Increasing Veterans Administration Service Connected Disabilty Rating

[JarHed]

Hey Bill

With more than 40 years of bitchin' under your belt it's 'no contest' about doin' some more of it. :ROFLMAO:

Your post made me laugh, thanks, I needed a laugh today. I could actually use one everyday. I think a visit to the mall would do it. Have you seen what's walkin' around out there. Now that can make you laugh. Or feel like you just landed from another planet. Planet 'Old Fart' in the gas nebula. :rolleyes:

Jar

 

[Combat Vet]

Increasing Veterans Administration Service Connected Disabilty Rating

Brothers and Sisters,
I have been taken out of work by my doctor since the end of September. I am trying to get my disability rating upgraded to 100% with unemployability since I can no longer work and support my family.


Hi Jeff and others,
Keep going for it. I work for the VA and you would not believe the amount of phony claims I see and they get approved. Many at 100% for non combat PTSD. Then you have our brothers and sisters who walked the walk and talk the talk and they can't get it or they keep getting stonewalled.

Kevin
101st Airborne Div
Vietnam 1971

 

[Bill Simmons]

There are something like 35,000 people who work for the VA. That is everyone...doctors..admins...only a handful work on claims. There are now over two million unresolved claims in the system. There is also a hiring freeze going on at the moment. The new budget was approved and money is there but they are not spending it.

f*cked up is a kind way of putting it.

 

[Jr.]

My sentiments exactly about the VA. If they really care to know how messed up the VA really is then listen to the Vets and not some bureaucrat explaining that they are overloaded and are doing the best they can and need more funding. I remember all the times we all made more happen on our watch with less. They are too damn busy playing with their googles and yahoos behind their desk than to worry about some Vet that just want what he/she earned.

 

[Gyro]

I was told by the VA back in 1993 that I definitley HAD PTSD but it was not compensible because I was "functional". Not sure how functional it was to wake up screaming, running, low-crawling etc etc. When the kids were little we told them it mommy was fighting the boogieman.

I suppose they have a point. I was able to get an education (in part because I used the hours after the boogieman and before waking the kids for school to study ), got a job (which until fairly recently was I was working mostly alone in the high desert), and I raised four kids ... most of that as a single mother (the ex didnt handle my deployment very well). I havent done so well now that they want me to work in the office with all the back-stabbing office politics that flourish in an office environment.

Well, it's been 22 years. I still wake up screaming, running, low-crawling, etc ... three or so nights a week. The VAs mental health office says I live with PTSD, and they are treating me for it. Compensation and Benefits says " There is not sufficient evidence to support a PTSD claim" I suppose if I had given up, NOT raised my kids, NOT gotten my degree, NOT soldiered on ... I would be in better standing for a claim.

I am sure part of the problem is the mistake notion by so many of the older guys that women are not combat soldiers. If I were a male having the same set of symptems, Compensation and Benifits would have long since quit arguing and paid up. Sad truth is, bullets are lousy estrogen detectors. In a war without front lines ... we are all combat soldiers.

 

[Tim Cake]

Gyro -- get some help from a Congressionally-mandated veteran's organization such as the DAV, VFW or American Legion. They are there to help you get the benefits you have earned by way of your combat duty. Go get 'em girl! Don't give up...

 

[JarHed]

Hey Gyro

I'm sorry to hear of your battle with the VA. Don't give up. Get an advocate, like the DAV, VFW, ect. They can be a tremendous help in navigating the dark and murky waters of the VA's C&B. And I like you am still fighting for the rating. And I'm one of the older ones so unfortunately that doesn't really matter either. Even if it may seem so. Never give up and never quit.

I also admire that you've been able to do all that you have alone. It's something to be proud of.

JarHed

P.S. I was just writing this and as I finished I saw your post Tim. Great minds think alike.

 

[Tim Cake]

Hey Gyro

I'm sorry to hear of your battle with the VA. Don't give up. Get an advocate, like the DAV, VFW, ect. They can be a tremendous help in navigating the dark and murky waters of the VA's C&B. And I like you am still fighting for the rating. And I'm one of the older ones so unfortunately that doesn't really matter either. Even if it may seem so. Never give up and never quit.

I also admire that you've been able to do all that you have alone. It's something to be proud of.

JarHed

P.S. I was just writing this and as I finished I saw your post Tim. Great minds think alike.

I spend a lot of time getting my former soldiers to keep up the fight and get their benefits. I'm not going to let the government screw my people out of their rightful due..:mad:

 

[reddevil1111]

As a VA hater even I am now giving it a go. If I can...lol
Being female and in combat is not new its just new to those that never served.

 

[tnkg1rl]

Gyro,

Hang in there and don't give up the fight. Request another C&P. You got shortchanged. If you get a man in your C&P (no offense guys) tell them you would be more comfortable talking to a women. Also, the Congressman for the district we were living in was incredible. My case like many other was pretty cut and dry, it juts takes the right set of eyes to look at it. PM me if you like, I worked for that congressmans office after my husbands went through, there are a lot of avenues of approach and giving up isn't one of them, that's what they want you to do. Hang in there, there aren't enough of us using their voices.

 

[JarHed]

It seems to me that the difficulty that we all experience with 'those' people is designed to get us mad and frustrated to the point of quitting. They're like a giant insurance company whose job it is is to not pay on claims. Stay the course and don't give it up no matter how difficult it becomes. These are the things we were promised, PROMISED. If they hadn't of done that we wouldn't be so adament about getting our due.

I could rant on for a long time here but won't. Besides the fight, find something positive to focus on in your life that you like doing rather than being mad at 'them' all the time. That just makes you feel sick inside and it also makes it all worse.

I have a heavy bag in the cellar. It's beginning to look particularly beat up of late. Helps me work off the frustration sometimes. As always, best of luck and stay with it.

 

[Sarg]

Damn, I need a rubber stamp. Gyro, go to www.hadit.com, the ladies there know more about VA law than the VA does. They'll tell you exactly what to do, when, where and how.

You know, guys, after doing this "thing" for forty years now, I'm beginning to think that the VA is just a smoke screen. That Congress whispers in the VA's ear how many Vets are "allowed" their earned benefits and the VA does the "gosh, gee and shucks" routine to get folks off the scent.

I've worked for all three segments of government, local, state and federal and none of them, ever came this close to this extreme of ineptitude. MY little Machiavellian mind sees all these top secret meetings to discuss how to look totally inept this week.

I'm kidding, of course and it's not a laughing matter but something has to happen to this system soon. Too many kids are hurting, the system is grinding to a halt and and Congress ground to a halt years ago.

All we can do is keep being loud about it, so maybe someone will hear us. Good luck, Gyro and everybody else on the "hamster wheel".

Sarg