Let this be a warning to many of you
who are sharing way, way, way too much
of your personal information on VA
claims with complete strangers. You
are taking your "advice" from people
who themselves have not even been
successful in getting their own
claims through the VA to a good conclusion.

Too many of you are wrongly assuming
that you need "help" with your claims
because of a filing error, when the
real truth is, the entire operating
system is broken, corrupt, or obsolete
and it is the VA who is screwing up.
This AP article really does bring
that point home.

Please take your claims to county or
state VSO's if you cannot get an
attorney and stop relying so much
on the internet and floating rumors
or blind requests on the net for information.



Mar 25, 7:41 AM EDT


Vet groups: WWII definition of combat keeps benefits from some vets with post-traumatic stress

By KIMBERLY HEFLING
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) -- A World War II-era law established that veterans who "engaged in combat with the enemy" receive special treatment when they seek disability compensation, making it less burdensome for them to prove the injury was from their time in the service.

But members of veterans groups testified Tuesday that the law is outdated, and some veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan are struggling to obtain disability benefits because they don't meet the definition.

There is particular concern, they said, that the rule interferes with disability benefits for veterans with post-traumatic stress disorder whose trauma may not be documented by the military. PTSD can affect people who experience a traumatic event. Symptoms can include flashbacks and anxiety.

At his news conference Tuesday night, President Barack Obama acknowledged that returning veterans haven't always been given the benefits and treatment they need for post-traumatic stress and serious brain injuries.

"Unfortunately, over the last several years, all too often the VA has been under-resourced when it comes to dealing with things like post-traumatic stress disorder or traumatic brain injury, dealing with some of the backlogs in admission to VA. hospitals," Obama said, in response to a question about spending in defense and veterans programs.

The mental disorder has affected service members in non-infantry roles such as truck drivers or cooks, who on today's battlefields are vulnerable to roadside bombs or mortar attacks. They often lack a combat infantry badge or other documentation to prove their battlefield experience.

The Veterans Affairs Department has said about half of all disability claims for PTSD are approved, and the majority of denials come because the veteran lacks evidence of injury related to his time in the service, according to a report last year from the Congressional Budget Office.

Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., chairman of the House Veterans Affairs subcommittee, which held Tuesday's hearing, said the law should be updated to define a combat veteran as any veteran who served in a combat theater of operations or in combat against a hostile force.

"There should be a better way for VA to assist veterans suffering from PTSD to adjudicate those claims without being burdensome, stressful and adversarial," Hall said.

It's estimated that if the law is changed, thousands more veterans would seek disability compensation for PTSD, potentially costing hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

Bradley Mayas, director of the Veterans Benefits Administration's Compensation and Pension Service, told the subcommittee that changes have been made to make it easier for veterans with PTSD to qualify for disability compensation.

Antoinette Zees, deputy chief officer for mental health services at the Veterans Health Administration, noted that the VA provides health care for five years for the recent veterans, so some veterans are getting treatment for PTSD even if they are not receiving disability benefits for it.


_________________________________________
End of Associated Press Release

This message has been edited. Last edited by: McClellanVet,

Thanks for your response. Unfortunately, it's been 20 years. I was attacked by an Army doctor during a GYN exam. I ran from the room after it happened and went back to work. I was hysterical and bleeding. My then husband asked me what happened and I told him. He was ready to go back down to the TMC to rip the man to pieces. I wouldn't let him do that. Instead, we reported the doctor through military enough channels and I was seen by another military doctor to assess any damage they may have been done to me. Going through my medical records I haven't been able to locate the follow-up care. I believe it was purposely removed from my record back then. And back then I was naive. I didn't think to make copies of my medical records.

No charges were ever brought against the doctor. Instead, he was removed from our TMC and transferred somewhere else. I seem to recall he was gone in about one weeks time. He was an Army officer and I was an E5. Why ruin his career over the accusations of an enlisted woman?

I buried it so deeply that I did not remember that it happened until recently. I was watching some stupid lifetime movie on June 13th when suddenly I was back in the TMC, my feet in the stirrups, reliving that horrible event. Since that day my life has been a living hell.

My ex-husband is a Vietnam Vet with PTSD that is off the chain. He's never sought treatment and he's in total denial. He was then and is now an active alcoholic. I called him immediately after my first flashback and he doesn't remember the incident. I've lost contact with the two other women who knew about the attack and though I've looked for them over the years, my search has turned up empty.

The only proof I have is in letters I wrote home to my best friend. She kept every letter that I wrote to her from the day I left for basic training until her death one year before I retired in 1993. When she was killed, her sister found my letters, neatly filed away in notebooks, all in chronological order. I've carted those letters around for the last 15 years and I've never read them. It's always been too painful. Now I have no choice.

I assure you this is very real. I am not faking this. I do not abuse the system. I am an 80% service connected disabled veteran. I collect Social Security disability and that decision was based solely on my service connected disabilities. I keep a www.onewearysoldier.blogspot.com blog of my VA Battle which you are welcome to read. My pain, both emotional and physical is very real. I abhor Veterans who try to cheat the system, making it worse for those of us who truly need it.

Until the next time ...

Wendi

REPLY:

MST is one of the most abused, faked, and
phoney disability conditions ever dealt
with by the VA system.

All military women are advised to not only
report rapes but to also go through the
steps of getting a rape kit issued at
the base hospital. Without a rape kit,
you will get ZERO convictions, and almost
always, ZERO prosecutions.

This is a new day in the rape arena and
many women are still operating under the
old information of their mothers which
no longer applies. Get the rape kits
done and then get your copy of it.

For old cases without a rape kit, if there
is no paper trail on record, then you may
be royally screwed and will have to find
other ways to get your medical conditions
rated under some other theory. OR, if you
can find and locate a "cooperating" doctor,
if they will issue an "opinion" in writing
for you that you are more than likely a
rape victim during your military service,
then that is the only alternate evidence
that will save you.

Todays troops need to receive better
information on this issue because they
are still breaching their own legal rights
by not getting the hospital rape kit done
after the rape. The excuses on this topic just
don't fly anymore so don't wait 20 years
before trying to say you were raped.

Best of luck to you.

Any advice on filing a claim for MST? How do you build a successful claim when it was just you & your attacker? I'm in counseling. I have the diagnosis, but MST is a difficult claim to get approved. The majority of women who file for it are disapproved because it's such a paternalistic system. How do I come up with evidence from 1983? I reported the attack but my attacker was transferred to another unit and no charges were ever filed. Of course they weren't. I was enlisted and he was an officer. No sense ruining an officers career over charges of an E5, right? Let's just move the offender and hide the whole thing like it never happened.

Wendi

After reading yur comments on VSO's I fully agree that they are just there to feed their own agenda. Case in point In 1979 when I was 17 I joined the Army National Guard and fully intended to go on Active Duty a year later when I turned 18. However, 1 month before while on training for the weekend I was taken from active duty to this countries deadliest, bloodiest prison riots to date the in-famous 1980 Santa Fe Prison riot. While there I witnessed first hand mutilation and burning to death of other humans by prisoners and was told not to interfere. My second day there I witnessed convicts torchering a prison guard. Also, while there and after we got the prison back in order I was assigned to body removal detail and clean up. Having served with Vietnam Vets who were very seasoned if you know what I mean they had never seen this much brutality from other humans. Therefore, shortly after returning home from those riots a friend of mine talked me into transferring to the Navy to be a Jet Engine Mechanic, so I did. However, shortly afterwards I started having hearing problems and was told I had a tumor in the back of my throat that was blocking my hearing and needed to be removed A.S.A.P. After the surgery I began to hemoriage and during the third packing of my nasal bed I was strapped down and forced to let them pack my nasal bed until they broke my nose. Shortly after this event I began having serious nightmares and flashback regarding both the riots and after surgery nightmare as this time it was my blood I was drowning in and had all over me and not that of some dismembered body of a convict. It was then I realized my career was over before it began and was discharged just a little over a year later. After returning home I was in and out of the mental hospitals for the next few years and in 1984 I filed my first claim with the VA for a psycological disorder. However, shortly, after returning home I saught care at the local VA hospital in Albuquerque but was denied care. I then spent the next 16 years in and out of the hospital and in treatment at my county hospital and was offically diagnosed with severe P.T.S.D. based on both events and in May of 1999 was awarded 100% service connection for P.T.S.D. for what I thought was based on both events, however, in 2002 I was notified by the VARO in Albuquerque that they made an eroneous award in 1999 based soley on my service at the 1980 prison riots and not on the two traumas. In 2002 my benefits for P.T.S.D. were severed. To add insult to injury I was told there was no evidence in my service medical records that the post surgery trauma even happened. In 1999 in the VA's earlier rating I was requested by the VA and my VSO to drop an appeal for a back injury that occurred during bootcamp in the Army in 1979 for which I had applied for in June of 1981 and had kept current with on all appeals. Furthermore, I was told by VARO and my VSO if I dropped that appeal they would grant my 100% and never review my case again. I believe I would have won that appeal and the retroactive back pay to go with it. It has now been over 7 years since losing my 100% and I am still trying to get it back the way I thought it was granted to begin with. My service at the prison riots if state duty P.T.S.D. should have been granted for after surgery nightmare, and aggrevation of a pre-existing conditon based on the after surgery trauma. Therefore, before you judge me I have been in treatment for my P.T.S.D. for almost 28 years and have attended in-pateint treatment for both traumas at one of the VA's best Stress Disoder Treatment programs in Topeka, Kansas at the Colmery-O'Niel VAMC. I was re-diagnosed with P.T.S.D. based on both traumas as I finally received copies of the after surgery report from 1980 while in the Navy in March 2005 after I requested the information myself. As I spent almost 25years hearing my VSO tell me they were told by the Navy there were no records of the event. Therefore, I too am starting my appeal over and am searching the title 38 C.F.R. codes for any and all pertainent information that might help speed things up. Thank You for letting me vent and if I can do any or help annother Veteran with their claim I will be glad to.
Thank You
Travel5762

REPLY:

Of course you are putting this out to
a bunch of brain injured combat types
who can barely keep a medical story
straight themselves.

So much for your "pearls of wisdom"
with all the fraud that is going on
in this arena.

I do not agree with your perspective. I urge veterans to the exact opposite as you advise them, aside from not sharing personal information of course.

I am 100% total and permanent. I am on SSDI. I filed an ILP request and the VA bought me a $4000 bed and bedframe. Granted, I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (service-connected) and a tempurpedic bed helps with my symptoms.

I advise all veterans to research any and all opinions of any and all veterans on the internet. Weight all angles and make up your own mind as to what to do. I did just that, and after less then a year I decided the VSO's were worthless judas goats that were not helping veterans but actually hurting us, AND stabbing us in the back to feather their own nests.

I came to this conclusion by reading the reports of other veterans.

Once I found out the VSO's were worthless I decided the old saying was true, if you want something done right, DO IT YOURSELF! So I went to a CIVILIAN SHRINK and got a full PTSD workup, MMPI and GAF score. I them submitted that evidence with my initial claim. Actually it was my SECOND PTSD claim because THE DAMN DAV/VA 'LOST' (read: shredded) MY FIRST ONE!

I began researching all aspects of Chapter 38 Code of Federal Regulations (veterans benefits) and VA procedures. A great tool I found was the Door Gunners Guide to PTSD. It explained, in detail, how to start and finish a PTSD claim.

Towards the end of my claim, I found an "agent" to help me run my claim. Looking back, I didnt need him and I paid him more then he was worth, but thats another story.

We can all agree the VA is broken beyond all hope, but what separates the victims from the victors is an aggressive spirit and never taking no for an answer. Nobody can walk all over you untill you LIE DOWN FIRST!

Stand up to the VA, stand up to the NSO's, stand up to the lip-service politicians. Any rights you dont fight for, you dont deserve. I will be starting my own webpage soon to address these issues. That said, I think you have a good start here, its a move in the right direction.

If anyone has any questions about ANY VA issues, feel free to message me.