Veterans Claims Help

BVA– WORKIN’ IN A COAL MINE

Posted on February 16, 2025 by asknod

Well, pilgrims. It’s Sunday morning and I feel that spirit moving me to bore you all to tears again with my drivel. But if even one TBI’d or PTSD’d Veteran read this blog and came to me, I’d be plumb honored to represent him (or her). Bear with me here. If I have another conjunctive of ‘him or her’ later in this blog, I’ll reverse the order to ensure dignity, equality and Title IX compliance to avoid being cancelled.

I always try to keep in mind that 42.6% of you folks don’t exactly cotton to what I preach according to statistics. For some reason, all the major Veterans help sites have banned me. Was it something I said? To be fair, I guess if I had time, I’d get me a Utube™ station and grow a bodacious Amish beard, wear tacky cowboy hats and dark three-piece suits with a turtleneck sweater. I could invent and recite absolutely bogus Vet rules from a teleprompter and charge ungodly prices to join my Army. I could even invite you to my most inner circle for a couple thou more. You’d have unlimited access to me every day of the week from 0900 to 0905 Local (subject to availability).

I’ve been writing this blog since 2008 when I won. I’ve helped a lot of people -some of whom have become fast friends and some who have passed away enroute to their win. As I am fond of saying, “If the shoe were on the other foot and you had been blessed with this knowledge I have absorbed, I know without any doubt that you would do the same for me.” Brothers in War do not change their stripes when Peace breaks out. Or at least Enlisted ranks don’t. It’s a thing the Marines started way back when about not leaving anyone behind.

My day job in 1970

Which, of course, brings us to Lee Dorsey’s classic 1966 song. Imagine a Veteran- let’s call him Johnny Vet- E 3, FNG USAF Military Police. Johnbo gets his orders for Tuy Hòa in ’69 fall and arrives just in time for Monsoon. He gets one of them plumb job of Pig gunner on the perimeter in the back of a M 151 jeep. Nothing like getting some cool wind in your hair on a dark jungle highway and a sit down job, huh? About this time, Johnny started getting a rip snortin’ good case of chloracne. Lather, rinse and repeat from 0001 Hrs to 0849 Hrs Local (Saigon time) for 365 wakeups.

Lottsa times in the morning, the dead Gook sappers were still hung up in the concertina coils. Even their comrades couldn’t get them out, picked up their guns and beat feet. So, Johnny and his chauffeur were often drafted to stop and help extricate the bodies, throw them in the back and take them to a collection point for Intel to rummage through the clothes. Lather, rinse and repeat for 365 wakeups- less three days at Vung Tau getting drunk, laid and an absolutely nasty case of VD that required a million units of ice-cold Penicillin in each buttock to tame.

And then back to the world… and… no job and old friends say you’re weird as shit now. And then the dreams begin. And the smells. And the voices. Pretty soon we’re talkin’ a full-blown psychosis. Stir in a few visits to the Funny farm and the suits that tie in the back and by 1984, Johnney files for Bent Brain Syndrome. VA says you’re just having a bad hair day and blows you off. Lather, rinse and repeat the VA blow offs for ten years.

In those ensuing years (1984-1994), Johnny Vet lands another cush-ass job as a Prison Guard. About a year in, the prisoners go bugfucky and take over. They lock the Johnster up and threaten to kill him about ten times a day. He gets beat to a pulp. He decides maybe that wasn’t his cup of tea after all. From then on until ’94, Johnny had a mobile zip code due to his “unhoused” and unemployed status.

In 1994, Johnny Vet wins 100% schedular for his Bent brain and VA comps him free room and board at the VAMC down in Loma Linda on the psych ward. He’s on a high five, first-name basis with most of the staff after his third or fourth “visit”. Lottsa Droperidol and Trazadone make Johnny a right-on agreeable guy. Of course, each time when he gets out, he quits eating all that shit because it makes him foggy. Lather, rinse and repeat for another 22 years.

Johnny’s using a well-known VSO outfit with the initials PVA. From 1994 to 2016, nobody even thought to file him for Aid and Attendance. They piddled away his life on chloracne ratings (max 30%), 10% for tinnitus (due to an itchy trigger finger on the Pig), hemorrhoids – I guess from trying to sit in that Jeep seat. And of course, brief stints on SMC S for the hospital visits over 21 days. Add in about ten other Zeros for Heroes ratings over the years and here we are- no aid and attendance. To me, this was the crime. In ’16 he got some temporary help from an attorney who did a bang up job getting him a retro 100% back to 1984 because they forgot to do the VA 8 and certify his NOD to the Board. That retro evaporated faster than you can say Jack Daniels, dextromethamphetamine and a shit ton of killer ganja.

At some point, Johnny discovered he was sterile after his all-expense paid vacation in Vietnam. By now he’s single after a two-year disaster and homeless again. Along about 2023, he gets Jesus in his heart and meets his “goddaughter” in church although I doubt there’s any backstory of a baptismal font and Holy Water. Could be but who’s worried about semantics? He’s still a little bit unpredictable so the designated goddaughter- let’s call her Sarah- says he can bunk out back in the Motor home. Sarah found me through word of mouth and called. I couldn’t not take this one. A quick dumpster dive into his VBMS folder confirmed my worst fears on the virgin a&a status.

Just as I began, Johnny came down with a bodacious case of Ischemic Heart Disease (IHD). It’s on the list of Agent Orange shit but Johnny had been dining exclusively for years on fast food. He had waaaay more than ten thousand missions over Micky D’s but VA overlooks that kind of behaviour. Unless they could actually prove he’d done it to himself with fast food, he was golden.

I filed him for a&a for the bent brain and an increase plus a&a for the IHD. VA artfully denied the a&a for the IHD first because-well, silly boy- he ain’t SC for the IHD yet. Duh. Then they denied the IHD, too. He had the audacity to have his heart attack and forego using VA’s vaunted medical facilities. Translated, that means the medics that responded in the Meat Wagon motored him to the nearest hospital to save his life instead of getting on a toll road and driving 46 miles in rush hour traffic to the VAMC. And yes, a&a was not needed for the PTSD-just more (and stronger) tranquilizers.

I got Sarah to scare up the ER hospital medical records, filed them and they gave Johnny a 60% and continued his SMC S. VA didn’t even bother to discuss a&a for the McDonald’s Disease because they still insist you need a 100 or TDIU to qualify. Just so you folks know, discussing SMC at a HLR Informal conference is like discussing the finer points of Trigonometry with your dog. They nod their heads sagely and 28 minutes later, you see the denial pop up in VBMS.

So, it was off to the BVA. Thank the Lord that Johnny is over 75 so we got this in front of a VLJ fairly quickly. But then it sat…and sat…and sat for six long months. Johnny had also filed for IHD back in 2010 when he’d had one of those moments of paralyzing fear from the bent brain and its residuals and blew about a 210/155 on the BP meter. A VA doctor said he might have it, ordered a MUGA scan and the VAMC disremembered to do it. Mighty convenient. No diagnosis equaled no dice. Denied. Merci Beaucoup for your service, Johnny. Next?

Six months is a lifetime if you’re advanced on the docket but one thing I can say is a denial doesn’t take nearly that much time so I had a good feeling about this one. So, it was with great pleasure that last Thursday I spotted the magic paper in Caseflow. The VLJ did an admirable job of following the paper trail back to the 1994-1996 staycations at the Loma Linda Home for Wayward Vets. It paints a pretty powerful picture of deceit on VA’s part for saying all these years that Johnny’s mental state would clear up and resolve itself if he’d just stop self-medicating and eat more of their medications.

Granted, I could not convince the Judge to grant the IHD back to 2010 but winning the A&A back to 1994 subsumed it anyway so it’s a push. And besides, Johnny was already at SMC S in 2000 so the added 60% for his heart back to 2010 still wouldn’t have moved the needle. Needless to say, Johnny Vet now has a pretty serious chunk of retro to make a down payment on a house. And he allowed that if the shoe was indeed on the other foot, he’d have my 6. Check it out.

Redact BVA R1 retro to 10.1994 2.13.25

Truth be told, I’ve filed a number of appeals for two a&a entitlements much like a VSO who throws 26 claims like spaghetti at the wall all at once in hopes of getting 10% for even one of them. Asking for two a&a claims can happen when you’re already at SMC L loss of use or an earlier a&a win and trying to get to R 1. Granted, you only need one more L but it always helps to have two hand grenades instead of one. But this one was a first for me in that the VLJ granted two a&a ratings in one appeal-let alone one going back thirty one years. Whooooo doggies. This one calls for three fingers of Johnny Blue with my buds in Minneapolis- St. Paul in April.

Interestingly, five “VA experts” on Reddit said this is impossible and can’t be done. My riposte? At asknod, we don’t practice law. We perform it. Lather, rinse, repeat. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

P.S. Here’s a peek at a new Appeal coming up. Imagine you asked for a simple bump from L (loss of use) to M under §3.350(f)(4) for a new 100% rating for your IHD back to 2018. VA comes back, says you never had loss of use of the lowers but relax, it’s not a CUE and changes your SMC L to a&a. Here at asknod, we make lemonade with the lemons we’re handed. Sometimes we supersize it with vodka to take it up a notch.

redact R1 10182 filed 2.15.2025

Posted in Aid and Attendance, Food for thought, SMC, Tips and Tricks, VBMS Tricks, Veterans Law, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged askNOD.com, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Inspirational Veterans, VA claims, vA CLAIMS FOR PTSD, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

UTUBE©– POKING THE BEAR 101

Posted on February 9, 2025 by asknod

One of the most absolutely hilarious VA old wives’ tales is the perennial “don’t rock the boat” speech given to aspiring disabled Veterans by countless VSOs over the years. I got one from my first protracted foray into VA benefits in 1989. I tried in spring 1974 but couldn’t stomach the way they were treating us post-Vietnam folks at West LA VAMC. I walked away for fifteen years- as was intended by their rudeness and indifference.

Anyway, after my big victory of 0% for Tinnitus and 0% for hearing loss in left ear only, I was eager to follow this Yellow Brick Road to Bucks Boulevard and get VA Disability. I returned to the DAV office a week after getting the BVA decision and asked when a good time was to schedule an appointment to go over the next attack. My minder Derrick’s eyebrow’s just about sailed outta sight right over the back side of his hair-challenged noggin. He stretched out the word “Whoa” for about 3 full seconds followed by “there, sonny.”

And I was given the “briefing” about how you lay low after you get that service connected tinnitus and hearing and sit tight. The normal schedule was to just cool it for at least three or four years and act nonchalant. Whistle as you walk past the graveyard shit. Then, and only then do you ask for an increase for your hearing issues- through DAV, of course. The reason was simple. VA might get this misguided belief that you were being greedy or even faking it to get their money. VA was well-known for coming after Veterans and taking away their benefits for cheating and faking their hearing tests or bad backs. That’s why you needed a reputable, well-respected firm like DAV because VA trusts them.

It took a while for that speech to wear off. About fifteen years or so. The speech wears off when your disabilities start piling up and hearing loss is about the absolute bottom of the problem list. I fell prey to a succession of AmVets and MOPH VSOs who included the same speech about the dangers of bear-poking. Thirty years later it still appears to almost be an article of faith among Veterans over at the FacePlace© group Vietnam Veterans-The Best of the Baby Boomers. One of the Admin guys is on a feeding tube and barely survived his latest battle with cancer. I pointed out to him that he should be at R2 and Tier II Caregiver PCAFC. Then the comments began.

He was really interested but afraid it might endanger his TDIU. He was advised by others to wait ten years to get it “protected” before he filed for anything. I find it’s best not to antagonize folks like this with the truth. They believe in Chemtrails and cameras mounted in the door of your refrigerator that transmit every word you say to the Black helicopters you see flying around in your neighborhood. I reckon even Jesus had to concede at some point He wasn’t gonna get everybody on board with that Water to Wine trick.

But, for those of you who don’t believe everything you hear in Social Media, the truth is vastly different. I’d already learned of the Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) benefits available to the very severely disabled by 2008 and decided to see how far I could push this bear crap. And boy howdy, did I poke the living shit out of VA trying. Turned out the bear story was a nothing burger.

In eight years, I wound up winning my earlier effective date for SMC S back to 1994, and with it a 20-year protected rating for not one but two 100% ratings. They didn’t reduce me to Private E1. They didn’t take away my benefits and put me in the Fort Leavenworth Home for Wayward Veterans. My wife and my dog didn’t leave me. USAA didn’t come and repo my Dodge Power Wagon. Doomsday came and went. My kid went on to college on VA’s DEA nickel and VA didn’t come back and ask for the tuition later.

A friend recently sent me a link to a U-tube© video of some city slicker with an ascot or turtleneck all decked out to the nines teaching us the dangers of “Poking The Bear.” Had to look it up. Mr. Jordan Anderson is the Sherpa. I won’t badmouth him. Everyone’s gotta have a Schtick. He means well. Commando Kraig is another who preaches this same Bear Harassment hooey. The only flaw I can see in their thinking is they’re using too small a sampling of VA claims. Did VA ever come after them for bear-poking their own claims?

Think about this logically. Neither Anderson nor the Kraigmeister are VA-accredited. This is not to imply they are claims sharks. They may skate pretty close to the thin ice of §14.628 -36 but that isn’t my department. I’m pretty sure the new Administration is going to plug the eternal mystery of what constitutes breaking the representation rule soon. But back to the Dynamic Duo above.

Logically, by operation of law, each of these gentlemen has really only done one claim apiece- their own. So, by extension, only they, individually, have seen, litigated and won one big adventure apiece. VA considers that you really only have one claim. The claim may exhibit different facets at different times like Parkinson’s and DM II with a side of pes planus. Nevertheless, it’s still one claim with a varying level of financial remuneration. In VA’s mind, it’s dynamic and subject to change up or down. Mostly down if they can find a way, too.

I’ve read on Reddit™ about VA raters opining on all manner of VA law. Again, in reality, what have they litigated? They used a flawed device call the M 21 1MR (Manual Rewrite) that has to update every month to try to stay abreast of current VA law. What we do know is 75% of all VA decisions have a remandable error of some sort at the CAVC. If you let a computer make your decisions, it cannot be said you have litigated it- right or wrong. What can be said is you, as a VA rater, input a lot of data about Vets and the computer invariably comes up with the wrong conclusion. With luck, it’ll get sorted at the BVA on appeal if litigated by knowledgeable representatives.

Put another way, if VA’s work was flawless and truly computer driven with high-quality AI intelligence, we litigators would become an anomaly. Demand for us would dry up and we’d all have to seek work selling used cars. Above many a library in Rome was Seneca’s immortal phrase Experiencia Docet. Experience teaches. While I’m sure all the Sherpas teaching us VA law on Utube® are convinced they are the cat’s pajamas of VA law in this game, I’d beg to differ. Doing a claim for Multiple Sclerosis for a Vietnam Vet would appear to be a fool’s errand to a VSO. Why? Because MS isn’t on the list of AO diseases in §3.309(e). So what? Get an IMO. But what about one for a brain glioblastoma due to Camp Lejeune contaminated water? How about the impossibly high legal standard for SMC T? If your claim to fame is that you won yourself a 70% for a MDD/PTSD, I don’t think that makes you proficient in the art of doing TBI claims.

VA law is crazy. Where else can you get a do over (CUE)? Where can you get a guaranteed bill of good health that can’t be disputed later (Presumption of Soundness)? Where can you prevail in a Federal Court of Law based on the evidence being in equipoise (benefit of the doubt)? In spite of the deck being stacked in our favor, Veterans lose their claims and appeals at a horrendous rate due to litigation ignorance. Why is that? Too many Vets poking the bear? Nope. Not enough experienced litigators and a dearth of good knowledge.

That ignorance sword cuts both ways. I’ve had innumerable VSOs call me a liar insisting 100% or TDIU is the end of the road. They deny the existence of SMC. When I ask what they call SMC K and S, they categorize them as ancillary benefits like Specially Adapted Housing (SHA) or an automobile grant. Some even categorize SMC S Housebound as aid and attendance “light”.

By the same token, I’ve had bigwig lawdogs at brand name law firms tell clients to ignore my SMC Blog babble as wishful Rainbow/Unicorn thinking because I have no legal training. About the only thing you can say with great accuracy about lawdogs is they don’t preach that bullshit about bear baiting. Think about all I’ve discussed today. Wouldn’t it be a piss poor business model for us litigators if all we told our client is we don’t think it’s a good idea to file for their 100% lung cancer just yet- right after we win their claim for a bum knee for 30%?

So, Veterans. Ask yourself why VA Agents and Attorneys are so successful at poking the VA bear and winning their clients TDIUs, 100% cancer shit and Permanent and Total? Why is that? Even stranger in this discussion is who’s paying Jordan and Kraig to shout “Don’t Poke the Bear” from the Utube rooftops and to never file claims for SMC benefits after they win P&T? Perhaps more à propos as an admonition would be Nothing Ventured. Nothing Gained.

I’ll leave that question for all of you to ponder. Something just smells weird here… like a load of Bearshit. Happy Super Bowl LIX Sunday to you all.

Posted in All about Veterans, Complaints Department, Duty to Assist, Nexus Information, Public Service Announcements, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA Attorneys, VA statistics, Veterans Law | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 1 Comment

BVA TRIP NUMBER 3–I’M BEING FOLLOWED BY A MOONSHADOW

Posted on January 27, 2025 by asknod

As has been the case for well over a tenth of a century, I continue to offer advice for free. There is no special $99.95 Bootcamp for Beginners fee or the $199.99 Advanced Infantry Course for SMC where you actually get to break bread with the Exalted One. Pay walls are forbidden here as are advertizements for Viagra™ or Russian wives. My website is free partly because I married a rich girl and in equal part because VA pays me for my disabilities. I love doing VA claims for one reason- revenge. For twenty eight years, VA insisted I never served in Vietnam. How many of you has that happened to?

They called me a liar. But to us, Luang Prabang (L 54) was sort of the furthermost westerly terminus of the DMZ for all intents and purposes. Some Poohbah at the Vientiane Embassy changed my status from Airman First Class in Communications to Employee (French teacher) of the US Agency for International Development (USAID). In the military, you go where you’re told to.

Every Vet I get service-connected now is one more twist of the knife in their ribs. Nobody should have to wait that long. Yet here I find myself nine years into a claim/appeal and seven years post mortem of the Vet. What’s insane to me is how the Agency of Original Jurisdiction (AOJ) -aka the Station of Jurisdiction (SOJ)- can blithely blow it off and blatantly ignore that which the Board asked for in the remand back in 2021. To me, this is one of the greatest flaws in the transition from Legacy to AMA.

Each VA claim or appeal now is a one off “transaction” with a 365 day fuse on it. Think of it as a very slow M 26. Each appeal, once heard, decided and remanded et cetera, is like an Amazon package delivery. If it ain’t what you ordered, it’s off to the local UPS avec your return label to get it fixed. If you don’t bitch for a year, then you have to start over again. If you do bitch, a DRO review usually takes forever. You’re better off going to the BVA to win due to administrative error. But let’s talk about Bob. https://asknod.org/2018/07/05/milestones-9-24-49-7-1-2018/

Bob was an avid hunter and lover of exotic guns like me. He was also a two-tour Vietnam Vet like me and washed off a lot of Agent Orange that was sprayed on him out in the Iron Triangle of I Corps. Unlike me, however, he had a Purple Heart and an ArCom with an OLC, three Bronze Stars and he wasn’t even an 11 Bravo. He was one of those 95 Bravo 40 military policemen in the wrong place at the wrong time. Later, when he got out, they conceded the CIB so he did at least get that- but no Blue Fourragè.

Along about 2016, Bob found me and I took his claim(s). Bob’s heart was going south fast and he needed his wife to be covered for DIC- like RFN. It got worse when he added that the chronic sinusitis from getting hosed out in the field w/AO had turned into cancer in his nose. I reasoned this was part of the respiratory tract. VA insisted it wasn’t on the main chute from the nose to the lungs and denied again and again. While we argued back and forth, Bob augered in. That was July of ’18. I got an IMO from Mednick and took it to the Board in ’19. I needed the win to get the surviving spouse DIC because he’d only been at about 70% for Bent Brain syndrome and tinnitus.

I got the positive BVA decision for cause of death being Agent Orange and accomplished the primary objective of her DIC and accrued claims but VA just had to tweak it to short sheet the SMC entitlement. I’d filed Bob for 100 for IHD because he was blowing a 23% on his Left Ventricle Ejection Fraction (LVEF). He was popping Nitro pills like Tic Tacs for his angina symptoms. A week later when the sinus cancer was diagnosed, I filed for that too.

So VA gets the BVA decision granting service connection for the cancer back in ’21 and gomers it out. The front page of the Rating Decision (RD) announcing the award said:

“Entitlement to aid and attendance of another is established as of 12/17/2017″ which was the date of the 526 request for increase for his Ischemic Heart disease.

Right below it, the rating decision said:

“Entitlement to aid and attendance of another is established as of 12/26/2017.” which was the date of the 526 request for service connection for sinus cancer, brain cancer and liver cancer.

But, in spite of that clear and unmistakable English, on page 7 the RD, the Gomers said

“Entitlement to being bedridden is granted as of 12/17/2017.” followed by…

Entitlement to increase in the SMC from the Statutory rate of SMC L to M under §3.304(f)(4) is granted as of 12/26/2017.

Redact 2.25.2020 RD_

And… Poof! Suddenly, my carefully laid SMC O/R 1 punji pit was gone with the wind. I’d been outwitted by village idiots. A quick survey of the Notes section on the EP in VBMS confirmed the skullduggery. As most know, §3.103(a) says in no uncertain terms that they have to give you everything they legally can short of giving away the farm. Here, the conversation in Notes centered on lowballing a dead man. Alex is an Agent which, IQ-wise, is slightly above a VSO but decidedly way below a Juris Doctorate. He probably won’t even notice we screwed the widow.

Granted, we’re talking about a period of about seven months from filing the claims to Bob’s death but you have to realize SMC is due and owing when the evidence supports the award-not the date of the claim. His heart had been going downhill pell mell for the last six months. The RD jacked him from 30% to 100% but they didn’t consider aid and attendance other than the bedridden determination. That’s how the M 21 works…

So, I strapped on my typewriter guns and proceeded to fight for his wife. If the shoe was on the other foot, I’m sure Bob would have done it for me.

redact 2021 brief

This ended up with the BVA asking for clarification so they could decide if he deserved a SMC rating of R1…

Redact 3.10.2021 BVA remand

The VA’s response was simple- SMC L for bedridden was confirmed and continued as was the increase bump from L to M. Which meant I had to file yet again to get the BVA to force them to tell us the truth. Four years later, the BVA finally got around to cutting the remand again…

redact 7.2.2024 2nd remand from BVA

And finally, after mulling this one over, the OAR decided to answer six months later (last week). It makes me wonder if they were debating whether to even admit the truth or keep on stonewalling.

redact 1.13.2025 RD

So, it’s back to the drawing board again to get it sorted. Bob must be up there in Heaven apoplectic as all Hell by now over this but at least he can see I haven’t given up. The funny thing is I got a notice from BVA this AM early saying the Appeal had been docketed as of this morning but the docket date, which always mirrors the date of the legal brief submittal, is dated the day BEFORE the rating decision-i.e., January 12, 2025.

redact 10182 No. 3 filed 1.24.2025

My patented ‘make them shit or go blind’ technique even provoked a real boner this time. The RD insists he’s at R1 already and that’s confirmed and continued. But the code sheet still says he got Poor Man’s R1- SMC P at M+K. That’s a fer piece from R1 as the crow flies. I will give them this. They finally answered the VLJ and admitted the bedridden rating was strictly for sinus cancer, brain cancer and liver cancer so that should put a fork in this once and for all. But you never know what the VA’s Clown Corps can come up with.

This Notice of Disagreement will be my third attempt to summit R1. My guess is the BVA is getting a bit put out by the Secretary’s laissez faire approach to litigating and answering with bullshit responses. I’ve never had to ride the BVA Hamster wheel three times just to get it sorted. God forbid there’ll be a fourth.

This video is a great one. I wish Bob was still here to watch it.

Posted in 1154(b) combat presumptions, Agent Orange, BvA Decisions, Complaints Department, Food for thought, Lay testimony, R1/R2, SMC Bedridden, SMC School, Special Monthly Compensation, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA backlog, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

BVA–§3.156(C) JUSTICE OVERDUE

Posted on January 12, 2025 by asknod

I’ve written a few articles over the years about Chris the Door Gunner, my now good friend in addition to my client. We’ve almost “gotterdone” after seven years. But not quite. VA screwed him for so long and so hard that he (and I) both now heartily subscribe to the Veterans Shakespearian Diet Plan on how to serve revenge. How ’bout I serve about four of ’em?

This all began with a VA Form 9 back in December of ’20. We’d found new §3.156(c) records stashed at The famous William G. Beaumont Hospital in Texas since ’68 where he’d been air-medivac’d there from An Khe. We had an IMO from Hell and VA refused to look at it. I had to take the whole thing up to the Board on a hearing with the new evidence + IMO to get the win back to October 1972.

So, we fly to DC. Say hi to Dad. Go visit the Wall and go to a face-to-face Board hearing down on I Street. A month later they call and say they screwed up the tape and it didn’t record. Six months later, we got another hearing and fly back again. The Judge split it into two separate appeals. The §3.156(c) case was open and shut thanks to the Mednick IMO. I asked the Veterans Law Judge we drew (Diechert) if he would try to be the adjudicator. As most know, with the passage of the AMA, they snuck in that codicil that the Hearing Judge might not be the one who wrote your decision… but it’s still legal. Personally, I think that sucks. If I conduct a hearing for my client, that Judge can see the earnestness and responses commensurate with a real person – a Vet-not a legal word salad describing him or her. She or he should be the one who decides. I always throw that into my hearing testimony at the end for what it’s worth. I don’t see any reason they can’t start doing that. They shouldn’t be allowed to make the hard decision and just hand it off to a FNG to write up. There’s a reason they’re called the “Trier of Fact”.

redact BVA ED =10.30.1972

In spite of VLJ Deichert’s grant of the earlier effective date of 1972, the Gomers at Fort Whacko granted it back to the day Chris began his fight to go back to 1972- that would be in September ’15. So, back to the BVA with hat in hand to ask the Judge politely to “re-give” Chris that which they had already given him several months before. God bless the Board. Somebody there finally blew an ass gasket and put the dee-dee mao on it.And in no time they granted this in no uncertain terms so it couldn’t be misread. Or they thought they did.

Part One of the revenge comes with the dependency and three kids from 1972 through 2013- something VA has constructive possession of in part. Somehow, they just disremembered to reconsider that part of §3.156(c)(4).

Part Two, served on a separate dish, is the not-so-small matter of the diagnostic code. Back in 1972, they were a mite bit more generous with intervertebral disc disease. Chris’ code sheet seems to say VA is trying to rate him on DC 5242-5237 straight through from ’72 to the present. But…DC 5237 didn’t even exist back then and neither did 5242 for that matter. I suspect somebody named Coach suggested the VSR write it up using the 5237 which would result in a 20% versus 5293 (1972) which would permit 40%. I’m sure it’s just a little mistake and logically, VA would never purposefully deprive Chris of what was rightfully owed him. We’ll get it straightened out one of these years. The Presumption of Regularity says they’re right on people, dude.

redact CS 10.31.2024

Part three of this seven course meal is the small matter of VA trying to a) assign a date for SMC S of March 25, 2024 when the code sheet shows TDIU plus 60 from September 2015. That’s some serious folding money where I come from VA seems to consider it a harmless rounding error. But at the hearing, we argued for b) SMC at the L rate under §3.350(b)(3) back to 2018 and the psychologist and the neurologist concur Chris is one hot mess. Nowhere in the rating decision is there even a mention of aid and attendance.

Part four is Chris has a hole in the roof of his mouth into the nasal passage due to that jeep trying to put him on the VietNam Wall at 35 MPH. A quarter ton of M 151 can do that to a feller. VA finally sent him to a dentist for his c&p. She threw up her hands and said hold the phone Ramone. I’m a dentist, not an orthopedic surgeon. It’s waaaaay above my paygrade. Not it! VA took that for a hard no = asymptomatic= 0%- mandibular fracture but again, in 2024 0% ratings criteria instead of 1972.

Just when the VSC DROs and Coaches down at the David NMI Koresh Memorial Regional Office are patting each other on the back, fist-bumping and high fivin’ over getting rid of Chris, more reality (Part One) is going to arrive soon on their doorstep. The BVA docketed another pair of these culinary contentions on December 26th and both have already been distributed to the Judge. If this was a Hollywood TV show, they’d be cueing up the Badge 714 theme music about now.

The recurrent theme synonymous with all these cases is that VA could have settled up with Chris in ’72 at a paltry 20 or 30% and they’d probably never have seen hide nor hair of him ever after. But by being a total dick and denying him for all these injuries, instead they just set a demon loose on the earth. When Chris saw what took me 28 years to do, it inspired him to seek justice again, too. Can you imagine how much money was spent litigating this fustercluck all these years? Surely as much or more as was spent on them fighting me to the Court. And any number of others I’ve drawn some serious blood on. Fact is, if they ever straighten up and fly right legally, we’re all out of a job.

To me, the OGC seems to be an employment tool to soak up extra juris doctorates who need work. The work created is 76% anti-Veteran judicially. With an error rate that high, it creates even more work. AOJs will stay bustling- even more so if there’s a depression or recession in progress. The new AMA encourages 10182 NODs to the Board as evidenced by the record numbers and the backlog. The CAVC has even had to hire more judges and use the senior ones to fill the gap.

Nothing like a few 20-year long wars to create a a shit ton of disabled Veterans, huh?

P.S. The real reason I decided to write something today was I went out to the garage to get some plumbing tools for Cupcake’s Sunday Honey Do list. Deb keeps the horse food out there to keep mice out of the barn. And if she ever keeps the garage door shut, we probably won’t have mice in there either. Of course, if I point that out to her, I’m being a dick. Heads she wins. Tails I lose. I get that.

Anyway, as the overhead door goes up, a cartoon character mouse waddled away from the feed bags across the floor in slow motion in front of me. I could swear he glanced up at me nervously as he went by. The poor guy looked like he’d swallowed a ping pong ball. He was making about 3 knots on a 090 heading across my bow at 100% military rated thrust but his landing gear was down and his flaps were still extended. Pickles immediately went over and gave him a sniff and he didn’t even kick it into afterburner. It must have thrown her into a quandary as to why he wasn’t at Mach II yet. She let him go. Must be because it’s Sunday.

Amen.

Posted in 3.156(c), §3.156(c) claims, DIC, How to Qualify for VA SMC, Humor, Independent Medical Opinions, SMC, VA Agents, VA special monthly compensation, VA TBI, Veterans Law | Tagged askNOD.com, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Gulf War Claims Help, Gulf War Vets Help, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 2 Comments

2025– WHAT VETS HOPE TO SEE THIS YEAR

Posted on January 11, 2025 by asknod

I love the New Year hooplah and all it promises. A new, clean slate upon which to write. The promise of finally losing weight must be a big one because every year about now, Weightbegone©, and a bunch of other outfits like Marie Osmond’s Nutriloseit™ show up on TV. Now we’re getting bombarded with prescription weight loss drugs to combat too many missions over McDonald’s. Seems I’d default to the primary cause- failure to keep you mouth closed except for three very short periods every day. Better yet, let’s sue the manufacturers of knives, forks and spoons.

This morning I went to FacePlace® and marked myself safe on The Wildfires of Southern California page. Yeah. I know. I live west of Seattle but you know how this shit spreads. When the housing down there all finally burns up, you know where the refugees will head next. Interstate 5 leads right up here like the Yellow Brick Road. Don’t get me wrong. I feel compassion for Angelinos but when the voters keep re-electing these Bozos and they cut your fire budget to the bone, don’t be stupified if the fire hydrants run dry. Why would anyone be surprised?

I received a few emails from a poor Aftstan Vet telling me about his case. He said he has to go up to Seattle for a MRE on his lungs. I’m trying to visualize that… Why would you have to go to Seattle to dine on that? What’s wrong with Tacoma?

While on Face Place this AM, I saw that Kommando Kraig© is now offering Independent Medical Opinions (IMOs or nexus letters) for the low, low price of only $499.00. There’s an asterisk next to it indicating that speshull price applies to those who are paid members who have attended his ‘Boot Camp’. Perhaps one of my gentle readers can enlighten us as to the entry cost of the boot camp so we get an apples- to- apples comparison cost versus all the other claims sharks out there marketing these things. Asking for a friend.

In the VA News Feed, I see VA is touting they are magnanimously extending extra GI education benefits to Veterans as if Congress just got a bad case of remorse and offered us more. Turns out to be nothing of the sort. Way back in the days of Legacy, groundpounder Jimbo Rudisill qualified for both GI Bill benefits in that intercurrent period spanning the end of the Montgomery Bill and the newer, more generous one for Post-9/11 benefits.

Student Veterans Of America who helped win Rudisill.

Denis the Menace’ forebears (Shulkin and Wilkie) denied him over and over. After getting his ass kicked by the AOJ, he marched smartly up to the Board, the Court and the Fed. Circus in succession and got his ass re-kicked. He decided to seek certiorari at the Supreme Court and succeeded. The Supremes not only agreed with him but reversed and remanded his appeal and granted him both benefits.

So, how in anyone’s wildest imagination can the VA misconstrue this as a generous accommodation that was mutually arrived at by all stakeholders? Well, if you’re a stranger to VA litigation, this might make sense but to us, as longsuffering Veterans, this is par for the course. Interestingly, if you research VA law, you’ll discover the biggest names you see in VA precedence all lost on appeal. Look up Norm Gilbert’s denial in 1990. Ditto Joe Fenderson’s staged rating appeal. Benito Layno’s independent medical opinions. All the big guys lost. What they left us was the valuable blueprint on how not to make the same mistakes in the future.

Rudisill should be filed under the same hubris as the West LA Medical Campus uproar where VA Poohbahs decided to rent out this huge place (388 acres) to Hertz Rentacar, the Brentwood Private School and UCLA (for athletic fields), a few oil pumpjacks and a commercial laundry (not the famed French Laundry). The only problem with this was they were busy putting up concertina wire and trip flares to keep homeless Veterans outside the perimeter of a piece of property donated specifically for the use of America’s Veterans in 1888. In fact, my very own grandfather, old Alex Graham, was a resident of the old folk’s home there during WW II until his passing in 1948.

In spite of a hollow promise to build housing specifically for homeless Veterans, by 2022 they still hadn’t even broken ground and defied the Courts to tell them they had to comply. So, when someone says VA has just come out with some generous program that makes all kinds of wonderful promises of entitlements, I tend to pry that VA gift horse’s mouth open and take a gander for myself. Forgive me if I just trust but verify.

Folks I litigate with over VA claims all ask me why I refuse to even look at the strictures and rules of the M 21 Adjudications Manual. I defy any of you to show me a printed copy of the Manual for one simple reason. VA doesn’t print it because it changes, on average, about 135 times a year. The reason is elementary. Look no further than Rudisill, Laska or Barry. VA seems to have a decidedly defective method of decyphering the meaning of our benefits such that the error invariably goes against us.

You’ll never hear of the OGC deciding arbitrarily (unasked) to change some regulation so as to make it more liberal and grant Veterans benefits long denied due to confusion on how to read the statute. Each and every one of our wins at the Federal level occurred because we had litigators who were willing to fight to obtain benefits that were rightfully ours. Just think how many years VA Secretaries misread §3.350(f)(3) to say you only got one (1) half-step bump under SMC P. Do any of you think that was a one-off? Just a comma in the wrong spot that caused a shit ton of confusion? Oh Hell no.

We inhabit a small, closeted legal system that is more convoluted than any other. Congress enacted statutes that shelter us and grant us untold presumptions- the presumption of soundness when we enter is a big one. When you enter the service, every mole, scar and tattoo is surveyed and recorded. If you have a bum finger, it’s recorded to make sure if it gets worse in service, you won’t get any baksheesh for what you had before you entered. But what happens when the examiners say “NCD”? That stands for Not Considered Disabling. Imagine my surprise when one of the Vets who came to me had a 10% deduction after service in spite of VA saying twelve years earlier that it was NCD? Sound like a Bozo No-No? You betcha. Read these.

redactVA 9 filed 4-26-2020

BVA denial 12.30.2024

Another big one for Veterans is called the combat presumption under 38 USC §1154(b). If you have a PHM, ArCom or a CIB/CAR, it’s presumed you’re telling the truth. Well, presumed in the sense that if it entails a screwup back in 1953 about whether you were in combat, then they blow it off because it will cause them untold financial loss. They’ll turn your file (or what they haven’t shredded up yet) upside down and say you lied about your age to get in early. That makes your testimony tainted. Liar! Liar! What in Sam Hill does combat have to do with it?

VA has lots of presumptions guaranteed by Congress they are supposed to obey. Getting them to obey Congress seems to be the problem. It’s the old game of “Presumptions? we don’t gotta obey no stinkin’ presumptions unless you take it up to the Feds and they specifically tell us to”. That’s how we ended up with all the James Rudisills, the Laskas and the Danny Barrys of the world. We have to fight these fights over and over again.

Never come left on final in front of artillery on a fire mission at a fire base.

The homeless down in West LA, if they haven’t been asphyxiated by the recent turn of events, had to learn this the hard way and fight to get what anyone of sound mind could clearly see was their right. Seems I recall this phenomenon when I was in the military. We were considered guilty until proven innocent- the exact obverse of normal civil law (or criminal). In spite of having it drilled into you about the wonderful nonadversarial world in which we litigate, history speaks volumes as to how the Agency tasked with our wellbeing seems to spend an inordinate amount of time litigating in a ‘develop -to-deny’ posture. Here’s a good example.

Every Veteran knows (or should) the rating for ALS is 100%, right? Look it up. It’s automatic. If you have it, §3.316 says you get service connection for it. Period. Shoot, it even says to consider the need for aid and attendance or loss of use of the extremities. So take a gander at the rocket scientists (or should I say the village idiots) who manufactured this piece of work. They’ve taken each and every extremity and rated it at less than a total loss. Coincidence? I don’t think so. Somebody named “Coach” told the VSR to use the Part IV §4.124a schedule for nerve paralysis and rate on remaining function. It’s called lowballing. They’ve been doing this since the War of 1812.

redact RD ALS 11.25.24

redact CS 11.25.24

I can’t make this stuff up. It actually happens out there in the real world of VA Sports. If this is what the year 2025 portends for us litigators, I can only hope the new VA Agency Poohbahs recognize their employees need some serious remedial training in the basics of ratings.

And that’s the way it is… January 11, 2025. The best news is that three years after shooting that idiot who tried to run over me with my own car, the Prosecuting attorney is returning my S&W Model 19-4 .357 Combat magnum. I carried it up in Laos so I have lots of fond memories attached to it.

PS. After watching the following, I’ve decided to follow suit and cut alcohol for the New Year, too.

P.P.S. As an additional postscript here, I wish to make sure no large unaccredited legal entitles who charge Veterans unheard-off fees for representation before VA get the idea I do not like them. Asknod.com/asknod.org is a news entity akin to the Babylon Bee® and is pure humor. We do not advocate for any particular outcome. Much like Fox News©, We report. You decide. We do not offer functional legal advice simply because we cannot by law. Asknod.com/asknod.org/asknod Inc. do not have any attorneys to do so. So if you, a large company who “consults” with Veterans and offers Independent Medical Opinions in aid of their claims, feels we (asknod) harm your business, all I can say is we’re all village idiots here and merely flapping our lips as the First Amendment permits. It’s not like we’re yelling Fire! in a crowded theater. It’s more like we’re yelling “This theater doesn’t have fire sprinklers!” so Veterans can make their own decisions.

Posted in BvA Decisions, Claims sharks, Combat Presumption, Presumption of Regularity, Presumption of Soundness, Reductions in rating, VA Agents, VA Claims Sharks, Veterans Law | Tagged askNOD.com, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, VA ratings for ALS, VA ratings Reductions, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

THE MYSTERIOUS EVAPORATING TDIU PARADOX

Posted on December 29, 2024 by asknod

Okay, using GenX vernacular, let’s unpack this puppy. What in Sam Hill is Alex talking about? In VA land, as litigators, we get to see your Code sheet. Lotsa you Veterans, especially all the Commando Kraig™s and that city slicker with the cute ascot around his neck on U-tube, seem to think the drivel VA hands you on va.gov actually is your code sheet. I’ll plant one here directly so you can see how this TDIU bait and switch happens. The VA game plan is simple and I’ll also lay out the why of that punji pit for you as well. The long and the short of it is a shit ton of you fellers out there are getting short-sheeted on SMC S. Read on.

TDIU Code sheet 4.26.23

This all begins in a carefully orchestrated manner where you advance (slowly) up VA’s percentage ladder (unless you’re plumb totaled from the git go like a car in the junkyard). You usually begin this when you separate these days via BDD (Benefits Delivery at Discharge) by getting a 30% for bent brain, some 10% and 20% Mardi Gras beads for flat feet and tinnitus and the like adding up to 50 or 60%. Most of you won’t even notice you deserve lots more in percentage until you go on Readit® and discover all the folks laughing at you for being so naïve.

Mr. Willy Pete

Of course, everyone there (on Readit), including the VA employee experts, admonish you not to poke the bear. That’s an old wives’ tale from the 1980s DAV/AmLeg/VFW camp. How are you supposed to get to permanent and total? Go to church on Sunday and pray to the VA Gods of Good Fortune to smile on you? Obviously, there are those of us who walk erect among you who are P&T so the bear-poking story is obvious bearshit. Right? Shoot, look at me. I experimented after I got my first 100% and fiddlefarted my way to 100+100+60+40+30+30+ 10+0+0 just to see if I could. Could be there ain’t no bears in the woods to poke hereabouts but I tried.

The VSO technique is to eventually file you for anything and everything in hopes that enough shit sticks to you to get TDIU and get you out of their in-basket permanently. In all my years of doing this, I disremember seeing guys with Parkinson’s get better. Or DM II with all the peripheral neuropathy improve. Or the lung cancer or the Ischemic heart disease go into remission. The fact is, you’ll just gradually get there via age or from jumping out of perfectly good C 130s with 90 pounds of shit on your back or… eating too much Agent Orange for breakfast. Or your PTSD gives you megaroad rage. Or you enjoyed warming yourself next to a burn pit in the evening.

So, fast forward to your shiny new TDIU. You’re looking good in the neighborhood, right? Got that 70% P&T in your pocket and the $4044 per month married. The only hitch so far is you are forbidden to work for the most part. If you had your code sheet like the one above, you’d see you have one of two scenarios. Either you have at least one 40% and others adding up to equal 70% or more TOTAL… or a single disability rated at 60% or more. You might have some other nothing burgers for 10 or 0% but this is the basic TDIU scenario.

Now, let’s add on a few new ones or increase one of your existing ratings. Let’s say your heart takes a gigantic shit on you and the IHD makes your Left Ventricular Ejection Fraction (LVEF) drop to about 33%. The c&p says 3-5 METs. VA grants 60% and you’re thinking “wow, I wonder if I’m entitled to a higher rating?” You’ve heard through the grapevine about Special Monthly Compensation but your VSO says that’s for Winky not working any more or a masectomy for breast cancer. He’ll tell you there’s no such thing as SMC and you’re getting the max award as it is. Don’t be poking the bear.

All your Readit buddies are telling you to file for SMC S- what VA used to call the “Corvette Payment”. Actually, it won’t cover a Kia now due to the cost of living. It works out to about 4 Benjamin coupons extra per month. VA says “No dice.” If you had the code sheet, you’d see your TDIU has metamorphosed into what VA calls a “combined” 100% rating disability. TDIU is in the rearview mirror now. Gone with the Wind. But it ain’t, cowboy. That TDIU still exists. By rights, in the above scenario, you should get SMC S.

Once you get TDIU, it’s a “finding of fact” that you are unemployable. Fact is, your Bent Brain Syndrome would probably have you telling potential Time-Share condo customers if you want any shit out of them you’ll squeeze their heads if they ask too many questions. No sir. No $12 K a month in your spare time for you from the comfort of your own home.

But… what if you get more ratings, say, a bright shiny 100% for your ticker on account of the METs sinking down to 1-3 METs and the LVEF down to 20%? That would technically mean you have a single disability of Bent Brain at TDIU (70%=100%) and a new 100% solely for the Ischemic Heart Disease. VA will add the 70% for the brainbox to the 100% for the heart and give you… yep…100% total (combined). This is what we call VA “math”. Your SMC S just flew out the window. The only way to fix it is to go up to the BVA and demand they grant the SMC S based on one single rating of TDIU plus additional rating(s) of 60% or more separate and distinct from the bent brain. You’ll win every time.

You can read all about this in Buie vs. Shinseki here: https://asknod.org/2011/09/27/cavc-buie-5-v-shinseki-0-2011/

VA, for some reason, never got the email on this one or it just slipped through the cracks and they forgot to revise the M 21. Mighty convenient how their memories get a gigantic brain fart when it comes to SMC anything higher than K. Either way, you’re never going to see them suddenly see the light, CUE themselves and grant you the SMC S without some serious bitching. Now, just imagine how many of you might have been hornswoggled by this crap and are deprived of the one document that could spill the beans? It sucks and I see it every day. But my clients don’t get to see the implied denial.

Possibly even worse is Johnny Vet who actually gets the additional award of a total 100% and VA actually remembers to give him the SMC S. He figures he’s in high cotton thinking ‘right on, dude.’ But the truth is they should be trying to figure out if they can line him out on SMC L for aid and attendance. That’s Akles v Derwinski (1991) and the Court’s holding that if you get a total rating, it automatically demands they examine you for the highest and best possible SMC. You have a better chance of winning the Powerball Lotto than getting VA to be proactive on SMC.

People ask me how they can get their code sheets and I have two suggestions. Go see your VSO or attorney (or VA Agent) and beg them to go online in VBMS and print one for you. Even then, you may need a Sherpa to lead you up the SMC Mountain because VA sure as hell ain’t going to take you there on an all-expenses- paid guided safari. Or, you can request a copy of your entire C file on a CD and wait about six months for it to arrive.

I had a VBA Decision Review Officer once swear to me that VA’s motto was “Grant if you can. Deny if you must.” Considering the M 21 makes this decision regardless of your best intentions as a rater, his credibility is in the basement. His bosses are bearshitting him. I really don’t think VA employees are taught to have a negative attitude about it. Think of it like one of those old Magic Eight Balls where you ask it a question and turn it over to get your answer. Trouble is, VA’s M 21 Eight Ball is gonna say “No way, José. ” one hundred times out of one hundred. It’s VA’s M 21 computer programming- garbage in-garbage out.

And to all the folks who have emailed me saying they expect the absolute worst of the new Administration vis-à-vis the VA system? Relax. I did a longitudinal review of which party was in power during my compensation journey from 1989 to 2016. It was dead equal. I got denied equally by both persuasions and conversely won equally during the period in question. So that tells me there must be two versions of that Magic Eight Ball. The fact is, our government needs to convert over to drones RFN and end this stupidity.

Happy New Year’s. Thank you all for allowing me to bore you to tears with my blog. Keep sending in the pictures. Let us never forget what we raised our right hands for… or regret doing so.

Posted in TDIU, VA Agents, VA Medical Mysteries Explained, Veterans Law | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 9 Comments

CVN 65–LISTEN TO THE STORY ‘BOUT A MAN NAMED STEVE

Posted on December 15, 2024 by asknod

Naw. Steve wasn’t from Bugtussle. He was from Pennsylvania for what it’s worth. What’s important is he raised his right hand and signed on for 4 years as a Squid. Now why anyone would voluntarily submit to a vow of sexual abstinence for untold months at a time almost rivals those who insist they’d much prefer to march there rather than fly. As for Marines, we haven’t figured out what makes them tick yet. No, life in the Air Force is much more civilized and orderly. We know what an ice cube is. But let’s talk about the USS Enterprise- the real one, not the NCC 1701.

This was a late submission that missed Halloween.

The Steverino signed up in ’68 and did some time after AIT in the USS Constellation (CVN- 64). From his STRs, it looks like he made the jump over to the Enterprise about late 1970. I gotta hand it to the guys with gill slits. They do a credible job in their sick bays. They have actual rubber stamps that say “CV 65” on them so this is pretty credible evidence. A Village idiot on a bad day could figure this out.

Nevertheless, after President Trump signed off on the Procopio Blue Water Expansion Act in June 2019, the VA was forced to begin identifying the new inductees into the Nehmer Club. That began in January of 2020. Steve immediately signed up. And this is where it gets shitty. Steve has really bad problems- cardio, Parkie’s, some radiation stuff causing loss of leg above the knee, cataracts and bad surgery to the point of legal blindness. You get the picture.

All the VSOs’ horses and all the VSOs’ men couldn’t put the Stevemeister on the Connie within twelve miles. He paid his dues and made the rounds. DAV, AmLeg, VFW and WWP all said no sweat and they all came up with a dry hole using his DD 214. Steve’s ship assignments weren’t on his 214 but they sure as shit were on his STRs. But nobody looked. Nobody sent in a 3101 to get everything from the NPRC. He was a virgin. He’d never filed for anything but a VR&E gig in 1972 with Cleveland Institute of Electronics to learn how to fix TVs. Steve’s mind is not what it could be, either. Nobody knew he had dementia… yet.

Steve had that old 8-digit VA claims file number starting with a 29 so it threw everyone off. They pulled up his archived files from the Records Management Center (VBA STL376) but there wasn’t anything on him. Now, if they’d filed an actual 526 provoking the duty to assist, this might have had a completely different ending before now. Instead of a fishing expedition to find out if he was a Nehmer candidate before filing him for herbicide, they blew it. Every last one of them. They told Steve to hit the road. He was never going to be recognized. The Constellation was last inside the 12-mile limit in 1966 and never again until June of 1972-six months after he separated.

For Steve’s purposes, lets concentrate on what the Enterprise was doing in 1971. If Steve was really on her, there was only one Bingo date for his Procopio moment – November 25, 1971. That’s the only listed date in 1971 that shows definitively that she was within the magic 12-mile limit. I use Hill and Ponton’s interactive map. It’s probably the most reliable. https://www.hillandponton.com/blue-water-navy-vietnam-map/

When I did my initial intake with Steve in person, he’d initially said the Constellation but after comparing the 214, even I could see the futility. So, knowing about the recent diagnosis of Lewy Body dementia, I played devil’s advocate and asked if maybe-just maybe, he disremembered and had the Connie confused with the Enterprise. He said “No, I served on the Connie but that was directly after AIT up in Great Lakes, Illinois. I transferred to the Enterprise in early 1971 and we sailed to Viet Nam in June 71. We were running combat flight operations up at Yankee Station until I left in early January and came home to separate. I told those folks to look up the Enterprise but no one would listen. Check my 214. I have the VSM and the VCM.” He does but ever since the old days of Haas v. Peake in ’08, ‘I-was-there’ medals didn’t prove shit.

I could see he doesn’t have a lot of a gas left in the tank so I shotgunned a 526 to cover the major stuff at the same time I took the POA. When the STRs and the military personnel folder showed up in October, the Wizards of the 12-mile limit came up with a dry hole again. I had to file one of those Hansel and Gretel 4138s to lead them to the STR’s where Steve the Squidster reported to Sick Bay with a cold, sore throat and a fever of 99.5° F…. wait for it… on October 15, 1971. Even better, another entry in his inoculation record showed he got a cholera booster and flu vaccine on January 5, 1972… aboard the USS Enterprise. But the search parameters said Enterprise, not CV 65.

Steve joined the Nehmer Club officially on Wednesday morning last, the 11th, and has his first c&p exam on 12/23 as a recognized herbicide exposure Vet after almost five years of false starts. And if even one of those chowderhead VSO outfits had filed him back then and he’d been denied, we could still have gotten him that earlier effective date under §3.816(c).

Sometimes you just have to piss on the fire and call in the dogs. Is anyone going to put you in jail for filings claims and later finding out the Vet didn’t meet the parameters? Hell no. I don’t suggest cheating but I trust my Vets. If they say they deployed to RVN, I’d believe them and try to help immediately. I dang sure wouldn’t hold back and try to find out if he did before I filed him. I’ve had mixed success in these cases but fortunately this was a cake walk.

Merry Christmas to you all. It’s been one hell of a year for Veterans. That dang PACT Act is a nothing burger for 99% of you out there and it held such promise when it was first advertized. I guess we shouldn’t be surprised after earlier promises like PCAFC and Procopio… and how the AMA was going move so fast you’d have your rating in less than a fortnight.

Posted in Blue Water Navy, Duty to Assist, research, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VBMS Tricks, Veterans Law | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA backlog, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 6 Comments

LZ CORK–TIDYING UP LOOSE ENDS

Posted on December 9, 2024 by asknod

I reckon if you query any seasoned VA litigator, especially the folks down in the trenches who do this 24/7/365, you’ll find consensus among them that the VA’s ability to get their underwear on facing the right way when they get up in the morning has become a lost art. Well, outside of the old-fashioned, time-tested technique of “yellow in front/brown in back”, anyway. Once upon a time they were quasi-intuitive but any ability to “construe” what you’re asking for nowadays is like expecting your dog to pick up Greek as a second language in his spare time. Babbel™ ain’t even going to be your huckleberry on the Greek… or VA claims.

Now, the title of the blog may lead some think I’m talking about the VHA-sponsored orgies down in Mountain Home, Tennessee but I’m not. I’m referring to the VA’s insane propensity to c&p you to death trying to torture a ‘not’ out of an unwilling clinician, and, failing that, finding a new Judas who will take their 30 pieces of silver. This is how they “reimagined” Bob’s loss of use six years after they granted it.

Yep. We in the AF had to defend our own perimeters at Air Bases.

But this case is the derniere cri in utter ignorance and a classic example of adversarial misfeasance. Who would waste their time on a simple Board remand by looking for some way to rescind a six-year-old rating (quasi-protected) for loss of use? And, by the same token, who in their right rating mind would think they could do a bait-and switch with a straight face and trade a loss of use for aid and attendance-all without so much as calling a CUE? Perhaps that’s why they call it VA 3-card Monte. Check it out.

Bob here was part of the LZ Cork crew who showed up when I started writing about the January 18, 1969 attack back in 2014. Bob and his friends got clobbered by a 60 mm mortar round about 30 yards below Butch where they were pulling duty at the LP. The gooks’ number 2 round had Butch’s bunker dialed in and scored a direct hit on him, too. Bob and his crew shot their 16s dry and were in deep shit until Bob tripped over a crate of M 26s in the dark and they began hucking them down the hill at the dinks. You can read about that adventure here. https://asknod.org/2015/01/29/lz-cork-bob-lovetts-lp-at-the-bottom-of-the-lz/

I began helping Bob after he read the blog and we’ve developed a friendship in our own right. Bob is only one of many Agent Orange Poster children. IHD, Parkinson’s, DM II, PN, etc. It’s ugly. He finally reached that point where walking was plumb hazardous to his health. Being a responsive representative, I filed him for LOU (loss of use) of his legs. VA granted it based on a VA PA-C saying he needed someone to hold on to him when he walked to keep him vertical. Check it out. No fight. No discussion. Just a “Here you go, Bob. LOU of the lower extremities”.

redact c&p 11.28.2018_Redacted

redact Narrative 1-18-2019

Fast forward a few years. In 2020ish, I won his IHD at 100% up at the Board. Sure enough, with the BVA Judge’s gun to their head, they had to grant him the 100% but they neglected to give him a bump up from L to L 1/2 for six months and then the bump to M. This was pre-Barry so I wasn’t asking for M 1/2…yet.

The BVA decision came back down in December 2023 and they began dinking around. I had a HLR hearing scheduled for April and on the day it was scheduled, they went silent and disappeared off the grid. Crickets. Loud crickets. A month later, they suddenly began talking- not about the bump to M but rather about revoking Bob’s loss of use of the lower extremities as a CUE. The HLR finally happened but we didn’t talk about CUE. We talked about the bump. I honestly thought they had given up on it.

Redact BVA grant 12.12.2023

Finally, five months later, the wildest and craziest thing I’ve ever seen them do happened. The Ratings Engineers down at Fort Whacko (the David Koresh Memorial Veterans Service Center) did the improbable. They took away his October 2018 SMC L for loss of use under §3.350(b)(1), which is protected by §3.344 and substituted aid and attendance due to Parkinson’s in its stead. It makes you wonder what transpires in that narrow space between their ears that passes for a brain what possessed them to do this but it’s just the good ol’ M 21 at work. If it says you have to show that you would be equally well served by amputation at a suitable joint(s) and outfitted with prostheses to qualify, then it would be CUE to award the LOU without those magic words. But after six years, you can’t change the diagnosis or come up with a different point of view. So you just “invent” a repair order. VA is famous for that. Rules? We don’ need no stinkin’ rules.

Redact proposal to CUE LOU

The rating decision is below and it’s a masterpiece of logic. Unfortunately, it’s against the law in 58 VAROs across our fruited plain. Since they know and I know they could never get away with revoking it via a CUE, they feel it’s kosher to just do the switcheroo without actually calling it a CUE. No harm. No foul. Just a typo, right? Shucks, we all make mistakes. Everything’s just like it was back in ’18 and we’ll even throw in that M you’ve been harping about since last December just to show there’s no hard feelings.

redact RD 11.25.2024

Let’s unpack this disaster. In order to take the LOU away, they’d have to prove Bob committed fraud to get his loss of use. But he didn’t. VA’s very own hired medical guns did that. The actual VAspeak is “an act of commission or an act of omission”. A difference of opinion six years later is just that. A difference of opinion and nothing more. Happens all the time but it isn’t CUE. But the kicker is they gave him another L for aid and attendance. If you’re up on SMC Chess, you know that means he would advance to SMC O under §3.350(e)(1)(ii). And, since one of his Ls is a&a, he automatically advances to Boardwalk and gets R1.

When you cut the paper (rating decision) and officially declare LOU, it’s a finding of fact and a conclusion of law. Assuming no CUE occurred, it’s inviolate under §3.104(c) unless they can prove they legally screwed up. But they didn’t. They just bought into the c&p clinician’s diagnosis back in ’18. That’s covered by Sickels v. Shinseki. There’s a presumption of regularity that VA doctors know what they’re doing and if they say the Bobmeister’s legs are toast, then they are. Once they uttered LOU, it became so. §3.104 guarantees it. But, by the same token, when they said a&a, it, too, became a finding of fact. And a conclusion of law. If, on appeal, the Board finds Fort Whacko took away Bob’s LOU of the lower extremities illegally, by operation of law they have to restore it. If they do, he will then have the two Ls that catapult him up to SMC O and on to R1.

So we’ll be off on the Yellow Brick Road to DC again to go get Bob’s R1 shortly. I think this time, in consideration of Barry vs. McDonough, I’ll throw in a few more bumps under §3.350(f)(3) just for shits and grins until his R1 kicks in. Who among us knew that if you keep throwing claims at them, they eventually hit that brain fart point where they don’t know whether to shit or go blind and start making those ‘yellow in front/brown in back’ errors?

I can’t make this shit up. It’s what $346.7 billion dollars buys (or doesn’t buy) in the way of VA justice. And that doesn’t count the $15 Billion dollar bounced check for the last part of the current fiscal year.

That’s my story and I’m sticking with it.

Posted in 1154(b) combat presumptions, Aid and Attendance, BvA Decisions, Combat Presumption, LZ Cork, SMC, Special Monthly Compensation, VA Agents, Veterans Law, Vietnam War history | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Gulf War Claims Help, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, VA SMC R1, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 2 Comments

AN AUTOROTATION THANKSGIVING

Posted on November 29, 2024 by asknod

In between our busy times in Southeast Asia revoking dinks’ subscriptions to Life, occasional macabre humor and happy hour camaraderie surfaced. Being up country brought out some interesting stories you rarely got to hear about from some of its colorful participants. Up at Long Tieng (LS 20A or simply Alternate), we had a constant parade of SOGs, SEALs and Green Berets coming and going (who always referred to themselves as Special Forces or simply SFs).

The military began revamping in the early sixties to prepare to do battle with a new threat- one that was developing on the Indochinese peninsula. With the French’ loss of Laos and Viet Nam in 1954 over at Dien Bien Phu, it became evident we were going to get involved. What the hey? We had all manner of new toys to field test like F 4s, M 16s, Pigs and Thumpers. It was as inevitable as the eternal thirst for combat medals.

As I said, duty up country was full of excitement. It was a mini-Viet Nam complete with its own mini-Ho Chi Minh trail (Route 7 and 71). The Army Attaché had his hands full with three different flavors of operators. I think they had the added job of Point of Contact for the SEALs, too. The Air Attaché just had to deal with Air America/USAF conflicts and all of us with fake USAID IDs. Both of their offices were in downtown Vientiane near the Embassy and might as well have been in another country. Being REMFs, they rarely made an appearance upcountry-if ever. It would mean having to leave their uniforms behind along with their Geneva Conventions Cards.

I think, in retrospect, we were considered to be alcoholics, ex-smoke jumpers and generally uncivilized, uneducated bumpkins who were willing to do most anything for work if it paid well. The Air Force crossovers were the exception. We ‘volunteered’ after a fashion. But that’s another story and this is devoted to Thanksgiving.

A month after I got there we’d just exfiltrated a SOG team of six in a Porter who’d been doing some wild and crazy shit along the trail for a couple of weeks. To be truthful, I can’t remember their names and chances are they weren’t using their real ones anyway. Remember, I flew with guys named Jack Smith and Ben(jamin) Franklin. Nobody thought it weird, either. So, we were sitting outside the barracks up at Alternate one evening drinking adult beverages and one of the gentleman started talking about their upcoming Thanksgiving plans- still several months off. Then he proceeded to share what he thought of as one of the funniest thanksgivings he’d had in years. Not scary or serious to him but funny. Seems he was on his second or third tour and thoroughly enjoyed this work.

Let’s call him Jim. Jim says he was working up in I Corps the day before Thanksgiving a year or so earlier and they were being extracted out of a recent surveillance mission which had turned into a milk run. They arrived back at the LZ for extraction, popped smoke and called in the birds. The troops boarded Jim’s ship without incident and grabbed their D rings. Crew chief signaled clear right and Mr. Peter Pilot dittoed the left. Since the gooks weren’t in active contact with the “extractees”, the PIC let Mr. Peter Pilot in the left seat get some experience doing a power takeoff and exiting the LZ with great celerity. Warrant Officer Last Class John Doe pulled a wee bit too much collective and tipped forward far more than he intended to. As any rotary wing pilot can tell you, when you trim 18 inches off your prop, it complicates getting airborne-especially with a full compliment of passengers.

Jim explained they hadn’t actually gained very much altitude when it became obvious this aerial adventure was going to be short-lived. Ahead of them was a rice paddy with a single farmer out there plowing along with his fairly young water buffalo. Contrary to popular belief, in order to truly autorotate a chopper down without too much loss of life, it’s essential to have sufficient altitude before beginning the procedure. Lacking anything less than 100 feet pretty much ensures a controlled crash landing at best. Jim says the A/C commander immediately grabbed for the cyclic and did a pretty decent job of flaring it before they pancaked…hard.

“A pretty decent job” consisted of all aboard surviving with some extremely sore buttocks muscles. The rice paddy was dry so it was a ‘hard’ landing. Jim described it as “the skids were splayed out flat to the ground like a football cheerleader doing the splits.”

A second later the rotary wing decapitated the water buffalo. The farmer had seen it coming and had the sense to beat feet outside the range of what passes for “wings” on a chopper. Knowing Thanksgiving dinner was going to consist of vintage 1955 c rations of Turkey with fruit cocktail at best, or ham and beans with concrete crackers at worst, they quickly began to haggle with the farmer for a sizable chunk of the water buffalo for a barbeque.

Allow me to explain the significance of young-versus-old in water buffalo parlance. Most folks worked their buffalo for 13 to 14 years until the critter was on his last legs. They’d drive it to market and sell it to the local butcher. Tough and chewy doesn’t begin to do justice to the subject. Imagine the texture of Oberto™ Beef jerky and then imagine that 14 year-old aged buffalo meat but still in its pre-cooked state. On the other hand, a young buffalo was probably fairly tender. I wouldn’t know. Nobody I knew had ever seen a young one slaughtered for its meat. The unwritten rule was it had to be ten years older than God before being ready to cook.

Apparently, Jim says that between them, they scraped together enough Kip, Dong, Piasters or MPC to satisfy the farmer and they had the better part of a hind quarter skinned, cut and ready for egress when the Shithook arrived. Back at camp, they managed to scare up a can or two of Donald Duck® Orange juice concentrate and some catsup and made a passable Jack Daniels-flavored BBQ sauce. A good time was had by all and there wasn’t so much as a buffalo drumstick left over.

Since my fifty year Form 10 NDA has expired and, I can now freely admit I belong to the Togetherweneverserved™ Club, I have no reason to believe Jim was funning me. He did confide that several of their missions were to plant cases of 7.62X39 ammo up and down the Northerly portions of the HCM Trail salted with Semtex in some of the rounds to demoralize the Zipperheads. They also jerry-rigged the NVA’s remanufactured pineapple grenades with bamboo add-ons and new prussic acid fuses to go off when they pulled the ‘cork’ on top. Must have been a bummer on the ol’ esprit de corps gig.

And that’s all she wrote on that Thanksgiving story. No turkeys that year except for the peter pilot. I remember our 1971 T Day up at Tango 11. Momasan found a really big chicken to cook and serve us. She came in waving it around and showing it off. The only problem I saw (other than the fact that it wasn’t a turkey) was it was plucked and still very much alive. Given there weren’t any refrigerators thereabouts, the only way to keep meat fresh and prepared for serving was to prep it just shy of terminating it. Prior to that, I didn’t have any semantic point of reference for the old phrase of “a chicken running around with its head cut off.” Boy howdy I sure do now.

SFs hamming it up for the camera.

As for giving thanks this year, I have 4 healthy grandchildren, none of my kids are in jail or have Fentanyl habits and none of us are dying of cancer or the like. America is healing slowly from her recent experiment in Democracy and some of us are praying for the return of cheap gas, low mortgage rates and affordable food prices. I wish to thank all of you who have entrusted me with your legal problems and look forward to their successful conclusions in the near future. I can’t believe my good luck in even being allowed to do Veterans Claims. It’s tantamount to the Blues Brothers movie where Elwood says to Jake “We’re on a Mission from God.”

May your hand grenades always go off after one thousand four and your turkeys always turn out tender. Amen.

Posted in All about Veterans, Humor, Thanksgiving and war, VA Agents | Tagged ASKNOD BOOK, asknod.org, asknod@wordpress.com, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Gulf War Vets Help, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help., war mementos | 3 Comments

BVA–A DAY LATE AND A DOLLAR SHORT

Posted on November 23, 2024 by asknod

Sometimes, no matter how hard you try to get it right and are under the gun, timewise, it doesn’t pan out. The soufflé falls flat, the car battery is dead when you’re late for your doctor’s appointment etc. You feel like the Fates are not your BFF. Good luck has left you high and dry and the dice go cold. Welcome to my world this week.

Meet Don and his family. Rarely do I get to publish pictures of my clients.

Once upon a time, I always felt I existed in a magical universe where Misty 22 made sure the nape always hit right on the spot where we put our smoke rockets, where every BDA (Bomb Damage Assessment) fly-by revealed stellar results and we never picked up so much as a single round of groundfire. I was immortal. Bulletproof. Blessed by the Gods of Good Fortune. Right up until the time I wasn’t…

Post-war, I felt I had re-established this phenomenon; this connection with the otherverse netherworld that shielded me against misfortune. I artfully avoided automobile accidents and other disasters (excluding a marriage) that most folks encounter. When I began doing VA claims, I seemed to be incredibly successful. My timing was impeccable, too. Right up until a week or so ago.

Now, granted I do lose more than a few Veterans to disease during the pendency of their claims every year but up to now, I’d only lost one right on the cusp of a major BVA decision forcing me to refile the substitution documents in order to proceed. Don’s and Cheryl’s Appeal was actually sitting there “ready for signature” by the Veterans Law Judge (VLJ) when he passed away two Thursdays ago. Curiosity bit me so I decided to wait to see the results at the Board knowing full well it would be declared void and require a new decision process. I was like Lot’s wife. I couldn’t turn away.

In most cases, and especially if you go to your just rewards in a VA hospital, they pull the plug on your VA VBMS efolder within 48 hours. Strangely, this still hasn’t happened to Don’s file. Of course, when a Vet passes on, I promptly do a frantic search for his VAF 21-686 filings to rescue his marriage/divorce data for the substitution filing. Widows are distracted by all number of things when their significant other passes away. The last thing they need to concern themselves with is rooting around in the attic or basement for the old records to support the substitution. In most cases, to be safe, I build the DIC folder ahead of time if I even suspect a terminal illness may take the Veteran suddenly.

Let me tell you about Don. He was a Marine 0311 Rifleman. That’s the same as a Eleven Bravo but you don’t get a fancy blue badge with a rifle on it and a blue fourragère to sport on your right shoulder. Army guys are showoffs and require a lot more mental encouragement (and the promise of medals) to charge across an open field. Marines generally settle for far less because they’re a lot tougher and don’t need their ego massaged. All a Marine gets is a tiny four -colored Combat Action Ribbon (CAR) and maybe an Attaboy or two but most are happy to get that. They don’t need to brag. They’re Marines, for crying out loud.

Don got in on the Southeast Asia Olympics early on. He enlisted in ’61 and made E5 before he separated in ’67. He did have the misfortune to catch some enemy metal in the knee and get a Purple Heart. The reason he missed out on his CAR is simple. They didn’t ‘invent’ it until February 17, 1969. But that’s not all he caught. He must have eaten quite a bit of herbicide because he came down with about half the diseases listed in §3.309(e) and a few that weren’t on the list but should be to my thinking.

The fact is, almost all autoimmune diseases we Vietnam boots-on-the-ground folks get are proven to be related to exposure to dioxin. We’ve pretty much determined that to be an article of faith. The fact that ALS, Multiple Sclerosis or Crohn’s Disease aren’t on the list yet is simple. They’ll add them about 4 years after the last of us auger in. VA is broke and on a low-budget diet. Those 7-day Maui getaways for VA conferences on “How to Apply DEI Standards to a Changing Work Environment in the 21st Century” are expensive and without proper training and some decompression time, the raters might get our decisions wrong.

Don and Cheryl found me a little late in the claims process but I was still optimistic I’d get him his ALS rating and aid and attendance from the Board long before he passed away. Boy howdy was I wrong and it bugs me. I can’t think of anything I could have done differently but then, you always feel incompetent when you come up short. The only consolation is Cheryl will get her Dependents Indemnity Compensation (DIC) for the rest of her life. There was some concern in that regard because Don was eight months short of ten years at 100% P&T.

Rarely do I see VA turn a blind eye to their own c&p examiners and overrule them but it’s been known to happen. Here, a c&p nurseynurse got brave and actually cited to peer-reviewed articles to say that Don’s ALS, in a variant form called primary lateral sclerosis, was indeed a typical autoimmune disease and more likely than less likely related to…yep… Agent Orange (or Blue, Green, Purple, White or Pink) exposure. Herbicide flavors were like Baskin and Robbins® in the early days of the war.

To add insult to injury, I did check to see if the BVA had ever ruled either way as to whether the ALS variants were considered to be presumptive under §3.818. To make sure about these quandaries, I utilize the BVA Search Tool in the widgets at the top of my site above. Matthew Wilcutt and the folks over at Sutton Snipes Lawdogs Company created this gem and it’s the cat’s pajamas. Sure enough, I found two cases which stated what I needed to hear so I included them in my brief. Funny how VA disremembered they’re allowed to grant this variation, huh?

The BVA published Don’s post mortem decision yesterday morning but that won’t help Cheryl yet. We’ll have to wait for the death certificate to be issued to file with her substitution documents and wait all over again for the BVA to readjudicate the entitlement and make it official. The good news is we can (and will) fight the effective date on the award for as long as it takes to get the a&a back to before the filing of the request for a&a. This is one of those strange quirks unique only to SMC entitlements. You’re not required to ask for a&a or even file a claim for it. A&a is due and owing the moment your medical evidence proves unequivocally that you are entitled to it. Even better, Don’s neurologist stated he had paraplegia which means SMC O and on up to R1 for loss of use of the uppers and/or lower extremities as well.

User comments

Here’s my filing and legal argument for the appeal and the Board’s belated decision. I reckon ol’ Don’s sitting up there in Heaven slapping his thigh having a good laugh about all this even as I write. If you believe in the everlasting afterlife, you can’t help but subscribe to my Win Or Die™ philosophy-even if you win after you die.

10182 ALS filed 7.27.2024

BVA ALS win 11.22.2024

Rest in Peace, Don. You ain’t seen nothin’ yet. I’m fixing to make them bleed money for Cheryl ’til it hurts.