This one should be called the ‘Colvin on your collar told a tale on you‘ . This claim/appeal now spans sixty five years and has outlived the Veteran. Still VA tries to squirm out of doing it locally. I get that. This is 4th and long and the Seattle Puzzle Palace ain’t going near it. They’re punting to the BVA. If you drew the VSR GS-9 short straw and had to write this up, or were the unfortunate Coach it came back to like an errant boomerang, or anyone even remotely associated with this stinker, your chances of rising to the hierarchy of the VBA DROC team would be right up there with ice creme in Hell if you were party to cutting the paper handing out a million +.
Why shucks. Folks would be surreptitiously pointing over at you down in the lunch room for years saying ‘See Sherista over there. She’s the one that wrote thet RD on that Korean dude that died last year. I’d hate to be her. I heard she’s trying to transfer to VR&E she’s so bummed out.’
So they pawned off the Texas Necktie party on the VHA neurologist (again) and said ‘You’re it.’ The problem is it’s against the law in 48 states to allow the doctor to spout law or the law dogs to spout medical opinions. That thirty pieces of silver gig for stretching the truth went out with printing press. There’s a chasm between doctors and attorneys/judges that must be observed. Take a gander at the VA’s 42-page version of a Monty Python I’m a neurologist and I’m okay. I work pretty hard and opine all day skit. I don’t reckon this is going to impress the VLJ.
The only problem with all that ‘weight of medical evidence” is none was provided. I’m the little old lady that pulls up to the drive-in window and yells ‘Where’s the beef?”. The HLR booth bitch looked at the ceiling, disremembered my legal points, whistled past the graveyard and cranked out the RD in 30 minutes. I’d have given my eye teeth to have seen her twisting and squirming on Zoom. I could have submitted a 4138 from Jesus Christ swearing “What he said, dude.” and it would still have crashed and burned. This thing has resume-killer writ large all over it. The only guy oblivious to all this is that wild and crazy French VA narcissistic neurologist (the undersigned).
Look up Monzingo, there’s a great quote there that reinforces Colvin precedence. Anyway, this is the first time I’ve ever cranked out 22 pages of legal brief. I actually distilled it down from 28 pages. I didn’t want to appear verbose.
As I pointed out in the brief, this guy found absolutely nothing related to s/p encephalopathy-not so much as a numb lip. VLJ Skaltsounis had this docketed 4 days after it hit his desk. I put “Attention: VLJ MIKE” on the FAX cover sheet. I didn’t even get a chance to ask for AOD but they gave it to us anyway. Remember the old Allison Hickey “Rocket Docket” program back in 2013-14? This one appears to be one.
Thursday’s show will begin at 1900 Hrs on the East coast and thus, because of the phenomenon of global warming, 1600 Hrs out here in God’s promised land. Really. We have no skanky rattlesnakes on this side of the cascades. No black widows, no poisonous nothing except for the Brown Recluse spider and you have to hunt high and low to find one of them. Really. No hurricanes, no tornados-zip. The only problem I see is all those new citizens up here who migrated from down south. Somebody ought to teach them what yield and merge gracefully means.
Good afternoon unhappy Veteran campers. asknod here (it, they). I, of all fellers, can honestly say “I feel your pain” without having to manufacture crocodile tears like a certain 42nd President once did. I did my 28 years in the hole. We’ve hit an interesting streak of VA jurisprudence that began around say… mid-January of 2021. No political aspersions here. Just an observation. Inexplicably, the VA dice went cold. There were more deferrals for a new c&p. There were more ‘claim changed from complete to open in VBMS’ where yesterday it had said ‘Claim decision complete.’ The number and quality of the denials was, and still is, atrocious. It’s as if Homer’s monkey Mojo has been given GS-14 VA examiner privileges and turned loose with a VA Adobe 9.5 M 21-equipped cut and paste program that spews out ‘not at least as likely as not’ drivel with a direct link to Janesville.
Well, fortunately, asknod doesn’t do tinnitus and pes planus gigs so we rarely encounter a lot of that. However, we have been getting more than our usual share of those GTFOOH denials that give you the heebyjeebies and make you wonder why you do VA law. I actually had to begin doing HLRs to fix their ratings errors sooner rather than later.
Were it me, in the setting of a big law office (which I do not have), with a JD (which I never got), I’d ask myself why in Sam Hill I wasn’t chasing real, $1.2 million dollar ambulances instead of rickety old VA meat wagons. Of course, being an actual Veteran answers all those questions as it probably does for those who have a genuine desire to help Veterans. As we all can agree, there ain’t no money in VA law unless you hit a Lotto. There simply aren’t very many of those and if you bite into one, you can guarantee it will be a ten-year time alligator. That’s why I love them. Old CUEs? Show me. A new tranche of §3.156(c) records and a 1970 denial for everything you filed on? Come on over here and set a spell beside me and tell us all about that Bouncing Betty and how VA screwed you. Welcome to the Group W (Waiting) bench, Arlo. What took you so long to get here? Did you take a side trip through all those Veterans Help Forums and chase down a gazillion rabbit holes?
Having been 86’d from not just one but two of the most well-read Veterans Help sites (VBN and Hadit), I pride myself not on my litigation successes but on my dogged belief in telling the truth. Truth can be a many-splendored thing. Truth to Vet A can be a complete recital of how s/he won their claims even though no one will ever encounter the same set of circumstances. Truth to Vet B might be the frustration of asking a question and the recriminations for being a FNG and not being up on all the EED and CUE terminology. Worse, no one wants to bring you up to speed and teach you. They just want to tell you their story about how they got here. Who gives a shit? Remember the Veteran? That’s why we’re here. To help the Veteran. This isn’t about us. It’s about finding their repair order. A Veterans Help website is useless if you suppress a point of view-no matter how far-fetched it is. Worse, it’s counterproductive to hand out advice on VA claims when you have no training. Vets are going to depend on that advice and it better be spot on or you could be condemning them to another year or two in the hole. I’d feel like shit if I caused that But then I’d also probably lose my accreditation, too. A well-meaning Veteran probably never considers that aspect.
When I first set out to create a Veterans help site, my immediate urge was to create a Forum like all the others which were all the rage back in 2008. What first hit me was the “Twitter” effect. If your advice or your experience with VA was adversarial, you were not allowed to spew that observation on VBN. It was quickly erased and you were marginalized or thrown out with the baby’s bathwater if you kept it up.
Personally, I don’t have a lot of friends. Why that is doesn’t concern me. My urge, in the short time I have left around here is to convey knowledge. I don’t have time to argue with some dolt about the semantic nuances of CUE in the setting of a truly final claim. If your claim is over a year old and buried, dang near the only way to fix it is to file a CUE. If it’s less than a year since it died, then it can be resuscitated and you keep the effective date. It might be error but it can be fixed without resorting to the arcane rules of CUE. That’s a biiiiiiiiiiiiig difference semantically and where they put the decimal point after the dollar sign. To get kicked off Hadit, I had to take that indefensible position with their resident CUE guruista. The second time was because I mentioned the unmentionable that certain doctors had skeletons in their closets. I guess it’s time to reconnoiter some new Vets sites to garner more bans.
The beauty of a blog site like this is the teaching moment and then a follow-on comments section where you can ask cogent questions without fear or recriminations. Or, I suppose, if you’re one of those Karens from one of the other sites or a unhappy TWS volunteer, you can come argue the misspelling of serve (sever). Either way, you get to talk uncensored. This ain’t a school board meeting in northern Virginia. We don’t cut off the microphone unless you become obstreperous or resort to expletives. This is a quasi-family site. Nasty words just detract from an otherwise informative experience. Guilt trips don’t fly. I already cornered the market on passive aggressive shit.
The last takeaway on the above subject was a comment from Cupcake. She sat down and read a representative sample of both these website forums and was struck by what appeared to her to be the very low intelligence quotient of the moderators. The ones offering assistance in the intricacies of VA law couldn’t even choose the correct form of there, their or they’re. Thank God it takes eight keystrokes to type out ‘You know’ or we’d have to wade through that too. I don’t profess to be Mensa material but boy howdy do I know VA law. I don’t know it solely from my experiences but by thousands of you who came here with situations no one could imagine in their wildest dreams. It’s simple. VA can’t light a fart with a flame thrower let alone figure out where all that methane gas is coming from. This means your denial is more than likely illegitimate and needs to be fixed. After about 500 cases, the denials all seem to say the same thing. Fixing them just gets easier if they have a skinny play book.
In combat, you don’t want a democratic discourse amongst everyone in your Platoon on how to get your dick out of the dirt or how to flank the enemy and surround them. You want some butter bar with an ounce of situational awareness to order it. Make it so, Numbah One! You want a repair order-not a Kumbaya circle feelgood where everyone who ever suffered explosive diarrhea explains how they managed to successfully change their underwear.
I have the hardest time prying the client’s hands off the steering wheel and explaining why the windshield is far larger than the rear view mirror in the VA context. I don’t much give a rolling donut about how you got here. Seems whatever technique you were using didn’t get airborne or you wouldn’t be talking to me. It’s far easier to fix it than to spend a month reviewing the history. The time for discussing the proper effective date of claim begins when you’ve finally won.
Misty 22 is cleared in hot.
As an example, I offer a bouquet of my recent battles so far this month. As for those trite VA phrases like “This constitutes a complete grant of all claims pending”, you have to wonder who comes up with that unicorn crap. It’s over when the asknod fat lady sings and not a moment before. It appears in this new VA unicorn world, they’ve been indulging in too much of the Devil’s lettuce. This seems to provoke a lot of denials. A new appeal (NOD 10182) arrives at the BVA every seventeen seconds Monday through Friday (except for national holidays). Think about that. The backlog for an appeal at SSA is a year. At VA, the same wait for a judge is five years. Dang good thing they hired ten more VLJs, huh? Farsightedness at the VA is a much sought out trait in the hierarchy.
Here’s a daisy. Jimbo (not his name) really wanted me to take this on after I got him R1 back in January. Looked like it had some mustard on it so I did the dumpster dive into the c file evidence and grabbed a good Independent Medical Opinion. Personally, I never had a doubt it wouldn’t be a chicken dinner winner. The question was more a when than an if. File this one under §3.816(b)(1)(i). It’s also one of those cases where a Vet didn’t take his eyes off the rear view mirror. That’s okay. You just have to win the big banana first before you go on safari and hunt down the one that got away.
Here’s one that I began in 2017. Johnny Vet couldn’t get any traction on his Thailand AO claim. I tore it down and rebuilt it with my cookie recipe and we finally got the booth bitch at the David Koresh Memorial VARO in Whacko Texas to concede he really did get herbicide all over him. It happened while burning the classified mission papers on or near the perimeter fence from their daily 7th ABCCC missions over the Plain of Jars. Funny thing is I was down below him back in that summer of 1970 at about 200 ASL on frequency (118.9) calling in requests to him for air support for troops in contact. In fact, their call sign was well know to us- Cricket.
Johnny died of DM II complications back in April 2020 and I had a new mission to make sure they didn’t shortchange his widow. Well, sure as the sun rises, they did. Screwed him out of SMC S from fall 2016 to his passing in 2020. I couldn’t get the BVA jelly brain to grant what was due so we had to take that one up to the Court. Denis the Menace and the OGC choir folded during the Rule 33 conference and it’s finally back at Whacko Texas for the fat lady’s final act of contrition. I reckon I’ll look into A&A for this widow because she’s getting on in years. It’s only another $286 a month but what the hey? I’d do anything to irritate those pukes in Waco. They’re some kind of speshull stupid in my book. Maybe I ought to buy the DRO a one-year subscription to the The Flat Earth Society Magazine.
Life is good. I tested positive for Corona this morning. What’s amazing is it only felt like a cold all this last week. But then I don’t have IHD, DM II or weigh 458 pounds. I’ll survive. Too bad it isn’t like Chickenpox and you never get it again.
Holy Mackerel. I guess I don’t have to worry about getting sued by all these scam outfits stealing you Veterans’ money. I reckon I don’t have to go down the list and identify every last one of them either. Below is a link to the Military Times article that came in on the NOVA news feed this AM. We’ve been begging the VA to go after them for years. Apparently, someone just noticed. Amazing, huh? Nothing gets by these folks for long. This one happened in slightly less than 2 years. I’m impressed.
About this time every year, an ever-increasingly smaller cohort of my generation think back and reflect on the consequences of war-any war. Was it worth it? Did we win? Did we kill more of them than they did of us? In the end, after it’s all over, does it matter? In most respects, no. Fifty years later, all I miss is the camaraderie of being blood brothers united in agreement we were being led by clueless idiots. Well, that and I miss access to explosives. I miss shaving off Semtex from Claymores with my prized survival knife and heating up my c rats. I miss the music of a Pig chewing up the jungle in front of me. I miss things I can no longer remember… and probably for a good reason. This is how a lot of Vietnam Vets live life now.
86’n the fire extinguisher for more passengers
It’s not a bad life. We have grandkids if we’re lucky. Or, like one of my close friends I’ve met since I returned, you don’t because you went through about six wives in ten years and they never hung around long enough to get knocked up. Smart they were. Yesssssssssss. Be careful. Some of them show up 50 years later and wanna play house again.
I started counting how many of us true Boots on the ground (BOTG) remained using goggle™ back in 2008. The accepted number was 850,000 of us left. I checked in again around 2012. In spite a number of funerals I’d attended, I found out we were either multiplying like rabbits or someone was bullshitting us. As my daddy once said, bullshit is nothing more than chewed grass. Ditto the number in 2016 and 2018. I figured everyone else had some killer Mojo and had managed to stay healthy. I’m batting about 3/10.
I do note, after searching again several minutes ago that the number had sunk to 610,000 in 2019. Seems they use some fancy metrics here. 1954 to 1975 might be a credible time frame but 1/9/1962 to 5/7/1975 is the more preferred yardstick in my book. And it should include all the folks that served over the fence. Using that metric might describe more closely how many true “Vietnam War” Vets with real red clay between their toes (and jungle rot) are still here today. But maybe not. There are those who need valor. They need to belong. Newsflash. By just enlisting, or, for those less fortunate, drafted, you served your country. Who could be disappointed with a NDSM?
Some immediately take offense when I pull out the tape measure. I respect everyone who signed up to serve. I mean that sincerely. Realistically though, a much smaller number can, and should, claim true boots on the ground. And of that number, I suspect far fewer than 610,000 are still vertical. Keep in mind that horde of lifers who command us. They’re gone-and if not, they must live in Chicago. Folks there never die. Again, who really cares at this point? Well, a few. I watched a Vet lay into another one at a VFW NRA gun raffle/dinner back in 2018. Seems he felt being in Germany was equally as dangerous as red boots and entitled him to the moniker of a genuine Vietnam War Vet. I would have inserted “era” right after War to avoid confusion. Are they counting how many times they were ‘wounded’ by VD?
I selected England as my first choice of assignment. Spain and Italy were second and third. I drew Udorn adjacent to Nong Khai and the beautiful Mekong River at first. Then some AF Intel weenie discovered I spoke French. Laos wasn’t a whole lot different than Vietnam. You just rarely ran into guys who spoke English. Or French for that matter. Thai seemed to be the most frequent lingua franca. Imagine blasting (90 kts.) down Route 7 heading east and broadcasting over a microphone to convince Pathet Lao troops to surrender. That was Tuesdays and Thursdays. They called me the Chieu Hoi Boy. Judging by the way the slopes responded with SKS fire, it had to be taken as an emphatic ‘no.’ Fuggem if they couldn’t take a joke. I’d just shoot back. After about a dozen missions, I got pissed. I had the crew chiefs take the side door off and started packing a Thumper. Sometimes you have to enunciate your philosophy of peace with an exclamation point. There’s nothing like 40 mike-mike HE for emphasis.
I’ve laughed long and hard when an ‘era’ Vet wishes he could have been there. Nobody sane would ever wish for that. I remember my pilot discussing a mission off the mike as we returned to Long Tieng one evening. His drift was that no one got medals for strafing elephants-even if you got secondary explosions off the munitions they were packing. He explained it didn’t “play well in Peoria” when we submitted our after-action BDAs to our ‘Controlled American Source’ boss. The preferred term was camouflaged jeeps or, if you must, grey jeeps. Wars are funny. They won’t let you tell the truth. Now, no one can stand to hear the truth.
I remember the Sunday after I snagged a Swedish K for my personal firearm out of the old Jap hanger/warehouse down in Udorn. I went down to a creek nearby with a fifth of Jack Daniels and a couple of our AirAm crew chiefs. We were having a gay old time taking swigs and skipping 9 mils off the water when the ominous sound of Hueys (plural) began. Sensing something was amiss, we decided to get back inside the wire pronto. Believe it or not, the gunships lit up that stretch downstream with rockets and Pigs for five minutes. The body count, which was always the metric of success, was 8 and three POWs. Shut the front door. Were they counting monkeys? I struggle to this day to picture a monkey with his hands held high in surrender. I think that’s when I decided statistics could be fudged but is one of the fonder memories.
My attorney friend and mentor, Bob Walsh sent me this link today. He must share the same feelings I do about this time of year. It was 8 years before I found out he was an Eleven Bravo with a CIB. 173rd Airborne. Go figure. The meek among men roar the loudest when called to.
Yeah, some folks inherit star-spangled eyes
They send you down to war
And when you ask ’em, “How much should we give?”
They only answer, “More, more, more”
I told you several months ago I’d share my proprietary MacGyver information on Bottle Rockets. Remember them? What? No one shared the military art form with you? Okay stay with me. You take off one (1) of the plastique charges located above the fins of a 60mm mortar. Remember, just one-not all three. Three is right out. Set it aside. They looked like 1 ½” by 1 ½” inch chunks of plastique stitched together in packs of 5 very thin sheets. Take a c-rats can (large) and cut a piece about 4″X4″ out of the side wall metal and carefully flatten it out. Pick up a 2-foot chunk of baling wire from a mortar crate.
The one hundred metre freestyle.
Hold the PE down in the middle and fold the c-rats can in half, keeping the PE in one lower quadrant. Insert the bailing wire down the middle and fold in half one last time capturing the baling wire firmly. About dark, sashay over to a campfire and throw it in like a spear with the wire end in first. It usually stuck and held over the flames. Eventually, it would heat up and take off . They weren’t terribly aerodynamic and they were known to cause nasty wounds. What the hey- this was good for a PH. As I say, there are a lot of things I miss.
Bell 205 First In-Last Out… Ditched at Sea 29 April 1975 alongside USS Blue Ridge LCC 19
I reckon I better shut up before I find someone who ended up wearing one of my inventions.
Many veterans struggle with post-traumatic stress disorder, better known as PTSD. Sometimes it may seem that there’s no light at the end of the tunnel. Fortunately, that’s untrue. Here is some guidance on navigating your PTSD.
Don’t push away your loved ones.
As a veteran, you may have difficulty asking for help — after all, you’re used to others coming to you for help. Still, try your best not to push loved ones away. Lean on them. They may not be able to understand exactly what you’re coping with, and you don’t have to discuss your experiences right away, but try to seek the support you need.
Further, if you suffered an injury in battle and have new obstacles to overcome, don’t be afraid to ask for help. Your loved ones might be able to gauge what kind of assistance you need, but as you adapt to home life you may find other challenges. There’s no shame in asking for assistance. In fact, your family and friends will be happy to help.
Expect and be mindful of triggers.
Unfortunately, triggers are an unavoidable part of PTSD. The UK’s Mind.org details that triggers can come in several forms: words, sounds, places, smells, certain kinds of films or books, and specific dates. In the beginning, these triggers will sneak up on you. However, as time goes on, you’ll be able to predict them more easily. Try keeping a journal; after each trigger experience, wait until you’re in a healthier state of mind, and then write down what triggered you, how you responded to any techniques that helped, and ways to avoid it in the future.
If you’re the loved one of someone with PTSD, keep a similar journal. This can help you be aware of what sets them off and how to circumvent these experiences. Be patient when an outburst does happen. Your loved one will have little to no control over their reaction, so the most you can do is be there to listen and offer support and love.
Make home your solace and practice meditation.
If you’re the recipient of a purple heart and come home with severe physical or mental disabilities, your home will need modifications. Not only will this make getting around easier, it can help reduce trigger episodes; if you can reduce the frustrations of your daily life, you may avoid outbursts. There are programs to help you out, some of which even build houses specifically tailored to a single veteran’s needs.
If possible, set aside a specific room dedicated to relaxation and meditation. Arrange it with a comfortable chair and relaxing décor. Eliminate as many electronic distractions as possible. If you’re unable to dedicate an entire room, choose a space as far away from common areas as possible and set up there. When you go in to practice your meditations, let your household know so you won’t be disturbed.
Connect with other veterans.
As Bradley University points out, your local Department of Veterans Affairs, or VA, offers excellent resources for therapy and other treatment. Group therapy with other veterans is a great place to start. The fact is unless they’ve been through war themselves, your loved ones just can’t understand some of the issues you’re dealing with. Speaking and bonding with other vets can be a healing experience.
The VA also offers family therapy. This can strengthen your relationships with loved ones by having a mediator guide the conversation. You don’t have to share right away, nor do you have to discuss anything you’re not ready to talk about. Simply go, listen, and speak when you know the time is right. And don’t worry if you’re scared — chances are that everyone in the room is. It’s unfair that the brave soldiers who defend our country come home with major trauma, be it physical, mental, or both. Still, there’s hope. Keep these tips from Asknod in mind when coping with your PTSD and remember that healing takes time. Your loved ones are here to help, so let them be a part of the process.
I listened to the oral argument of Jack L. Stover vs. VASEC this morning and, as usual, grow increasingly concerned about how to argue a case/appeal in the new AMA World Order. I discussed Andrews in a previous blog a week ago. Andrews has a dual import. The primary takeaway is when do you reach equipoise in this business? Who’s the line judge who blows the whistle and says you finally crossed it? Case law suggests you have to ingest the entire case before you get out the scales and start weighing it. But why can’t the evidence be so overwhelming that there really can never be a cogent denial argument; that the pros so far outweigh the cons that the Veteran’s case should never have been in doubt? Check out the oral.
The second argument, and one I’ve gotten into heated discussions about at BVA hearings, is the admissibility of the M 21 beyond the agency level. Every BVA Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) vociferously cuts me off at the knees should I foolishly cite to M 21. This in spite of its use below for my Vets’ Texas necktie parties. So where is that transition from where a Veterans is judged by the M 21’s yardstick and found wanting and then not being allowed to use the very same yardstick as a measure in a legal discussion? Welcome to the Stover oral argument. Pop a cold one and listen to some good logic. Well, at least logic as you and I would define it. It’s about time someone called bullshit on VA’s definitions of their definitions.
I’m ecstatic to finally see this conundrum discussed openly and watch the VA OGC counsel squirm uncontrollably and baldly say “Affirm as we say, not as we litigate.” to the Court. Mr. Vichich asking for Chevron deference at the Court when the BVA refuses to even discuss it at the Board goes over in Judge Mike Allen’s mind as about as logical as screen doors in submarines. Distilling its essence, it appears the Secretary desires to employ the M 21 at the agency level and then forbid its dissection at bar later on appeal whilst loudly exclaiming stare decisis and immutable law. This ignores the whole ex parte ‘Trier of Fact’ formula of de novo review. The M 21 is an assembly manual and little more. To say it can comprehend every instance of military stupidity and expertly apply the correct legal standard of review is fools gold. You would know that if you had served in the military. Military stupid is a speshull kind of stupid and takes years of service and rank to attain. The best courts in the land routinely have to change precedence to stay on top of new or revised legal epiphanies. The Liquor Prohibition Amendment was, and still is, a classic example. Besides, if the Court remands or reverses 74% of what crosses its desk, then VA’s 98% accuracy and the M 21 are suspect tools for any measurement of claims accuracy.
AO in Thailand
We’ve put the Blue Water contretemps to bed. We’ve watched with yawning awe as Thailand Vets have become the last AO orphans of the Southeast Asian Olympics. I reckon sooner or later Cambodian and Laotian Vets will eventually be knocking as well. Procopio resolved the last of the Navy arguments about where to draw the line. But now we have a new line to ponder-one that’s a dang sight less than 12 miles out. We’re talking feet. Let that sink in. Mere feet. It’s like a macabre comedy horror story out of the TV series Get Smart™. Missed it by thaaaaaat much, Airman 99.
I’ve often thought of the argument for AO exposure in Thailand to be a simple one. One far simpler to argue logically than just on a case by case basis. The presumptive exposure should be even more ironclad than for a true boots-on-the-ground Vietnam Vet. Here’s why. A real Vietnam Vet -one who set foot (not stepped foot) in the Republic of Vietnam often was stationed in places where AO was never sprayed. Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Saigon was a classic example. The one place where so many touched down on a World Airways flight on their way to Bangkok and points north in Thailand, was rarely-if ever- sprayed. Many have tried to use this as their 30-minute refueling presumptive entitlement. Spot applications of weeds growing up through PSP here and there would have been done with a hand sprayer- if ever. The twin exhausts of a taxiing F4 pretty much dissuaded any hope of vegetation. Of course, few in the military ever conceived of a cataclysmic event like the Tet Offensive in January-February ’68.
Saigon USO
Furthermore, in-country troops in the field had a less than 50-50 chance they’d be in an active spray operation over them during an offensive operation. Why? Because it is pointless to spray during an assault. Nothing is accomplished by spraying for at least 5-8 hours that might improve sight lines in a dense jungle setting. It had a far more dramatic effect on the upper layer of a jungle canopy. A good defoliation job would take three applications to effectively percolate down to the jungle floor to kill growth. Most military operations were air assaults into previously sprayed areas- not land operations where active overhead spraying occurred during an assault on an enemy area of operations.
I always get a bang out of desperate Navy Vets claiming they encountered AO-soaked fighter jets upon their return after landing on aircraft carriers. Even Ol’ Mr. Procopio tried that one. Sorry Charlies. Air Force Ranch Hand missions were well-planned in advance and briefed in NOTAMs. If one had even been near your grid coordinates, it would be in the FRAG order and the call sign/ contact freq. listed. It’s not like an A 4J rolled in on a HCM strafing run loaded for bear with nape/CBU and discovered himself engulfed in a mist of AO from a $1.23 who just stumbled upon the air strike out of the blue. Never gonna happen, GI. I’ve been there. I know better- even if VA doesn’t. Spray Days and Spray Locations were about as secret as the 4th of July.
On the contrary, serving on a base in Thailand was much like being in an extremely large swimming pool with all the edges of the pool sprayed and contaminated- including the egress ladder. The wind drift coefficient would also come into play. Imagine your hootch about 40 feet away from the perimeter fence and a 25-foot laterite roadway bisecting it. There was still a dirt strip (formerly vegetation if unsprayed) between the road and the fence. We used it to play catch, throw a frisbee or jog on the edge of the roadway itself. Try defining “on or near the perimeter” in that context. The VA, in Jack Stover’s case, seems to demand he be close enough to physically touch the fence 12 hours a day. I’ve defended Vets for Udorn and Takhli AO exposure and won. My guys merely took smoke breaks while leaning against the fence. Some were forced to do Augmentation Duty and man towers on the perimeter 12 on and 12 off for a month. Hell, the Udorn Enlisted’s Chow Hall backed up to the perimeter fence. You could barely drive a pickup through there. You had to catch the shuttle bus there to get over to the Air America side of the base…twice a day. Doesn’t all this fall into “in the course of their regular duties”? Doesn’t sleeping adjacent to it for a year? Where exactly, is this official demarcation of ‘on or near’? 5 feet? 10 feet? 6 inches?
Thai Vets spent one year virtually encapsulated on a base with a few forays outside the wire to “pai teo” (seek pleasure) when possible in the local towns nearby. Based on manpower and time off, they might be lucky enough to get into town one night a month which would mean crossing over out of the ‘pool’. Wouldn’t that count as an additional exposure? No. The reason is it wouldn’t be in the normal course of your job -ergo- any exposure would not qualify. See how slippery this M 21 logic is? You can swim in this hypothetical pool of herbicides without ever actually coming into contact with it much as if you had donned a magical raincoat impervious to absorption. It couldn’t possibly attach to you unless you physically rubbed against the fabric of the cyclone fence with your flesh-but only if it were in the course of your usual duties. Right. The fact that our hootches had screens for windows/doors is immaterial to whether the wind blows in VA’s mind. I guess magic gnomes came by on breezeless nights when we were absent or sound asleep and carefully sprinkled their AO dust on the perimeter fences, being careful not to spill any outside the magic ‘on or near’ distance. Who woulda thunk it? VA, apparently.
Reading the BVA denial, I get the impression that the thrust of the decision is to head off any future assaults on the “security policeman or dog handler” myth. Remember, this is CCK- the Big Boys- representing Mr. Stover. The Judge said as much when he opined that if the most logical standard of presumptive exposure were to be employed that dang near everyone would qualify. Well, duh. Isn’t that pretty much the metric employed for Procopio out to twelve miles? Brown water Vets? Phan Rang AB Air Force Vets? Vung Tau R&R Beach Vets? I’m guessing VA is shitting their britches at the dismal prospect of hundreds of thousands of us Air Force untermenschen storming the gates before we die and throwing off the beancounters’ estimates of how many they owe Nehmerbucks to. Seems this is as good a place as any to dig in your heels and fight the Vets on this. Check out this logic:
Similarly, the Board finds that the Veteran’s explanations of being near the perimeter due to the placement of his living quarters (hooches), visiting the MARS shortwave radio station once or twice a month, or entering and exiting the base are insufficient to establish that the Veteran was exposed to herbicide agents. If these explanations were true, everyone assigned to these hooches, visiting the MARS shortwave radio station, or entering and exiting the base would have been exposed to herbicide agents, even if they only visited such areas once in a long while. Again, this view would create a slippery slope of line of reasoning that is not supported by VA law. The herbicide agent presumption of service connection has not been extended to all veterans who served at a RTAFB in Thailand. Exposure must be shown by at least an equipoise of the evidence standard. The statements provided by the Veteran do not establish, to an equipoise standard of evidence or greater, that he was exposed to Agent Orange while serving at the RTAFB in Thailand.
Hooo doggies. What if these explanations are true? Holy shit, Batman. Kinda funny how that slippery slope is only found in Thailand and nowhere else on the Indochinese peninsula-including the South China Sea now. It’s also kinda pathetic funny the Secretary should mention this isn’t supported by VA law when he avowedly insists the M 21 is not dicta at the BVA. So, not only do we have a shape-shifting herbicide that has a singular, magical affinity for galvanized, cyclone fence structures but also a set of ‘on or near’ M 21 manual interpretations which purport to be VA law but cannot be used to support a BVA denial in spite of being cited to and used as VA law to deny with. Poor Jack Stover and almost every other Air Force Vet who served over there don’t know whether to shit or go blind. It’s the M 21 ‘on or near’ Catch 22. I’m surprised the M 21 doesn’t also add “in addition, ‘on or near’ only applies to Veterans born at night on a Thursday in odd months.”
One thing few understand and for damn sure the VA does not get is this. We were few in number at these bases. We had to supplement our security forces with extra troops we didn’t have. Thai Army guards slept on the job or smoked dope. The only way to safely defend our bases was to create an augmentation duty requirement of one month each for the FNGs. Unless your AFSC (MOS) was critical, you were headed for one month of service on the perimeter-in the shit- for 12 hours on and 12 off, six days a week for four weeks. You ate, shitted and slept for the 12 hours you were not ‘in or on’ the perimeter. Somehow, this doesn’t equate to being in or on the perimeter in the course of your regular duties because, using the above logic, it was probably “once in a long while”. Somehow, for the next eleven months, you wore your magic invisible raincoats and the nasty herbicide could not attach itself to you successfully. And the best part was you didn’t even need to get vaccinated, wear a mask or stand six feet back from everyone-just that nasty perimeter.
The biggest VA whopper we are expected to swallow is the discussion by our good VLJ that if a body had been exposed to this crap, why, it would logically be in our STRs just like every time we cut ourselves shaving would mean a trip to sick call for a band aid.
Before deployment. No magazine and no jungle boots yet.
I always get a max bang from Judge Mike Allen’s Devil’s Advocate game when he asks the VA OGC victim how he would interpret what the Secretary is trying to have affirmed. Isn’t the M 21 implicated in a discussion if the BVA VLJ draws heavily from its parsing of what constitutes on or near? Is the M 21 off limits for discussion like the VASRD is? Can there be a non-regulation or non-statute that controls but cannot be held up to the light for inspection or determination as to its correct application of a legal standard of review? Pray tell, explain the Law of the Case to us, Secretary.
Stover jurisprudence may well turn out to be an interesting explanation of the “how many faeries can dance on the head of a pin” paradox. Oddly, Mr. Vichich sees no legal ambiguity in being unable to defend (let alone define) what physical distance ‘in or on’ might entail any more than prospective Supreme Court wannabes cannot define what a “woman” is nowadays. Mark my words. Pretty soon we’re gonna be packin’ Miriam Webster dictionaries up to the Big House at 625 Native Americana Ave. NW for our briefs. Seems the proper thing to do would be to just piss on the fire and let the Thailand Vets in to the Nehmer Party. Gez. How many of us can there be? I reckon ol’ Denis the Menace is figuring the Korean DMZers, the Anderson Island boys and just about everyone else aren’t going to be too far behind us. Denis can’t have that, now can he? I heard that EHR Cerner Medical computer fiasco out in Spokane is going to eat up oodles more billions before they give up and go back to VistA. So many Vets to deny. So little time to do it in before they die anyway.
And I believe that’s all I have to say about that.
After a few pointless HLR informal conference rodeos with vapid DROs, I watched in wonderment as the three-page denials promptly populated in VBMS in as few as 28 minutes from my hanging up. This notwithstanding a carefully constructed follow-the-breadcrumbs legal brief explaining it in VAspeak so it was in smaller, monosyllabic, digestible word bytes. It seemed to make little difference even if I mansplained it verbally at the Informal telephone Conference (IC). I also noticed they were copying and pasting my own sentences with ‘no’ and ‘not’ inserted appropriately to negate the inference. Well, shoot. Two can play this game except I learned how to dig ‘predecisional’ or ‘duty to assist’ punji pits.
Duty to Assist and Predecisional Errors
Okay, pilgrims. Stay with me. In the new, improved World of the VA’s AMA system, only two things can instantly pop the drag chute and provoke a new decision. Look for these terms in VA CUE rating decisions (RDs) or BVA Appeals decisions-now called Notices of Disagreement, NODs or 10182s. I’ve heard VA personnel call them ten-one eighty twos.
A predecisional error would be if they rated your knee under the wrong diagnostic code (DC) or forgot to look at §3.351(c)(3) when they deny you aid and attendance. Always remember that there are trap doors in Special Monthly Compensation (SMC). Raters ignore the CFRs and use the M 21. The fault develops when the M 21 encourages the examiner to employ mission creep and begin lying about the requirements.
Here’s an example. You ask for a&a under §3.350(b)(3) for being so blind you cannot accomplish the activities of daily living (ADLs) like normal folks. You’re legally blind by law (20/200 or less) but VA says no dice-you’re 90% blind by VA law. Granted, you’re dang sure not going to be driving a car unless it’s a Telsa and I wouldn’t put any bets on not burning the bacon come breakfast. Or me riding in the Tesla with you, either as far as that goes. VA denies and says you need a true 100% combined or schedular to even discuss a&a. Missed it by thaaaaaat much, 99. The punji pit is Akles v. Derwinski. VA is supposed to infer all the things you’re entitled to. To start with, if they gave my Vet a car allowance for being blind, then they were sure as Hell supposed to throw in SAH for $81 K worth of remodeling. The horseshoe ambush is completed by pointing out §3.351(c)(3) or referral to the Director of Comp. and Pen. in DC for the required Thun vs. Peake extraschedular a&a.
§3.351(c)(3)
Sometimes we walk right by a regulation for years and then one day, someone says “Hey, dude. Look at this. Did you notice this only applies to…? Think back to Walker v. Shinseki, 708 F.3d 1331 (Fed. Cir. 2014). Everyone drove by §3.303(b) chronicity for decades and failed to notice it only covered recognized chronic diseases covered by §3.307 and listed in §3.309. Well, it’s the same scenario here. In the preamble of §3.352 Criteria for determining need for aid and attendance and “permanently bedridden”, you will notice the following:
“The following will be accorded consideration in determining the need for regular aid and attendance (§3.351(c)(3): “
The list continues after the colon and enumerates a nonexhaustive list of ADLs-meaning each one, as a stand alone disability, is sufficient to trigger entitlement. §3.351(c)(3) is the escape valve for those so severely disabled and not specifically identified by blindness, mental incapacity or loss of most extremities:
“(3)Establishes a factual need for aid and attendanceunder the criteria set forth in § 3.352(a).”
This is the Mobius loop. If you can’t see or drive or cook or whatever, you get a&a. Granted, your disability has to be pretty bodacious but there is nothing, other than that phony baloney M 21 cite, that says “generally, a Vet will need a 100% rating.” §3.351(c)(3) is the law but it’s not your job to instruct the DRO on how to do this.
Summary
So, instead of spending 4 hours spellcheckwriting it all up on the company letterhead so the booth bitch can plagiarize it and play copy/paste, you just send in that VA Form 20-0996 naked as a baby’s butt and say you want an IC between 8-10AM Pacific Time and you disagree with yesterday’s RD denying you a&a and be quick about it. Well, right off they get nervous Nellie disease because they don’t know what you’re gonna argue. They’ll call you up a few days later and ask you if you’re ready to go… like, right now, dude. Be polite and laugh. Right now? Surely you must be kidding. How about next Tuesday at 0900…Pacific. That puts the St. Pete DROC gal smack dab into lunch her time.
Prebuilding the Punji Pit
Build yourself a batch of headnotes that cover the subject. Grab a handful of cites too if you wish but remember who you’re dealing with. If it isn’t written down, they have to write it up as you speak. It’ll make them remember their screw up better.
When you connect on the phone, the first words out of your mouth should be “We’re calling a predecisional error. My client asked for a&a and you have ignored §3.351(c)(3) and instead insist on a 100% requirement. No siree, Bob. That is error. Nowhere in the four corners of 38 CFR chapter 3 can that be found. Somebody’s been smoking the Devil’s lettuce again. In addition, as my client’s VAF 21-2680 A&A form clearly diagnoses by a MD, he can’t see to cook, drive, leave the dwelling unattended or take his medications. You have awarded him the automobile grant but where is the Specially Adapted Housing grant under §3.809 or 38 U.S. Code §2101 for eligible blind veterans? His vision is unarguably 20/200 or less per the recent c&p at QTC. My client has been granted TDIU-an extraschedular decision. Where is the extraschdular rating decision granting or denying a&a? That’s a failure in the duty to assist, by the way. I see no evidence the claim was sent to DC for this. In fact, I can’t even find a listing of any favorable findings of fact in violation of §5104(b) and the AMA. Didja get all that down, ma’am?”
$100 bucks says you’ll get that VA Form 20-0999 Redact 20-0999 admission of guilt and SAH in about 28 minutes and they’ll have that a&a inquiry back in DC faster than you can say Jacqueline Robinson ( pronouns they, we, us). In fact, I’m guessing that most of you didn’t even know they have a VAF 20-0999. File this one under “always have an extra hand grenade”. The Punji pit analogy is simple. When they go into an HLR cold, they think you’re going to stick to a basic script with a heavy layer of benefit of the doubt. Suck them in with a warm greeting. They expect a feeble, pathetic argument about the §3.352 ADLs and TDIU equals 100%. But you’ve kept two “hand grenades” in reserve- the requirement of Thun v. Peake for another gander at the a&a due to the automobile entitlement and the fact that they blew past the SAH entitlement. The absolute icing is the §3.351(c)(3) regulation right there in plain sight like an 800-lb. SMC gorilla sitting on the living room sofa. It happens so fast, they can’t recover. Hell, they’re still clucking like a pair of worried hens back in §3.352(a) reading that §3.351(c)(3) reference they never paid any attention to before. And then, Boom shaka laka laka…
The teaching moment is don’t telegraph your intentions. Think Ping Pong. Let them serve the denial first and then counterattack. Play dumb. Let them figure out the SMCs because it’s supposed to be inferred and automatically raised by the record. When they fail, you make them feel like boobs. Remember, these folks think we inhabit the shallow end of the dry lake bed of the gene pool. We’re VA welfare queen wannabes. There’s nothing more refreshing than rolling their socks down with a good ambush. Well, besides nape and CBU 26/49 delayed. Inadequate it makes them feel. Yesssssssssssssssssssss.
Last summer, I had a lot of irons in the fire. Funerals to attend and briefs to prepare for fifty year-old §3.156(c) claims. One thing I regret is when I cannot write for the blog as in days of old. The timeworn image of a one-legged man in an asskicking contest is the first to bloom in a male’s mind. Being happily married, I won’t offer conjecture about what the fairer sex (all 46 of them at last count) might conjure up as an image. Suffice it to say, it was a terribly busy time in my life. Thus, with great remorse, I wish to apologize for not writing this one up to digest over Brie (Ex. sharp Vermont cheddar for men) and a Brewski ( pinot noir for women).
At the recent NOVA conferences in Scottsdale, I had been assigned to a Friday lunch at Robert Chisholm’s table. I wanted to thank him once again for the wealth of legal precedence on higher SMC he has left in the BVA decisions search site. He turned me loose on it down in San Antonio at the Spring 2016 NOVA when he mentioned getting SMC L twice for two totally different disease processes was actually simple. I think he used the term ” SMC is the art of the possible. So little of it has ever been held up to the light.”
Anyway, he had a death in the family and was unable to attend. Thus, I ended up at Mr. James Ridgeway’s table instead. Funny thing. When I was a youngster of about 13-14, my dad was stationed at Langley AFB in Hampton Virginia. When he held cocktail parties, he invited all the fighter pilots. I was drafted to take orders and deliver the drinks from the kitchen being made by our aides. A Major ( or LtCol) Ridgeway attended and I recall being introduced vaguely. Mostly, the name stuck in my mind. Well, that and he was tall for a fighter pilot. It’s a bitch trying to cram yourself into an F-4 or a Thud if you’re 6’4/245. You have to sort of fold up like a Swiss Arm knife and your helmet is still scraping the plexiglas overhead.
So, the first thing Mr. Ridgeway asked me was with my heavy blog emphasis on all things Hepatitis C, why it was that I was remiss in writing up Andrews v. McDonough CAVC # 19-0352 Decided June 22, 2021. Well, truth be told, I had no excuse and said as much in my apology. Today I correct that error. After downloading it, I understand Mr. Ridgeway’s dissatisfaction. He was first chair on this with Glenn Bergmann of Bergmann and Moore on the brief. As such, it’s his opus dei at the CAVC working on the side of Veterans rather than the obverse. By that, I do not mean to imply he was adversarial or “anti-Veteran ” as I have seen some VLJs. The BVA, by and large, has a far more openminded view of Veterans’ justice than their counterparts below at the AOJ. That’s why they call them the Triers of Fact. Nevertheless, staff attorneys develop an appeal. The VLJ is handed a fait accompli for the most part and concurs or send it back to be repaired.
Anyway, Mr. Ridgeway now not only advocates for Veterans but proves he’s extremely adept at the business. Andrews, to me, just redefines Gilbert v. Derwinski in 2022 terms rather than 1991 terms. Additionally, it puts an exclamation mark after §3.304 because of the infernal new AMA method of sending you out for another c&p even after you’ve submitted a dynamite IMO from a subject matter expert MD. To add insult to injury, some c&ps come back from Nurseynurse Jane who holds an RN degree and often denies what an MD opines on. This used to be a fair process in the Legacy arena. Now it’s nothing more than a pissing contest with the VA’s ARNP prevailing over board-certified experts 30 years her senior. Idiots’ delight.
Andrews focuses on the benefit of the doubt with a side of CUE semantics stirred in:
“Per Mr. Andrews, this is the most natural reading of 38 U.S.C. § 7261(b)(1), which expressly incorporates the “benefit of the doubt” (or “approximate balance”) standard into the Court’s scope of review, instructing us to “take due account of the Secretary’s application of section 5107(b).” Thus, he contends that reversal is appropriate because the “only permissible view of the evidence is that it weighs in favor of granting the claim regardless of whether it is possible to decide which of the three in-service risk factors”—dental work, inoculations, or STD—”was the cause of the infection.”
The bolded portion above illustrates the new VA technique of the poor clinician overwhelmed with the possibility that multiple etiologies could be the culprit and thus, it would be too speculative to figure out which was the causative factor. This ignores that any one is viable rather than having to pick more than one.
Note the standard issue S&W Model 39 single stack 9mm.
Mr. Andrews would have won this on remand had the Secretary had his way and obtained a new IMO/ IME from QTC. Coming down with the clap in service was and is not willful misconduct under §3.301. I’ve won many Hep C claims on that facet alone. The problem VA thought they could get away with was that Mr. Andrews didn’t have an official IMO written by a medical specialist. It’s long been known that citing to Wikipedia articles or almost anything else on the internet is about a useful as nursing utensils on boar hogs when attempting to win your claim. The gold standard has, and always will be, obtaining the magic paper. However, in Mr. Andrew’s case, he had a pretty tall pile of paper and all of it was sound medical theory.
From past experience, we know he would have, in the normal course of events, been given a VA c&p and then granted SC for the hep but the date would be this year not the date of claim. They’d just pull the ages-old trick of pointing out he didn’t have an ‘official’ finding of fact made by their ARPN until now which unfortunately precludes an earlier effective date. Par for the course.
Tucker v. West, 11 Vet.App. 369, 374 (1998) is considered the yardstick on whether to reverse or set aside and remand to determine the truth. Here, the Court (and Toth of all Judges) appear to jointly concur in this opinion. That’s a good thing. I think they need to reverse more frequently-a lot more frequently. §3.304 needs to be dusted off and placed front and center when VA attempts to conduct just one more c&p when the evidence is 5 miles past equipoise. The Court should call them out and ask what (or why) in Sam Hill they are wasting the taxpayer’s bucks on these unguided ARPN denial safaris.
Andrews doesn’t break any new ice for Veterans but it at least points out the inequity of endless c&ps and permitting one more stab at a denial when the evidence is overwhelmingly in the Veteran’s favor. Ask yourself at what point a VA examiner should be held to the crime of misfeasance for continuing to bring out fresh horses and new rope to hang Veterans with. Think back on the Leroy MacKlem fiasco for relevance here.
The M 21 undergoes 135 changes in a slow year-more in a rapidly changing precedential year. Any document that flawed on its face should undergo a intense review to rid it of the inherent adversarial nature it is imbued with. Yeah, right. I hear VA pukes who are quick to say “Show us the adversarial language.” I’ll concede it isn’t in the language so much as in the application of the manual. If 88% lose the first time out and later win, it’s flawed. If 22% more prevail at the BVA, it’s flawed. And by God if 74% are overturned at the Court as defective and returned for readjudication, then somebody is screwing the pooch.
Lady Justice wears a blindfold everywhere but the VA in my myopic estimation. But then I’ve only been a bystander for 33 years. What do I know? Shooo doggies. I don’t even have a JD.
P.S. This is a good one. Looks like something I’d do…
A funny thing happened on the way to the Forum barn to feed the horses last October. A former SEAL called me up and asked for representation. Seems he was qualifying for BUDS back in 1974 after his RVN tour and had a mishap. He and a few fellow candidates had driven across country from San Diego to Ft. Gordon (in his VW microbus) to get their parachute certifications. He caught a bad crosswind on the third jump and, as could be expected, managed to wreck his back/neck and everything connected to them for life. He sucked it up and went on to qualify several days later. It stuck in his craw that VA never granted this most obvious claim of all. By way of explanation, he’s already 100% for Prostate and IHD. This wasn’t going to net him any more shekels but would at least set the record straight.
The Air Force-issued RVN Roach clip. Never left the hootch without it.
Well, you know me. I’m a pro bono sucker and special forces like SOGs, LRRPs, Rangers and SEALs always hit that soft spot in my heart. So of course I took it. He was at the BVA on an old Legacy claim and had 26 days to whip up a winning defense to save his claims bacon. On November 10, ’21, I conducted the shortest BVA Travel Board hearing in history and asked for a time out using Hamilton v. Brown to obtain a good IMO from my world-class nexus letter folks. VLJ Keith Allen wasn’t ecstatic about the delay but graciously gave me the 90 days to put up or shut up. We came in with 16 days to spare. As my client is terminally ill, we got the 78 rpm BVA advancement on the docket and a quick grant for all four orthopedic conditions.
No, it didn’t cost me $10,000.00 (US). No, it wasn’t 60 DBQs long nor the least bit holistic. Fact is, I don’t use DBQs and have little use for them. The outward-facing ones VA supplies us are a far cry from the ones that QTC/VES/LHI use. Theirs have a place to insert the medical opinion- even if it’s just the ruminations of an ARNP with a specialty in pediatric medicine. Those provided to us do not. Funny thing is back in 2015, USB Allison Hickey explained this absence to Congress at a hearing that they were just “using up” all the old forms for economy’s sake. Considering the forms are in electronic format, this bogus explanation was never called out by Rep. Filner or the Big Six VSOs.
The Peter Pilot’s job
My Vet’s IMO came in, as I said, with time to spare but I abhor cutting it that close-just as I’ve eternally wished they’d put one more second on hand grenades. The good doctor’s synopsis was clear and concise. People who jump out of perfectly good airplanes are going to eventually grow shorter and ache like a son of a bitch… forever. Where’s the big mystery to this? I rode a PC 6 Porter into the ground at 85+ knots one morning and went from 5’9 to 5’8 3/4 instantly. I’m about 5’8 1/2 half now. My L5/S1 is bone to bone. We didn’t have parachutes and would never have had enough time or altitude to deploy one anyway. Some days it just doesn’t pay to get up and go fly with drunk pilots. But that’s another story for another day.
I don’t suggest that Veterans dawdle and lollygag about with a Damocles-like hearing hanging over their heads. Nevertheless, it’s a good feeling to fix a sixty nine year-old wrong-even if it’s for free. I suppose I can take the long view and figure with incurable Prostate cancer that my Vet is going to be a candidate for SMC L or R1 all too soon, but that’s not why I did it. We aren’t required to ‘donate’ any certain amount of time to pro bono work but it’s great for padding your resume if your chances of getting into Heaven are sketchy. I probably need all the help I can get on that.
Once upon a time in 1994, I filed for Agent Orange issues and VA took the position that I’d never set foot in that part of the world. That belief held until I managed to get my records declassified in 2007. Bingo. 100% just like opening a box of Crackerjacks™. In addition to being a Trident-wearing SEAL, my Vet has a Combat Action Ribbon. He should never be suspected of being a charter member of the Safeway® slip-on-the-floor Club. In my book, he and I didn’t get none of that Rodney Dangerfield “respect”. So of course it’s always morally worth it to set things like this aright.
My good friend and fellow blogger Gene Groves (https://veteranclaims.net/ ) was kind enough to share the import that Hamilton carries when you desire to put your claim/appeal on the back burner in order to clean it up or obtain some time to get an IMO. It’s just one more tool in our pouch to win with- or put off losing. Gene always has the perfect cite. He’s like a walking talking Westlaw.
The G-3 Wundergun.
A good time was had by all. Johnny SEAL Vet can now meet and greet his fellow warriors with his head held high knowing he’s been exonerated. Me? Why, I get a shot at rehabilitating my Karma resume. I think I set myself back a bit in January when I shot the meth head who stole my car. But I digress. That, too, is a story for another day.
Next week, I’ll teach you fellers how to make bottle rockets out of old c ration cans, 81mm mortar crate baling wire and Semtex from Claymores. These are life skills everyone needs.
And that’s all I have to say about that.
P.S. If you like Country and Western music, this might raise you spirits. I reckon I’ve been selling the genre short all these years. Shut the front door.
I was going to write about this several years ago and it promptly escaped my ADHD -addled head. Jez, I gotta get one of those little pocket-sized Joe Friday/Dragnet spiral notebooks and carry it around with me. Just the facks, ma’am. Whoa. That was ten years ago. Seems it came to pass in Congress’ hallowed halls that a day was needed to tie yellow ribbons ’round diseased oak trees and officially declare “Welcome Home” to Vietnam Veterans. How a day celebrating this war conflict was overlooked for so long is immaterial. In this new, woke age of calling out every mistake or error committed by Americans since the dawn of Jamestown, it was probably inevitable that someone figured he could monetize this and sell a shit ton of ___________s on March 29 every year out in front of the Wall.
I look back and remember the days prior to the official day everyone beat feet out of Saigon in ’75-not ’73. They were still boogying a week later so March 29 1973 DEROS Day, to me, doesn’t seem to have any particular cachet-let alone meaningful import Sounds like some politician’s Fig Newton of the imagination. May 7th, 1975 is the official Olly-Olly-Income-Free day for VA purposes. So who’s in charge of assigning days for War remembrance? Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day have deep roots. Ditto the 4th of July. Did Congress’ Wheel of Fortune spinner just inadvertently stop on March 29? Here’s what the Google Encyclopaedia regurgitated…
In 2012, President Barack Obama signed a presidential proclamation, designating March 29 as the annual observance of Vietnam War Veterans Day. The signing of the proclamation marked the 50th anniversary of the departure of the last American troops from Vietnam — March 29, 1973.
Aruuuuuh? The official explanation by our 44th President was that March 29, 2012 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the day of departure of the last American soldiers from Vietnam (March 29, 1973)? With all due deference to our former President, I beg to disagree. First of all, 1973 plus 50 = 2023… without even using tortured VA math. A commenter below links to an official proclamation tying all this back to 1962 as the date we “landed”. Negatory. We landed while the Dien Bien Phu debacle was developing in ’54. Eisenhower’s Presidential Library has plenty on the subject. Ask Joe Vietnam Veteran what significance March 29 has to him and you’ll get the 1000-yard stare. Ask him what 1/30/68 or 5/7/75 means and you’ll get a far different response. Nobody forgets a Huey Throwing Contest at Dixie Station. Look at the VA’s regulation as to when they maintain the Boundary disagreement began-§3.2(f)- 2/28/1962. So again, where in Sam Hill did 3/29 enter into this again? How about 2/8/71 (Lam Son 719)? More appropriate, if you wanted a purely American, historic involvement date would be 11/14/65 (Ia Drang Valley).
We were still running SOG ops looking for our POW/MIAs in ’73. We still had probes working in Barrel Roll and Steel Tiger MRs until 1975 -and occasionally afterwards. They were being run out of Thailand until the King began tiring of the complaints from his neighbors. Without the clout of 80,000 US troops in his country, he didn’t cotton to an insipient communist insurgency either. His most modern fighters at that point were F 86s and leftovers from WW II like P-40s. His new neighbors in charge to the east had MIG 21s.
I recently saw a picture of the Traveling Wall -a shorty version of the DC wall they haul around the country. It’s advertized as the ‘Healing Wall’. I’ve been to the regular, full-sized version personally four times. I try to go when I’m in DC for hearings or when I visit my family in the tidewater region. It’s a short jaunt by Uber from the Hyatt Regency. Seems each time I go, it’s a mission to go find yet another long-forgotten acquaintance on there. I need to remember to pack charcoal for these expeditions. In this case, bad news travels extremely slowly. When I came home in ’72, I never settled down again back east and failed to reconnect with my former life. Friends of our family mention these more recent epiphanies now that I do VA law for a living.
With advancing age, the one thing us old farts need most at the DC Wall these days are benches to sit on while we visit and feed the squirrels. Most of us Vietnam Vets still vertical look like remnants of the chip-and-dent club. I guess benches are probably right out with the new ‘green outdoor camping’ phenomenon taking root but they sure would be nice.
I’m pretty sure many of you will never feel how this impacts you-even those of you my age- unless you have family on the Wall. It began subtly. Back in 1965, we young’uns began to notice a slow exodus of fellow classmates at Evergreen Elementary next door to Seymour Johnson AFB, NC. They were packing up and moving out of base housing and heading back to family homes in other states. Their dads were fighter pilots of the 4th TAC Fighter wing who were being reassigned to Vietnam combat squadrons. I began to find out when we moved to Langley AFB, VA that some had been shot down and were now POWs of the North Vietnamese. Some were MIA. But up in Laos, they were KIA and BNR. That stands for body never recovered. And then my dad got his orders in June ’66. Fortunately, he made it back alive but one of my classmate’s fathers- Major General Robert F. Worley- didn’t. He was shot down west of Da Nang by a SAM and that was all she wrote. The GIB egressed successfully and it’s theorized the smoke/fire in the cockpit overwhelmed him.
I sent his son an email last week with my condolences about his father’s passing. That was July 23, 1968. He works for VA and I happened to spot his name in VA’s email rolodex. It’s a small world but I wouldn’t want to paint it.
Many of you who served with me over there, either before or after me, lost friends, too. Nothing about good friends dying is healing to me. I’m sorry. It’s like picking at a scab until it begins bleeding all over again. Since I don’t go every year, when I do, it’s more like a chance for peaceful reflection on what could’ve been and what will never be. What if I hadn’t thrown those eggs at Officer Rohrbuck in his unmarked cop car four days after I graduated from high school? What if my draft number hadn’t been 39? But then reality intrudes. Why, I would never have met Cupcake and have this wonderful life helping Vets get what they (and I) should have received…yep…fifty years ago.
The fifty-year conundrum means little. I’ve never bought extra fireworks just because it’s the 25th or 225th anniversary of something. Likewise, it doesn’t refresh me or heal me to immerse my mind back into the biggest shit show I ever attended in my life. Going to the Wall is not healing. It’s sad remembrance. It’s guilt that you survived and your buddy didn’t. Every Vet I rep who carries a dx of PTSD will tell you that attending weekly Tuesday night Vet Center Kumbaya meetings where everyone sits in a circle and relives (and shares) life’s shittiest moments is not exactly cathartic. I don’t care what psychologists insist on as valuable therapy. I’d say it might make me want to ‘self-medicate’ more than I do already. Waaaaaay more. Certain parts of folks’ existence over there, by rights, deserve to be filtered or attenuated. Even mine. Rehashing old stories about Bouncing Bettys for discussion, dissection and Monday morning quarterbacking heals no one. I reckon it does wonders for pot sales though. That’s what the majority consensus is from the cheap seats. But then we’re not psychologists.
The period Vietnam photographs above I insert here awaken memories of that unique camaraderie I enjoyed for a fleeting moment in time. I don’t wish to remember the angst or the fifty-year emptiness of an aircrew who will never land again and laugh at their narrow escapes. I’d rather remember the whores in Vientiane to be brutally honest. I’d prefer to remember sucking oxygen in the morning with my GIF trying to get rid of our splitting hangovers before the preflight briefing. Going to visit the Wall, whether it be the Virtual Wall, the Traveling version or the raw, live one in 3D living color need no words. They need a place to sit serenely and visit with your best friend(s) you haven’t set eyes on in fifty years… And that’s all I have to say about that.
Speaking of fifty-year events, I had a close encounter with death January 15, 2022-forty nine years and some change after I left. Someone stole our Expedition and a friend spotted it several days later and followed it to a residence. I was informed and went over to “repossess” it. Seems Johnny Methhead was reluctant about relinquishing it. He backed up and tried to run over me with it. That’s attempted murder so I shot him. He’ll survive. He’s missing a large percentage of his right ear and suffered a through-and-through to the right upper shoulder.
The Expedition didn’t fare so well. I accidentally put a few into the engine block which prevented him from leaving. He opened the driver’s door and caught my noggin with it as I tried to jump out of the way. It rang my bell but I’ll recover. Cupcake’s synopsis is I’m fragile but still agile.
P.S. Perhaps what concerns me is that due to the fact we now have a set aside for Vietnam Veterans Day, who speaks for a Iraqistan Veterans Day? The remaining unrecognized Korean or WWII Veterans Day? The granddaughters of the Spanish American War Veterans Day?
This one should be called the ‘Colvin on your collar told a tale on you‘ . This claim/appeal now spans sixty five years and has outlived the Veteran. Still VA tries to squirm out of doing it locally. I get that. This is 4th and long and the Seattle Puzzle Palace ain’t going near it. They’re punting to the BVA. If you drew the VSR GS-9 short straw and had to write this up, or were the unfortunate Coach it came back to like an errant boomerang, or anyone even remotely associated with this stinker, your chances of rising to the hierarchy of the VBA DROC team would be right up there with ice creme in Hell if you were party to cutting the paper handing out a million +. 
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
kcraveiro
robinhoodesqvetsatty
Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 