocates. Some do it as a business and some do it because they want to make life better for their fellow Veterans. I pride myself in being one of the latter and I’m sure I could roust out a passel of former clients who would attest that I kick ass and take names. The reason is simple. I was one of those who had no one to mentor me or effectively fight for my rights. I traversed the desert like Moses for 28 years. I had to learn how to win because nobody was teaching us the secret handshake or the password.

I hope this finds all of you Veterans in a better spot soon if you’re not already. I also offer a hand to those who just cannot get any traction at the VSO outfits across our fruited plains. Asknod now, in 2025, actually comprises a loose consortium of like-thinking attorneys and Agents who all work together in concert by focusing on certain aspects of VA law like musculoskeletal injuries, weird diseases and mental depression. If I can’t do it, I have at least ten others who can…and will and more importantly, are damn eager for the honor of being allowed to do so.

Outside of Happy Veterans Day,  that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

P.S. One of my Veteran buddies was ragging on me last week and saying I need to take some time off and let my hair down. I didn’t have the heart to tell him I went AWOL in early October to Idaho…

It’s a gourmet meat thing. You wouldn’t understand.

Posted in All about Veterans, Inspirational Veterans, Veterans Day, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments

RECENT ARTICLE IN WAPO ABOUT FRAUD IN VETERANS’ CLAIMS

Posted on October 30, 2025 by asknod

It’s funny how certain things rear their ugly heads right smack dab in the middle of nasty articles about all us lyin’ stinkin’ Vets just looking for a handout. A week after that article came out, I was doing a chronological review of  a Vet I agreed to represent. I began the research last Saturday and completed it late Monday. What I found was conclusive evidence of what can only be described as blatant fraud. 

Up to now, I’ve had a few questionable cases where the evidence, or the Veteran, exhibited a fact pattern that was simply too unbelievable or incredulous. Not all of these are simple DD 214s with erasures of the OTH and a whiteout job to insert “under honorable conditions”. Some folks arrive looking genuine but with egregious inexplicable errors.

I don’t just inspect the claim. I investigate the Veteran. If you claim you were in the Nam but your 214 shows you didn’t even enlist until 1976, it’s an easy bullshit call. And then there are the guys who claim their shit was so secret they couldn’t even be awarded medals for fear of spilling top secret secrets. I like the Brown Water Navy guy who was on a destroyer that sailed up the Mighty Mea Kong (Mekong) River in search of the Bad Guys. Couldn’t remember the name of the destroyer nor which fork of the 48 possible routes they took up the river.

The best one by far was the babe who came to me seeking help. Her 80 yr.-old hubby was in the Ghostwalker Krewe. You know, the 400 guys who squeezed into an old C 54 prop job back in 1959 and flew from McChord AFB to Osan Korea non-stop. That bird would have been lucky to have hit Bingo near where Amelia Earhart augered in. 400(did I mention there were 400 of these stalwart souls) deplaned, boarded Zodiacs (before they were even invented) and trekked in from the westerly Coast near Inchon at 12 midnight. They made it all the way inland twelve miles to a Nukular Power Plant to take pictures. She stated they posted one soldier every 100 yards all the way there. That left 190 11Cook10s to assault the power plant.  Seems the technicians were out for lunch (at 12 midnight) and nobody was there. They all made it out alive and never got medal one for it. Too secret. Check it out- https://asknod.org/2018/01/27/khe-sanh-50-years-later/

So, here comes Johnny Vet with a brand new shiny SMC L and says ‘Dude, I’ve hit the wall on getting to SMC T. American Legion just don’t get this SMC gig. Help me, hoss.’ Now, I’d allow as it sounded legitimate but it took me about 3 weeks to dig down through the pile of new POAs to get to him. By then the Washington Post article was out and everyone was talking about us filthy rich Veteran Welfare Queens.

This feller (Johnny Vet) was in for 6 years in the USAF (99-05). He made it to E 3 by 2001 but then started going backwards. It might have had something to do with that ’01 hit-and-run MVA at 2330 at Misawa AB. He separated as an E2 in ’05 because he couldn’t reach a legal BMI before promotion. But that wasn’t what caught my eye. He got the usual 30-40% for a handful of musculoskeletal things when he separated… and then the trail went cold… until 2021. All of a sudden this ol’ boy was filing something every 3 weeks nonstop. He suddenly had more things wrong with him than he did right.

Now, it would seem if you worked in the motor pool at Bagram Air Base in 2003 that you’d see a few vehicles come in with blood on the seats. That’s a bummer but if it was going to give you bent brain syndrome, it stands to reason that this would infest your dreams from that day forward. For me, them kind of movies are like permanent reruns on Tubi and begin about 2200 most nights. After 55 years, they lose their intensity. But it didn’t even get to him until almost 20 years later in 2021. And boy howdy did it suddenly begin eating him alive. He shot all the way up to 100% in short order with not so much as one confirmed stressor. Seems he had nightmares nonstop and had been for years but plumb forgot to file for it. And then the TBI showed up out of the blue on top of all that right after. STRs showing LOC and reporting to the field hospital with headaches, vertigo and temporary loss of hearing? Nada. Nothing. No record of anything more serious than the flu. And then rhinitis and sinusitis began acting up. I’m at a loss as to how many months you have to snort pepper to get that bodacious a sinus infection before you drive down to VES to the c&p. I mean, we’re talking a real daisy here.

The bummer on the rhinitis goldmine hit home when Johnny Vet found out VA kinda tops out on that PACT crap at 30%. As for getting his double 100% for TBI with PTSD, he must never have heard that was VA Rating Trick Number 1. They always just roll it over into the 100 for the PTSD. That’s so predictable. Suddenly, his claims game was getting increasingly more complicated. By spring of this year he had about 6 pages of Code Sheet with 16 10%s for knees(bilateral of course), ankles (ditto), funny bones, painful scars, hemorrhoids etc. In other words, he’d hit the wall and that hoped-for SMC T was still waaaaay out of reach. Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters?

His wife had been cranking out buddy letters all along saying he was mega- hors d’ combat and was relegated pretty much to Fort Livingroom and his M1A1 recliner. His headaches were almost constant… except on those miraculous occasions when they relented… when he had to attend a c&p exam or the VAMC for a new ailment or checkup…alone….unaccompanied. He even cranked out a “Headache Log Diary” recording every last one for 2024. He struck out on three where he was out and about or at the VAMC during one of them. The VA doctors also noted he always arrived by himself unaccompanied and fully ambulatory. Always…Boy howdy that sure didn’t fit the significant other’s narrative of having the ambulance on speed dial.

And then he called me. He needed that final push to T and knew I had the Magic Wand. And the funny thing is I almost bought it until I spotted one last VA Form 21-4138 Buddy letter from someone who claimed to be a 30-year retired Squid. Said purported squid claimed he just happened to be in the neighborhood and willingly offered to shepherd my Johnny through the claims process. He then certified under oath by signing his name on page two in Block #9 that the statements on that 4138 were true and correct to the best of his knowledge and belief. The 4138 went on as to what a hot mess my Johnny Vet was and that he was credible and the Squid’s BFF. Why, after just a year of sitting around and shooting the shit with him (in those brief interludes between all those headaches), he could tell John Boy’s credibility was right up there with Jesus, Mary and Joseph (and the donkeys they rode in on) and he deserved to be granted that T.

The gentleman’s name was Thomas Barr. So being an inquisitive guy, I googled him. Turns out him and his wife are located right there in Johnny’s home town of Manila PI. Shucks, this ol’ boy was too good to be true. He was so motivated that him and his wife had devoted themselves to helping poor Vets who were getting screwed over by VA.  He had “The Plan” to fix your problems… just like all the rest of them claims sherpas. Life Changing Veterans Benefits LLC (or Inc.) was the name and VA claims is their game. For a paltry sum (available on request) they’ll fix your problems licketyspit. https://www.lcveteranbenefits.com/about/

Cathy Barr of LC Veterans Benefits LLC

I couldn’t look away. Check out this picture. Ensign (O-1) and a Maverick? Three medals and a shiny new PHM below them wings? And a crooked nametag? What’s wrong with this picture? Wait a minute. If this VA Claims Engineer is so red hot, why in the Sam Hill am I being asked to be the Sherpa of last resort? In fact, I don’t even see a NDSM on his chest. That screams 1976 to 1990. So how do you get a PHM during a time of peace? This smelled worse than a three day-old fish under the back seat.

ENS Thomas Barr 

Turns out Johnny Vet insists the Tomeister left him in the lurch this January right on the cusp of getting his SMC T. He went submarine silent and did his best Halloween ghost imitation. Now why is that? We, the “Consortium” of SMC Jedi Knights, talk to each other almost every day. If one of us gets a call for our services for high SMC ratings, we tend to make sure we’re not getting smoke blown up our patooties. And we tend to ask one another about FNGs. At one point, we had a twofer- two claims sharks from Blue Cord Patriots trying to get SMC T and they were basically asking us to rep them to learn how to do a SMC T claim/appeal. When I refused, they just called up Wes and asked him next. Shoot. That’s about as subtle as a fart in church on Sunday morning.

Now, it could be my Johnny Vet is genuine- but then it could be he is just a shill for Mr. Barr to learn how to summit Mount TBI and get the big bucks.  I learned the hard way back in ’15 in my dustup with the Wounded Wallet Krewe to make sure I couch any of my suspicions of nefarious behavior as mere musings of what it appears to look like. That’s a far cry from accusing someone of actually being guilty of something. Could be Mr. and Mrs. Barr are pure as the driven snow and God’s gift to Veterans. I reckon I’ll never know-just like I reckon the real story on them 400 Ghostwalkers will remain under wraps. But it would make a great Hollywood movie.

My daddy explained to me once that the best conspiracy is a conspiracy of one. If there are two, one of them is going to discuss it with his girlfriend. If you involve 400, that conspiracy is going to have more holes in it than a screen door. So how did dey do dat? Where are the other 399 cooks and military po-licemen who embarked on that dangerous mission? How do you sail a destroyer up the Mekong where it’s about 12 feet deep? All these queshuns and no answers.

Happy Halloween. File this one under Trick or Treat. Or how to screw up your SMC Claims…

Posted in All about Veterans, Claims sharks, FACE HUMOR, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA Claims Sharks, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

CHECK OUT THIS BAD BOY

Posted on October 24, 2025 by asknod

Wes and me are like peas and carrots. One of these days he’ll realize that Scotch is far superior to Bourbon but that always takes time and years of culture. Besides, they probably don’t have Scotch in Georgia so I don’t hold it against him. Wes and I both have interesting combinations of initials. Wes’s are WAM. I think that scares the VA raters. Mine are GAG. Same difference. I think that’s why we’re both so successful at VA Poker. But that’s another story for another day.

You folks ought to read this even if it doesn’t directly affect you. It’s an example of the sheer audacity of the VA to up and revise regulations without so much as a normal discussion on the pros and cons of doing so.

https://unitedforvets.us/spectator/81-monthrule

We, as Veterans, are supposed to have a special place in the scheme of things where our benefits are concerned. I’m not talking about being given special privileges , acting like spoiled brats or being entitled to more than our civilian counterparts.

Few of you, (2%) chose to raise your right hand and volunteer to get up at 0dark30 for 4 years to work for chump change for America. Those who do always run the risk that a war might break out during their time in service. Once that happens, you can’t just say “Not it!” and bug out. You’re stuck until someone says Olly Olly In Come Free.

Consequently, should you be injured during said service, you are entitled to certain benefits- some of which are as discussed in this article. VA seems to have a different view of how much you get and they’ve been giving a haircut to those benefits since the War of 1812.

If you could look at the way the regulations were written in 1946 when the war ended, you’d be shocked to see they were far more liberal than they are now. Up until Halloween of 1992, if you came down with lung cancer, you’d get service connected for it-even if you smoked 3 packs a day. What the hey? They sold Marb Reds down at the PX for 13 ¢ a pack when I got to Nam. You could drink yourself into cirrhosis with dirt cheap booze up until 1990 and they’d give you 100% until the day you died and DIC to the oke san afterwards. In fact, you could shoot up heroin and get addicted and it was service connected until 1990.

So it should come as no surprise that each year we suffer some shrinkage of what we get paid for in the way of disabilities. This article touches on one such haircut they just gave to college benefits. I’m sure it won’t be the last either.

In addition, I’d like to show you an example of the old Thursday Rule. You’d think loss of use of the upper or lower extremities would be a simple test. Can you walk? Can you walk without falling down every few steps? Do you need your spouse or sig other to hold on to you to keep you from falling down? You’d think answering any one of those questions with a “no” would be a shoo-in for loss of use and entitlement to SMC at the L rate. Boy howdy would you feel stupid when you got denied.

I’ve been working with Johnny Vet here for quite some time to get him a rating for loss of use of his lower extremities. He came to me with the claim already in motion. Were it me, I’d have started out with aid and attendance first but you fight a war with the gun you were given.

John boy has gone up and down the ladder to the BVA a few times. I’m starting trip number 3. Interestingly, Secretary Denis the Menace said he had loss of use in a favorable finding of fact but kept denying him. I’m going to try out Sec. Doug and see what he says. Seems if they say you will be considered to have loss of use if any of the 3 descriptions of what loss of use consists of exist… then you do. See §4.63.

But now, in 2025,  loss of use is a Thursday Rule game.  Let me explain that. You file for loss of use and they ask you if you were born on a Thursday.  If so, then you qualify for  loss of use. But there’s one more little test first. Were you born in the AM or the PM? If you pass that test correctly, the next one is suddenly “inside or outside the continental US? Gradually, VA will weed out all the people that qualify and reduce their liability.

Here, Johnny has all the goodies. Complete paralysis of the peroneal nerves? Check. Drop foot? Check. Seems that would be the ticket. Not so fast, cowboy. You’re missing something but they won’t say exactly what. So you read further and see that you need some organic and trophic changes. The c&p exam says Roger that. Numb from the knees down and can’t feel shit. Your legs are shiny and hairless so that box is checked. But still no bucks in the bank. Seems you need someone (a doctor) to say you’d be equally well served by elective amputation below the knees and get fitted with suitable prostheses.

The phrase is so convoluted that doctors often think VA is saying you qualify if they cut them puppies off and fit you with plastic feet. So, in reality, you could be forced to crawl on all fours and technically never qualify because a VA c&p examiner would say you can still walk ambulate after a fashion.  Define walking. Is it accomplished with a cane? Denied. Is walking a danger but you can still do it for short distances like from the wheelchair to the toilet transfer? Denied. Do you kiss the concrete trying to go up a stairs? Use the wheelchair ramp and slow down. Denied. Next?

The fact is loss of use is harder to get than teaching your dog long division. Try it some time. Do you use a wheelchair? Doesn’t mean you have loss of use. Are you forced to use Canadian Crutches to walk? Bummer. You can still walk. Denied. About the only guaranteed way to win is to step on a Bouncing Betty and blow them dogs off completely. But that’s cheating. It’s actually loss of- not loss of use.

So, after going zero for 4 on this one, I decided to explain the rules to the Judge. If they deny it again, I think I can beat them up at the Court. At least that’s the game plan here. Grab a cold one and read this brief. Could be you’ll get some ideas on how to win your own battle for loss of use.

redact ex pgs LOU PRELIM

Posted in Aid and Attendance, BvA Decisions, DM II, Loss of Use, Special Monthly Compensation, VA Agents | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 4 Comments

GOIN’ UP THE COUNTRY–SAY THAT YOU WANNA GO.

Posted on October 5, 2025 by asknod

I’m gonna leave this city, got to get awayAll this fussing and fighting, man, you know I sure can’t stay.

I remember hearing this song quite a bit in Southeast Asia. Canned Heat had its following but if you noticed, they had only one basic song with different lyrics. Standard jazz E-A-D progression. The humor in it all was “gonna leave this city, got to get away”. You couldn’t get much further away than the Republic of Vietnam. We were most always  200 klics east of Timbuckf_____gtu as near as I could figure. As for the fussin’ and fightin’ part of it, you couldn’t find more combat excitement  unless you had one of them fancy DeLoreans with a One gigawatt Flux Capacitor mounted on the trunk lid and dialed it back to The Battle of the Bulge in WWII.

For my birthday present, my son is taking me elk hunting in Idaho this coming week. All I have to do is watch. I’ll keep you posted if I bag one. The standard- news and film at 6. Cupcake will be holding down the LZ and taking my calls. Feel free to call if you have some catastrophe.  She just brought home a couple of rescue kittens who were homeless. Just what we need- a couple of furniture destroyers. Pickles is going to want to leave home.

Mostly, this was a great excuse to finally put a scope on a beautiful rifle my dad bought back in 1984 but never prepped for hunting. I took it down to Bass Pro Shop™ recently and had them mount a 3X9X40 Leupold on it. They were far more interested in buying it from me than selling me the scope. This thing is new-in-box like a blast from the past. I don’t think they even make them anymore in the model I have. In fact, there ain’t no ammo for it in Seattle. I had to order in from Midway™.

“It” is a Model Mark V .270 Weatherby Magnum. I must still be in shape. It took me 13 rounds to get it zeroed in. It packs a pretty good wallop but I don’t ache this morning. The ol’ boy who mounted it said he’d bore-sighted it in close enough to “get it on the paper”. He must own a paper mill. After 2 shots at a 36X36 satellite dish with no strikes at 150 yds. I sashayed back on up to the hacienda and grabbed a 4X8 sheet of plywood to give me some reference. At $5.47 a shot, I wanted to conserve ammo.

It’s high resolution- click on it for a closeup.

It was shooting 38 inches high and 34 inches right. That’s a shit ton of minutes of angle to fix in eleven shots and be certain you didn’t twitch slightly. I will say that once you apply anything more than about .015 foot pounds of pressure on the trigger, that round is long gone.

Now to discuss our favorite subject- VA. I would hope  everyone would chill out about starving to death for lack of a VA compensation check. Equally, I’d suggest we all step back and quit worrying about all the VA doctors and nurses quitting. The problem isn’t that the VA Poobahs are being a Dick. It’s primarily because VA isn’t willing to pay their employees livable wages. A civilian nurse can command about $130 K/year minimum if she’s hot. At VA, the same gal is going to have 4 times the workload for $85 K beginning wages fresh out of school. Lather, rinse and repeat for Psychologists to keep up with the horrendous PTSD cases. Or Doctors for all the DM II and Parkie’s. As it is, they can’t even keep up and have to farm them out to the local market… at market rates, mind you, just like steak and lobster at the restaurant. So how do you ever save money doing that?

Yes, they 86’d the AFGE union so the VA employees are now without. But to be honest, the AFGE was a toothless tiger. They came on bad and scary but that’s akin to a declawed cat. All hiss and no piss. VA employees can’t go on strike. Their paychecks keep pace with what the Government said a GS payscale would pay with COLA…and no more. VA skirted that with all these “performance pay” metrics or a big fat allowance to move Their SES personnel from DC to their new digs in Phoenix or Seattle. I’m seeing a different metric now. Seattle has had the same Director now for over ten years. No more Musical Chairs and an automatic bump up on the SES ladder every 3 years.

The big news I get from the legal jungle drums we litigators all listen to is a sudden rush of ratings decisions in the waning days of this current fiscal year ending September 30th. VA’s production levels soared to wondrous new heights never before seen but a well-known side effect of that is accuracy.  We all saw some real daisies emerge in the last days. I know VA is using AI but their AI machine is beginning to develop its own M 21 and autopen and make up new statutes and regulations I’ve never seen or heard of. Check out this one as one of many examples of what they’re cranking out.

RD 9.15.2025_Redacted

Sorry Roger. One a&a to a customer. No pyramiding. You’ll notice every rating decision on that one above has a supportive cite to a controlling reg but the “one to a customer” finding of fact doesn’t.  That’s readily explainable because there isn’t one. It’s a pure fig newton of someone’s fervid, feverish imagination.  But then they let some ol’ GS 14 step 5 RVSR crank out 85,300 ratings decisions-every one of them a grant- at the rate of 4.5 minutes per signature… for a couple years or more and never bat an eyelash. Go Philly. I understand there are also going to be an inevitable shit ton of CUE notifications going out directly giving a haircut to some of you. I’ll also take a wild guess and say they’ll all emanate from Philly too.

The good news from Quantico is the military is going to begin focusing again on what they do best- killing people. No more morbidly obese generals. No more Pronouns 101 or the correct polite phraseology to say ‘no!’ to those recalcitrant Russians about this Ukraine misunderstanding. No more 5 pushups for you ma’m but 50 for for them SFs, Rangers and the SEAL Teams. No more sex change operations. The only sex surgery will be for those unfortunate souls who come down with that incurable social disease we used to call the Black VD. Them ol’ boys will still get a free testicle enucleation to cure them forever. Or some gal who wishes to get her tubes tied or a mastectomy for breast cancer. But that’s military shit. We’re Veterans now so that really doesn’t get in to our wheelhouses, right?

As for deploying the Nasty Guard to cities? Again, that isn’t what we deal with here. We do jokes and VA claims-not necessarily in that order. We demand equality of humor. Our motto is Win or Die. As for the future of VA, I’m confident they will stumble through this period of revamping their procedures, ceasing their All Hands on Deck fly-ins for VA training events in Orlando on December 21-24 and their famous Halloween Karaoke Sing offs in Omaha. What the hey? The VA compensation tables are a study in poverty in this day and age. Washington State just announced the new minimum pay per hour come 2026 is $17.00/hour. In Seattle proper, it’s already $21.06/hour.

As an interesting footnote, at our recent DC conferences, we heard VA is looking at the SMC rates with an eye toward raising the per-month levels. Adult daycare is getting frightfully expensive. Visiting Angels™ is right out unless you’re at SMC T.

Closing on a brighter note before I put on my facepaint and camo and go out killing poor defenseless elk, I just bagged a great Barry bump case all the way from SMC L to R1. Relax. Of course we’re going for R 2. I just like to corral the R 1 first without appearing overtly greedy. Always remember. This is like a horseshoe ambush with a complete ring of inward-facing Claymores with one clacker. When the dust settles, only then do you complete the second half- i.e., go in and make sure everyone is down and doesn’t get up. My LRRP buddy says they used to call that “Giving everybody a third eye”. Yeah. That’s Ed’s lived experience. 11B40speak.

Redact R1 Barry style

At asknod, we don’t subscribe to being nice with VA employees any more than they play nice with us. Legal bullets and hand grenades are cheap. My dying clients deserve aggressive representation- and they get it from us. This ‘don’t poke the bear’ mentality being preached by DAV, VFW and AmLeg is pure crap. You never win by sitting by the phone or the mailbox waiting and it’s a guaranteed way to stay at 60% until you die.

And that’s the way it is at LZ Grambo Sunday October 5 in the year of our Lord, 2025.

 

Posted in Barry Bumps in SMC, BvA Decisions, General Messages, Guns, SMC, VA Agents, vA news, Veterans Law | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

LAWSUIT AGAINST VETERANS GUARDIAN LLC

Posted on September 19, 2025 by asknod

I think it’s time we, not as litigators, but as Veterans, acknowledge the truth. As many of you know, or maybe many of you do not know, in 2007, while trying to win my claim for VA benefits, I decided to read every BVA decision I could find going back to 1992. I focused on Hepatitis C because that was what I sought. I winnowed out the thousands of denials from the handful of grants and discovered one thing in common amongst the winners. Each and every Veteran had a nexus letter. I then went to the CAVC website and read every panel decision from 1989 to 2000. Bingo! Caluza vs. Brown. Each BVA decision cited Caluza as their predicate for granting. 

This was the Rosetta Stone we’d been lacking since the War of Northern Aggression. From there I began helping (not preparing and mailing out) other Veterans by telling them what they lacked. I wrote a book in 2012 to herald this important finding. When I became accredited in 2015, I happened to run into the folks at Mednick Associates at a legal conference. They were in the business of helping Veterans obtain these needed nexus letters-but only by objective, carefully analyzed methods universally recognized as being legally legitimate and free of any fraudulent techniques.

And here we are today. Everybody but Micky Mantle’s mom seems to be in the business of providing these letters to Veterans… for a price. To say they are objective and free of trickery and artifice would be like trying to turn the truth into a rubber band. Recently, we (many of my fellow litigators from a legal four-letter acronym consortium who prefer I do not besmirch their good name) received a warning from one of these outfits threatening legal lawsuits if we continue to call them “claims sharks” or aver they are breaking the law.

So, this morning, my electronic inbasket doth overflow with the revelation that Vets Guardian© may be in deep doo doo. Seems some ol’ Judge down in North Carolina is fixin’ to proceed with a federal False Claims Act lawsuit against this “VA Claims Preparer”. I reckon they pissed off one of their partners in crime who worked for the outfit. This is a whistleblower claim- the ones that have a lot of mustard on the hotdog worth taking a gander at.

Simply put, we’re not allowed to charge a Veteran a dime if we win his claim without a fight. If VA decides to deny the claim, why, then, the gloves come off and we fight to the mat to win. If, or rather  I guess I should say, when, we win, we are permitted to charge a far-smaller amount for the period of the claim from denial to the day of the win. 20% is the norm. Bigwigs like Hill and Ponton or Bergmann and Moore might charge 30% but the truth is, in the civilian ambulance-chasing world of personal injury, 40% is the norm and some go for 45-50%.

Sure, DAV and the rest  of the VSOs will do it for free at the Agency level but everyone knows that’s like stopping at an Interstate highway rest area for the free coffee even if you don’t have to pee. You get what you pay for-or, in their case, what you didn’t pay for. Vets Guardian, and their ilk have a far higher monetary incentive for doing this. The hook, in many instances, is it’s free…unless you win. Then you have to pay- even if VA didn’t fight you and deny. The going rate seems to be uniform. They want 5 months of the increase-period. Think about that. If you were a 0% for hearing loss and you suddenly advance to 100% P&T for bent brain syndrome, you’re gonna get retro. 100% (married) equals $4,044.91 per month. If it took a year to win, that’s $20,225.00 you owe your “facilitator”.

Now, I’ve written about this in the past as I’ve watched it develop. Most recently these sharks have put forth the plaint of Rodney King- “Can’t we all just get along?” Or, translated, “Can’t we continue to screw Vets via an alternate pathway parallel to VSOs and VA Attorneys/ Agents without having to be accredited? ” This is what the new VA Choice Act is all about. To assuage their umbrage at being referred to as sharks, perhaps I should tone down my strident words and call them “facilitators”. Sherpas? Interested Medical Observers who wish to help poor Veterans?

Whatever you choose to call them, they are actively schmoozing Congressmen/women- mostly Republican ones- into sanctioning this travesty. If this were just a semantic argument over terminology, it wouldn’t be so touchy. But the facilitators know full well they are blatantly breaking the law and continue because Congress is too lazy to fix it and fence them out. Or prosecute them. Until today. Check this out.

Court Permits Whistleblower Lawsuit Alleging Nationwide Fraud by Veterans Guardian and Three Individuals to Proceed

Now, don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating that we, as Attorneys and Agents recognized by VA, desire to corner the market ourselves and enjoy our own financial fiefdom. I think I speak for all VA Attorneys and Agents when I say I want Vets to win any way they can- but legally. Someone with a psychology degree from East Bumfork University in Egypt who will write up a DBQ for you saying you’re totally bugf__ky and qualify for 100% for $20,000 is okay with me but is he above board?

The VA’s compensation system is predicated heavily on credibility and competence. Remove either one of those building blocks and the sand castle comes tumbling down. We depend on the legitimacy of the Mednick-style IMO system. Certainly, there are others besides Mednick, but the system relies on honesty, not a contrived system whereby you can purchase a nexus like you would a car.

Up to now, I was willing to buy into the basic tenet that  claims sharks’ IMOs were legitimate simply because I didn’t have any concrete proof they weren’t. I’ve seen some high flyers from doctors I won’t mention out loud here that stopped short of blaming alien abduction, but until now, no one inside the industry had come out and said the Emperor was naked.

This changes the nexus topography dramatically. We’ll keep you posted on this North Carolina Necktie Party as it develops.

Posted in Claims sharks, Complaints Department, Independent Medical Opinions | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

EXPOSED VET ZOOM VIDEO SHOW THURSDAY 9/18/25

Posted on September 17, 2025 by asknod

Veterans John Stacy and Ray Cobb have invited me to join another up-and-coming Veterans Advocate Jenny Lohnes tomorrow night at 1900 Hrs East Coast. I asked John if he’d like to call her and invite her on to talk to Veterans before we all headed to DC. I had the pleasure of meeting her and her husband in D.C last week. Litigating for Veterans doesn’t require being one but if sure helps when you want someone to cover your six. 

Jenny has taken the “course” that entitles her to rightfully be called a SMC Jedi Knight. She just drew first blood on one several weeks ago. So, when John asked if I’d like to join in, I was honored. I’m gonna shut up and let Jenny talk. She’s going to be a driving force in this business long after I’m gone.

Meet Jenny Lohnes- Jedi Knight

I’m hoping John and Ray let us talk about our recent legal convention in DC last week. Since I’ve been sanctioned by them for using nasty words like gook, Victor Charlie, Uncle Charlie, dinks and slopes which were part of our contemporary language 55 years ago, I’m no longer permitted to have their name grace my asknod blog. Seems lived experiences only apply to famous people.  It might also seem I’m persona non grata all over town. Hadit and VBN 86’d me years ago. I don’t remember all the others but it probably has something to do with telling the unvarnished truth about VA claims. Either that or my Tourette’s Syndrome condemns me to this social purgatory.

At any rate, bust out the brewskis or your favorite adult poison, grab a bag of Lay’s and kick back and enjoy what goes on behind that green curtain in the VA Land of Oz. Here’s the link:

https://riverside.fm/studio/exposed-vet-productions?token=c01031ccaed562cb010654c194c934bef09e28ba

Posted in All about Veterans, Exposed Veteran Radio Show, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA Attorneys, Women Vets | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

HOW MANY TIMES MUST A CANNONBALL FLY?

Posted on September 14, 2025 by asknod

Greetings. I just got back from Washington, DC. Cupcake and I gathered with the faithful of our Veterans Legal Group to absorb new ideas on how to whup the VA at their own poker game. We left early so we’d have time to visit my father who is parked across the river on the front lawn of Mary Anna Randolph Lee (nee Custis). Mary, of course, was the wife of Lt. General Robert E. Lee. Seems the Union was so miffed at them deciding to throw in with the south that they declared eminent domain over the estate and started burying their war dead there.

 My dad is buried down in Section 60, #8658 right near the intersection of Bradley and McArthur Drive. Section 60 is generally associated with the Persian Gulf War. Dad’s gravesite is right on the edge of the the majority of Afstan and Iraq casualties. It’s a 14 -acre square known as the “Saddest Acre in America.” I reckon I second that emotion.

If you all are ever in the neighborhood, why, sashay on over and offer your respects. I’d be mighty obliged if you do. We’ll be back some time next Spring to bury his wife (my stepmother) Vivian on the other side of the tombstone as is customary. She passed last September but, as you know, getting a date for the caisson and horses from VA’s Cemetery Commission takes about as long as getting a TBI claim done these days.

Where Heroes are remembered

I disremembered how far a hike it was from the Visitor Engagement Center where they make you enter now. Consequently, Cupcake wore the wrong footwear and ended up with some nasty blisters on her heels. When we buried Dad, we came down from the Fort Lee Post Chapel where the service was held. It’s a lot shorter but because of terrorist threats nowadays, we have to go through the metal detector. Seems that’s becoming more and more a problem nowadays. Too bad they didn’t make everyone go through one to attend Charlie Kirk’s get together out in Utah this week or he’d still be alive.

Funny thing was the last time I went to ANC back in February 2018, I’d planned on putting an airline bottle of Johnny Black in front of his tombstone but got busted at the metal detector. I guess there’s a no booze rule inside the wire.

Cupcake

Yesterday, the day after our conferences concluded, we went down to the Wall to say hi to a few of my buds. Turns out one of Deb’s classmates (Larry L. Fincher) from her high school was etched into the wall as well. Since I’m pretty forgetful at times, we didn’t do any rubbings of names. I’d probably misplace them for posterity anyway. What the Hey? A picture is worth a thousand of them.

 

Major General Bob Worley, my dad’s replacement as Vice Commander of 7th AF. Shot down by a SAM up north of  Da Nang 7/23/1968. His son and I went to school together.

Capt. Park Bunker Raven 23 shot down and executed while surrendering with his GIB near the Plain des Jarres 12/30/1970

Lt. Charles “Chuck” Engle Raven 26 2/22/1971 somewhere between Alternate and Wattay (L 08)

From there we hiked over to the Lincoln Memorial and wrecked Deb’s feet some more. I haven’t been in there since I was a Cub Sprout back in 1959 on a field trip with Den 4. It brings back lots of memories. I was born and raised in DC, 7 Corners and Annandale. Seems Dad kept drawing the Short straw and getting assigned to Fort Five Sides again and again.

For He Who Shall Have Borne the Battle…

I love Washington. It’s a thrill a minute with statues and memorials to everything. On another outing when I was a Cub Scout, we took a magic marker and ran up the steps of the Wash. Monument. On about the 59th floor we three Stephen Sheehey, David Herres and I autographed the wall. I’m sure that’s history. Someone told me the stairs are closed to pedestrian traffic now anyway.

This trip required every spare inch of space in my computer bag and suitcase. Cupcake needed eight (8) (kow) (huit) (tàm) pairs of shoes. It goes without saying that if every pair were packed in her suitcase, there would be no room for clothes. As it was, I had to cut back to only one extra pair of pants and a sports shirt to make room. She would have been better off if she’d ditched the high heels and packed the tenny runners. but far be it from moi to point out that oversight.

The Jenny Gump Memorial Wading Pool

One important fact I learned is that if you folks select a hearing at the BVA with new submission of evidence at the BVA, you’re in for a loooong wait unless you’re advanced on the docket. It seems they’re not following the rules and deciding each Docket in the order submitted. This would explain why my widow gal Jeannie from back in Tennessee has been waiting since her April 2024 hearing for her DIC decision. To say it isn’t fair is a gross understatement. She began her quest in 2015 when he passed. We filed the 10182 in 2020 requesting the hearing.

And that’s the way it is, September 14, 2025.

Posted in Viet Nam Wall, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment