With it now looking like the Iraq
War will be ending soon, it is
once again worth mentioning to
all that the VA Hospital system
is only available in certain
locations of the country, and
you absolutely do have to set
up your life in anticipation
of accessing those locations.

When sickness or disability
happens, one of the very first
things you will LOSE out of that
is your vehicle, whatever it is
that you are driving. Disability
pay is NOT adequate enough to
support monthly car payments,
car insurance, and car maintenance
all at the same time. Even leasing
is out of reach when your pay
takes a dramatic reduction on
disability.

In fact, you will be lucky to
support the minimum basics of
food, housing, and clothing
once you enter the VA or Social
Security disability systems.
Once you get a load of just how
hard those 3 needs are to fill,
it will become apparent to you
just what a HUGE mistake you
have made by setting up your
life in the middle of a wilderness
where there are no rescue programs
and no access to anything to
help you out in the middle of
an income or disability crisis.

Here in New York, some of the
County Veterans Service Agencies
do sponsor a weekly or monthly
shuttle van that drives groups
of Veterans from a suburban
county into the nearest VA
Hospital for appointments.
But you absolutely DO have
to research this in advance
for YOUR location and find out
what the accessibility issues
and barriers are. Things do
come up that you never expected
and you simply cannot "assume"
your way into this.

Although some advocacy efforts
have been made over the years to
have the VA Hospitals sponsor
bus-mobile clinics to travel out
into the remote areas of the
wilderness to access the rural
Veterans, this idea has not
panned out and is often resisted
by the VA.

What that means is that you will
not likely win on this anytime
soon, so you absolutely DO have
to set up your life and living
arrangements accordingly.

In some cases, it is not even
enough to live in a city that
does have a VA Hospital, as you
would only want a city that
has very good Metro bus or subway
service so that you can move
about your day cheaply and as
you need to so that you can
sustain self-sufficient living.

Access to shopping, supermarkets,
and entertainment all becomes
your mission of the day once
you eventually lose a vehicle
when you enter the disability
roles.

Veterans do absolutely have to
plan ahead. It is somewhat a
self-defeating crisis to first
set up your entire life with
jobs, marraige, and a house
mortgage some 1,500 miles up
on a mountain top where nobody
on the planet earth can reach
you, and then turn around and
bitch when you can't get good
access to a VA Hospital when
you become crippled, or take
on PTSD in the first 5 years
of returning from the military,
and now you are out of work. DUH !!
This responsibility is totally upon
you, and just remember that it's
your spouse and kids who take
on the burden once you put them
into this position of high risk
and jeopardy.

Living in Tim-Buck-Too has it's
beauty, yes, but is it practical
if your income goes to hell in
a handbasket? and that is the
question which you have to ask
yourself.

Taking on a $900/month home mortgage
with insurances and taxes and all
that may not be the best choice
if you are a Veteran and at high
risk of developing health problems
regardless of your age. A job
as a County forest ranger may
not be the best choice if you
are a Veteran at high risk of
developing health problems.
Get it ??

Upon leaving the military, you
absolutely do have to make
peace with the civilized world
and join in rather than avoiding,
because in the final scheme of
things, it will be YOU who
pays the ultimate price when
the paycheck all goes south and
you have nowhere to go for a
rescue plan.

Once disability does happen
upon your family, you will only
have somewhere between 30 to
60 days to get your home
and family relocated and settled
in before the demons of repossession
and debtors court litigation
surrounds your family like a sheriff's
posse taking in Jesse James. Moving
fast while immobilized with sickness
or injury is not the best thing
to take on in the middle of a
crisis, so you can start to see
here where all of the issues are.
You absolutely do have to plan
your life accordingly and make
smart moves and choices which
insulates both you and your
family from complete and utter
collapes when disability turmoil
enters into your flow of income.

Veteran statusing runs in your
life from cradle to grave, so how
you set up your life right now
does have to be with a vision
of what it will be like at
age 55 when VA related illness
starts to make itself known.

You cannot assume that car
ownership will always be available
to you. You always have to take
on a Plan B in the back of your
heads of what to do when the
whole income thing collapses.

There is next to nothing out here
for a safety net for the disabled
and the poor at the same time,
so you cannot run your life under
that wrong assumption. You
will not even likely see a
free pro bono attorney to help
you with your legal matters when
life starts to unravel. Too many
Veterans out here are waiting
right up until crisis hits, and
then spending every waking hour
screaming on the internet about
needing a rescue.

The problem lies with YOU first
not informing yourself about the
realities that we are up against
out here and second, by you not
appropriately planning ahead for
any crisis which threatens your
income and transportation access
to the VA locations that you need.

Also, Veterans do have to understand
that the VA benefits system IS
not a one-stop shopping mall for
your emergency assistance needs.
You absolutely do have to make
it a 4-way tour of chasing and
packaging programs on your ownn;
all of the VA benefits, Social Security
benefits, Dept. of Social Service
Benefits, and Section 8/Public
Housing benefits to make all of
that work in your favor and to
fill out your needs and quality
of life. Proud and stubborn will
land you a thin mattress at the
nearest Homeless Shelter, and
you can just ask those who are
there if it isn't so.

Failure to do the rounds and
completely package up all of the
assistance programs that you need
at the federal, state, and local
levels is YOUR failure and not
the VA's. It is up to YOU to walk
that around, file your papers,
do the rat chasing that you
need to get it all done and
to qualify.

Section 8 housing lines are running
years behind schedule so you cannot
wait until the 11th hour to apply
in the middle of a crisis and
then turn around and scream and
panic after they take your application,
then also tell you that you have a
5 year waiting list period ahead of
you.

Get it ??

Veterans do have to start facing
today's realities of being disabled
and DO have to start passing the
word along that waiting until
health crisis is right at your
door and a knocking, is NOT
smart, is NOT good for your family,
and is NOT likely to yield
a viable rescue plan for your
situation when you are located
miles and miles and miles from
the nearest VA Hospital or urban
population center where all of the
help programs are situated.

You absolutely will sink,
and you absolutely will go down
for the count. So the burden is
upon YOU to plan your lives
responsibly and with anticipation
that anything could happen
to change it all for the worst.