Post No. 19 - Reflecting On What Was As We Conside What Is...Todayr

Reporting for Roll Call: 15:35Hrs - 7-1-13

Hi LT:

Re: Coming home. Much like you, a lot of us who came back from Korea, found ourselves in a completely indifferent world. You landed at Travis on a moonless night, with no one else there waiting for you. I landed at McCord AFB, near Seattle,in an icy grey dawn, after a rather weird transpacific flight routed through Chemnya, Anchorage, and finally Seattle. Of course, I wasn't getting out, just being re-assigned to a new posting. Generous as always, aster almost three years overseas, the Army gave me 10 days leave to find my way back to the East Coast and return ,to report for a cycle of DI duty at Ft.Ord.  CA. Standing there in that dawn's early light, in threadbare fatigues, with a bulging duffel, an M1 slung on my shoulder, a 45 on my hip, and helmet, the only thing I could think of was...where can I get a goddam hot cup of coffee, followed by...where the hell am I...and where do I go from here.?

The only other human around, was another poor bastard in the same pathetic gear, who could have passed for my twin brother. We'd been seat neighbors on the flight. The only two on board who weren't on stretchers. How we were ever booked on that MedEvac flight from Tokyo, is a mystery to this day. So there we stood like two tall lonesome pines, in total blank state of mind, until a AF MP jeep came roaring up, with the lone driver of it saying...what the F...are you guys doing out here on the tarmack? You're supposed to report to the Ops Center. Get your asses in this buggy...like now! (Welcome home...dumbasses!). That was our homecoming parade. I  only mention all this LT because we weren't unique. Same with you kids home from Nam. You could multiply such little scenarios by the hundreds of thousands, every day. That's the way it was...not because of any real indifference by the folks here at home, but because both those wars, really didn't have much of a direct impact on the rest of the country...busy with catching and making out with the "good life". We bands of brothers were simply casual "litter" cluttering up the streets.Neither those two conf licts, nor those of Iraq and Afghanistan, really meant anything to the country as a whole (Not lke WWII). As for the Services, they were busy with various fire fights, those of us no longer involved...didn't compute. While our "experience" had some parallels, as I said, you were getting out...I lingered on for another seven years.

For me, by then, the VA wasn't anything more than some kind of vague outfit which could be a source of "benefits" of some kind or another. Meanwhile, I was busy, trying to figure out what an ex-armored unit commander could do as a civilian. Not much demand in civilian world for one of those...Al Capone was dead, and Brinks wasn't hiring. Briefly toyed with joining the MD State Police, or maybe manhandling bulldozers (they're tracked critters, right?). But now with a growing family to support, neither option seemed to fit. But good old Uncle said...hey...hang on there...work for me...pays better...perks better....and...your military experience is just what we need, and, as a bonus, the time you work for me can be combined with it, towards your 20 for retirement purposes. Meanwhile, we're trying to train a bunch of folks over there in a Kingdom called .... Laos .....attaboy....sign right there......and the rest of that tune lasted for another 8 1/2  years.

But this pattern fits a whole bunch of guys(and gals). As I previously mentioned...the Armed Forces are the Armed Forces....and the VA is the VA. For most of us they're just two different worlds with only a very, very vague connection. As for "benefits" much depends on how these are defined...and by whom. Education, VA Home Loan guarantees, medical, etc. But, each category appears to have specific time limits, and, apparently, maybe some financial means tests as well. What this means is...every individual veteran, besides doing all those things we've mentioned so far, also needs to check and see just exactly what other kinds of "benefits" ae available.

Well, enough of all this generic stuff. Reflecting on what was, has some valure, but, we need to consider what...is...today.

Re: Disability Claims process. So our Cherry Troop, having followed all the steps, all the rules mentioned so far, now comes to a point where he needs to file a disability benefit claim. How does it start? But, before we go further, I think it's important we make a distinction here between, normal medical care and treatment services, which his VA Card allows him to get from it, and, any claim for "disability". They are two separate things. Care and services are what you get, regardles. What priority of service you get, and what you may have to co-pay for some of that, depends on your VA Card Category. As far as "disability". that's the big fork in the road, so to speak.

Okay, how and where does it begin, LT? Have to think, our Cherry Troop's primary care doctor, must be the first link in that chain. What's involved? since we're dealing with bureaucracy here, and going through a bureaucratic exercise ...forms....blessed forms...are your entry tickets to the process. What are they? Who gets them? Break it down for us, please.

CENTURION

Post No. 17 - VA Not The Enemy

Reporting for Roll Call -=15:05Hrs - 6-26-13

Hi LT:

Will attempt to catch up today. Missed Mon. due to one of those nuisance cold bugs which had settled in my upper bronchial area. So...not AWOL....just short time out for SICK CALL.

Re: Your Rule #5 - The VA is not the enemy(even if it just often feels that way!) On the whole I'll go along with that, but, it still has a long way to go before we can say it is  "outcome" oriented...instead of fixated on "crocheting" procedudres.That's not to say it isn't filled with dedicated and well-meaning people, many fellow veterans, but they're constrained in their desire to help and do the right thing, by a "legalistic" set of rules and regulations... which can be squarely laid back at...Congress' door...not the VA's. Of course there's the other, and inherent, factor related to the nature of any bureaucracy which, over time...tends to fossilize its SOPs.

But that's the way things are, so, whatever we do on this -front end- to help others learn how to maneuver successully through the complexities imposed by the "system", is good. Our analogy of it being like a mine field, and we're just trying to perceive and avoid the mines as we go through it...is as apt as it gets. Yet we should not also overlook any opportunities or means to pressure Congress about such things. I'll be blunt here...it is always ready and willing to send our troops into harms way, but, when it comes time to pay the butcher's bill for such military forays...it's very reluctant to honor those obligations. And it's that reluctance by Congress which drives how the VA deals with claims,etc. In my view, every parent, spouse, or any other relative or citizen, who has, or knows, someone serving our country should be pounding and their Representatives and Senators doors demanding their support to make things right...so we don't have the kinds of backlogs and delays like we have today. I would also think that every veterans organization should be out there screaming bloody hell too. Hmm...how many do you think really are doing that? Good question. Like we've said before...everyone supports our troops...till they have the gall to come marching home(even if they're gimping along)...instead of in a flag-draped box. It's nice to know we've all served such a grateful nation.

Such a viewpoint probably makes me into a full-blown "heretic". So be it! Let them prove me wrong by what they do..not what they say (like I've said, I'm from Missouri...so I'll believe them only when they have...shown us).

Re: A soldier's last words. Truly sad, sad, sad. The worse part about it is... he's not a lone case. He was obiviously very conflicted about some of the things he was forced to participate in. All that on top of his physical wounds...is as horrendous as it gets. The most gut-wrenching part of his letter is the way he feels  that his physical and emotional miseries are his fault, and how, his suicide, will leave both his family and the world...better off. Even more appalling is the apparent calm and rational tone of how he analyzed his situation to come to his conclusion. It was not just because of desparation...it sounds like he had convinced himself that self-sacrifice was the only honorable thing left for him to do under such circumstances. It speaks volumes about the real character of most of our service members. Truly, the pride of our country. They deserve mcuh better than this.

Re: Okay...back to our Cherry Troop...what we've shown him so far is...don't expect someone else to take the initiative and give you the information you need. You have to get it yourself. To summarize, right at discharge, go get that VA card, ask for a primary care physician, make and keep that first appointment with him/her. Here's the key at this point:

a)Ask for a referral for a complete Mental Health evaluation,

b)Concurrently, request a complete head to toe physical, so there is an immediate record of your combined physcal and emotional existing condition.

c)If you were on the ground where there was any use of Agent Orange, Depleted Uranium, or other toxins, request the right set of blood tests for any of these. If you were exposed, those tests will show it. Keep in mind, it's not about how, or when...but that you were...exposed...and those test will either support that or not. This is important because, their effects are not always early...but develope later on....sometimes much later..those test results will be difficult to ignore or discount...when the need arises.

Okay, LT...am I more or less on target with that summary? Hope so, because I'm really interested now in getting into what supporting documentation  is necessary, and how that's gotten together.

Have to break off for today...some of that medicine is making me go see a dog about a fire hydrant.

CENTURION   

Post No. 17 - A Soldiers Last Words

Reporting for ROLL CALL  1:51PM  6/24/13

As a songwriter, I have come up with new 'names' for PTSD, nightmares and suicide.  I call PTSD "The Black Snake".  It is a war wound that coils within the soul of the wounded inflicting life long pain.  I call nightmares "Dancing with the Devil's Daughter.  Those wounded with the Black Snake coiled within their souls suffer from having to Dance with the Devil's Daughter every night.  And, I call suicide "The Pit of Nadir".  Often times, the wounded warrior falls into the Pit of Nadir.....

I want to bring to your attention our "LINKS OF INTEREST" on this ROLL CALL page.  I just added a new one called "A Soldier's Last Words".  

We are receiving a whole lot of 'hits' now on this unique page.  ROLL CALL is spreading across our land, and I am receiving lots of comments.  I'm actually now helping some Veterans as their Veteran Advocate.  I look forward to doing more to help if they want it.  This link was sent to me by an older Mormon from Washington State who is not a Veteran, but is terribly concerned about our wounded warriors.  I thank her for sending this to me.

Please read this letter.  His last.  He was writing it as he was falling into the Pit of Nadir.  Tired of Dancing with the Devil's Daughter, and too afraid to face the Black Snake one more time.  This is the way many who suffer war wounds respond.  

This is why it is so terribly important to follow the Rules and Steps here on ROLL CALL.  And, it is so important for any reading these words who need help to study this web site from top to bottom.  It's taken us a little bit of time to 'zone in' on it, but now there is plenty of 'meat on the bone' here for any who need help to find it right here.  

LT Bobby Ross

Post No. 16 - PTSD as first item on the agenda

Reporting for Roll Call -16:15 Hrs.-6-21-13

Hi LT:

Re: PTSD - Okay, you recommend that PTSD should be the first item on a veteran's agenda,to get his prmary doctor to set up an appointment with Mental Health Clinic, for an evaluation, and that this should be done completely separate from any other medical problems. Per your comment, to mention anything else just gives the VA bureaucracy a stronger opening to stall when it comes to filing a claim.

What this tells me is that the medical channels at the VA really have little to say about determining "disability". All they can do is give the medical facts about a given case, but not provide any kind of evaluation relating to disability. If that's the case then that's another one of those "landmines" in the process we were talking about.

Now, having gotten that appointment with the Mental Health folks, our Cherry Troop then faces whatever phsychological hoops these want him to jump through. And from that...are they the ones who make an evaluation about his level of PTSD? If so what happens next?

Re: For other problems, like Agent Orange impacts, you seem to be recommending that these be done separately. A shotgun approach?

Maybe it's just me, but such a piecemeal approach seems as cockamaimy a process as can be imagined. That's what it sounds like to me...but what do I know?

CENTURION  

Post No.15 - Moving into the Process

Reporting for Roll Call - 15:15Hrs - 6-19-13

Hi LT:

Re: VA Card...as I previously mentioned the medical services of the VA were then for those with service connected problems/disabilities or retirees. Maybe it was in the 90s, but it took enabling legislation by Congress to make it otherwise. If you recall, they mounted a big promotional campaign, including a deadline, to get veterans signed up for it. It wasn't until then that the idea of applying those services to all veterans really took hold. As far as I know, I'm still a Cat. C with that card. As to those who claim "they don't want or believe in getting a hand out", I've never considered that as anything but an ignorant outlook. Anyway, you asked me that question, and that was my take on it all. Any idiot can take a potshot at a situation, but it serves no purpose unless you have some thoughts about how to fix it...no matter how far out those might be (yeah, yeah...i"m as far out as it gets...I know.)

Re: PTSD...I'm with you, and glad we're getting into the process. The first thing that comes to mind is this: How is the claim initiated? I think our Cherry Troop should get some idea about it at this point. Who determines the need to file a disability claim? The veteran's doctor...both together? And what are the immediate requirements to do so? Can you give us some specifics about that? Not nitpicking, just curious and trying to understand the process. Well, I'm looking forward to that.

Short sidebar comment here...re: that 47% PTSD figure they've come up with...DUH...any veteran who has had combat experience must have been impacted by it. Granted, some more than others...interesting it's taken all those experts and pundits all this time to figure that out. C'est la vie!

CENTURION

POST No 15 - PTSD

Reporting for ROLL CALL  10:39AM  6/18/13

This morning, at Panera Bread here in Elk Grove, CA, I ran into an old buddy.  He was in combat in Vietnam, is my age, and is well off.  Happily married, a wonderful retirement and a fantastic home.  He has it all, and then some.  We got to talking about the VA, and by the time we finished, I had him on his way to the VA Advocate at our local VA Hospital.

Here's the long and short of it.  By now, here on ROLL CALL, we have 14 Posts with many replies.  We have 4 Rules and 3 Steps.  If in fact I could have read this all when I was honorably discharged from the US Army on Feb 4, '69, my life today would be noticeably different.  Of course, there were no personal computers then, and no Internet.  With this in mind, we are now about ready to tackle one of the most dreadful wounds of war:  PTSD.  Last week I heard a statistic that 47% of all American Veterans suffer from PTSD.  In one degree, or the other.  Some not so bad, some totally awful.  We are about to enter another room on ROLL CALL, and that is dealing with PTSD.

We already know there are @ one million backlogged claims at the VA today.  Many of these deal with PTSD.  Many of the Cherry Troops today, many with the '7 Year Burn', have been deployed more than one tour in Iraq and Afghanistan.  Some have severed 4 or more.  Let me assure you, these people are suffering from PTSD, in some form or the other.   And, from this point on, I am going to be dealing with the PTSD procedures at the VA.

Getting back to my friend an our conversation this morning, come to find out even though he 'doesn't need the VA', he does have a VA Card.  And he is receiving @ $200 per month for a disability.  (Maybe 20%?)  In Vietnam, he was a helicopter door gunner, and he also hauled Agent Orange.  He is now a diabetic, and there is no history in his family of this disease.  I told him to go to the VA Advocate this morning at the VA at Mather and sign up for 100% disability for Agent Orange 'wounds'.  He hesitated.  He told them the last time that they told him to go for PTSD.  His ears ring.  And, he actually did not believe me so much.

Then I asked him if he can remember when he was first diagnosed with diabetes.  He said 6 years ago.  I told him that he is 100% disabled, and he needs to put in a claim.  And, when he is 'awarded' his disability by the VA, it will go back 6 years to his original diagnosis for diabetes.  That means he will received a check for the rest of his life, tax free, for his 100% disability.  AND, he will receive a HUGE check for retroactive compensation going back to the first diagnosis for his diabetes 6 years.

He stood there and looked at me like I was trying to sell him some ocean front property in Utah.  Will he go to the VA Advocate?  Will he fill out the forms for his 100% disability from Agent Orange poisoning?  IF NOT, then he is crazy.  And, that's what PTSD is:  mentally ill.

So, now we are going to go into the subject of the Black Snake:  PTSD.

LT

Post No. 14 - Short Fallback and Re-Group

Reporting for Roll Call 14:30 Hrs 6-17-13

Hi LT:

Per our phone chat yesterday, I'm taking a short Fall Back and Re-Group moment here re:VA Card issue.

First of all, you asked...how come the armed services don't inform dischargees about their need to go get a VA card asap, after being discharged. I'm don't hold much with conspiracies here (diabolical or otherwise) Personally, I believe it really is just a case of -inertia- That is, the VA is the VA, and the armed forces are the armed forces, and although they're supposed to have some relation to each other, the two have never really "linked" together. In part that's also due to the way they were originally set up. Also, keep in mind, it wasn't until very recently that the VA Card was open to all honorably discharged veterans (2000-2002?). Since then, I suspect the reason the Services don't make any mention of it is because...it hasn't occurred to them that they should...it's as simple as that.

All of which brings us right back to some of our earlier debates about what's wrong with the system. It's not so much "broken" as way behind the times. The whole concept needs an "upgrade"...but no one has seriously considered doing so, beyond more or less cosmetic tweaks to it here and there. In many ways the VA is operating with antique procedures and structures, some of which seem to go all the way back to the Civil War!

Well. in our times, at least back to WWII. That's the crux of it all.

Okay...so how might this particular issue be fixed?

1) For the Armed Services part: These should be required to upgrade their part of the process by coming up with a new and common version of the old Dog Tags. That is, instead of metal, in the form of a miniature plastic "credit card" that could be swipable, just like with credit cards. This new plastic "Dog Tag" would have imbedded two strips. One for service record entries (from day one to discharge), and one for medical record entries(also, from day one till close out physical and discharge, including any annotations, evaluations, outcomes, etc.). The service member would have a personal pin code for access to it. Without it...no data accessible by anyone else, and only other option would be by some sort of signed release form by the service member. Lastly, as part of the discharging process, the Services would be required to provide a close-out counseling session, to include an information packet containing whatever current VA benefits and services that are available, plus, location, address, phone number of the nearest VA to the member's home town or place of discharge. Something along these lines would resolve the gap we were talking about.

2)For the VA's part: Should be required to produce these information packets for distribution to the Services. To further streamline the discharged veteran's connection with the VA, perhaps it should have a standardized corresponding incoming counseling process for each new troop that knocks on the door of one of its facilities. No matter where a veteran went, he'd be immediately referred to that "office". There, he'd register for his VA Card, and be assigned his primary doctor right off the bat...no delays at this point of the process. Strictly walk-in and wham bam...he's at the "intake" end of the funnel. Next, at his first appointment with his Doctor, he would present his plastic Dog Tag, the doctor would swipe his medical data into his own computer, the vet would enter his personal pin code to authorize/confirm it...now, his doctor would have all the medical EEI needed, for moving forward, to include that preliminary VA physical we mentioned before. The point of all this is that there would be no gap between the Services medical data/record, and what resulted from that initial VA physical. VA bureaucracy would have little or no wiggle room to screw around. Service provided medical facts about the veteran would be unimpeachable.

Well, that's what I think could fix things. It could be done very rapidly, and at relatively low cost besides, usuing existing technology, without overloading either the Services or the VA's budgets. A significant delaying factor would be eliminated, and backlogs of claims might become things of the past.

There are some related issues to all this, but this will do for now.

CENTURION