Just in from Squidley. This is priceless. After getting the proverbial bitchslap for ten years and throwing down the gauntlet repeatedly, Congress is shocked that VA has not come clean. Why should they when they feel they have diplomatic immunity? Hell, they can get 20 parking tickets and 100 DUIs with no prospect of retaliation. At least that’s what has transpired over the years. Why else would they continue to stonewall?
Here’s another take on it from Stars and Stripes
This was my family in 1957 at Turner AFB. That’s an F-100D Tail #FW 863 of the 31st Fighter Wing just arrived from the William Tell fighter meet at Nellis AFB, Nevada. 2nd Place.
Dang. And I thought they were dragging their feet on my claim. Check this out. Major Reno’s great grandson files for Hep C in 1995. This assumes they didn’t take more than a year to deny from filing date. And then the famous deny and delay unto death begins. This one is far more entertaining and legally intense than mine ever was.
May 1995 RO denial at St. Fumbleburg, Florida.
BVA Traveling Board hearing September 1996
BVA denial March 1997
Vet files Motion For Reconsideration (MFR) June 1997.
BVA declines request for MFR August 1997
Vet files Notice of Appeal (NOA) to CAVC late 1997
CAVC (Court) affirms BVA decision July 1999
Vet appeals to 3rd Federal Circus Fall 1999
Fed. Circus affirms Court decision September 2000
VCAA kicks in and VA agrees to an Unopposed motion for voluntary remand back to the CAVC anyway.
Court vacates 1997 BVA decision and remands back to BVA .
BVA remands to RO in August 2001 and again in January 2004 for more development
Meanwhile, back at the BVA ranch, while the January 2004 development of the claim was in remand, the VLJ overseeing the case up and retired. Therefore a new VLJ was saddled up .
New BVA Traveling Board hearing August 2009
BVA denial (again) May 2010
Sgt. Reno files new NOA with the CAVC late summer 2010
Court vacates May 2010 BVA decision September 2011
DOCKET NO. 95-32 722, now almost 13 years old, is remanded back to BVA in early 2012
BVA remands claim back to the George Armstrong Custer Memorial VARO located in Fort Harrison, Montana July 10th, 2012 for assembly of records which seem to never have been fetched.
NPRC will diligently research its records for several minutes and notice no current medical facilities located in Pleiku City, Democratic Republic of Vietnam. As for the Firebase November SMRs, those records are insulation in a bamboo hut somewhere nearby. Right about now the NPRC is mailing a letter to the RO saying there is no such medical facility listed in their database.
JSSRC will diligently report after a year that there was indeed a Firebase November located XX klics from Engineer Hill Medevac Facilities but there is no mention of an attack on the outpost so PTSD (and HCV) cannot be verified.
The BVA , in June 2014 will deny the claim again and this time will put bright red sealing wax on the imprimatur. Sgt. Reno will futilely appeal and file his NOA by August 2014.
The Court will convene in a single judge decision (SJD) shortly thereafter in June 2015, our much-traveled Veteran will receive notice that the Court has reaffirmed the denial yet again. The attached note to the flowers will read “No flies on us!”
I guess we can safely say he’ll try the Circus again based on some obscure point of law. This is undoubtedly the best example of Win or Die I’ve seen in all my time studying this vA enigma. Trying to get useful info out of the NPRC is a crap shoot. The JSSRC is an admirable group and are fairly diligent in comparison. What is missing here is a coordinated search in the right place for the correct knowledge. I suspect NPRC has medical inpatient records on this guy over in the hospital records section of the warehouse with all the rest. That’s where the search should focus. In reality the Chicken Little scenario will ensue. When all are satisfied that they cannot produce anything, the Vet will be buried in 2020 and his spouse will take over. Imagine. This was done with a Law dog. If he’d attempted this by himself they’d be playing the “We thought you were trying to reopen the old claim. Sorry Bro. Back to Fort Fumble via the AMC.”
The November VA “What? Me worry?” award is therefore shared equally between the St. Pete’s and Fort Harrison ROs for mutually culpable crimes. Attorney Robert M. Kampfer gets a big gold star next to his name for perseverance above and beyond the call of duty and little else. Why they (law dogs) go to the floor for us is a miracle in this legal environment.
Remember, folks. 125 days and 98% coming to a VARO near you-soon.
We often read about our hanging at a BVA Board ruling weeks after it happens. It’s predictable and usually anti-climatic. Of the many I’ve read, this one stands out for its audacity in reporting what we all know.
We always hear of the sacred “benefit of the doubt” and how the vA is the keeper of the flame. We take this as an article of faith like twinkies. News flash. Benefit of the doubt actually happens quite frequently. If you had your skull opened up like a ripe cantaloupe by an IED and were applying for bent brain with that brand new Rand McNally Road Atlas on your noggin, the vA examiner might look in your C-file. He’d note the Purple Heart and allow as it was “at least as likely as not that what the Vet claimed actually happened. He/she would go on to say that giving the Vet the benefit of the doubt and resolving all doubt in his favor, it was at least as likely as not that his new ‘do was service connected.
Here, we have evidence that the vA examiner could not possibly have lifted a finger to look at the SMRs. Mind you, not somebody else’s by accident but no contemporaneous records at all. Zip. Hell, this one didn’t even see the benefit of the light of day down in Whacko. Their M-21 Ouija® device must need a new set of points and an oil change.
Say it ain’t so, Ronnie. Round up the usual suspects. Somebody arrest Bush. Both of them. And his wife, too. Look for hanging chads. This has Vast Right Wing Conspiracy written all over it. Maybe Bozo just had a brain fart while doing Johnny’s claim. Maybe he was having marital problems. Vets are sooooooo judgmental. There must be a logical explanation.
As usual, the good ol’ boys up at the DAV in DC somehow forgot to get this guy a nexus on his gastrointestinal issues as well. Shocked. I am just shocked. What more can I say? VSOs are our saviors and have all the know-how on this. That’s why we hire them. They’ve been doing it for over half a century or more. How can it be that Johnny Waco got all the way to Vermin Ave. NW without the magic paper? Why, this has never happened before. Someone should notify Attorney General Holder and have him look into this. Perhaps the OIG. Once is one time too many. We must nip this in the bud. The sky is falling.
Did I mention I was shocked?
The 1989 VJRA Fiscal cliff for VA is well known. It had become so clannish and dysfunctional as to be rife with delays. Sound familiar?
As the CAVC became entrenched and the delays grew anew, VA promised to expedite, hire more personnel, and streamline the process. The BVA promptly geared up for the expected onslaught by ordering more martini shakers.
By 1994, things were getting pretty slippery where a six month delay was the norm for an uncomplicated claim. VA screamed for more of everything to “right the cart”. BVA disbanded three-judge panels and permitted new “single judge” boards consisting of one (1) (uno) judge. This immediately produced sixty “Boards” where there were only twenty. VAROs geared up by training several new raters every year.
By 2000, nothing had really changed. As with the schools system, more money was thrown at the problem but with new wars came new, injured Vets. A spate of new hospital spending on the VHA side was instituted but was delayed for far too long. “More money!” they shouted down at 810 Vermin Ave. NW. And Congress obliged. More raters were hired and training began in earnest. Bonuses were offerred to entice workers to become more productive. Eventually they were proffered just to get raters to come in to work. Starbucks® Coffee shops were collocated in VAROs to increase productivity. Suggestion boxes were installed in restrooms.
Claims once again began to pile up and a loud cry and hue arose over how poorly VA was doing their job. Gold-plated VHA facilities were coming on line but yet the claims backlog continued. Extensive studies were funded and investigators investigated. They concluded that the VA was simply underpopulated and needed more involved, committed “stakeholders” who were willing to improve the system. Congressional hearings were held and it was determined that more money was needed to keep up with the influx of new Veterans. Congress grudgingly complied but asked if this was the proper cure. Assured by the highest Agency talking heads that the logjam was less than a year from being solved, more funds were allocated. More raters were hired with an expected on-line status of two years.
Along about 2010, everyone was assured that responsible stakeholders had stepped up to the plate and large numbers of new mental health workers were going to stem the high tide of suicides accumulating. Homeless Vets, too, were seated at the big table. Women Vets, long neglected, began to see clinics opening that catered specifically to them. Still the dogged problem of backlogged claims persisted. It was felt that due to the propensity of Vets to start claiming everything but the kitchen sink, they were being unreasonable and bogging down the system. This nine or ten claims-per-Vet thing was getting out of hand. Backlogs were now growing in numbers unforeseen and medical facilities found themselves in over their heads. Few wanted to work for the much-vaunted VHA due to their increasingly poor reputation and miserly wages. Even extensive TV advertising failed to fill the breech. Suicides increased while homelessness abated. Once again, the call went out: “Mo’ money, honey.”
Congress was fit to be tied. The more gold-plated the machine, the slower it traveled. The more personnel hired and bonuses administered, the larger the backlog and the time required to adjudicate an ingrown toenail. After additional hearings and lots of acrimony, Under Secretary of Apologies Allison A. Hickey did her best mea culpas before the Inquisition. Promises were made and gifts were exchanged. 2015 was now being touted as the magic year for resolution. Fabulous predictions of 125 days (or less!) claims resolution in a modern, paperless society all from the comfort and privacy of one’s own home were foretold. Trees could breathe a sigh of relief. Global warming would abate. Our dependence on foreign oil would become a distant memory. Ebenefits was the wave of the future. MyhealthEvet predicted their system would very soon have all our records a keystroke away. In fact, by 2015 technology would be so precise as to guarantee a 98% chance of accuracy. DBQs would make new claims all the more precise and accurate. Everyone rejoiced except the Vets.
So, here we are at the cusp of 2013. The backlog stands at 1.25 million claims with new ones coming in droves daily. Accuracy, in reality, is currently about 30% and falling like a winter low pressure system coming in.
Victor Alpha, ever optimistic, sees things differently.
I eagerly await the new stakeholders’ explanations for the disparity in all these prognostications. I also smell Eouija on the 2015 horizon.
Download your VA Ebenefit phone app to track your claim here. Takes you directly to ULUZ@va.gov
Yes, pilgrims. Member Tombo of the Few and the Proud presses “send” on this valuable collection of unbearable bargains for Christmas. I personally have searched high and low for a nail unbender for years and consigned myself to the fact that no one made one. Well now we’re all in high cotton. 18 Volt cordless hammers? Laser-guided paint brushes? They got your six, bubba. If you can’t find something in this catalog to give someone you’re not extremely fond of, you have higher standards than even me. Shoot, this stuff is the story of legends and regifting. Chances are you’ll see it back under your own tree in several years.
If you live in the northeast, this is just the ticket for your Christmas Office Party or a large gathering. The donations or funds invested in their endeavor couldn’t go to a better cause. Old friend and fellow Air Force brat Emo asked me to put this up and I gladly comply.
Exciting new cancer drug March 31st, 1980…
But wait, exciting new cancer AIDS drug in 1992?
Hold the presses. We have a winner. It kills humans er, HCV in 30 to 40% of cases investigated. Whooo-hoooo! It works, sort of.
Seems like scientists just can’t let a worthless drug go. If at first you don’t succeed, kill, kill again. Thanks for the artwork, Squidley. Maybe that’s why they call it Dragon’s breath, rat piss, the cure that kills, 52 ways to leave your lover and more.
I’ve spent too much time looking in the VA budget for the line item for grant payments to VSOs without success. The VSOs serve under the VA’s Office of General Counsel as accredited partners and have read-only access to CAPRI and veterans health and compensation records. They are congressionally chartered, non-profit organizations. They get perks like free rent and hold their own conventions in vacation spots. But what federal department funnels funds to them? Are they buried in the massive discretionary funds categories?
In states like Michigan, VSO’s can apply for grants funds. See page 16 for the size of recent grants awards. http://www.house.mi.gov/hfa/briefings/MilitaryVets%2010-11.pdf
In Pennsylvania, VSO’s may use their grant money for salaries and benefits (4). Some private SOs are unpaid volunteers; others are assumed to be paid staff (accreditation form 7B by the VA. County SO salaries are paid by state budgets. VSOs like the VFW, get large donations from corporate sponsors and small ones from citizens who donate during the poppy drives.
A consortium of VSOs publish an “independent budget” that calls for better salaries and HR training (more Orlando parties?) for VA workers as a critical issue! What’s weird about the VSO budget is that it doesn’t present even one spread sheet. It’s all words as bland and sugarly as a Twinkie. http://www.independentbudget.org/2011/CI_2012.pdf
There is no question that VSOs help active military and veterans in many ways and I’m grateful for their efforts. But the monetary relationships between governmental entities like the VA and VSOs should be an open book. And the qualifications of SOs working under the OGC need to be improved given their high denial rates. At the BVA level, attorney’s have the lowest denial rates. To see which VSOs rates best, re-read Average Joe Vet’s post. https://asknod.wordpress.com/2012/07/15/vsos-report-card-for-2011/
At the RO level, veterans are denied the right to a qualified attorney in this special legal arena and the denial rates reflect this fact.
Ed. note: Wheeeeeeew, doggies. She sure touched a sore nerve there. I know, too, that the chartered VSOs get funds from VA (read congress) for representing Vets. They obtain these via the Form 21-22 POA. That is why VSOs are constantly trolling for more. It’s their cash cow that feeds them. The actual sum seems to be hard to discern. I talked at length with the Washington State PR gal at the Dept. of State Vets Affairs last year in pursuit of an answer. She danced around a number but would not commit to an actual sum. All she would say was that it was paltry. In government, paltry can be $2000.00 a head. Government types have difficulty quantifying paltry. To them, no sum is too exorbitant where their salaries are concerned.
True to my word on putting up a copy of my Greenhouse NOD, at fifteen pages this one is a veritable Gutenberg bible. For those of you who are filing for the ILP or have lost, this will give you a lot of good ammo to fight with. All the regulations, statutes and M-21 references are in there. vA’s favorite Miriam Webster definitions for necessary and vital are already assembled. Virtually all you need to do is insert the correct VARO address, the appropriate disabilities, and formulate why you need them for your independence. With twenty other ILP entries on the subject on our site, you should be able to get a solid claim together for this project. And yes-it’s our site. Yours and mine. Written for Veterans by Veterans (and their wives). We do it for you because, quite frankly, if the shoe was on the other foot I’m sure you’d do it for us.
Make no mistake about it. This is every bit as arduous as a claim for benefits. You’ll have long, dead spells in between filings but nothing on the order of years. After the denial of it’s existence is abandoned, progress will ensue.
Go to the widget at the top and click on VAROs-Who’s who. Enter Veterans Benefits Admin and your VARO state and county to see who the ILP folks are who will be giving you grief. They’re usually GS-10s and above and listed as “psychologist” or “Social Science”. More subterfuge or vA’s rude attempt at humor. Add up their combined wages for a year and you’ll see a lot of tax $ being squandered denying the very programs you’re entitled to. If this doesn’t incur your wrath, nothing will. The wages paid to VR&E folks at the SEARO alone are $1,465,737.00 not counting the bonuses. My daddy used to say “That government work is thirsty business and liquor costs money.”
Go to Hadit.com and look at this site. Note the posts by USNDW. He’s very knowledgeable on this subject and has much experience dealing with them. Fortunately, they seem to be working with him rather than against him. My bozos at the Seattle RO are not so accommodating.
I’d also like to thank Rick Townsend for a wonderful program tonight. He’s one of the best secret weapons we have in our war with the vA for our benefits. Make no mistake about it. This program is not about a grab bag of goodies for greedy Vets. The ILP was designed for the most disabled among us. Congress saw fit to ameliorate the rotten remuneration afforded Vets on compensation by offering extras to enhance our lives. Do not ever think this is cheating another Vet out of a vocational goal. The avocational funds were set aside for us and are being usurped for other causes at our expense. The mere fact that they have chosen to bury this out back behind the outhouse is proof that they’d prefer we didn’t know. On the rare occasion when the cat gets out of the bag, they try to substitute extendahand top shelf grabbers, portapottys, cordless phones in lieu of Life Alert pendants, and grab bars at the water closets. Don’t fall for it.
I’ll leave this in Microword so those of you who desire can modify it to your needs.
VR-E NOD for Greenhouse 11-21-12
There are no rules for this. The ILP is in the form of a grant. There is great leeway to entertain your requests. A medical need is most likely going to be granted, but computers are one of the big ones these days. No one can say they are “necessary and vital” to independence in everyday living any more so than a Tempurpedic bed. Remember that when they abruptly deny you. Force them to put it in writing with a complete rationale for their denial. Their reasons will look petty and spiteful when committed to paper.
To Todd and Bill-we wish you the best of luck in your endeavors on this. Questions can and will be answered about this at asknod@gmail.com always. Email me and I’ll send you an autographed copy of the book if you so desire. And may I say in all seriousness- Thank you both (and all Vets) for being so selfless as to offer to serve your country that others might receive the enduring gift of freedom. Few hear the call. Even fewer sign on the line.
Four years ago and nothing to show for it… Way to go Congress. I notice nobody missed out on their precious perks up on the Hill in the interim.
asknod
Bethanie Spangenberg
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Wesley McCauley
Veterans Claims Help 