New Address- Military Medical Records

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod
hcvet
Moderator
Registered: 11/22/08
Posts: 48 
09/27/11 #1
Hi folks, Please direct new members that need medrecs to include this address

National Personnel Records Center
1 Archives Drive
St Louis, MO 63138-1002
… USA

For Pre2001 veterans should send a request to all 4 addresses… click here to view http://hcvets.com/data/va_news/FilingClaims.htm#How

From Dan Sickman

This is an FYI from NARA; NARA asked for the widest possible distribution to
everyone who interfaces with veterans,, so here is their announcement:

Please pass this information on to those members of your organization that
interface with veterans. Your assistance with this initiative will allow
us, and you, to better serve the needs of our veterans. If you publish a
newsletter, we would appreciate it if you include this preferred channel for
submitting requests in an upcoming issue. You can also post this
information to any web site that you have.

The new address for the National Personnel Records Center is:

National Personnel Records Center
1 Archives Drive
St Louis, MO 63138-1002
USA

The majority of personnel have moved to the new location and the military
personnel records are in the process of moving. The entire move should be
completed by the end of the Summer of 2012.
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hcvet
Moderator
Registered: 11/22/08
Posts: 48 
09/27/11 #2
As a reminder, ALL retirees and Honorably Discharged veterans should ensure
that their family knows the location of their military Separation Document
(DD Form 214 from 1950 to present and WD (War Department) Form 53-
55 and other variations prior to 1950).

Note that registering a copy at the county court house may make that document a public record. Separation Documents issued after 1969 may contain a Social Security Number which could be used for identity theft. Storing the Separation Document in a safe deposit box may make it difficult to retrieve immediately upon the death of the retiree or honorably discharged veteran. The better storage locations are:

1-Fire safe in a secure location of the house (not in the bedroom, as this
is where most thieves search first). Be sure spouse/NOK knows the location
and has key/combination.

2-In a watertight fo od container (Glad, Tupperware. etc.) in the
refrigerator. Most refrigerators are fire resistant. Additionally, a
refrigerator is heavy enough to fall through the floor of a building into
the cooler part of the fire in the basement and better survive. Finally, a
refrigerator is large enough to be easily located in the ash and ruble of a
fire or other serious incident. (As a bonus, everyone has a refrigerator,
not everyone has a fire resistant storage box). Be sure to inform your
spouse and relatives where to locate your Separation Document – and any
other important papers.

As a reminder, the preferred method of submitting a request to the National
Personnel Records Center (NPRC) is via the Internet. Please note that in
some cases using a browser other than Internet Explorer may create problems
with data entry. As you know, the NPRC provides copies of documents from
military personnel records to authorized requesters. Our web-based
application will provide better service on these requests by eliminating our
mailroom processing time. Also, since the requester will be prompted to
supply all information essential for us to process the request, delays that
occur when we must go back for more information will be minimized. You may
access this application at:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/

This improved on-line request process should be used INSTEAD OF
Standard Form 180 for requests from the veteran or the veteran’s next of
kin, if possible. Your assistance with this initiative will allow us, and
you, to better serve the needs of our veterans. If you do not wish to use
the Internet, you should use Standard Form 180. You should pr int Standard
Form 180 as you need it, not in advance because the form is periodically
revised and updated. It should not be available on your web site. You can
have a link to the NPRC web page.

The link is:

http://www.archives.gov/veterans/military-service-records/standard-form-
180.html

Since the Standard Form 180 is updated periodically, it is NOT recommended
that large quantities be printed/photocopied and stocked.

The form will be updated with the new address within six months. The US
Postal Service will forward mail if requests are mailed to the old location
until February 2012.

 

Dan Sickman Sr.
Non-Attorney Veteran Advocate
pointmanlawgroup@gmail.com
267 603 2567
Posted in BvA HCV decisions | Leave a comment

Independent Living Program

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

Dang. I just got turned down by VA for a new computer, a greenhouse and a sewing machine. This is available to those of us who are never going to work again. It’s called the Independent Living Program or ILP for short. It’s administered by the Voc Rehab component of the VA Gestapo. Okay, I didn’t expect they’d pop for the Singer, but I figured I could get the greenhouse based on all the chow I take down to the food bank. As for the computer, well, this site is important. I mentioned it, too. Apparently the VA doesn’t care about poor hungry people (including Vets). As for the computer, they don’t feel it will contribute to my well-being. I suppose Drew Carey and The Price is Right is more their idea of mental pablum. As I am in a rural setting and my neighbors are almost out of .22 range, I figured I had a pretty good shot at it. Seems I was mistaken. I had to pester them to even tell me I lost. They did rock, paper and scissors and Kris rocked to paper, so he called. He says “you know” too much. As in, ” Well, Mr. Noodle, we, ah, you know, looked at this long and hard, you know, and the feeling was like, you know, will it ah, improve the independent aspect you know, of the ah, ability for you to be like, you know, independent.” 

    Another NOD to file. I asked him if he was going to mail a denial so I could file a disagreement. He said yeah, but that I would have to supply new and material evidence if I was going to file the NOD. I asked what part of 38 CFR ILP was located in. It took Khristopher Columbus about 3 or 4 minutes to come up with the correct regulation. This is all he does for VA and he doesn’t even know where his authority emanates from?  I thought this kind of stupidity was a thing of the past. What happened to a Grateful Nation providing for the Vet’s creature comforts?. Jez, I’m at 150% now and if I win my back claim, that’ll put me over top for the SMC-S rate. I’m low risk for all the other stuff. I have my wheelchair and walker. I ADA’d my house when I built it and the hallways are all 4 feet wide. The fact that I am housebound and chained to a water closet seems to be immaterial to these guys. 
     I use my wife’s computer when she’s out showing houses to do all this. For some insane reason, I thought I might get a sympathetic ear from the VA bozos at Voc Rehab. Maybe they read this site and decided a denial might end AskNod as well. I doubt that. VA has its moments but I severely doubt they could be bothered by us. We haven’t put a hole in their bottom line like Leroy Macklem did to Uncle Eric last year. He smoked them for a judgement all the way back to 1950. Sweet, Leroy. Shinseki’s still seeing red over that one.
     Some Vets try to shoot the moon with an ILP request. We’re talking John Deere tractors with all the attachments. Hell, all I wanted was a new laptop and some new software. I guess I’ll have to ask Santaseki for it in my NOD. Onwards through  the fog. Vote for Oat Willie. And yes. I have the forms to apply for the ILP gig if everyone wants to inundate them before Christmas.

Posted in All about Veterans, Independent Living Program, Tips and Tricks, Uncategorized, VR&E | Tagged | 3 Comments

AO Exposure on Naval Ships

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

 If you have been denied SC for any AO diseases because the VA said you weren’t in country or because of the Haas ruling on blue water Navy, see this site to see if you ship was designated as an exception to the rule. The list is very extensive and you may hit the jackpot. Besides, nobody is going to convince me every squid sailed over on the SS Minnow. I’m betting a bunch flew over and landed at the busiest airpatch in the world at that time and took surface transportation to the nearest port city after a short stay down in Cholon.

Posted in AO, General Messages | Leave a comment

Risky Business–The Mirror Test

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod
Sorry. No Tom Cruise and no U-boat commanders in this.  

     When you file a claim for benefits, you will be asked to supply any and all pertinent evidence you have, know of, and any personal evidence you can testify to (if you so wish) that would aid in your decision. There is no implied requirement that you supply the VA with negative, or harmful evidence. This would be in keeping with the holdings of the Fifth Amendement ensconced in the Bill of Rights. Should they come across proof that you have acted fraudulently later, you can be prosecuted for it and go to jail. Be aware of that.  

      Some Vets read this very broadly and assume the VA is their good buddy. They may go so far as to feel compelled to get diarrhea of the mouth. An inattentive Service Officer can often let damaging information get by him and enter the claims process. Like a bullet, once this happens you cannot call it back. 
      Members have approached us over the last several years and asked that burning question. Just how much information about myself should I, or am I required to supply to the VA? Like any Texas necktie party, the more rope you give them, the better the chance of your neck getting longer. With that said, think about this. I’m certainly not suggesting lying about it. That would fall into the category of supplying knowingly false or fraudulent information to illicitly receive compensation. You don’t want to go there.
     The VA utilizes what we here consider to be almost Gestapo tactics in their pursuit of denial. It sounds so natural to hear a VA official say “We grant all claims that are presented that can be proven. This is a non-adversarial process where the Veteran is accorded the benefit of the doubt and his lay testimony is given full faith.”So we propose viewing it like the VA.
     When you look at the Risk Factors Questionnaire, consider modifying it. I refer to the risk of jetguns (unlisted) and haircuts (same). Remember all the times the barber used the straight razor to trim off the hair where it met your neck? What makes you think he had a corner on the sterilization market? I never noticed any autoclaves back near the mirror. The razors always sat on the counter and the combs always soaked in that vase of blue water that looks like the liquid they use in portable toilets. Sterilization consisted of rinsing it in 116 degree water and  wiping it back and forth on the leather strop. 
     The main thing, though, is how to view the different risks they list as being suspect. If you were in the habit of injecting drugs with all your buddies using the same syringe and needle, you probably shouldn’t be here reading this and trying to figure out a way to win. Nevertheless, we have a big tent and there’s room for everyone. If you did it once or twice to “experience” it, chances are it isn’t the culprit that VA would automatically assume it to be. Similarly, snorting junk was not the kind of thing that provoked nosebleeds. Snorting or shooting up a lot of anything is different though. Doing it with shared instruments is suicidal behavior. You certainly don’t need us to tell you that. Apparently, using a Pedojet air inoculation system with poor sanitary hygienic practices is different and only a plausible, unproven risk factor. 
     We don’t believe that you are any more obligated to provide VA with evidence you personally feel is irrelevant than they are to render a decision on your claim that is going to be fair and balanced. If you smoke or ever smoked pot and admit it, you will be seated at the back of the bus with Rosa Parks. Likewise, admitting to having consumed vast quantities of adult beverages for aeons and/or continuing to do so while pursuing the claim will generally cause problems. VA may insinuate that you are a perennial abuser of multiple drugs based on your history or what fell out of your pie hole when you were at the VAMC on a detox staycation getaway. 
     If you have information about yourself you alone possess that would be prejudicial to your claim, I ask you to look in the mirror and be honest. Is the action or info you are contemplating withholding the most probable reason for your disease? If it falls into the category of willful misconduct, please be considerate of other Vets and don’t clog up the system with it.  If you have multiple risk factors that are all potentially suspect, would the admission of the negative evidence you alone possess be a deciding factor in a denial of your claim? Consider that 60%+ of Vietnam Veterans have this disease. I mean Veterans who were in-country, not Vietnam-era Vets. Yet when collated, we see that many Vets who weren’t in-country also are infected. We see a predominance of 1A genotype which is American grown, not the 3a seen in SEA.  The odds of your getting it from the jetgun are not quantifiable according to the VA. So, if they won’t consider the jetguns to be a risk, why should you consider a minor indiscretion or two to be one? Most Veterans fail to see the big VA picture. Any admission of impropriety will become the self-admitted risk factor in spite of your lack of medical training to describe it in context or rule it out as the reason. 
     My lips are sealed as to what my proclivities were during my two-year vacation in sunny Southeast Asia. The fact that my tin canteen rotted out from carrying Tanquery gin is merely a coincidence. I suspected metal fatigue or shoddy workmanship at the time. No one else’s did. It was bad enough that we were forced to crush up quinine pills and mix them with water to impersonate tonic water. War can be pure hell and the deprivations we were forced to endure are too numerous to list here. As for illicit substances, I suppose I could have claimed the Slick Willie plaint- I didn’t inhale. I could have used the novel defense that I was never innoculated with jetguns so that was right out, but that would have been lying and my claim would have been thrown out. For years VA wanted us to prove we were zapped by the jetguns. They went so far as to say there was no evidence of it in our SMRs or inoculation records! They now begrudgingly acknowledge we were, but fall back on their immutable “plausibility” argument. 
     In summary, I would have to admonish anyone who files or considers doing so, to view it in a different light. Knowing full well that the prosecution is going to use everything in their legal quiver to shoot down your claim, do you honestly feel like giving them the arrows to do so when you have no medical training to make such a determination as to the cause? Put another way, the fact that they will knowingly use such arcane theories as the fact that it (HCV) wasn’t mentioned anywhere in your medical records during your enlistment as reason for denial, do you feel obligated to say “Oh, yeah. I did snort some toot with my buddy Raybob once in 88, about 20 years after I got out.” Your testimony that neither you nor Raybob subsequently suffered bloody noses while engaged in this will be deemed irrelevant. You have no medical training to be able to see red stuff and determine that it was catsup from the french fries present on the living room table. VA, on the other hand, has a large stable of medical professionals available on a moment’s notice for a professional opinion on not only catsup, but which brand it was. Do you really want to go there? 
     The VA has gradually come around to the system whereby you provide a doctor’s letter which says “It is my opinion that thus and so…, therefore I believe it is at least as likely as not etc.” VA will supply one of these in the event you don’t. Due to Appeals precedents, the VA can no longer arbitrarily say “denied” without some explanations. This is where the rubber meets the road. VA’s reasons and logic assume the worst-unless it’s material to their case to be otherwise. This leads to incongruous decisions such as having unprotected sex with multiple partners in service is much less of a risk factor than engaging in it after service where the risk is astronomically high. I got a lot of laughs from the BVA decision wherein they reasoned that a self-administered tattoo at home with India ink prior to service was undoubtedly the cause of the Vet’s hep. That kind of decision is rare these days. In its stead, VA carefully examines each and every risk factor known and assigns a value of probability to it. IVDU tops the list followed by transfusion, hemodialysis, risky sexual behavior, tattoos and so on down the line. Any admission of drug abuse of any kind, as you well know, is the death knell for your claim. I think the whole process is highly subjective. By that, I mean letting one doctor decide which particular risk factor your disease is caused by is rather tilted. The doctor is merely engaging in conjecture. Given enough time and resources, you could assemble a book of possible nexi both pro and con. VA has simply streamlined this process in their favor. Giving them more ammunition to help you lose is the antithesis of fair and balanced. 
     After all these words, I can only come back to the mirror test. I find it underhanded that we, as plaintiffs, are guilty until exonerated. If a court of law is so obviously biased and justice is tainted 70% of the time, where do you draw the line on what’s permissible? Is it cheating to “disremember” like politicians in an attempt to get away with it? I’m glad I didn’t have to personally cross that bridge. It’s risky business fraught with pitfalls. Each of you must make those decisions to be forthright or less than equivocal. Or…screw the moral compass. It doesn’t function well in the VA Triangle anyway
Posted in General Messages | Leave a comment

How to Fix America

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

I get so confused sometimes at what I am observing. I know its cognitive brain disorder. The doctor said it’s a side effect of Hep. C and will gradually increase. Driving back from a house I have been trying to sell before the bank just takes it away, I saw what I would consider an anomaly. I thought my eyes were playing tricks on me or that I wasn’t getting the complete picture. When you get to be sixty with this disease,  you have to look twice a lot to figure it out- especially if they’re in their 20’s and attractive.

     On my port side as I drove by was a nice electronic gate freshly painted and obviously new. The gravel in the driveway wasn’t new and had a lot of weeds, but the gate would have looked good in front of a Hollywood mansion. I normally see an asphalt or concrete driveway where these are installed. As a builder, I have had these devices installed on custom homes and they generally run about $5-6K for the basic version and up to $10K+ for the custom gates with your monogram incorporated into the ironwork.

    But what should my wondering eyes behold beyond the gate? A tiny little old, 600 SF, flat-top, single-wide, manufactured home that was 10 years older than God. This was not what you’d call a “mobile” home anymore. Any attempt to move it would result in instant disintegration. The roof has a rich, green carpet of moss which is undoubtedly Mother Nature’s eco-friendly way of providing an organic, biodegradable insulation of about R-3. The front deck has a nice businesslike tilt to it to insure water runoff away from the structure.  The utilitarian pre-fab canvas car garage and a portable dog kennel in the front yard compliment the structure and give it warmth and that “lived in” look.  The pink water closet with the hydrangea growing out of it speaks of that je ne sais quoi? that only an artistic landscaper could explain.

     The cost of the electronic gate must have really cut into this family’s budget because the autos henceforth protected by this unit are well-traveled. The newest was a 90’s Nissan pick up and the other an 80’s Toyota Corolla with a clear visqueen plastic and duct taped, non-operable window in the right rear quadrant.  An older Dodge van being used as a PODS storage area was parked beside them and announces in no small way that these folks are innovative, resourceful and penny wise.

     Nevertheless, it’s clear that these people are crime conscious and have taken steps to protect their investment. I applaud them for their situational awareness. This is the kind of action that will lead this great nation out of poverty and back to its former grandeur. If enough of you fellow Americans would put your money where your common sense isn’t, and invest in unneeded infrastructure, we could turn this economic doldrum around in short order. It takes courage to boldly spend like this. If I still had a disposable income, I’m sure I would lead the charge. Unfortunately, I have already disposed of most all of it since I became disabled. That must be why the government calls it disposable. When you finally succeed in disposing of it all, you can go on Medicaid, Welfare and all the other alphabet agencies that take otherpeople’s disposable income and give it to you. This is also known as the Ponzi  government investment plan. It appears to be working so don’t listen to those bubbleheaded TEA party types. If our government runs short of money, they can always fire up the printing presses as they did in 2009 and print more.If gas goes to $10/ gallon, they’ll give us a COLA. Relax.  

     Now, on to the Martha Stewart corner and some healthy living tips.  Time to plant spinach and lettuce for fall.

     Corn season is upon us. When cooking corn on the cob, easy does it- only 3 minutes from a rolling boil, pilgrim. Any more just turns the sugar into starch. Don’t pick your corn until just before cooking. The moment the ear parts company from the stalk, the sugar starts converting into starch. Conversely, if you crave starch, pick it a week before eating and boil the piss out of it for half an hour. You will be overjoyed to find it’s just like eating a yellow, baked potato that tastes somewhat like corn.  

      Lastly, don’t feed the leftovers to the horses. I have discovered it goes right to their hips. It hurts when friends come over and say”Gee. How come your horse has such a fat ass?” It’s insensitive and makes the horses feel horribly insecure. It also shows poor breeding. I will leave it up to the gentle reader to determine who’s poor breeding I’m referring to.

     Next week? Beets-Dos and Don’ts and everything you ever wanted to know about bell peppers but were afraid to ask. And as an added bonus we’ll discuss how to lower your horse’s triglycerides and get those pesky LDLs down with a sensible 5 BX workout plan for them.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

What Makes VA Raters Tick?

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

I had the opportunity to roam around inside a VA rater’s noggin recently. I say this in the figurative sense of course. As their thought processes are so jaded, it was difficult getting through it but I have much to report. Take your protein pill and put your helmets on, pilgrims.

     VA raters, aka examiners, RVSRs, DROs, etc. are a breed apart. There are many employees afoot at the Veterans Service Center as we now refer to it.  Among them walk the Holy Ones. They are responsible for deciding your claim. They consider themselves wise beyond their years and very well-trained. Some even boast college degrees or sport degrees in medicine such as PAs and ARNPs. I have heard of one fellow actually coming back to Ratings after obtaining his M.D. Insecurity must breed there among their ilk for this phenomenon to occur. Anyone with a medical degree wanting to settle in there for the golden parachute is suspect. The bucks just aren’t there- but oh! the responsibility.

      I digress. As I was saying, VA examiners would have us believe they are akin to Karnak the All-Knowing and have a Funk and Wagnall’s mayonnaise jar on their desk for the really big quandaries. Remember Johnny Carson? The best one I ever heard was “Yasser Arafat”. The question in the jar was “what is the sound Dolly Parton’s bra makes when she takes it off?” Our VA Ratings experts are even better.   The standard  incantation is automatically “Denied” followed by the ritual opening of the envelope to reveal the claim. They have the answer in hand before they see it. What is truly amazing is when queried as to the reasoning behind it, you will hear some of the most inane theories and logic regurgitated as if it were quoted out of the Old Testament.

     VA raters and their superiors (who were once raters) honestly believe they are being objective in their analysis. They say they are pro-Vet and bend over backwards to see it his way. They really are on our side and many of them are Veterans as well. They espouse words of compassion and caring for our plight. Their denial letters are often well written as only Adobe Acrobat programs can write them aside from the grammatical collisions.  The consensus at the VARO is one of hope and change-soon…

     VA raters are probably swell guys and you would welcome them to your community barbecue. They are fair and balanced like Fox News in their own minds. Of course, they are also a legend in their own minds, too. The idea of denial is not innate. It is learned, but never voiced.  Denial in their lexicon is reserved for those claims that have no merit and can never be resurrected and won. These seem to involve willful misconduct while in uniform or behavior that leads to exposure to diseases-but only after service, mind you.  If the Veteran has a valid claim and all the prerequisites such as nexus letters, the rater will see it when he believes it-but not a moment sooner.

     VA raters usually have many claims on their desk and in their in-baskets. It’s logical to assume that some of Billybob’s claim may accidentally get put in Jimbo’s file. There are always errors in this business. If some of you have been denied in the past for lack of evidence, it may have been misplaced by these loyal public servants. Be patient.  They may sort it out some day. Then again they may not. The important thing to remember is that they are on your side and they tried to get it right.  As the error rate seems to be hovering around 70%, one can surmise there is a lot happening in those offices. I had a kindergarten teacher for a client on a remodel once. Every afternoon she would return home and the magic incantation was “Rat-a-tat-tat!. Listen to all those busy little hammers!”. Sic Semper VAROs. Similarly, confusion is in the eye of the beholder. If you never vacuum your carpets, it’s hard to discern the dust. The carpet simply looks “dust colored”. 

     So, fellow travelers, this is what we are dealt. We cannot obtain justice until we have been denied the same. Congress made sure of that.  But the bright light is here at HCVets. We are under no such strictures as to feed you chicken poop and keep you in a dark basement thus condemning you to the life of a mushroom. We shine the light on these shenanigans and go even further. We illuminate the shoddy practices of VSOs who greedily sign you up for the government stipend and then ignore you like a deaf and blind person might.  We point out the incongruities of an examiner opining on the fact that there is nothing in your SMRs about hep.C in 1970. We harp on the necessity of having a viable nexus when they blithely gloss over the requirement.  We often opine that if we were Mel Gibson freaks, we’d suspect it was a conspiracy. There is no such thing. It’s apathy and lack of inertia. If you read those missives the VA sends you at the beginning of your claim, you would know a nexus is a requirement. Having a Service Officer repeat this again and again would be rude and redundant.  Why, you might even think he was being mean. We can’t have that behavior so if you neglect to get a nexus, the SO is left with the impression that you know something he doesn’t and have a better plan.  Well? How else can one explain their behavior when you see all these fellows show up with their VSO in D.C. empty-handed? The dog sure didn’t eat it. 

     VA raters are very talented and gifted. They have the unique ability to look through the forest at the weeds and ignore the trees.  This is a special gift that requires years of study. Pesky facts, like square pegs, don’t fit in round holes. Whittling and sanding them into round pegs is permissible because it makes the process  faster and easier. When caught doing this, there is no opprobrium associated with it. In fact, there is no punishment whatsoever for cheating or “disremembering the facts”.  Remember, these poor souls are overworked and underpaid. They get a “bye” on correctness. Starbucks has set up stores near every VARO and probably gives them a Rater’s discount.  If errors occur, it certainly wasn’t intentional-perhaps coffee jitters?. I think this may be where Vets get off on the wrong foot with the VA. Just because the rater has your facts cattywampus doesn’t mean he doesn’t care. You just have trouble expressing yourself with the written word.  How else to explain the fact those poor souls are constantly tasked with trying to figure out what we are claiming?  At Appeal, I have invariably read that hackneyed phrase “The Veterans’s claim was construed to be for residuals of hepatitis, but he failed to identify which kind. “or something equally inane.

     No, children. Be glad you never aspired to be a rater. It’s a thankless job as they will tell you. It leaves them depressed at the end of the day because their hands are tied by your intransigence. In spite of their best efforts to approve these things, you, the Vet, have failed the test. You arrived without the proper documentation. Your legal help (VSO) was negligent. You were a ne’er do well in the military and you cannot prove your half-baked claim because you have no evidence. Forget for a moment that they are the keeper of the keys and that evidence you need. It’s your responsibility to accomplish these things and if the people you hired to do it are sloppy and ignorant, the fault cannot be laid at the feet of the rater.  As for depression and dysthemia, I have never heard of a rater committing suicide, so it must not be too onerous a job. Just be glad it’s not on your shoulders to make these weighty decisions incorrectly. I actually think I might prefer the life of a mushroom over that.  So much chicken poop and so little time.

Posted in General Messages | 1 Comment

VA Employee Of The Month–August 2011

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod
 VA’s employee of the month at VAMC American Lake, Washington is Edna. Or is it Ethel? I thought it was Maria several weeks ago. I put in my right hearing aid and then discovered next visit it was Edna. Yesterday, I was corrected and I think the appointments clerk said Ethel. No biggee. She is still the neatest dental technician since sliced bread became available. She is efficient and gave me the heads up about grabbing the first appt. of the day @ 0715 hrs when there is plenty of parking and nobody in front of me. But I must say the primary reason I feel she is the EOTM is that she likes vegetables. Yessir. I can unload all my zuccini, summer squash and extra cukes on her and she doesn’t even whimper. After the sugar snap peas Tsunami in June, I’ve rather worn out my welcome here in my neighborhood. I tried something different and planted the pea crop in two phases a month apart. The little bastards got on the PRC-100,  communicated with each other and all of them started producing simultaneously. 

     People routinely close the curtains and refuse to answer the door when I arrive. They reverse direction in my aisle at the Supermarket and abandon their carts. The food bank wants to know if there’s anything else available as their clients are “squashed out”. In fact, my friend’s wives are so veggied out they’re looking positively anorexic. One complained of an exotic disease related to excessive cucumber ingestion and politely begged off.                    
     I am at fault.I am Pro-Life. I cannot bring myself to kill anything that germinates. I just plant it and carry on with the watering and fertilizer. When you have vegetables planted, what do several more entail workwise? The short answer is very little. The long one is finding a home for it all. The squash appears to go from flower to done in 3 days and some of it gets away from me. I found one the size of a football hiding at the bottom under everything. The horse was so intimidated by its size, he wouldn’t go near it. 
      I’m not even going to talk about the 41 tomato plants that germinated this April nor will I divulge the fact that I control butternut squash futures and plan to manipulate the market this fall. I think I’ll surprise my friends-and Eunice, of course. Maybe its Eurydice?
Posted in General Messages, Humor | Tagged | Leave a comment

The waiting game

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

I find it incongruous to be in the position of waiting for the BVA to make a decision on my claim. I have counseled many other Vets to be patient as the process is interminable. All the tired cliches such as a watched pot never boils seem horribly redundant to me in this predicament. It has been two months since my travel board hearing and I know I shouldn’t be expecting anything soon but I find myself at ebenefits every evening hoping to find that it has advanced to the next stage. No such luck. This is why I love gardening. Every morning in early spring a visit to the greenhouse is rewarded by the sight of something new coming up. Progress. The march of time. Visible proof that time is advancing. Where the BVA or the VA is concerned there is no corresponding news of advancement. I don’t suspect there will be anything meaningful before the 4th of July, but hope springs eternal in my breast. Sadly, advancement on the docket still does nothing to keep a Vet informed of the progress. 


     The informal military manual on combat arms and devices said that once the pin was pulled, Mr. Hand Grenade was no longer our friend.  On paper, a prussic acid fuse in an M-26 lasted 5 seconds from actuation. Those can be the fastest 5 seconds of your life. I, for one, believe it’s 4 not 5. Not trusting Hollywood, I never held on to one any longer than I had to. I threw them spoon and all and worried about more important things. As most were dropped out the right window of our O-1, I didn’t have the luxury of counting anyway. It is my abiding hope that time will soon become compressed like this.
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The 8%ers Club

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

I went to a wedding this last weekend.  People should be required to do this once a year. It restores hope in our lives and is good food for the soul.  I had to forego the adult beverages due to the sorry state of my liver, but I really don’t miss that anymore. I’m lying. Yes I do-and cigarettes, too.

     The gentleman marrying the daughter of my wife’s cousin is getting out of the Navy after 12 years. All his groomsmen are still in so there was a heavy military presence there. During the toast to the groom, the best man asked every Vet to stand up and be toasted as well.  I honestly expected there to be thirty or more among the two hundred guests. I was nonplussed to see only 12 stand with me. It got me to thinking just how unique we actually are.

     The state I live in (Washington) has a heavy military presence with several Naval establishments, the large joint Army/Air Force bases of Lewis and McChord, and several others scattered about. As many retire here, there are far more than in other states. Thinking further, I recall that while I was working, I only employed 3 veterans over a 35 year period. I never sought them out to employ but certainly did not exclude them.  The fact is Vets are a distinct minority of sorts.  We constitute 27 million of 307,212,123 as of July 2010. You can do the math, but it is about 8% of America. That’s less than some of our other racial minorities, believe it or not.

     Of the three Vets I employed, one is dear to my heart. Dave, known to all as Bubba, was the best drywall man I ever had. He had a PTSD issue a mile wide which we worked around. He never sought help for it and it occasionally caused alcohol/AWOL issues. We hunted and camped together for over a decade until I got remarried and moved away.

     The most priceless memory I have of Bubba is attending a housewarming party in 1980 for some clients we had done a complete remodel for. It was in Medina, Washington which is very upper class for the left coast. These people are, for the most part, what we call “new money”. Their relatives cannot be traced to the passenger list of the Mayflower. If any were, they are shirttail relatives of the indentured servants on board. Their silver service is definitely from Nordstroms and not Lord and Taylor. Bubba became fast friends with the three year old daughter of the clients so they asked me to make sure he attended. This was not Bubba’s element. I had to loan him a shirt and tie and make sure he wore clean blue jeans with no holes.

     In the course of the party, the subject of Vietnam had come up and someone mentioned that I had “participated” as if it were optional. Eventually a man and his wife sauntered over with the haughty airs one attributes to recent affluence. The gentleman said “I understand you fought in Vietnam.” I acknowledged as much. He immediately said “Yes. Well I’ll have you know I protested that war.” The hostess was glaring at me and I knew where this was heading so I smiled and politely said. “Yes, well lots did. That’s why some of us had to go fight it for you.” His wife was itching to get into this, too and Bubba had materialized at my right elbow when he heard the word Vietnam. Bubba and I had recently gone to see Full Metal Jacket, a movie about that war, to see if the special effects even came close to what we remembered. They didn’t but that is a Hollywood failing. It’s very difficult to reconstruct that kind of mayhem.  The wife got right up in my face and launched into the standard liberal tirade of “how could you kill women and children?” Bubba stole the famous line from FMJ and said “Well, gee. I can’t speak for NOD here, but it’s incredibly easy. Women and children can’t run as fast as zipperheads so you don’t have to lead them as much.” I don’t need to explain to the reader how that went over with a 38 year old mother of two. My hostess was not happy either.  The fact that Bubba was smiling and positively glowing like a light bulb from the amount of liquor and lefthanded tobacco consumed and decidedly at the far edge of sobriety didn’t help either. I did get other remodel jobs in the area from retired military in the years after, but the invites for the open houses were rare.Thanks Bubba.

      So, look around you at your fellow citizens when you go out in public. Recognize that you are terribly unique. It makes no difference whether you served in time of war or peace. It’s irrelevant which branch you served in. Only 8 of every 100 people you see around you served their country as a citizen soldier. Some of us, like Bubba, may have been drafted to serve, but that in no way diminishes their contribution. I count the few Veteran friends I have as being some of the most honest and trustworthy.

     One last note.  When I was in the habit of barhopping looking for the second future Mrs. NOD years and years ago, I discovered that virtually all men my age there said they had also served in Vietnam and had lots of medals. I never gave it a thought until the wedding last week. It must have been easy to get a parking spot downtown while we were all over there. How did women get pregnant without them during that period? Consider also the fact that large numbers of males emigrated to Canada for its fresh air and clean water about that time.  So many questions and so few answers. And no, Mrs. NOD and I were not introduced to one another in a bar. My ex-girlfriend  introduced us right before she became my ex-girlfriend. I waited politely for six years for her to get a divorce before I proposed. 

     A warm, heartfelt thank you to these 8 percenters is due-every day. When I read that 18 Vets, on average, are taking their own lives each day due to despair and depression, I get the impression that they don’t get enough praise or recognition for their sacrifice. This is America. We, of all nations, can do better than that.

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Failure to Interact.

Posted on September 30, 2011 by asknod

 It has been brought to the attention of the Court that the BVA and their bastard offspring, the VAROs, have a rather nasty habit of informing you of your denial without allowing you at some point to inject new lay testimony or evidence that might help win your case. If a fact or theory that was never raised by you in the claim is relied upon to base a denial on without additional input from you, it is prejudicial to your claim and illegal. Simply put, if they deny based on willful misconduct and you weren’t guilty of that, you must be afforded an opportunity to tell them they’re full of shit. In legalspeak this is called rebutting negative evidence. In the ex parte form of justice we are accorded, this is all too common. How many Vets finally get their denial back after a year and discover that the VA has ignored all they have presented and focused on some mundane thing that was never discussed or even mentioned?


     The Veterans Court (CAVC) has never approved of it and is finally calling out VA for the practice. This was long overdue as we have no way to contact the bozos and say whazzup? We just get the Dear John letter with a few half-baked reasons and the inevitable “We really tried to find a way to grant your claim, but were stymied at every turn by where the evidence led us. If we can be of any assistance in the future, you know where we can be found. Again, out heartfelt apologies for the way this turned out.” It’s one thing for the VARO to pull this stunt. We almost expect that. When it is perpetuated at the BVA level undetected by all those busy little leagle beagles, it becomes a crime of stupidity. We pay those “attorneys” (in the form of our taxes) to be the smartest at what they do and protect our rights. Why does it feel like we are constantly getting poked from behind? No rebuttal. If 11% of you Vets appeal your denial (all Vets, not just HCVets), and only 4% win on appeal, statistical sampling  would shout that most of the claims were without merit. Now add in the remand component of 70% that emanates from the Court for the mishandling of the claims. This tells you that in their rush to screw you, they somehow overlooked a lot of judicial canons and stepped on their collective necktie.
  
     On another Veterans help site, I have noticed a small number of people who either worked for or are currently employed by the VA. What they all have in common can best be described as the flawed or narrow-minded thinking I have often associated with union types. Their focus is myopic and on what is in front of them. Inductive logic is nowhere to be found. The Vet’s testimony is considered suspect and tainted as if we all lie. VAROs do not read CAVC decisions. They read the M-21 manual only. They are convinced that their training is so wonderful and thorough that mistakes rarely occur. On the off chance that they do err, perfection is so pervasive that their co-workers spot these errors and point them out before they push print.  
 
     Reality reveals they have supervisors and have to please them with their work product. How long would you last at a major insurance corp. if you habitually found the client was in the right? Like that corp., the VA is tasked with finding the defect in your claim and magnifying it. If you present positive evidence, they often minimalize it in favor of the negative or worse-implied non-evidence. This often produces decisions that make us scratch our heads and say “Huh?” 
 
     So, in summary, when you get your Dear John missive, be sure to analyze it minutely for the rationale as to why you won’t be paying your bills anytime soon. If it includes evidence or logic that was never discussed with you (or by you), write that up in the NOD and get it on the record. On appeal above it will eventually be seen and recognized for what it is- a major, prejudicial legal defect begging to be addressed. Make it so, Number One.
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