Sir, I have been a counselor for combat veterans for over 35 years. The Department of Veteran Affairs needs an overhaul. Depending where the facilities are located, some are much better than others. Then there are those who are more into rules and regulations than service and care. I just finished a letter for a medic from Vietnam. He had attempted suicide yet the VA evaluation back in 1989 had him at only 10% service connected for PTSD and a GAF score of 92-100. This is impossible for a man with flashbacks, anger issues, nightmares and fixation on the dead in the jungle. This is only ONE example. If a veteran dies before the end of the month the widow must return that monthâs disability check. If it is not listed as âservice connectedâ even if the condition of death is a common comorbid react to a condition, it is not seen as cause of death. There is no excuse for the process to be service connected to take over a year. I have had some that took 5-10 years. I wrote a letter one time asking the VA why my veteran was able to have letters of commendation from Chiefs of Staff for his work in Vietnam and that they, the Department of Veteran Affairs, could not place him there. I am so tired of my men saying how the payments are not worth the pain of going through their process of approval. My men have fought the enemy. They should not have to fight their own government in order to get the benefits they were promised and have earned. My own father, WWII 549 Nightfighters, Army Aircorps, Iwo Jima and Guam was told by the VA that there was no guarantee where the shrapnel came from which he carried in his forehead all his life since WWII. Please, sir, the veterans deserve better than they are getting from the Department of Veteran Affairs. Thank you, Sir
Respectfully: Dr. Robert D. Baize
My brother was in Vietnam. He was at 10% for 15 years, Doctors disabled him 40 years ago. He just got full disability this year.
Yes and that same current system by which the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does not recognize National Guard soldiers as ârealâ soldiers is an unfair and outdated policy that fails to honor the sacrifices of these men and women. National Guard members serve alongside active-duty military personnel, often in combat zones and under the same rigorous conditions, yet they are denied the same benefits and recognition when it comes to VA services. This disparity is unjust, as these service members face the same risks and challenges but are frequently overlooked when it comes to medical care, disability compensation, and other vital benefits. National Guard soldiers deserve to be treated equally, receiving the same rewards, support, and acknowledgment for their service, or at the very least, a tailored set of benefits that properly reflects their unique contributions.
I wholeheartedly agree with all of this. Obtaining service connections for our veterans is difficult to say the least.
The VA told my husband that his PTSD was âbetterâ so they decreased his service connection. They said this was based on the fact that he was able to hold down a job. PTSD does not get better. It waxes and wanes with time. Just because he was having a good day or going through a good period of time when they did his evaluation, his service connection went down 20%.
We also attempted to apply for a continued benefit when our 18-year-old son went off to college. We eventually received it, however, it took almost a year for that to go through. We almost gave up on it several times.
He has applied multiple times for service connection in regards to other presumptive conditions due to the burn pits. He has been denied every time he has applied even though he qualifies.
The entire VA service connection process needs an overhaul. Thank you for bringing this to the governmentâs attention. I hope someone reads it.
So how do we fix the VA doc? Im a combat veteran OEF 03-04 and itâs been disappointing the care over the past 20 yrs from the VA. No one cared about my LODâs from injuries sustained while overseas, except the visual physical scars on my body. So back to the questionâŚhow do we fix it? Do we cease VA hospitals and force Congress to pass medical benefits that will equal what retired congressmen and women receive? Better insurance and better compensation? Maybe if the care and healthcare was better there wouldnât be so many of us suffering? Combat vets deserve way better! Many of us are suffering financially and physically. Even the 100% pay rate is a joke. I canât fathom how I would make ends meet if I wasnât married! How are single veterans supposed to function?
I was meeting with a group of legislators and mentioned that if we are going to go by the DD214 then have accurate DD214s. I was amazed as to how many highly trained cooks were throughout Southeast Asia. The DD214s were cooked to hide what the government did not want to be known and other things were made up. It is beyond time that the government stopped lying to the people and doing things they are ashamed of making public knowledge. It is time they stopped playing games with peopleâs lives. Also the VA must be forced to go by their own rules and regulations CFR 38.4 demands that if it is âmore likely than notâ to have happened that the VA must come down on the side of the veteran. The VA gets too involved with rules and regulations and brains go out the window. It should not be hard to get records. The more âcolorfulâ a veteranâs duties were, the more difficult getting records normally. There are too many âexcusesâ for not having records. It is too easy for the records to be âincluded in the great fireâ that burned a bunch of files or redacted because of 'national security. Also, there are things such as when the veteran was used by the military as a guinea pig or sexual assault where the government and military covered things up. Jeffery Dahlmer was in the army and known to the army as a problem where most if not all of his roommates complained about him and people disappeared in the communities where he was stationed. So to start the change in the VA means to hold the VA AND THE GOVERNMENT accountable for what has been done to the veteran.
It is also extremely frustrating to have a veteran discharged honorable under medical conditions. This should immediately mean that there are physical conditions DUE TO THE MILITARY SERVICE by which the veteran is being discharged. This should mean that there are disability compensations at the time of discharge. But that veteran might going decades and never know what they could and should have been receiving benefits. The VA keeps is secret like if it was their own money they are not want with which to part.
PTSD is progressive. All the veteran hopes for is finding ways to better cover it up and to bury the effects. I am amazed as to, actually, how little so many in the VA know so little about PTSD.
There were many Coast Guard in the black water Navy in Vietnam.