ILP–CORNDOGS AND CREAMSICLE MELONS

Posted on August 25, 2015 by asknod
creamsicles

creamsicle melons (6″ diameter)

No crop circles this year to report but lots of phenomenal success growing the creamsicle melons. We had our first last night. Since I do not use anything but organic fertilizer specially produced by my horses on contract, they did not get nearly as large as their counterparts in the commercial arena.

 

Nevertheless, the fruit is an unparalleled taste sensation akin to a Good Humor creamsicle of yore. The melons even have a light orange hue, The taste is best described as honeydew in texture but that subtle cream flavor one associates with a dairy product.

Corn. What can I say about corn? For two years running, since the invention of Global Warming here in the NW, local corn is beginning to respond normally. This year’s ears are as long as my forearm from the elbow up to my wrist. How that is defies my corn acumen. By rights, they should be identical to last year’s. The only difference is the rain stopped falling in May this year instead of June.

corndogs

Silver Queen (first responders Friday 21 August)

For Mother’s day, I bought (and installed) Cupcake a new Induction cooktop. This baby is manufactured by Binford Tools out of Michigan (Mooooore power!) and brings water to a boil in about 4 minutes from room temperature. I had to run new 6/6/8 ga. copper wire because it sucks up amps. The all-glass surface is impervious to spills and a breeze for even an ignorant, lazy Vet to keep clean. It’s the cat’s pajamas but you can only use iron pots on it.

corndog production facility

 

As I near the decision day for the ILP greenhouse, I feel it is incumbent upon me to provide my VR&E minder with an update on ILP matters so he cannot claim I was remiss in my duties to apprise him of horticultural success.  So, Mr. Holloway, please note the bounty of my harvest re the potential greenhouse grant. I do hope we can do business on an amicable level without all that “It’s not vocational” negative ways business and the concomitant mental roadblock. Let’s practice being a Do bee and not a Don’t bee soon. Call me Bob says we are to now be Veterancentric. Everyone’s a stakeholder in getting this Department of Veterans Affairs’ house in order. There’s no “I” in Team, Kris. Pass that on to David for me if you would.

 

Posted in Food for the soul, HCV Health, Independent Living Program | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

FED. CIR.–CARTER v McDONALD–SURPRISE SURPRISE SURPRISE SGT. CARTER!

Posted on August 24, 2015 by asknod

downloadIt is said sarcasm is hard to detect in internet postings. So hard, in fact, that over 60% of it goes right over the head of the intended recipients. How sad. Sarcasm is my forte. It’s my raison d’etre in a boring, predictable world of VA law. Without it, we would have to suffer a mundane existence devoid of subtle attacks on those who rightfully deserve to be outed for their ignorance or lack of judicial acumen. I suppose I could lie and say I take no pleasure in it. Here, justice had to run its pedantic path to accomplish what all but the densest jurist could clearly see. 

Meet Harmon NMI Carter Junior. There’s an economy of name. I’ll forego sarcasm on this. A name is a man’s talisman to take him through life. Each should be unique. Mr. Carter’s father obviously was enamoured of his own moniker and passed it on. Mr. Carter (junior) served in the Army from 1965-67 and his SMRs show a prior, pre-existing back injury that was perhaps aggravated while in service. He filed in 1989 and got the standard “Surprise, surprise, surprise, Sgt. Carter!” As most old hands at this know, you usually got a lovely personalized letter on onion skin paper ambiguously telling you that VA was unable to accommodate your request. The one I got in 1989 didn’t even mention what I was asking for but merely stated I hadn’t won the VA lotto. They did promise to keep the lights on for me in case I came back with more evidence. And yes, I used the DAV too, if you have to know.

Equitable tolling at the VA is a non sequitur. While it is amply described in law, finding it is akin to locating the Holy Grail. I, too, have found it elusive. My recent Extraordinary Writ  (CAVC-15-0112) shamed them into finally granting it to my twenty one year old claims. Mr. Carter had to go much further to obtain his. Harmon refiled for his back injury in 2005 using the Disabled American Veterans VSO. That was his first mistake. Hell, he may have used them in 1989 so this could have been the second try. The record is unclear but the constant, unbroken path of denials isn’t. After he lost yet again at the Board of Veterans Appeals in 2009, it dawned on him that he wasn’t going to win using the same tired method. He was now zero for three at bat using DAV as his designated hitter. Here’s the BVA decision:

Carter BVA Hanging

When you sign a new Form 21-22a Power of Attorney (POA), you expect VA to do what most responsible courts or legal entities do. File it and change the record to reflect your new representation. It does no good to send DAV the correspondence if they have no association with you anymore. It also deprives the new law dog (or VSO) of learning what’s up. Here, it created a bow wave of immense proportions. So high, in fact, that Mr. Carter was basically undefended for the better part of his Court-ordered  Joint Motion for Remand (JMR) that could have saved his bacon at the BVA.

Heather Vanhoose, Esq.

Heather Vanhoose, Esq.

Heather Vanhoose, of the Jan Dils legal firm in West Virginia, was equally left in the dark about what was going on. She had already asked for his complete claims file when they first filed at the CAVC to fix what the DAV had wrecked previously. The c-file is like a Rand McNally map to lead you through the maze. It allows you to find out how venal the VA can actually be-on paper.

Vanhoose did a magnificent job of salvaging Mr. Carter’s BVA loss and extracting a JMR. That much is not in dispute. What ensued afterwards is the problem. Ms. Vanhoose, from the moment the ink was dry on the POA in March 2010 began the process of extracting the c-file from the VA. This really should not have been an issue as the BVA is routinely required to supply the attorney with it as soon  as the NOA is filed. Something went wrong but this does not excuse the dereliction of duty. An attorney, by taking the Vet’s POA, promises due diligence in the prosecution of your claim. This includes obtaining the c-file in a timely manner or finding out what the delay is in an equally timely manner. As the VA likes to point out, this is a two-way street. Taking nine months to produce a document is unconscionable and most courts would view it as obstruction to discovery. Dawdling for two months before opening it up to find the 90-day letter was also not the smartest thing to do in retrospect. It was now a fait accompli and a stale 180-day letter.

So, while Ms. Vanhoose sat and waited patiently for the c-file to arrive, Mr. Carter’s remanded case arrived back at the BVA. As is the case with these things, the BVA sent out what we call the 90-day letter telling Ms. Vanhoose  she needed to send in the probative evidence lickety spit so they could make a new, informed decision on his claim. Unbeknownst to Heather and Harmon, the VA sent it to the DAV. The 90-day letter sat in Harmon’s c-file until Heather decided to review it in February 2011. We won’t fault her for the fact that she didn’t dive right in to the file when she got it several months earlier. I get that. Here you are thinking you have all the time in the world to begin anew building your case at the BVA and they have already decided it. To add insult to injury, she didn’t even get a copy of the BVA decision until December 2011-almost a year after it was decided. That’s how nonadversarial and Veteran Friendly we’re talking about here.

Equitable justice would almost demand equitable tolling here. How is an attorney to develop and build a case sans the essential evidence needed when VA is playing keep away with it? By the same token, how is said attorney to defend against the injustice of not being apprised of each and every motion et cetera that is taking place when they are mailing all the documents to the DAV in East Bumfork, West Virginia?

To add insult to injury, Ms. Vanhoose, instead of pursuing the most egregious violation of keeping her under house arrest in the basement with the mushrooms and compost, decided to fight the actual denial of the second BVA necktie party over the case and controversy of Roberson v. Shinseki. Idiot’s delight. This is where someone with extensive legal acumen should have stepped in and focused on the big picture. Instead, she soldiered on up to the CAVC again with a limp legal argument. Kasold, Hagel and Moorman made short shrift of her there as they probably should have. But it doesn’t end there.

In any nuanced judicial proceeding, a good judge, or at least a majority of a panel, should do some investigative work. You would never see this degree of ineptitude had Judge Meg Bartley been aboard. If you remember, she was the one who correctly identified the same (or very similar) treatment to Mr. Buie in 2013.  While the nonadversarial, give the Vet a bone ideology ostensibly ends at the CAVC, Mr. Carter was given short shrift from start to finish. Any judge with a reputable JD from a name-brand university should have spotted the incongruity of not having the c-file with which to defend Mr. Carter. Further,  even the village idiot can see that sending a 90-day letter (not to mention the BVA decision) to the wrong party creates an inequity so immense that it can never be righted by saying the BVA cured the fault by giving Ms. Vanhoose a humongous ninety days to figure it out.  Here’s the CAVC “Bruce Almighty”  blue plate special:

CarterH_12-218 (5-20-14)CAVC

WHO YOU GONNA CALL?

th (1)At this stage, there weren’t many options. Harmon Carter was luckier than most. He managed to finagle Kenneth “the Woodbutcher” Carpenter into repping him up at the Dead Circus in one last attempt to show he was hornswoggled by the VA . To give you an idea of old Kenny’s abilities, listen to him on oral arguments when you get a chance. This guy could talk the the white off of rice. Had he been born at the dawn of time, he could have talked the devil out of his virginity. He could sell Pacific Ocean beachfront property in downtown Tuscon and people would be doing it for cash on nothing more than a handshake. In court, that mellifluous voice of his can charm the pants off a judge. Add to that his able grasp of all things legal and you have the perfect attorney storm.

The Kenster marched in and laid out the equitable tolling argument Heather Vanhoose should have been hammering at down below at the second CAVC appearance. This is the meat of the argument. Having the judicial clarity to see that is what separates the ribbon clerks from the poker players in this game of VA justice. I have noticed over the last eight years that VA is fond of arguing apples while you’re still counting up the oranges and wondering what’s wrong with their evidence. When they can roll an attorney and her whole law office into fighting the wrong injustice as they did here to Heather and Jan Dils, we have to wonder if the forest escaped their attention in favor of a few well-placed trees.

In 1994, the VA promised me a de novo decision based on new and material evidence I submitted with my NOD. That never happened. In 2009, they said I never filed a Form 9 and the claim died. They were careful to say I filed no evidence after the Statement of the Case was issued. True, it was filed before. The clock thus was not started and the 60-day suspense date never began. A year later, they said they had read the new and material evidence, and, had I gotten off my dead ass and filed the Form 9, would have issued a SSOC.  Because I didn’t, the claim was dead. Both arguments rested on the wrong legal premise. VA does that a lot. Here, Harmon was given the Shortline Railroad to a denial because VA failed to give Vanhoose the most basic consideration–time. In a moment of blind justice, the panel at the CAVC narrow mindedly seconded the BVA and ignored the failure to equitably toll the BVA decision. How they could rationalize the inequity of the mailing snafu will die with Hagel.  Hence the polite Fed. Circus panel’s allusion to the CAVC judges having the vapors.

Carter_14-7122 Fed. Circus

I guess the most  egregious thing was not to approach the hierarchy of the BVA and  immediately point out the gross inequity of mailing all the info to the DAV. That, in and of itself, should have provoked a Reconsideration which would have avoided the follow-on disaster. A good attorney would have pursued the MFR (Motion for Reconsideration) first instead of blindly running out to file a NOA and chasing down the Hoodoo Lane argument of  narrowly interpreting a JMR versus a far wider argument on just what it did and did not encompass.

The good news is Harmon will now get a new adjudication. As with most of these, I doubt we’ll be seeing much of him in the future. The BVA will probably grant his claim using the asknod squeaky wheel theory and he’ll live happily ever after. Last but not least, look to the end of the decision. They awarded old Kenny the legal costs for defending him. To the uninitiated, this is the ultimate bitchslap to VA. It says “You were rude, crude, unattractive-not to mention boorish- in your treatment of Mr. Carter. Please make sure you don’t do that again. Veterans are a protected, endangered species and, as such, must be accorded more leeway in the misguided pursuit of their claims. What you did to him was tantamount to hooliganism and we don’t tolerate that kind of behaviour hereabouts.”

Posted in CAVC Knowledge, Equitable tolling, Fed. Cir. & Supreme Ct., Lawyering Up, VA Attorneys | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

THE GOOD HUMOR MAN AT TAN SON NHUT AB

Posted on August 20, 2015 by asknod

thRecently, I wrote about an irate Vet who went off on me re PTSD. In that post, I implied something I wish to clarify. While I have only met, for the most part, combat Vets who have been severely affected by their experiences, I inadvertently excluded a large number of others who, by their service, were most definitely bent upstairs by their wartime occupations. Meet Bob.

Bob NLI (no last initial) is the brother of my good friends up the street who graciously accept all the squash, tomatoes and anything else I can’t pawn off on the food bank. Pat has a fantastic pear tree so we get along like peas and carrots. Bob has been trying to convince VA for years that he has bent brain syndrome, and if ever a fellow Vet qualifies, he would be the one. As usual, VA wants some proof he has a stressor.

100p-aAs mentioned above, Tan Son Nhut Airpatch was the final port of embarkation for all Army/AF/Marine souls departing Vietnam. Regardless of whether you came home in a box or arrived vertical, this was where you exited. You converted your  Military Payment Certificates (MPC) and piasters into greenbacks, 285179316_bd32f431b6_ztook a pee test to determine how much heroin you’d recently consumed and made sure your shot book was up to date. If you flunked the piss test, they kept you around until you could pass it. Uncle Sam couldn’t, in good conscience, send junkies back to the World. As an added explanation, we weren’t allowed to have greenbacks because they might fall into the hands of the North Vietnamese. I’ll leave that to the economists to figure out how it might have crashed our economy. If that were the case, where is the concern about Al Quaida obtaining them too? I misspelled that on purpose.

628x471Bob, our non-combatant, was the fellow who delivered the red, white and blue popsicles from the Medical Cold Storage unit to the flightline and supervised loading them onto the C-141s heading to Yakota Air Base Japan and on to Hickam AFB in Honolulu. There, they were triaged to determine who could have an open casket funeral and who most definitely was not a candidate for the project. Each temporary silver metallic casket contained a body bag refrigerated to retard spoilage. Each casket was draped with an American flag hence my reference to a Neapolitan popsicle. His AFSC was probably “Mortuary apprentice” or some such thing but the general nickname on the Flightline was the Good Humor man. It certainly did not describe the mental state but more the vehicular delivery method of the corpses to the C-141 and the macabre humor only we military gomers can come up with..

caskets_001wFor some reason, VA takes the position that this, by itself, should not be a stressor, or, in the alternative, should not be so depressing as to make your life a train wreck forever. I wonder if there was some set number of corpses one had to handle before the magic “impact” surfaced whereupon it did indeed become a qualifying stressor. Bob describes his personal best in 1968 as about 40 in one day after the Tet misunderstanding. It was so bad they couldn’t get them all into the Starlifter and he had to take some back to the hospital. He jokingly described it as “standing room only”.

It’s mindboggling to me to even consider such a job. I might have requested a transfer to the Army and 11 Bravo before I’d do that. Admittedly, I sat on body bags once to eat lunch because that was the only shade thereabouts. Nevertheless, in retrospect, it still has an impact on me today. I won’t try to explain it. They were Pathet Lao. Most wouldn’t understand. When you’re dead, nobody cares except your family and friends. By then, if you were a dead stranger, your death sure didn’t come up on my radar. Bob, on the other hand, dealt with this day in and day out. He begged for another job or a break in the routine. Being low man on the E scale at E-3, he performed the yeoman task day in and day out. 12 on-12 off. Eventually, it ate his brain. Or so he says. VA disagrees.

VA’s take on this is to tell him it’s all in his head. He agrees wholeheartedly with that assessment but wants to be rid of it or reduce the damage. Psychotropic drugs don’t work. Alcohol wasn’t much help either. Pot seems to squelch all but the road rage if he drives. For that reason, he rarely does. He lives alone, unmarried, and ekes out a horrible existence on about $900 a month on SSD. In a word, he’s damaged goods. VA really couldn’t care less other than to offer-yup-more drugs.

This is why I take keyboard in hand to rectify my mistatement. Yes, there are many of his persuasion who were put in this circumstance and I’m equally sure they were mentally affected by their line of work. Ferrying dead people to the Freedom Bird, even if they are antiseptically sealed in little shiny boxes adorned with the symbol of the greatest nation on earth does not ameliorate the angst and depression associated with the task. I don’t think there is anything the military could do to lessen the despair you would feel doing this day in and day out. Bob made it about 8 months before he crashed. I apologize in advance for the scatological humor but that is a shit ton of of popsicle depression.

Bob will be my next project as soon as the VA permits me to represent Veterans. Never have I met the poster child for entitlement that exceeded Bob’s in someone who never witnessed a shot fired in anger. Yet.

Vietnam witicism

And that’s all I’m gonna say about that. Hell, that’s about all I can say about it.

P.S. 12/21/2019.

Well, except to say Bob won 70% for Christmas. We’ll work on 100% here directly. I’m busy with too many Vets so I need to catch up.

capture-was-here-e1535647298505

 

Posted in All about Veterans, PTSD, Vietnam Disease Issues, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 12 Comments

ILP– SILVER QUEEN IN 100 DAYS

Posted on August 19, 2015 by asknod

2015 Silver Queen (2)Every year in late summer, Cupcake and I eagerly await the birth of a new corn crop. As some of you know, Leigh Birch, one of our latest VA Lotto winners sends me the magic seeds to plant. With our unusually hot summer beginning in May this year, the SQ had lots of good growing days. Add horse/goat fertilizer and plenty of H2O for best results. The only thing weird is that the ears are about 3 inches longer this year. 

I’m sure that my minders at the Seattle Fort Fumble will be overjoyed to see that I’m a) still alive, b) still growing veggies and lastly,  c) still patiently waiting for my greenhouse. VA claims are a lot like growing corn. It just takes longer than 90-100 days but is equally as rewarding.

2015 Silver Queen (1)

 

Posted in Food for the soul, Independent Living Program, VR&E | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

PLAGIARISM ON UDORN THAILAND VET.

Posted on August 17, 2015 by asknod

CapturePlease be advised that a website claiming it is Udorn Thailand Vet is regularly plagiarizing other Veterans’ website works and blog posts. While it is not my policy to “out” other Vet’s sites, anyone who abrogates another’s work as their own is in substantial violation of copyright laws. I am flattered any would copy my work but disturbed that they would put their name on it with no attribution. Be aware of that when submitting anything of your own to them.

Here’s the post they absconded with.

https://asknod.wordpress.com/2012/02/29/thailand-ao-exposure/

As most know,  numerous Veterans have reported problems with Togetherweserved jacking Vets up for free membership and converting it into a $20 annual tithe that requires a bloodhound to figure out how to disengage them from your credit card short of cancelling it. It would appear  this is run by the same outfit. Naw. Just kidding. This outfit doesn’t appear to be a Veteran-run outfit. Who knows. I sure don’t.

I did have to “join” to register my protest. They immediately categorized my new complaint as spam and 86’d it. Just so you know.

Capture

Posted in All about Veterans, Complaints Department, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

PTSD CLAIMS–WHOA UP THERE, PARDNER

Posted on August 14, 2015 by asknod

th (2)Cupcake would probably tell me not to post anything as contentious as this as it rivals politics and religion as the third rail in conversation these days. However, she pointed out one thing I concede grudgingly. When you sign up, as we did in the mid-sixties and the early seventies (or were drafted), we signed on fully well knowing there were going to be things that went boom in the middle of the night, people shooting at you on purpose and the general mayhem of war. 

11248879_10153436963205516_5422666805166152993_nI’m sure there were a few of you much like Lt. Dan. [My father , my grandfather, my great grandfather , my great great…. etc. all served.] We called them gung ho. That was one part of my problem. The other was the Hampton Roads Civil Court magnanimously agreeing to let me off since I agreed to sign up in the Air Force at the end of the summer to avoid prosecution for reckless driving, speeding (95 mph in a 35 mph zone), evading and escaping a duly sworn officer of the law, eight red light failures to heed, fifteen stop signs (failure to stop completely- or at all), traveling the wrong way on a one-way street, and open container(s). Almost forgot. The potential felony that would have queered the whole deal was for throwing eggs at the uuuuunmarked po-lice car. Officer Rohrbach was not amused. Neither was the judge. Funny how consigning me to being conscripted into the military was considered punishment. When you’re 18, you’re bulletproof. It’s also one hell of an inducement to enlist and be quick about it. My draft number was 39.

Going to war is not always combat but eventually the bad guys cheat and attack the non-combatants like clerks, cooks et cetera in the rear areas. When this happens, your MOS suddenly changes to Eleven Bravo. VA cannot comprehend this because the Army never handed out Combat Infantryman Badges after the dust settled. This complicates your stressor testimony if you are filing for PTSD. You are virtually at the mercy of the USCRUR to dig through the National Archives to unearth the DA Form 1595 Officer’s Daily Log that will substantiate your contentions.

Add to that and say that not all of us have the same rubberband upstairs in our noggins. Some break it or irrevocably stretch that elastic fan belt that holds the brain box together and makes it work so well. It’s like Tinnitus. If you have it, you sure as hell know. It’s pretty much the same for a bent brain. It works but some parts have a knocking sound or are just plain ornery and don’t always want to operate according to the user’s manual. You don’t know why. The problem is for others to fathom because it sure as hell doesn’t bug you upstairs. Right?

People, mostly doctors of the mind, want to chemically “fix” it with a witch’s brew of mind altering chemicals. VA doctors of this persuasion want to really test the bounds of how much and how far they can go with dosage and prescription. I don’t propose to analyze that. I merely report it. You, my readers, who are mostly Veterans, who have this affliction know what I speak of. For what it’s worth, I self-medicated the shit out of myself for years before I opened Pandora’s box and looked in. Many today go from the Iraqistan front to the VA shrink front. I remember Valium being a happy pill- not one that made me suicidal.

Recently, I began answering a lot more Vet’s questions about 38 CFR and what constitutes a bent brain. Some have gone so far as to ask what symptoms are prevalent that would point to it. I simply reply that only a doctor trained in the arts of pretzel brain can answer truthfully. I can’t. I might recite a list of obvious behaviours that are indicative but that makes me feel like an enabler. If a Veteran feels he broke his rubberband or got it entangled in the gearbox such that the engine’s seized up, it seems mighty queer to be asking me what the symptoms are. Everyone I know who has been diagnosed with it are combat Veterans. I’m not aware of any in my age group who filed for it while serving as the General’s aide de camp in Saigon in 1973.

The newer Veterans approaching me now are those who were in “stressful” jobs. If a woman, they were sexually abused if not raped outright. Truck drivers who never heard an IED explode in anger were constantly in fear for their lives and thus “impacted” too. Some, who served in the rear, were always terrified that the enemy could issue forth suddenly as a suicide bomber in their midst. The impact list is quite lengthy and growing. The actual stressor that provoked this seems to be the harbinger of danger rather than the physical assault or the little green footballs (enemy tracers) all hitting in your geographic locale. The boom, in these cases, is ten miles away but has ”impact.”.

One constant in all of this is a Veteran’s uncertainty. Rather than recite a litany of “These are my symptoms, what do you think?”, more often than not I am asked what the symptoms should be. As a disinterested observer, I’m at a strategic disadvantage. This is the point where listening to a claimant transcends from helping him legally into unintentionally coaching him medically. I am very uncomfortable with that. In a word, it smacks to me of enabling.

Very recently, a Veteran with a 100% PTSD rating and a handful of 20s and 10s asked about applying for A&A 1 but was more concerned about being declared incompetent. He was worried that VA might “take his guns away”. His queries were all aimed towards what he needed to know to win but still appear competent in VA’s eyes in case they began fitting him for a brand new fiduciary straight jacket. Again, my hair on my neck arose like a balloon with too much static electricity was near. What concerned me most was his unbridled anger with no attempt to constrain it. It began to come across as braggadocio. This immediately calls into question his diagnosis.  Visiting misfortune on another should be considered long and hard. As to road rage, I think that is over the top. To enter a Veterans forum and discuss weighty matters about the rhyme or rhythm of how VA does things is understandable. Most Vets are rather naive re this process. It’s another thing altogether to brag about your A) height/weight, B) your experience in martial arts and C) how you cold-cocked him  before his head hit and bounced off the pavement putting him into a coma for two days with a brain aneurysm.

The last straw is when these folks proceed to drag me into the argument and point to all my problems obeying traffic laws in 1969 and how I was, and still am, crazy too. Hey, I was kicked out for personality disorders, not PTSD. They wouldn’t go on to invent it (PTSD) for another nine years. By then, I think I was cured- if I ever was bent. I’m the messenger. I’m the gomer that listens and offers a path. I’m simply the one you consult like reading Tarot cards, casting the chicken bones or killing the goat to study the entrails. Don’t confuse me with the entrails themselves.

I am preparing to embark on a new journey as a non-attorney VA practitioner and that entails being an officer of the court. If I even suspect something is amiss- that a Veteran is falsely contriving a claim or engaging me in bad faith- I am obligated to walk away. I am not permitted to perpetuate a crime or be an accessory to and after the fact. Milking me for the proper combination of symptoms to obtain a higher rating was against the law before I ever considered this. I would prefer to think no one, most especially a Vet, would contemplate carefully orchestrating slipping on the floor in Safeway for monetary gain. Using artifice to assemble all the pieces of the pie to file for PTSD is equally repugnant but there it is.

A fellow HCVet and I once dreamed up several unique ways to deceive VA pecker checkers. How about this one. Go in every appointment with about 35 lbs of wheel weights packed tightly into your four blue jeans pockets. Then remove them and go in for a scheduled checkup a month later. Wow. It goes in the charts and is the predicate for a jump from 40% to 60% as a major weight loss under § 4.112. Use Maybelline© black eye shadow under your eyes and guard your upper right quadrant with your arm. Complain of a dull ache up under the rib cage. Yeppers. Good for a jump from 20% to 40%. The best I save for last. Buy some FD&C yellow #2 food coloring and dilute it 3 to one. Take an eye dropper and apply some to your eyes. Look out. Instant Sclera Ictera, dude! Fulminant Hep C. Just the ticket for that C&P coming up. All joking aside, a lab test afterwards showing normal bilirubin would raise a few eyebrows about why your eyes were so jaundiced.

unicornThat’s the gist of my bitch today. I’m on a mission from God. I help Vets. I trust you all. One apple does not a barrel of rottenness provoke. I don’t mind the personal attacks. I’m a big boy now. I draw lightning and am expecting it. I have the utmost respect for any man or woman who would serve America. However, I have nothing but contempt for anyone who would game the system and rob another Vet of his place in line- or worse- who would give us all a bad name.

Here’s the context just so no one thinks I’m insane myself:

—————————————————

Vet: I have memory issues, anexiety, depression. Severe anger outbursts, i was fired from my last two jobs for assaulting people. The last one had a brain aneurysm and was in a coma for a couple of days. That’s not the person I want to be, fortunately, I was able to remove myself from the public with the help of 100% disability. My wife deals with my road rage and memory issues. She reminds me to perform hygiene and take meds, appointments etc. I don’t sleep until 5am to avoid nightmares as long as possible ( I take prazosin). When I do sleep I wake up a lot.

The extra $700 would go a long way towards paying the bill, but I am afraid of being labeled incompetent.

When asked to elucidate as to why he was contemplating asking for A&A:

asknod:

<Severe anger outbursts, i was fired from my last two jobs for assaulting people. The last one had a brain aneurysm and was in a coma for a couple of days. That’s not the person I want to be, fortunately, I was able to remove myself from the public with the help of 100% disability. My wife deals with my road rage and memory issues.>

Seriously? You have guns in the house? Not to put too fine a point on it, but if you enjoy regular excursions from the home and experience road rage, it doesn’t sound as though you ” have removed yourself from the public”. Uncontrolled anger is a bomb waiting to go off. With that sure knowledge, owning firearms is a guaranteed recipe for disaster in your circumstances. I sure do not mean to preach but numerous news stories recently show the fallacy that some adjudicated with a severe MDD may still be fit to keep and bear arms. Each Vet is a case study in itself. There is no ‘one size fits all’.

Saying you have never used a firearm in anger is akin to saying you have a fire extinguisher in your kitchen but have never had a fire…yet. I used firearms in anger many times during the war. Each time it became easier and after the first or second time I quit vomiting afterwards. Pretty soon I was able to joke about it with my buddies. That’s not the person I wanted to be either and it led to my being kicked out of the military. I suggest you re-evaluate your circumstances and decide whether ownership of guns is in your best interest. If you insist because you live in a high-crime environment, perhaps moving to a less-threatening locale would be advisable.

I feel I would be remiss if I didn’t speak up. I’m actually surprised I am the first. Pounding on someone so hard that it leads to aneurysm or coma is only a very short step away from accidentally killing them. When that happens, I assure you your guns will be removed from the home—along with you. We’re here to help you. That ‘help’ cannot, nor should it, condone your anger issues or advice on how to retain ownership of your firearms. I do wish you the best on this in spite of what it may sound like, sir.

Vet: I have guns because it is my second amendment right

I suppose putting details of my information on here is like asking for someone to scrutinize my life, even though you did ask me.

How about I add more detail.

I was security. A guy was harassing people at the front door. I told him to leave, he told me to xxxx off. eventually he left, but he came back with a friend. I met him in the parking lot and asked him to leave, he raised his had and i elbowed his jaw. He went unconscious while he was standing and his head bounced off the parking lot. I was charged with aggravated assault, but It was dropped because I had 10 witnesses to support my story. I’m 6’3″ 300lbs and I’m healthy. In fact last week i dead-lifted 610lbs.

What I, and most vets consider a fight is way beyond what a guy at a bar would consider a fight. They think they will have a fun story, but that’s not the case.

asknod you say you have used firearms in anger many times and you and you were actually kicked out of the military, and yet you are interested in “old guns that go rat-a-tat-tat.”

That’s pretty xxxxxxx hypocritical. Maybe you should evaluate your own situation before you shit your opinion onto the internet.

asknod: […]One thing I do not have is anger issues or I would seriously review my decision to own guns. I tried to convey to you that I am not judgmental of you or your choices vis a vis the 2nd Amendment. Your anger has overcome your ability to hear what I say. For that, I am sorry. I truly hope you find peace within and a successful VA claims path.

————————————————————-

This is what I try to avoid. To request information or a ‘how to’ is one thing. To even attempt to phrase or poise yourself in the proper posture so as to avoid scrutiny is permissible for the most part. When anger issues seep through a thin veneer of civility, I worry for obvious reasons that others may be in harm’s way. When it descends into bravado and a sneering insinuation about the degree of harm inflicted, I know I’m dealing with someone who either forgot to take their meds or the obverse (they need to take more and stronger ones). Either way, it’s a lose-lose situation. And that’s all I’m gonna say about that.

Posted in All about Veterans, Food for thought, Gulf War Issues, PTSD, TBI | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 10 Comments

HAVE GUN, WILL TRAVEL–JETGUNS

Posted on August 12, 2015 by asknod

th (1)Nurse Sylvia gave me the gun but Mark got it operational. It took us several hours of painstaking disassembly and  reassembly. Finally we did what all men never do. We read the instructions. Shazammm! A working jetgun. The more we played with it, the more we discovered the thing could never be made sanitary under even the best circumstances. When used in the context of 600 or more souls an hour as advertised, it becomes even more ludicrous to think it  could ever have been sanitary with that philosophy. Someone in a position of power had to have ignored common sense to authorize the use of this device.

Problem #1

Dragging this baby in for a Travel Board hearing or even a video conference at the Regional Office would be the cat’s pajamas. They say a picture is worth a thousand words. So we took a few. The first is one I’d like all of you to take a gander at. The portal to insert the vial has to have an air equalizer system or a vacuum would soon develop inside it from repeated doses. This explains why you see most medical personnel insert a syringe needle into a vaccine vial and squirt air into it to “equalize” what they are preparing to take out. If they didn’t, a dangerous imbalance would eventually exist and the rubber diaphragm would begin to suck in outside air. Imagine this jetgun “air equalizer” sucking in uncontrolled air in an unsterile medical environment 600 times (or more) an hour. The possibility of any airborne virus being “inhaled ” by the portal is exponential. This, in turn would pollute the whole vial of vaccine.

Jetgun air equalizer

Notice the unprotected Luer-style tip behind the vial

 

 

Problem #2

integral foot pedal inside caseThe foot pedal to operate these puppies is mounted inside the storage/travel case in the lower right quadrant-permanently. If you step in dog poo on the way to work in the morning, it will adhere to your shoe.  If you pump the gun up with your shoe for every shot, you have now contaminated the case with excrement 600 (or more) times per hour. Imagine getting blood on the shoe as well. It is captive inside the case… along with the unprotected jetgun. Remember, there is no “cover” for the needle that inserts into the vaccine vial. When closed, the jetgun et al is mere inches away from the foot pedal. In addition, if carried by the handle, the foot pedal is now above the jetgun and the potential for poo/blood to fall/drip on the unprotected vial needle is incalculable. Considering a drop of blood with HCV in it can exist up to three (3) months at room temperature and you have a problem saying it’s “plausible”.

 

If the victim you are blasting with the jetgun flinches and jerks, the gun tip will fillet the skin and be contaminated with his/her blood. All the alcohol swabs  in the world will not restore the sterility to the tip. It has to be disassembled and autoclaved at 249° (F.) for 15 to 20 minutes . Somehow, I disremember them doing that at Lackland AFB when I went through the line three times in succeeding weeks.

disassembly for autoclave

When in doubt, read the disassembly instructions

jetgun (assembled)

jetgun (assembled)

autoclave parts

jetgun autoclave parts (nose and vial assembly)

diassembled for cleaning

nose removed from gun for cleaning

Mark and I had the devil’s own time figuring out what was wrong with the gun. Try 40 years of inaction. The reservoir for hydraulic fluid was empty in the foot pedal. The o-rings were drier than the NASA Challenger’s. and the nose orifice was plugged-probably with 40 year old blood.

Mark with jetgun

Mark with jetgun

jetgun ejection 1cc

Jetgun ejection set up for 1cc

closeup of vaccine stream

close up of vaccine stream

Well, there you have the particulars. I suspect it is much more than plausible that the jetgun was capable of cross-contamination by any of the above even if no one had flinched and bled. The pathways for transmitting HCV from one to the next via this device are so blatant and obvious, we have to wonder why it took the CDC until 1997 to blow an ass gasket and finally suggest it was an ill-conceived medical brain fart.

Thank your lucky stars Nurse Sylvia rescued these three we have because I suspect VA will be out buying up any more they can find on the open market and misplacing them in the Potomac late at night. This bodes well for HCV claims presentations. Merely being able to see and handle one will put paid to the 2004 FAST letter’s myth that it was a shaky, plausible, far-fetched concoction of ‘what-if’s like the perfect storm. Nothing about this device screams sterile. Quite the opposite.

Next week, we get the hot dogs and FD&C #2 red food coloring. This will be interesting.

Posted in From the footlocker, Jetgun Claims evidence, Medical News, VA Medical Mysteries Explained | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 67 Comments

BVA–LATEST BOARD HEARING TRANSCRIPT

Posted on August 10, 2015 by asknod

VeteransAdministration.12755109_stdSaturday morning I received my BVA travel Board hearing transcript. I mistakenly thought it was the Smooth Tan One, or what they affectionately call the Big Brown Envelope (BBE) over at Hadit.com and sat staring at it for several minutes. After all, it was the culmination of twenty six years of head-butting with the outfit that represents our best interests. Not on both counts.

Attached you will find a redacted copy. I took my SSN off but with Lifeblock®, it’s immaterial- or so they say. Judge Vito Clemente (Call me Vito) engaged us in a preliminary conversation that almost lasted longer than the actual hearing. I could no more address the guy I’m getting ready to plead my life’s story to by his Christian name than I could call our VA Secretary Bob. It stuck in my throat. I chose ‘Your honor’ and stuck with it. Rule # one in BVA hearings is don’t get all BFF fuzzy with the executioner. I did that with Judge Mark Hindin back in 2011 and got a resounding bitchslap heard ’round the world. That’s why I’m back in front of yet another VLJ. No thank you. VA may be touting their  Christian name, VA-centric motif now but I’m not buying.

Redacted BVA Hearing 4-29-15

The hearing went quite well in spite of the poor quality of the recording. I infer this judging from the large number of (inaudible) excuses for no words. We were less than 2 feet from the microphone. Perhaps they use 95 year-old former DROs to transcribe and the poor folks just aren’t hitting on all eight ear pistons. Knowing VA, it was not accidental.

At any rate, here’s the transcript. I assumed the mantle of Point man for Independent Living Program issues and submitted VA’s own propaganda to support my arguments. When in Rome, throw a Toga party. Right?

more-togaYep, that’s me and my new dinner partner Wilbur circa 1982. Never a dull moment at LZ Grambo. When Vito asked me about the Air America thing, I said “Sure, I’ll tell ya. But then I have to kill you, okay?” I promised to send him a tell-all about the Steve Canyon Program in 2020.

 

Posted in Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

AGENT ORANGE–THE NAKED TRUTH

Posted on August 10, 2015 by asknod

download3It’s not often you get to see archival footage of contemporary events from the Vietnam Boundary dispute. One notable event, the dispersion of Agent Orange, is often depicted as being a process akin to crop spraying with C-123s. This footage demonstrates an entirely different facet utilized by Brown water Navy sailors. It is only one of the many ways it was dispersed. 

hmong_soldiersPerhaps the saddest recollection of this was watching young Meo (Hmong) tribesman between the ages of seven to eleven using cut off Clorox Beach bottles scooping it out of 50 gallon barrels to spread it along the taxiways and the active runway at Long Tieng. Royal Laotian Air Force (RLAF) recruits were required to do this every two months up at Luang Prabang (L-54) and even more frequently during monsoons. At the time, I had no idea of the future consequences. Every time a chopper came in to land, it stirred up the red clay and we all inhaled it, too.

Once Hmong ‘children’ reached twelve they were officially conscripted into General Vang Pao’s army and were not required to do such mundane tasks. I have often wondered how many survived the war only to have the horrendous side effects as my generation of Veterans has. Keep in mind, they didn’t even dilute the Orange or Blue in the normal 1:1 mixture with a petroleum product such as kerosene but rather used it at full strength. Afterwards, they would retire to the stream below the village and wash off. Some, but not all of the villagers, used our well for drinking water. As hepatitis A and B were rampant, it was fairly obvious that normal sanitary precautions were not observed.

A warm thank you to member Sam for finding this and sharing it with us.

 

Posted in AO, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda, Vietnam Disease Issues, Vietnam War history | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 3 Comments

AGENT ORANGE SURVEY–PROPUBLICA

Posted on August 8, 2015 by asknod

CaptureHere’s an important tool in uncovering VA’s delay and deny subterfuge on Agent Orange. As most of you know, VA is fond of telling us we weren’t there in Vietnam. Failing that, we were transitory and really had no true exposure. The poor Blue Water Navy Vets are saddled with the proposition that aerially sprayed AO falls magically to the ground before exiting the landmass. Considering no one had “cut” orders to take a 3-day Rest and Relaxation (R&R) break at Vung Tau, many of you were actually there with no way of proving it now.

I would also add an important facet to this. Virtually everyone, including those who went to Thailand, most often stopped at Tan Son Nhut Airbase in Saigon where the World Airways 707s had to refuel. The flights from Travis also landed in Hickam AFB in Hawaii, then again at Anderson AFB in Guam to avoid flaming out for lack of fuel. Similarly, they were on bingo when they landed at TSN in Saigon. Everyone had to deplane there while they refueled to avoid the danger of a fire. Thus the majority, with few exceptions, were technically boots on the ground for about an hour. Oddly, this is the very qualifier for having “touched the Indochinese land mass of the Republic of Vietnam” as explained in the Haas v. Nicholson decision denying the presumption of exposure to herbicides to Navy/Marine personnel who served in the South China Sea.

I was asked to submit my recollections for this survey to increase the knowledge as so few of us remain from the estimated 2.9 million believed to have served or visited in country. I strongly urge any of you who did so also to promptly get this filled out before the VA and the US Government air brush us out of the history books. I trust the folks at Propublica to be more responsible. Here’s a podcast article about this you may find informative.

http://www.propublica.org/podcast/item/why-were-investigating-the-impact-of-agent-orange/

I know a lot of you signed nondisclosure agreements as I did about Project 404 and RUSTIC  but I do not believe any information you divulge re herbicides will compromise your agreements. By now, GenYers are the only ones who can’t find Laos or Cambodia on a map. I expect I should include the new generation of GenThumbers who communicate entirely with their opposing fingers and never raise their eyes to see the world.

Eventually, after we’re all room temperature, some of our offspring will opine as to how (s)he came to have DM2, IHD or Parkinson’s and will consult their forebear’s medical/VA records to discover why.

I certainly don’t want to sound the George Santayana drumbeat about forgetting the past but I do not trust the VA to be objective historically given their abysmal record on Hepatitis C and it’s etiology.

One codicil. There were only 2.9 million of us technically in the RVN. There were a few more in Laos. I also know that over 10 million of you folks endorsed the box on the 2010 census saying you were boots on the ground. For the sake of a cogent, valid survey, if you were not physically there, in country between January 9th, 1961 and May 7th, 1975, please refrain from filling out this questionnaire. We want it as accurate as we can make it in order to assure its validity. I know that a lot of wannabe VFW folks really wished they’d gone in retrospect but wishing doesn’t qualify.

images2

I won’t damage your ears with another “Welcome Home!” Suffice it to say I wish to thank any and all of you for being so selfless with your time if you served America in this contentious “conflict” as the VFW was fond of referring to it when they denied my membership in 1972. Our numbers dwindle daily and now stand at about 855,000. As I am fond of pointing out, we were winning when I left.

Alex Graham

USAF/AirAm 1969-1973

RVN, Thailand, Laos 1970-72

Posted in AO, Food for thought, Medical News, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda, Thailand AO presumptive path, Vietnam Disease Issues | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment