Searching through the mails with an eye for obnoxious is a task for the devoted. Finding just the right off-key emotion, the sarcastic rejoinder or dissatisfaction with the status quo of life is the essence of humor. Of course, being born on April Fool’s day gives you a leg up. For me, everything is humorous-or should be.
We have all read news stories about the difficulty veterans with active chronic HCV infection are having getting treated with Sovaldi at the VA. Some articles express a more reality-based report on the service-connected HCV outbreak among Vietnam veterans. Is there a shift in attitude away from the offensive myth of widespread IVDU in this much maligned veteran population?
Although we know that IVDU was rare in Vietnam from a 1973 government report, service persons who did engage in this behavior were a health menace to their comrades in combat and during any other events when their blood was transferred on and into another person’s body and blood stream.. (They were a menace to sex workers too.) During a typical tour of duty in Vietnam, exposure to IVDUers bodies, dead or alive, were in fact a service-connected HCV risk factor that should be added to the existing long long list of SC risk factors.
But the most devastating transmissions of hepatitis occurred during transfusions due to the huge viral loads in the blood bags. CBS (LINK):
“In 2013, Vietnam veteran Zion Yisrael (right, CBS image) was told he had five years to live. He has stage 4 liver disease, caused by hepatitis C — which has infected as many as 230,000 veterans. Most veterans contracted it in Vietnam where it was spread by battlefield blood transfusions and vaccinations.
So far they have treated about 35,000 veterans, that’s just 15 percent of the veterans infected with hepatitis C.”
Gilead’s gouging policy has resulted in even fewer Medicaid HCV patients getting treated–only 3%. According to the Senate Finance Committee press conference, “…in 2014, Medicaid programs spent $1 billion on Gilead’s Hepatitis C drugs, yet more than 97% of Medicaid patients went untreated.” Medicare costs were even higher.
The 144-page bipartisan report is a marketing case study. The pdf link is below.
Cascade of Care for Hepatitis C Virus Infection Within the US Veterans Health Administration (Link to abstract on PUBMED).
OBJECTIVES: We measured the quality of HCV care using a cascade of HCV care model.
METHODS:
We estimated the number of patients diagnosed with chronic HCV, linked to HCV care, treated with HCV antivirals, and having achieved a sustained virologic response (SVR) in the electronic medical record data from the Veterans Health Administration’s Corporate Data Warehouse and the HCV Clinical Case Registry in 2013.
RESULTS:
Of the estimated 233,898 patients with chronic HCV, 77% (181,168) were diagnosed, 69% (160 794) were linked to HCV care, 17% (39,388) were treated with HCV antivirals, and 7% (15,983) had achieved SVR.
From the SFC’s report, “Prior to the virus’ identification in 1989, HCV was frequently spread through unscreened blood transfusions.”
Definitions and synonyms for the word “frequently”: all the time, habitually, very often, commonly, usually, as a rule, , ordinarily, again and again, over and over, repeatedly, regularly, routinely, more often than not and other none precise terms which sometimes can be quantified. Pick your favorites. I like “more often than not” and “all the time.”
The military had been working on the hepatitis-transfusion problem decades before the “Vietnam Misunderstanding” as Nod sometimes puts it. But the technologies had to be developed before anything could be done to break the chain of transmissions as each hepatitis virus was identified.
Korean War transfusions. Image: Walter Reed.
Jerrel has graciously invited me over for another hour of radio chat on his favorite subject (and mine). If VA ever quit stepping on their necktie, we’d be out of subjects to discuss. Unfortunately, that’s about as likely as pigs with a FAA ticket. While I have little endemic knowledge of Social Security issues, I do have a wealth of observing what happens around the VA if you don’t have those SSI records on board in many of the claims we file.
Park your ear over at Hadit’s Blog Talk Radio number and refuel your brain tomorrow again. Given an hour, there’s no telling what kind of trouble we can get into.
The call in number remains…
I’m sure they haven’t fired the gal who greets us. Dial one (the digit) when you get there. Never feel you’re interrupting us when we’re flapping our lips. We welcome your questions-even if we can’t answer them.
If posssible, I’d like to discuss the SSI type of thing that occurs more frequently than you can imagine.
We in the business like to call it a “Cushman violation” named after one of our own, Phil Cushman, who caught them at it…while he was alive. I, too, have one of these stories to tell of one in West LA.
And for your Tuesday morning humor, Law Bob Squarepant’s choice cuts out of Africa
The usual roundup of 2015’s choice cuts. Politically culled to offend no one. Recognizing the excellence of your submissions this year, I will give credit to those who did. Wait. Scratch that.
Jerrel Cook called me while I was swamping out the stalls this evening and preparing to feed the monsters. This threw everything into a tailspin. Cooper and Kona have food rules and they don’t cotton to me yakking it up on the phone during their perceived Horsey Happy Hour. Beet pulp is served stirred, not shaken- and always on time. For the next 10 minutes I was double teamed with horse lips by the two until I relented and said goodbye. I ended up with three hickies.
Jerrel says we can talk about whatever we want to. Showtime is 1900 hrs Congressional Wasting Disease time (for you on the east coast) and 1600 Hrs on the Left Coast. Please feel free to call in with any questions. We’ll talk about a wide range of subjects and my new book.
The gal with the cute British accent will be answering and giving you prompts on getting on to the show. Christmas presents are optional again this year but we do accept donations in small, unmarked bills that are difficult to trace. We’ll give you the P.O. drop box address tomorrow evening.
Welcome to Blawg Tawk rädio, ‘andsome.
After waiting patiently now for over three months for my Seattle VR&E minder, Kris Holloway, to push print on my greenhouse, I decided to call him up and rattle the ILP cage. True to form, he let it go onto Voicemail after being informed it was the asknod puke from Gig Harbor. I expected no less. His answer arrived this morning.
HOLLAWAY, KRIS, VBASEAT <kris.hollaway@va.gov>
To
Nothing like an economy of words. VR&E are well-known for that. Without being obnoxious, I’m tempted to email him back and ask what the controversy concerns. Can it be they have never granted an ILP based solely on avocational grounds? Is the Hobby Lobby excuse no longer valid? Are they in a total quandary due to the M 28 R manual of denials not having the requisite chapter on how to implement a program of Independent Living Services that entails more than can grabbers and grab bars near water closets and tubs? All these queshuns and no answers. What to do?
Well, what else? Jim Dandy to the rescue. That’s what the VR&E’s Central Office is for. Old hands there in the Senior Executive Services with calluses on their knees from Repetitive Bonus Begging Syndrome ( RBBS- a strange disease exclusive to VA jobs inside the beltway) are valuable fonts of information on how to minimize the largesse of the Board of Veterans Appeals.
I’m sure the good folks working for Jack Kammerer, our new fearless VR&E leader, are presently trying to reduce or eliminate the majority of the grant and redefine the meaning of “heated” and “ADA-equipped” as it applies to VA greenhouses. Look for a notation specification that grab bars will be installed somewhere as will a cordless phone for those “Help! I’ve fallen down and I can’t get up” moments. Rest assured, it will be the Veteran’s responsibility to provide the landline for said cordless phone. Look also for an electric can opener for those fibromyalgia-challenged hands to open plant vitamins as well as a can grabber to facilitate getting them off the top shelf.
Being a self-starter, I have decided to take it up a notch and contact ol’ Jack the Ring Knocker myself. Seems they all formulate their emails similarly so it must be Jack.Kammer @va.gov. After reading his bio, I’m disturbed. He has no VR&E qualifications like his predecessor Margarita Devlin. Worse, a ring knocker like Jack with 25 years under his belt who never made it past O-5 (Lt. Colonel) speaks volumes about him. Basically, he timed out. He needed that promotion to Colonel to stay in and he never got it. Far worse, a combat veteran from the Long Grey Line who never even got close to General rank means he’s of below-average intelligence or got caught in some sexual misconduct. Regardless, they all find a home at VA eventually.
I wonder if he’ll give me permission to use his VA Mastercard to charge this and get things moving. A special email confab with Greg “Jack” Kammerer? Priceless. For everything else, there’s VA Mastercard®
P.S. Well you know me. I couldn’t resist.
Dear Col. Kammerer,
I write to ask for information as well as assistance. It appears there is a dearth of both at the Seattle Regional VR&E office. On September 4th, 2015, I was awarded a grant for an ADA-approved, heated greenhouse based on my extremely severe disability picture. I have two 100% total disabilities and a handful of smaller ones (60%, 40%, 30% and 10%) that make my life challenging to say the least. As you have been in a war, I assume you are familiar with what transpires. I did two tours in Vietnam, Thailand and Laos from 1970-72. The lasting effects on my health from a simple through and through gunshot wound and Agent Orange exposure long ago have gradually snowballed into a particularly nasty set of disabilities. Horticulture is my last hobby I can manage outdoors.
Apparently, no one in the Seattle Office has any experience with ILP or else no one has ever awarded one of this magnitude. The vocational rehabilitation officer and/or his subordinates have finally decided to ask for guidance from you on the award. Where was this guidance before the denial and subsequent appeal? Doesn’t it seem rather obnoxious on its face to spend years denying a one-time shot at ILP and then have to ask for guidance when it is finally overturned on appeal based all along on faulty legal logic? Am I alone in thinking this?
As a concerned stakeholder in this enterprise and the intended recipient, it strikes me as rather odd that I am not involved in the decisional process. Perhaps you are unaware of the timeline on this. I applied for the ILP in May 2011 only to be told no such thing existed. After ascertaining it did indeed exist, I was categorically told there were no provisions for “avocational applications”. After numerous cites to 38 CFR §21.160, .162 and 38 CFR §3120, I finally filed my appeal. The requests were all denied in spite of rebuttal and probative evidence in support of the application based on case law and supportive medical evidence. The Form 9 Substantive Appeal was “lost” and, but for the USPS certified mail receipt, I would have been forced to start anew. The lost Form 9 was later miraculously “found” but only after I supplied the USPS article number and a copy of the receipt showing signed delivery.
After the Seattle VR&E’s failure to issue a timely Supplemental Statement of the Case (SSOC) in the spring of 2014 following my SOC rebuttal and filing of new and material evidence a third time, I finally filed an Extraordinary Writ of Mandamus (see CAVC #15-115) requesting the VA Secretary issue a Form 8 certifying the Appeal. The Seattle VA Veterans Service Center Manager (VSCM) finally complied in late February 2015. My appeal was advanced on the docket under Rule 900 38 CFR §20.900(c) by Veterans Law Judge Vito Clemente and I was able to obtain a Travel Board Hearing before him April 29th, 2015. For the record, the advancement on the docket was for medical reasons.
On September 4th, 2015 his decision granted me the greenhouse. Since then, I have been unable to begin a colloquy with my designated Vocational Rehabilitation Specialist nor one with the VR&E’s head officer, David Boyd. As a major stakeholder in this enterprise, I find it disconcerting that so little effort is being made to keep me in the loop on the long delayed progress. Every morsel of information gleaned so far is by querying my counselor via email. My phone calls to them go unanswered. Considering the Seattle VA’s VR&E caseload has steadily decreased to a mere 16 cases last year (FY 2014), I find it incongruous that communication with my rehabilitation counselor to find out the progress of a four and one half year old claim is analogous to pulling teeth out of a live alligator. With that paltry a caseload, any excuse as to his workload being overwhelming is unsupported by the VA’s very own statistics.
VA Secretary Bob McDonald has begun insisting that VA is now “Veteran-centric” and receptive to the needs of it’s constituents. Perhaps Mr. Boyd hasn’t received that email yet. Perhaps it’s as simple as what VA Secretary Eric Shinseki suffered from to his detriment- i.e. lack of reliable input. I note with concern that the VA Table of Organization shows each of VA’s VR&E offices in the 56 Regional Offices are completely autonomous and report to no one above them. A leaderless VR&E office with no oversight is precisely what led to my having to appeal as well as filing a Writ with the CAVC to obtain a timely, prompt, correct decision.
I have no idea of the complexity of ascertaining the parameters of a greenhouse grant but Seattle’s VR &E folks apparently consider it far more complex than a wheelchair ramp or a HISA grant. I fear I might pass away before the specifications are settled upon at the rate it is progressing. I submitted all the technical data for the greenhouse per Mr. Kris Holloway’s request several months ago. In addition, since VA did not have a copy of the BVA decision (http://www.index.va.gov/search/va/view.jsp?FV=http://www.va.gov/vetapp15/Files5/1538123.txt), I sent them one. If the VBMS cannot transmit a six-page decision across country in less than a month, I fear for the future of the electronic records initiative begun by USB Allison Hickey in 2009.
I also find it alarming that the Seattle VR&E had no inkling that the IL Program encompassed avocational grants. As you are probably well aware, VA Office of General Counsel Precedent 34-1997 (VAOPGC34-97) clearly and unequivocally covered that eventuality eighteen long years ago. My whole appeal has revolved around my counselor’s dogged insistence that ILP was a “vocational” vehicle even though there was never any hope for my rehabilitation being successful enough to consider beginning, let alone holding, a job. How many of my fellow Veterans have been similarly disenfranchised due to this defective interpretation of VA regulations? As the titular head of this VR&E operation, I feel some OJT may be in order for your employees.
Considering the precipitous annual declines in the awards, I suggest your subordinates investigate this and schedule a nationwide training session on the parameters of the ILP. Clearly, it is underutilized and almost unknown in the Veterans community. Wyoming, as an example, has had zero (0) IL rehabilitations since record keeping began in 2004. The Manila VR&E likewise shows none either. Several others such as the White River, Vermont office show similar inactivity. Under, or non-utilization of such a valuable program for America’s most severely disabled Veterans is a travesty and a waste of scarce Administration resources. Congress explicitly set aside extensive funding for this in 1982 and the program is gradually sinking into oblivion. Considering that there are an abundance of SWA and Vietnam Veterans maimed by IEDs, Bouncing Bettys and the like, finding 2,700 souls to award an ILP grant to annually should be a cakewalk. For some reason, the message is not being disseminated at the VR&E level where it would be the most logical place to inform Veterans of their potential entitlement to such a valuable program. I certainly don’t consider myself to be anomaly among the universe of severely disabled Veterans.
If you would be so kind, the favor of a reply would be appreciated to clear up this enigma. Obviously, the folks in Seattle are sailing around in circles and admittedly clueless on how to proceed. Perhaps your VACO troops could illuminate them sooner rather than later. My health is not improving with age and I had hoped VR&E was more streamlined than the Veterans Benefits Administration’s intractable backlog of appeals. If there is anything I can do to facilitate a quicker resolution to this, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Respectfully,
Gordon A. Graham ( ILP stakeholder)
USAF/ Air America
1969-1973 (RVN, Thailand, Laos 1970-1972)
Here’s an interesting decision that illustrates the aging of Hepatitis C. Just like a good single malt from Scotland is carefully aged, Hepatitis C bakes your liver at a slow rolling boil just below the level of perception and annoyance. Come to think of it, both of them do! Fatigue and vague digestive issues are your only overt indicator until the trapdoor opens and the bottom fall out of your life.
I’ve long taught and advised doctors and attorneys about this simple way of dating the disease. Gastroenterologists, and their hepatic digestive specialists called hepatologists, long ago devised a simple carbon dating system for liver boxes. Since there are several distinctly different methods of expressing it in numbers, I like to use the Metavir Scale for several reasons. The foremost is it is also used by the VA. There is no need to cross-rate it from the Child-Pughs Scale and it is far simpler to express in numbers. It is gaining much wider acceptance as the universal measurement much like meters over miles.
As an example of one of the reasons I won, my doctor cited to my rather advanced disease based on a core biopsy performed in January of 2007. Expressed in Metavirese, I was Stage 3 (F3) and Grade 3 (A3) and headed to Hell lickitysplit without some immediate medical intervention pronto.
Each stage of fibrosis is approximately ten years. It can stretch to 13-14 if you don’t drink or smoke (tobacco). The jury is still out on how hootch affects it. If you drink a lot of coffee, that will cleanse the liver. If you were/are a naturopathic imbiber of Milk thistle, you could also retard the inevitable. Eventually, nothing will hold back the tide and your liver will succumb to cirrhosis and a transplant will be in order. Or, you get hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) and they tell you to get lost and die.
After you get a liver biopsy, you can begin to mark time geologically based on the results. You can march back in time 10-12 years for each of those stages of fibrosis to get a chronological dead reckoning of the beginning of the problem. You may or may not recognize any significant medical event that began this either. That is immaterial. The biopsy cannot lie as to the age of the infection. Which brings us to Johnny Rebel here from the Columbia, South Carolina Puzzle Palace. Here’s Johnny’s tale of woe and an interesting observation by a VA examiner.
From the get go, the Johnster has an intriguing story of his Welcome To Germany greeting by his barracks mates. I disremember a lot but I sure don’t think I ever was greeted like him when I got to Udorn. I remember the Singha ETOH greeting with a Jack Daniels back. And considering I never left home without a Model 19 and my American Express card, throwing a blanket over me might have been a very short-lived blanket party.
The VA examiner ( the ARNP poobah) at Fort Columbia allowed as:
This is interesting on two fronts. Obviously, VA teaches how to do these claims from a nationwide perspective and the same medical/M 21 handbook of denial. So why is it that one VA examiner (here) can opine that a Vet was diagnosed in 2003 and include probative medical knowledge supported by proven core biopsy but… Within the last year or three, I have read numerous ” VA examiners” opine just as vociferously that a Vet was “first diagnosed” with it in 2003 and that is the “date of infection”. Nary a mention of Metavir or Child-Pugh grading is to found in their nexus to identify the approximate date of inception. Either they have a pre-denial mentality with a fill-in-the-blanks program to support it or they are far more knowledegable than they are letting on.
First, without tarring and feathering Johnboy, I will mention two words -Army and Germany. For most who went to Germany for the duration of the Vietnam Boundary Dispute, it was a rather cush job. Lots of Hashish, heroin and German ladies of the evening. Lots of drug use/abuse and lots of Hepatitis B-then known as viral hepatitis.
The viral version, as opposed to the food borne infectious (hepatitis A) variety, was a blood borne disease. If you got it in Germany, you were probably shooting up. Again, probably. If you worked in a medical setting, I would grant that a needle stick was an equal opportunity infection vector. But absent any combat blood exposure like we encountered in Southeast Asia or the jetguns in Basic and AIT, risk factors in Germany were few and far between. Chances of getting it (hepatitis B) from sex were infinitesimal. Even more identifiable would be the local European HCV genotype in 1972. It was almost exclusively 1b in that era. With modern air travel, the genotypes are far more homogenized on all continents now. Nevertheless, the common denominator would be a Stage 3 Metavir. Johnny’s is far newer. Stage 1 indicates about 1995 ish at the earliest.
The Johnmeister from Jermany has also made the mistake of putting on the House, M.D. garb and strung a stethoscope around his neck. He profoundly believes the hepatitis in 1972 is the same identical hepatitis filed for here. The lack of nexus is certainly his downfall but he could have logically made this argument and won but for the Metavir revelation.
Building a claim for VA compensation requires lots more than what Johnbo brought to the table. You need Jacks or better to open and a risk factor that doesn’t include fanciful tales of being assaulted with a hypodermic syringe by unknown assailants. I don’t know that he could have made better headway with a VSO or an attorney but he sure didn’t think it through based on medical theory.
And the envelope please? I just received my results of the one-year HCV viral load and ultrasound for HCC. The bad news is Cupcake is stuck with me for eternity unless Agent Orange rears its ugly head. Attached below are the results of the ultrasound and the PCR RNA viral load tests. Hooooooooooooooooo, doggies. I might have to buy another horse.
Again, I have Cupcake to thank. When it became painfully evident that Interferon was my Hemlock in 2007, my twentieth century fox told me to hunker down and preserve what I had left of my health. I was Stage 3 + and grade 3 on the Metavir scale and circling the drain. We went hard core and inspected everything that went into my body. In spite of it, I still augered in April 23, 2009. From 2010 through my slow recovery, Deb controlled the vertical and horizontal on the diet and the drugs. It was ugly. If it wasn’t grown on site, I pretty much didn’t eat it. No more Burger Kings and Dilaudid for lunch. The idea was to huddle in place until a new drug came out… like Sovaldi.
Today marks the 363rd day since I completed my 168-day treatment for Hepatitis C. December 7th, 2015 marks the one-year anniversary of the last pill. I had reservations about clearing the virus when many of my contemporaries who did Interferon relapsed 3-5 years later. I received the ultrasound results confirming no Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) last week. The polymerase chain reaction tests are, to me, the confirmation beyond the shadow of a doubt that the dragon is dead.
Cupcake fainted. I get that. 28 more years of me is going to be a hard pill to swallow. The good news is that Tourette’s syndrome can be controlled with proper medication-so she has that going for her.
I’ve received a few calls asking what I’m up to because many of you are not seeing the usual number of posts here. Relax. I’m writing my new book and completing what was unwritten after my last BVA hearing in April 2011. As many know, I lost and had to go to the CAVC on appeal. There, the VA eventually discovered they were wrong. I traveled to DC again this January for the Mother of all Extraordinary Writs of Mandamus and prevailed once again.
The new book will be sold as a batch of chapters on the generalities (8) and then focus on individual disabilities with all the tips and tricks I have assembled to win them. Obviously, not all of you need to know about hammertoes or hemorrhoids. Some are going to want to know about the ins and outs of Special Monthly Compensation and filing Extraordinary Writs.
The book will be online only in a .pdf format. It will be sold through Amazon. You can pick and choose among the subjects to find the ones that are pertinent to your circumstances. I will try to keep them as cheap as possible. All proceeds will go to retire the debt on my first printed book which it seems everyone bought in the electronic format for the most part. If it turns into a best seller, we’ll donate anything we make to Fisher House. As most may remember, Cupcake was allowed to stay at the Seattle House for almost two months when it was touch and go in May-June 2009. For that, I owe them an eternal debt. 96% of their donations are plowed right back into the charity because they don’t need the money for exorbitant salaries and funny hats. They don’t have “alumni” other than the wives of Veterans. They don’t send you fancy hats for contributing. In fact, they don’t drown you in requests for more money once you donate.
I did scrounge through all my old photographs to find some period stuff from the war. All print and no color is boring. It surprises me what I managed to keep from over there all these years.
Here’s a sample chapter to get a feel for what’s on the horizon.
This is one of the “basic” chapters rather than an in-depth chapter on a specific subject.
Area of Operations (AO)
Did you ever wake up at 2 AM in the morning and become angry with VA? Or more precisely, what they were doing to another fellow Veteran? Several weeks ago, Cupcake and I attended a fundraiser for The Kitsap County Chamber of Commerce. We live here on the Kitsap Peninsula and her business is located there so it was a natural fit. Before attending, my twentieth century fox also mentioned she had a gal our age with a VA problem who would be attending. She asked me to look into it. To me, this is what I live and breathe for. Sugar hates the VA more than I do after what they did to me at the Seattle VAMC for a year.
After getting the 2 AM briefing on the Veteran, I was a little taken aback that he would need my help. After all, he was in the capable hands of the local Disabled American Veterans VSO and their service officer should have been able to do this one in his sleep. Lenny was a World War II combat vet who ran around and collected the popsicles off the battlefield before they spoiled and went over. He did this towards the end of the war on Okinawa which explains why he’s still alive. Lenny is a spry 93 and still hitting on all eight cylinders mentally but he was very young and a FNG when he came ashore at Naha. He wasn’t acquainted with the rigors of rigor mortis. He wasn’t mentally prepared for the horrors of war at 17 and he has suffered for decades from all this. I guess you know VA’s take on it was skeptical- which is odd when you consider the homicide rate there with firearms. The city is veritable war zone from what I read. VA raters must eat, sleep and breathe combat daily.
He has approached VA numerous times and the best he could come away with was a 50% pension for PTSD because VA doesn’t believe it could be caused by combat-or more precisely- his combat experiences. Psychiatrists have now come to universally believe that mental anguish accrues through life and becomes more noticeable when all life’s jobs are finally accomplished and retirement is on the horizon. At that point, the mind is relieved of many of the chores that normally keep it occupied. The psyche is now free to roam around and what does it find? All those ugly, unresolved, suppressed memories of dead folks- friends and foes alike. That’s a fairly fertile ground for PTSD.
PTSD doesn’t have to encompass those you knew or served with. Pretzel brain is a phenomenon that accrues like interest in a savings account- bit by bit. Eventually, you see it piled up and notice it isn’t such a small thing. Now imagine amortizing that ever since 1945. That’s 70 years of interest on a bad dream you had to live day in and day out for a year. Make no mistake about it. Okinawa was Japan’s last stand and it was messy even by Life magazine’s standards. Many of Okinawa’s civilian populace threw themselves off cliffs fearing American retribution for four years of shoddy treatment of our prisoners.
Lenny’s daughter (Cupcake’s friend) was uncertain how to deal with this. She felt he was in good hands with a Veterans Service Organization but they could never seem to cement the deal. Nothing ever coalesced after all the visits to the shrink and the ink was on the record about his documented PTSD. She finally decided to go back to Chi-town and get to the bottom of it all.
When she asked me to review the paperwork she had, it was painfully evident what was amiss. Lenny had called up the VA and said he no longer drove. He said his wife was not in good health, and without a babysitter to look after his most precious possession, he was sadly unable to attend the scheduled C&P. Note that he did not refuse outright. He merely explained why this was going to be a challenge to accomplish under the existing circumstances. His take was to await a better time or a situation that covered his concerns for his wife’s well-being.
No one from the VA or the DAV stepped into the breach. No one scheduled a DAV service van to take him from Rockport to downtown for the C&P. Somehow, a 93-year old on his last legs with poor vision was expected to materialize at the QTC at the appointed hour or risk being denied. No excuses, Lenny. Be there or be square. A warm thank you to DAV’s mental midgets for their foresight and far-thinking.
Lenny didn’t make it. He was subsequently denied by “QD” at VARO 328- the Chicago “Veterans Service Center”. I suggested to the daughter that if she were going back to Illinois to help sort this out, she could employ one of my favorite ploys. Most who know me are aware that I am inordinately confrontational with VA. To date, it has served me well. Some see it as a deficit. I brandish it freely and smile while doing so. They won’t let us take guns or small tactical nuclear devices into Regional Offices anymore. Far too many of you are inherently timid and shun the idea of getting in someone’s face. VA is no more intimidating than a rude store clerk at Macy’s. The sooner you accept that and shape your attack offensively around it, the sooner you will receive that which is your due. Look no further than my carefully planned bushwhack set up over thirteen months prior to the filing of my Extraordinary Writ of Mandamus in January of this year. In forty five days, I accomplished more than in the prior twenty one years of fighting VA. In fact, by September 4th, I had won everything and am now writing the sequel to my first book on how to do it on the new electronic battlefield.
Who’s the fool tool.
Lenny’s daughter took my advice because she had no preconceived notions of how to deal with this rude behaviour. I pointed out the most obvious factors first. 493 Veterans of World War II are dying each day. They are becoming rarer than hen’s teeth. Were she to walk into the Chicago offices of Fort Fumble pushing Lenny in a wheel chair before her, she was going to be tackled by many helpful GS-12s in short order. They would be tripping all over themselves in an effort to stay off the six o’clock evening news. At 93, you get the Platinum service and don’t have to stand in line anymore. Age, rather than rank, now has its privilege. Being a living, breathing combat Vet of WWII is about as platinum as one can get these days at VA.
Tactical timing is also everything. I urged her to employ the “First-Thing-Monday-Morning” air strike. They haven’t even settled in yet. Watching coffee come out the nose in a fine spray is an excellent measure of how important Lenny suddenly is.
As with any good recon, you want fresh intelligence reports. It serves no useful purpose to arrive with a bitch and have no idea who’s to blame. Enter the asknod “Who’s the fool, fool?” tool. Over the years I have discovered all manner of shovels to excavate the culprit at my local puzzle palace. No one on the 800-How can we help you? number is going to cough up the bozo that denied you. One thing most of us discover to our dismay is VA is an “incognito” outfit. They leave the minimal footprint behind of their shenanigans. I get that. If you’re error prone to the degree they are (65%), you do not want a trail leading to your desk. Towards that end, I finally found the above device to unearth them. Anonymity is now a fig leaf they can nay hide behind.
I gladly shared this little tidbit with his daughter. In less than three minutes I translated “QD”, the author of Lenny’s denial (again) into a real flesh and blood human being.
Ladies and gentlemen Vets, meet Quandale D. Davis. Unless he had a chipmunk in his pocket, the “we” in “We made a decision” is a fig newton of his imagination.
A man’s name is his magic talisman in life. Everyone will come to know him and respect him if he’s unique and honorable. Quandale was an anomaly. I’ve never come across anyone with the moniker. Being a GS-11, he was pretty small potatoes around there and not really in charge. Lenny’s gripe rested far higher but Quandale was a viable starting point.
Lenny’s daughter marched in smartly and asked to speak to with him which caused ripples of consternation at the reception desk. How was it she knew Quandale? In short order, she and Lenny were seated in the Director’s office and engaged in a spirited conversation on why it was Lenny was getting the shaft. A retired Marine who works as a Service Officer there was immediately drafted and detailed to take personal care of this historical artifact and to make sure he and his daughter had all the necessary assets with which to accomplish a Compensation and Pension exam-including transportation and babysitting services if necessary-RFN.
I expect to hear that Lenny will be at 100% permanent and total in short order. Sadly, his wife may never get DIC but will be eligible for A&A and many other benefits in the near term that have been withheld by the Quandale’s of their VA life. If his death can be linked to PTSD, she will. If she outlives him, she will still be entitled to a war widow’s pension and continuing Aid and Attendance.
And that, folks, is how VA justice is extracted from these gomers. Never be shy with VA. Never be worried that somehow you may “piss them off”. Don’t get mad. Get even. The Department of Veterans Affairs was created to serve you-not obstruct you. Once you absorb that metric, a whole new consciousness will be born in you and the righteous indignation at being ignored and delayed in you mission will begin to rise in your breast. It’s an exhilarating experience, I guarantee you. VA lawyers experience this “high” frequently. I know I sure do. Perhaps that is what drives the best of them to do it. Helping others who are helpless or unknowledegable is a noble endeavour and richly rewarding.
One small step for Vetkind…
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Bethanie Spangenberg
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Wesley McCauley
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