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. | 10 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.

Posted in Aid and Attendance, All about Veterans, DIC, Milestones, SMC, Tips and Tricks, VA Agents, VA Medical Mysteries Explained, VA special monthly compensation, VBMS Tricks, Veterans Law, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Milestones, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | Leave a comment

OUR POTENTIAL NEW VA SECRETARY DOUG COLLINS

Posted on November 17, 2024 by asknod

I find it interesting that every time we go through the machinations of installing a new VA Secretary, that all manner of trepidation and fear race through the minds of the Veterans’ population. Well, perhaps the minds of those who concern themselves with these matters at any rate. What the hey? Count me in. I’ve had the pleasure(?) of witnessing each and every one of them from Derwinski to Denis ascend the Vermont Avenue NW Throne. Some I felt were pro-Veteran and some not. So let’s unpack Mr. Collins and see what’s under the hood.

First, and foremost, I’d note that this is a departure from the previous President’s VASEC choice inasmuch as he’s actually a Veteran this time. I don’t feel that’s a prerequisite for the job anymore than being Mayor of South Bend, Indiana qualifies you for the job of Secretary of Transportation. Shucks. Say what you will but Pete was a former Naval Intelligence weenie from 2009 to 2017 before becoming mayor. I can’t say with any confidence that it prepared him for any of his later jobs but we gave him a shot at it. Right?

It would seem that T ’47 is nominating quite a few former military Veterans. I think it will be interesting to see how all these choices pan out. But that’s not the reason I called you here today. Mr. Collins certainly doesn’t fit the mold of who I would expect to take the reins of the VA. He was a former Naval Chaplain and is now an Air Force Reserve Chaplain. Based on that, he will need to prove himself but he needs to be installed first to show us his potential. Conjecture on his qualifications beforehand is pointless.

The talking heads of media seem perturbed he comes from the Baptist faith. All I can say about that denomination is they put their hearts into their sermons and sing at the top of their lungs. We had a First Baptist church down the road from our Episcopal house of worship when I was a kid. They could drown out our Doxology plaints from a quarter mile away. With that said, I don’t think being a Baptist (or a Chaplain) is a disqualifier for this position.

Considering some of the choices I’ve read about in the last four years for various other Agencies, being a Chaplain might be a tremendous asset inasmuch as he’ll have more compassion for the Veterans’ plight. It certainly can’t hurt. I need look back no further than Jesse Brown to wonder how one of our own- a Viet Nam combat Veteran- confirmed to the office by Congress- could fight so hard at the CAVC to defeat his fellow Veterans he served with in the ‘Nam in their early fights for Agent Orange benefits. But then, I guess that could be said to some degree about all VASECs to date. They work for the Guy that cuts their checks…

A VA Secretary is ostensibly entrusted with the welfare of all Veterans from all walks of life regardless of their race, gender (as determined at birth) and religious or political affiliation. It seems almost counterproductive to spend your whole tenure protecting your turf, denying Veterans and pissing money away like a drunken sailor (no pun intended) at the Court to deny deserving Veterans. If we look back at the historical record, we see Secretary Peake spent untold millions fencing out Blue Water Squids (Haas v Peake) only to see it fall a decade later ignominiously under the Procopio decision. We even had to fight to get the “inland waterways” definition changed to get Cam Ranh Bay and Da Nang Harbor included at one point. VA considered this a major concession. See? Nonadversarial. Veteran Friendly.

Witness the long, protracted fight (from 1991 to 2022) for Agent Orange presumptions for Thailand and Laos Veterans -including my Air America brethren who, incidentally, also receive their benefits from VA. All of these fights entailed massive expenditures of your tax dollars against you only to be eventually subsumed by common sense. Any previous VASEC with an ounce of compassion would have entertained arguments that might have a basis in fact rather than acting like that “contrary” Indian (Younger Bear) in Little Big Man.

Younger Bear of Little Big Man fame

I don’t wish to inject my own tribulations into this but can you imagine a 13-year fight for a greenhouse that encompassed three trips to the BVA, three extraordinary Writs, three Veterans Law Judges’ salaries and untold millions of dollars in litigation at the Seattle Regional Office only to be begrudgingly conceded in spite of §3120’s guarantee of the ILP for severely disabled Veterans? Congress promised 2,700 Veterans with life-threatening disabilities they would be given things to lessen their dependence on others. The year I first prevailed (2015), VA VR&E poohbahs could only find 1,457 deserving souls who qualified. It was below one thousand when I prevailed again this year. I assure you there were, and are, millions of us vying for those thousands of slots yet VA would have you believe they somehow fell short of measuring up or were “independent in their activities of daily living.”

So, when considering former Representative Collins for this job, what metric should we apply? Does being a chaplain (and an attorney) automatically disqualify him? Does being a former congressman disqualify him? Does his former job in the Congressional field versus a lifetime tenure in an executive capacity at, say, the State Department leave him skinny in the experience field?

Considering we’ve been getting the shitty end of the Punji stick since the Revolutionary War, I’d say a chaplain might be just the ticket for a prospective VASEC. If your prescribed mission is ‘for he who has borne the battle, his widow and orphan child”, it would seem a man of God might already have a leg up in this endeavor.

Politicians, and I’m not pointing fingers at anyone, seem to have a proclivity for passing out these plum jobs to those who have stood shoulder to shoulder with them once they are elected. It very well could be that Mr. Collins is reaping his just reward for being a loyal acolyte of Trump’s. But then, it could be that he has extraordinary insight as to how this job might be done better than his predecessors. Considering the previous inhabitants of 825 Delay and Deny Avenue NW have made a hash of the job for 35 years, how could anybody do worse?

I suppose it could be said, by the same token, that the job of Defense Secretary being held by inept, morbidly obese chuckleheads who have never heard a shot fired in anger has not kept us out of endless imbroglios in foreign countries where we have no dog in the fight. One would think that, of all jobs, America’s Defense would demand a Veteran as a prerequisite. So why not give it to a relatively untested, lowly former Lt. Colonel who sports a Bronze Star and a CIB? How could he possibly be worse in the scheme of things than the long line of civilian Bozos who preceded him? Doesn’t anyone remember McNamara? His claim to fame was running a car company.

Several of you who read this drivel suggest Mr. Collins might be a harbinger of change at the VA and reduce or eliminate the medical arm of the Agency. There seems to be some trepidation that he will inject Project 2025 into the mix and reduce Veterans to abject poverty. Newsflash. In my view, that eventuality is already upon us. Congress begrudgingly gives us a meagre budget considering their propensity to start wars and create shit tons more disabled Veterans. Each newly disabled Veteran essentially dilutes the amount of money for all of us Veterans collectively. Ergo, if you find yourself in the proverbial money hole, quit digging it deeper by manufacturing more disabled Veterans.

I, for one, am a positive thinker. If it’s broke, and has been since its most recent iteration back in 1918, why in Sam Hill not try a different approach and see if that works? Why this insane desire by the powers that be to keep repeating a litany of errors that haven’t reduced the backlog one iota? Each new approach, such as the AMA, has been touted as the panacea for all the previous years of inefficiency. I recall the advent of the conversion to electronic records from paper files (VBMS) was guaranteed to speed this up to 186,000 miles per second. In 1992, a legacy appeal with a hearing took a year from the Form 1-9 certification. Under AMA, this very same appeal has metastasized into three and a half years-if you decided to stay in Legacy; more if you opted into AMA.

Captured 122 cm rockets

I say we give Mr. Collins a shot at repairing a broken system. I doubt he could screw it up any more than it currently is. That’s not to say he’ll be any vast improvement over his predecessors but we can at least pray he will (pun intended). To say he’s arbitrarily unqualified to take the reins without a plausible reason only reinforces my opinion that certain politicians couldn’t care less about our plight and wish we’d just shut up and go away. That, my friends, is not in the cards. We owe our Disabled Veterans far more than lip service and a ‘thank you for your service.’ It makes little difference which political stripe you sport. If they’re peeing on your leg and telling you it’s raining, it doesn’t really matter if it’s democrat pee or republican pee in my book.

Lastly, I’d say that Denis McDonough (or at least his little people) have fairly responded to some of my most urgent pleas for my most disabled Veterans. In that regard, I’ll miss him mainly because I’ve established a line of communication. With the changing of the guard, a whole new job of introducing myself will create a speed bump for a while.

Navy Liberty chits…

Posted in VA Secretaries | Tagged askNOD.com, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Gulf War Vets Help, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Korean War Vets Help, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Veterans Humor, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 3 Comments

MILEPOSTS-Don E. Hill 1942-2024–VIET NAM VETERAN

Posted on November 17, 2024 by asknod

Pause in your daily ablutions today and pay your respects to a wonderful father, a Viet Nam Veteran and a true American patriot. Don came to me belatedly in April of this year via his loving wife Cheryl. It seems VA wasn’t too impressed with the fact that his monomelic amyotrophy (a recognized variant of ALS) wasn’t truly ALS. Can’t have that. My biggest regret is that they didn’t find me far sooner. As Mick says, you can’t always get what you want.

Don passed away last Tuesday at the Michael E. DeBakey VAMC down in Houston at 0819 Hrs. after a very long battle with prostate cancer, the ALS and a host of other nasties like rectal cancer that concluded with a colostomy bag. VA doesn’t believe it had anything to do with our old friend Agent O. Sadly, I won’t be able to fight that one for him but we are fighting like a rabid pit bull to get the ALS issue SC and make sure Cheryl gets her DIC. My old squadron logo of Win or Die™ is my assurance I won’t give up.

Don’s prostate cancer never went into remission. He was 100% for that from July 2015 so he missed the ten year test for the DIC by a miniscule eight months. All that’s left is a prayer for his death certificate to state the prostate, the DM II, the hypertension or a possible AO disease like IHD to be the culprit. Failing those, I’m going after a post-death IMO for the rectal cancer or the amyotrophy = herbicide as a contributing factor to his eventual demise.

I consider myself blessed beyond words to be allowed to advocate both for him- and now- his surviving spouse. He fought his diseases long and hard for years only to auger in shy of the finish line. Don was a proud Marine from ’61 to ’66 and got in on the early fights up in I Corps. and had been awarded a Purple Heart. He’s lucky he was issued a M 14 and not one of them toy Mattel© M 16s. Oddly, he was never awarded his Combat Action Ribbon to go with the PHM. I’ll be contacting his Congressman directly in hopes of rectifying that oversight. Better late than never.

Rest in Peace, Don. While I never got to meet you in person, rest assured I’ll move heaven and earth to ensure your wife receives her DIC. You can take that promise to Heaven with you. Were the shoe on the other foot, I’m sure you would do no less for my Cupcake.

Posted in Milestones, Vietnam Disease Issues, Vietnam War history | Tagged asknod.org, Disabled Veteran, DIY vA Claims, Help with vA Claims, Helping Veterans, Service Connection, VA claims, Veterans Benefits, Veterans claims help, Vietnam Veterans Claims Help. | 2 Comments

VETERANS DAY 2024–SOSDD?

Posted on November 11, 2024 by asknod

So… here we are in 2024. A whole year has gone by and some amazing occurrences have transpired. Or not, depending on your philosophies. Without trespassing into the forbidden subjects of religion or politics, I’ll try to illuminate where we stand this year. Veterans are pretty much still in the same boat they have been in since the War of 1812. Many promises made but few honored.

Think back to the heady days of the VA Community Care Act of 2018. We were promised a glorious future free of traveling 160 miles at 41.5 ¢ for our medical care. We could simply ascertain it would take more than 30 days to get an appointment and then go to a local doctor, dentist or orthopedic surgeon in our community. Has anyone noticed that it might be easier to get an appointment sooner at the VAMC these days? My dentist informed me last year that he was no longer accepting VA’s financial guarantees after a two-year wait for a crown payment.

Remember President Trump passing and signing a law during his tenure giving him/them permission to fire a VA employee for egregious errors or blatant misfeasance? All we saw of that one was VA employees getting promoted up and out or allowing them to resign with their pensions, effective immediately. You’d think it would operate like the military. You’d get recalled to active service, demoted or punished appropriately and then sent packing with your financial tail between your legs. It was touted as the ‘see you later, alligator’ Act. It was about as effective as installing screen doors in submarines.

Over the last 35 years, I’ve observed the slow progress we, as Veterans, have made in various areas. As was expected, the definition of what constituted a true, herbicide-exposed Viet Nam Veteran has expanded in fits and spurts. I actually still had Thailand Vets waiting in line at the BVA for the last five years who “statuted” into the PACT Act presumption while waiting for the decision. VA tried to only grant the August 2022 PACT Act effective date rather than the Vet’s 2015 date of claim. If you complained in an HLR, they’d do a staged rating and give you a 0% from ’15 until 2022 and then kick it up.

Remember Cream’s lament “If it wasn’t for bad luck, I wouldn’t have no luck at all. ?” Somehow, it seems that way for us. The guys with the gill slits, who were almost 12 miles from any overspray, got the Procopio AO presumptive years before documented Thailand Vets (including a few of us “Togetherweneverserved” folks in countries to the North and East of Thailand) were granted the presumptive.

But, I think I should point out the disparity of being granted Nehmer Class status versus being granted PACT status. If you had filed for Parkinson’s under Nehmer as a boots-on-the- ground Vet in 2002 due to exposure and were denied, you could reopen in 2020 and win… plus get your effective date moved back to 2002 under §3.816(c). If you were newly inducted into the Thailand PACT Act for Parkie’s in 2022, and you had actually filed in 2002, you’re plumb shit out of luck under §3.816(c). Sometimes, being made a member of a new class of Vets doesn’t ensure you get benefits commensurate with your belated “Welcome Home!” parade.

Winner 2024 Horse Halloween

I don’t complain too awful much but VA seems to have a marked proclivity for begrudgingly relinquishing decades-old entitlements withheld but arbitrarily changing the rules to eliminate any possibility of retroactive benefits. Think back to the original §3.350(j) TBI benefit of SMC T. WWP pushed hard for this back in 2010… but only for post-911 Vets. It wasn’t until Congress in 2018 decided that clashed with the ‘E’ in DEI and granted the benefit to all Veterans… but still phased it in so as not to be too overly generous.

Concurrently, it seems VA, whether by their ignorance or by planned contrivance, has misconstrued virtually every last one of their SMC regulations to our financial detriment for decades. Witness the charade of TDIU not technically being the same as a total 100% rating until 2008. Or the Buie decision saying who cares what order you got your SMCs? You get to assemble them in such a way that benefits you the most under §3.103(a). I could easily continue with Jensen, Breniser, Barry or Haskell/Laska. When will it end? Considering VA’s avowed nonadversarial stature, they sure are niggardly with ~~their~~ our benefits.

Veterans are the lifeblood of our Nation. Our citizens should cherish us as a National Treasure. Who else are they gonna call? Ghostbusters? Without us, our nation might be speaking English with a decidedly British lilt…or even German. We didn’t ask for much. I remember my monthly basic pay as an E-1 was $87.35 a month. Granted, that was 1969 but if you were to COLA that out to 2024, it would probably be about $550/month. Fat chance you’re going to attract many high quality, 4.0 grade-point average high school graduates for that kind of chump change. What the hey ? Mickey D hamburger stands pay higher than that.

The VA, and the military, by extension, offer little more than third world wages and medical benefits to Veterans that pale in comparison to the civilian sector. In this day and age we have Obamacare. Say what you will about its pros and cons but it’s at least available without a 30-day wait to get in. More importantly, you’re not forced to travel 234 miles one-way from Shafter, Texas to El Paso just to get your teeth cleaned and a cavity filled for free. Or meet with your VR&E counselor about your ILP claims because they demand an in-person meeting. In VA land, ‘free’ is a rather nebulous term- kinda like trying to define what the mean of ‘is’ is when discussing stains on blue dresses.

As many times as we Veterans have laid eyes on yellow ribbons and paper poppies annually, we continue to come away with little more than parades and Thank you for your service. Fast food restaurants offer free meals. VA hosts “Stand Downs” and hands out socks, toothbrushes and other sundries to homeless Vets yet VA says there’s no money to staff a 24-hour hotline for suicidal Vets. That speaks volumes to what they think of you.

We’ve pissed away billions on the Ukraine War and we don’t even have a dog in the fight. I shudder to think what might happen if someone decides we do. Been there. Done that. We can’t even honor the West LA campus promise of a home for indigent Vets guaranteed over a century ago. Instead, VA rents it out to Hertz rent-a-car, an oil drilling company, and a ballfield for a private school. They’ve fought the DOJ for years to keep homeless Vets out. That’s the VA who serves us Veterans. They spent thirteen years and probably over a million bucks denying me a greenhouse before they chieu hoi’d and granted it. They spent millions more denying my claim back to 1994 -only to concede error after twenty two years at the CAVC. And that’s just one Veteran. Try multiplying that by 3 million more Vets to get a feel for how far off the reservation these yayhoos are.

It is my undying hope that at this time next year when I write an article on this hallowed Armistice Day, that I will be singing the praises of a new, reborn VA, led by a conscientious Secretary who considers his job nothing less than a sacred duty to care for us. Sure, I can see there will be times when a Veteran will come forward and claim some benefit based on an alien abduction theory. To me, that’s what the Court of Appeals For Veterans Claims was invented for- not a running gun battle to deny at every turn.

I long for the day when they change VA’s motto to:

There are some things money can’t buy…

For everything else, there’s a VA Mastercard.

P.S. I’m sorry but had to 86 a flamer who’s mentally unstable. Hopefully “Kay” aka Karen will now leave us in peace. She’s seems to be having some form of derangement syndrome. We wish her well but she’s simply over the top. I hate to censor folks. She’s only the second one in the last 26 years. We earnestly hope she’ll get back on her medication regimen and get better.

Posted in Veterans Day | Tagged Asknod Veterans Day 2024, 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. | 5 Comments

VA AID & ATTENDANCE–RAISING THE ANTE

Posted on November 3, 2024 by asknod

Ever since Congress instituted this statute (§1114 now but §314) back in the waning days of WW II, it has remained a mystery to most. VSOs are neither taught the art nor allowed to even acknowledge its very existence. I reckon I don’t know what they call it but it isn’t SMC. In the last 8 years, as most of you know, I’ve raised quite a ruckus over it and managed to get a lot of guys (and gals) fairly high SMC ratings.

Aid and attendance is technically a misnomer because that is only one facet of a fourfold entitlement described in §3.350. Once you reach 100%-or TDIU for a single disease process- you are technically entitled to have VA put you under the microscope to determine if there is any way possible to give you more money.

Think about that. They are required to perform this analysis. If they don’t, technically, they’ve committed CUE. Fat chance you’ll ever make that stick. So, if you ever intend to get SMC, you can’t lollygag around and wait for them to figure it out. SMC is one of those actual freestanding claims that exist, as I said, but requires no filing. It’s due and payable on the day medical evidence says you were no longer able to accomplish the activities of daily living yourself and required someone to help you.

In this game, we/you file for it and once we/you win, the fun begins as to what date it can be proven your need arose. As can be expected, VA will assign the day of the a&a DBQ was executed rather than the day your medical records say you couldn’t a) walk; b) went blind; c) needed a&a; or, d) became bedridden.

Yesterday, I got a rating decision (RD) back from VA in VBMS. Let me say that the brand new client decided, in spite of my strict orders, to go down to the VAMC armed with a horribly screwed up 2680 and try to help me get his a&a … before the ink was dry on the POA. They asked for SMC pension rather than compensation. They filled out the claimant area with the wife’s info and DOB/SSN. The doctor didn’t finish filling out the form by adding his name, rank, airspeed and tail number and even forgot to include his National Provider Identifier (NPI). Worst of all, probably, is that the Vet asked the doctor to file it for him.

The first time I set eyes on it was fifteen days later in his documents queue. I won’t burden you with the details but it seems some just do not read the cover letter instructions. I get that. It happens most frequently with my TBI clients and I can understand. They aren’t hitting on all 8 cylinders nor should they be held to account. But… when you put in a cover letter (below) that explicitly states “don’t do anything before you run it by me”, and they do the above, it’s bound to add about six to sixteen months to the process.

Blue ink Cover Letter for Client

Now, don’t laugh but each and every one of those big huge bolded 18- to 24-point fonts saying do not date the documents have been added, bolded and made larger in direct proportion to the frequency of error. For almost ten years, I’ve begged my folks to just give the VA pukes who call and try to get them to do something stupid my phone number.

Within five days of a mishap, I’ll see a VA 0820 report of contact where a VA ‘technician’ will note that the Veteran was called and he gave them all manner of wrong information. Worse, some fill out the 4142 and 4142a forms and return them adding ungodly delays to their claims. After mailing them, they email me and ask if that was okay. Cupcake says I’m just not making myself clear.

This article is written to help all of you who have that insane desire to help your representative. Think about this. With the VA claims process being more difficult now that it ever was in the past, you rightfully should choose to have a ‘hired gun’ take your claim on. S/he is generally far more skilled in the process (or should be). Thus, it probably would be in your best interests to ask questions at every turn in the road if you feel uncomfortable. Acting unilaterally, as these folks did, can be harmful and cost you years in delayed justice.

Now, with that said, I want to show you a brand new technique of denial these folks experienced. In VA law, there is a duty to assist. VA flat-assed refused to call this old boy in for a c&p. The a&a 2680 and his records clearly and unmistakably supported a claim for a&a yet they try to make him provide the evidence in support of his claim. That’s plumb backasswards.

Worse, perhaps, is demanding an explanation of why he has trouble remembering to take his medications. Remember, §3.352(a)’s list of what might cause a need for a&a is not limited strictly to what is listed. Lately, we’ve been seeing a&a denial logic experience mission creep. I’m seeing the raters begin to use peripheral neuropathy terms saying there’s only a slight or moderate need for a&a- not a severe need.

The fact of the matter is simple. If you’re SC for a disease injury at-or close to- a full-blown 100 or TDIU, and the doctor fills out the 2680 saying you can’t button your shirt, that is a diagnosis. Period. End of discussion. And in VA law, a claim for compensation is a claim for pension-and vice versa. VA knows this so that one-liner in there about ‘you filed for pension, dummy’ is waaaaay off base. VA now begs to differ or triage the need into the slight/moderate/severe need. Worse, perhaps, is the need to go to the BVA and get them to call bullshit on theses techniques. That adds about two years to the process and never teaches VA a lesson. They just keep doing it unless someone takes it to the CAVC and the Judges cut some precedence saying ‘knock it off.’

So, for your edification, the below RD is so riddled with errors that it reeks. VA has the ability to contact me and ask for clarification. Moreover, they have an obligation to haul this old boy in and take a gander at all his disabilities instead of doing an ACE review with the binoculars backwards from Syracuse and call it a fair denial. This is why they invented Agents and attorneys to supplement the VSOs who might otherwise get buffaloed into agreeing with their good VA rating buddies across the hallway.

redact denial a&a 11.02.2024

The good news in all of this is we’ll win. The gentleman here in question has a 100% bent brain rating supersized with a heapin’ helpin’ of TBI. His PTSD DBQ says he he lacks the ability to keep himself clean and presentable and has suicidal tendencies. They didn’t say if his inability to keep clean was moderate or severe either. Shoot. He probably needs another c&p or two to figure that part out.

Posted in Aid and Attendance, C&P exams, How to Qualify for VA SMC, SMC, Special Monthly Compensation, VA Agents, VA Attorneys, VA special monthly compensation, VBMS Tricks, 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

Why I’m Still on a Mission

Posted on November 1, 2024 by Wesley McCauley

Alex has been on me for quite some time to share a story with all you fine folks. So finally, here it is. My name is Wes and I run United Veteran’s Disability. I have been accredited since September of 2021 and also practice at the Veteran’s Court. I stumbled upon SMC by accident. I had helped get a navy veteran from where I was living obtain TDIU. I had heard of VA Form 21-2680 before, but truthfully had no idea what it did. I asked him if he wanted to submit it and see if the VA would give him a hundred bucks or so extra a month. He said sure. So we submitted it, got denied, and I got it granted on a HLR. But, it wasn’t any chump change. When I saw how useful this form is, the rest is history, and I have since learned about SMC any time I can, and became rather knowledgeable. I have left out a lot of finer details in Denise’s case on purpose. I would encourage you to purchase her book (no financial incentive for me, by the way) to hear in her own words the basis for the denial. So, without further ado, I give you the story of the oldest continuous appeal I have ever seen, and why I am still on a mission.

I guess I should take a moment to tell you how in the world we got here. I began representing Denise on July 12, 2022. That put me at the ripe age of 23 then. By then, Denise had been litigating this case, continuously, for longer than I had been alive. She had been previously represented by some heavy hitters in the VA world. What I thought I could do better than them? I had no idea. I didn’t even have a paralegal, let alone umpteen attorneys on staff! As you read this, I hope to convey to you that the American Dream is alive and well. I don’t know who said it wasn’t, who said the little man can’t get ahead, because I am living proof. Denise is living proof. You are living proof. It’s just not true. I don’t have decades of experience, but in my short adult life, I have lived the American Dream. I have represented the best Americans this country has to offer, have helped change people’s lives, and have been able to make a living doing that. It just doesn’t get better than that!

That reminds me, how did I even get connected with Denise? I browse the Court’s recent rulings Monday-Friday. You have to if you claim to be “up to date” in any area of law, this one in particular. I noticed Denise had filed a Petition with the Court seeking action on what she called her “decades old” “egregious error”. I think God sometimes just puts people at the right place and at the right time. So, I sent Denise an e-mail asking if she wanted some help (in hindsight, there is probably some ethics violation there, soliciting clients, or something like that, but hey, I could tell she needed help!). We exchanged a few e-mails, spoke by phone, and agreed on representation. Quite honestly, the more Denise spoke, the more I was thinking yeah right. There is no way what she is telling me is remotely true. Someone would have put a stop to this by now. Well, to my shock, it was all true. Years and years of countless decisions, ignoring evidence, or just remanding the claim for something pointless to delay a final decision. My first order of business was to put the file in order. Everything that had happened from 1996 until the present. As of this writing, as best I can tell, there have been over sixty-three decisions concerning this case. I put them all in order and began reviewing them all. When I was done reading, disgusted would be a good adjective. By this time, Denise had already written a book on the VA appeals process, Stall, Deny and Hope They Die” – The VA’s Unwritten Policy: …The Story of One Widow’s 19-Year Battle with the VA.

Okay—now that you’re up to speed, it’s time to get to work. Denise came to me just after a Supplemental Statement of the Case (SSOC) had been issued. In VA speak, the Board had remanded her claim (by this point, it was obvious to delay on a final ruling). The Board wanted some records that they’d already been told didn’t exist due to the age of the records sought. Back in the day, when the Board remanded a case, the Regional Office would do whatever the Judge directed and make a new decision. If the decision was against the claim, you got a SSOC with a two-sentence statement on why it was still being denied. Then after 30 days, it would go back to the Board for a new decision. The Board could again remand, deny, or grant.

I got together an extremely thorough brief. It laid everything out, top to bottom. I want to share my opening statement.

“It is, however, regretful that this appeal has strayed so far from its original solemn meaning. That is, an American service-member died as a result of his faithful service to our county. Out of all the facts in this case, that is likely the only undisputed fact. Yet, it is the least discussed fact.”

To this day “Judge” Harvey P. Roberts has never acknowledged that. I use the term Judge very loosely. By this time, I had reviewed the entire file—years and years of litigation. I laid out every fact to the Board. This was crystal clear. I had laid out everything. No way they were escaping this.

Well, you haven’t met Judge Roberts. See, one of the problems that plagues the VA system is remands. A remand isn’t a final decision. It isn’t a final yes or no. Because of that, you don’t have the right to appeal a remand to the Veteran’s Court. What this means is that that the Board can theoretically (or actually do given this case), keep you on the hamster wheel in perpetuity. That is just what happens here. Despite the evidence being clear, the Board remanded the case once again to obtain records from an old Court proceeding. Records the Board had already been told were destroyed long ago. It was a big let-down. I had put so much work into this brief. I really thought once they had all the evidence laid out, there would be no choice but to grant Denise’s appeal. Instead, the Board made up a reason to string things along.

Fast forward a few months. Yet again, we are getting another SSOC. I was able to obtain a letter from the Clerk’s office that the Board had previously been mailed and e-mailed the same records they remanded the case again for. So, I submitted that as evidence to show that this game has to end at some point. The case worked its way back to the Board. I had thought a lot about filing a Motion to Recuse Judge Roberts off and on for some time. Denise had often mentioned it to me. I always wanted to just stick with the facts. Discuss the merits of the case instead of point fingers. Finally, I did it. I filed a Motion to have him recused and taken off this two-decade old appeal.

In November of 2023, I filed that Motion. The very next decision from the Board came in March of 2024. The appeal was granted. So, there you have the condensed version. I began this journey with Denise, one that she had already been on for decades, in July of 2022. In March of 2024, her appeal was, finally, granted.

Redacted Motion to Recuse

Redacted Board Grant

This case is certainly one of my most memorable cases. Whenever I go to conferences, I usually have a few folks who want to hear the story. Every time I tell it, it sounds just as unbelievable as when I first got involved in this case. I am extremely thankful Denise allowed me to bring it to an end for her, and even more grateful for her diligence in advocating for what she knew to be right.

That may bring an end to this case, but I’m still on a mission. The truth is, there is no shortage of veterans, widows, and survivors who are wronged by the VA on a daily basis. There have been a lot of changes within the VA in recent years. The Legacy system, even with appeals still pending, hasn’t been in effect since February of 2019. Then there is the “AI Revolution” we have up and coming. The VA is implementing a lot of AI to help manage its caseload. However, I can say with confidence, at present, this is hurting veterans. Claims are being improperly closed. Employees are relying on AI to do their work instead of actually reviewing files. Things may be changing, but the system is still strained.

Let me put it to you like this. We have a whole generation of Vietnam veterans that are turning 70+. Rightfully so, those veterans are looking to the VA and filing claims for their end of life care. As time goes on, these veterans are being more and more disabled and they are turning to the VA to care for them by filing claims. I have had several Vietnam veterans who have filed their first ever VA claims within the past year. Then, we have the PACT Act which brought in over 1.3 million claims since August of 2022. Oh, by the way, did you know that we have also been at war since the early 90s? Anyone saying the influx of claims we now have is a surprise is “dead from the neck up”. Anyone could have seen this coming from miles away.

What this poor planning causes is longer wait times, poorer quality decisions, and more appeals. I guess I should also be clear on who I am blaming here. Like any organization, leadership has a top-down effect. The Regional Office employees I often deal with are great folks. I would wager to say that the majority of them want to help veterans. Heck, most are veterans, too. However, when they are being pressured to make x number of decisions in a week, instead of make x number of quality decisions in a week. That is a real problem. The results are people like Denise get left behind.

That’s why I am still on a mission. Our nation is the greatest nation on Earth, and we have so many to thank for that. One of the best parts about my job is the opportunity to represent so many ordinary people who have done such extraordinary things. These people are ordinary Americans, who grew up in ordinary homes, with ordinary parents, but they chose to do extraordinary things to protect our nation. Denise’s husband is one example among millions. If you are reading this and are a veteran, you are among those millions. We owe you a debt of gratitude beyond what words can describe. The government has promised veterans a square deal. We will take care of you in exchange for your protection of our country. Until that promise is 100% fulfilled, you will find me, still on a mission.

**New VA Neuropathy Test. Order through your local VAMC prosthetics department.**

The Supreme Court first articulated the pro-veteran canon in 1943, stating that we must “protect those who have been obliged to drop their own affairs to take up the burdens of the nation”. See Boone v. Lightner 319 U.S. 561, 575 (1943). That couldn’t be truer today. We have millions of veterans who have dropped their affairs to take up our burdens. I believe I have had a unique opportunity to see the older Vietnam veterans age and recall their stories, while also seeing young men return from the war on terrorism. It gives a very unique perspective. Regardless of the generation, our nation has always been worth protecting and has always had those willing to “drop their own affairs”. That tells you we are living in a great place, despite what anyone on the news would tell you.

To every veteran reading this, I am eternally grateful for your commitment.

Godspeed.

Biography

Wesley is an accredited representative and is also admitted to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans’ Claims. Wesley’s entire practice focuses on “putting Veterans and their families in charge”. Wesley has litigated cases at the Regional Office, Board of Veterans’ Appeals, as well as the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. He has handled everything from hearing loss claims to extremely complex claims, such as this one. His practice focuses on Special Monthly Compensation claims for our most severely disabled veterans.

While working as the Operations Lieutenant for his local fire department during college, Wesley found his love for veteran’s law. Wesley was born and raised in rural south Georgia, where he continues to enjoy living. Many of his friends call him a “true southern gentleman”. While attending Valdosta State University, a community also home to Moody Air Force Base, Wesley saw the lack of quality representation available to veterans and their families—even in a military community. This led him to become a VA accredited representative, seeking to serve veterans and their families. Following his time in the Fire Department, he founded United Veteran’s Disability in September of 2021.

Wesley has represented some of our nation’s finest, including a World War II POW, combat veterans, Camp Lejeune veterans, submariners, Vietnam widows, Coastguardsmen, Infantrymen, FBI agents, and even VA employees. Wesley says each have a common thread, “love of country.” He has successfully recovered millions in benefits for veterans and their families. His largest single recovery totals over $525,000 in backpay. He has handled both medically and legally complex claims. Wesley believes in the importance of maximizing benefits for veterans, and his clients are regularly awarded Special Monthly Compensation to help compensate veterans above the 100% rate.

Wesley is a sustaining member of the National Organization for Veterans’ Advocates, a member of the CAVC Bar Association, Military-Veterans Advocacy, and is a lifetime member of the National Eagle Scout Association. Outside of his practice, Wesley enjoys traveling with his wife, especially visiting our U.S. National Parks. Together, they plan to visit all 63 U.S. National Parks.

Author’s Note

Yes, Denise has given me permission to share her name, book, and case details publicly. Additionally, I do not mean to disparage Judge Roberts. It is my genuine belief he had a personal bias against Denise, for whatever reason. Either that, or an inability to grasp the legal concepts and applicable law associated with her appeal. That is evident by my review of over sixty decisions in this case, which includes multiple Court remands. Regardless, I believe it speaks for itself that the very next decision following his removal from the case was a full grant.

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged Agent Orange, Agent Orange Claims, Appeals, Board of Veterans Appeals Hearings, Court of Appeals for veterans Claims, DIC, marriage-rules, news, Roberts, survivor's benefits, vietnam, vietnam-war | 9 Comments

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