Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland answers questions from VA Watchdog dot Org readers.

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Veterans' Advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.  If you would like to contact Jim about his columns, you can email him here...  The archive of Jim's articles is here...  To find an answer to a specific VA benefits question, use the VA Watchdog search engine... click here...  And, be sure to use Jim's:  A Military Veterans Guide To Disability Compensation and Pension Benefits -- A Compendium of Resources and Knowledge For The Disabled Veteran -- click here...   JIm's series for new vets, "Welcome Home," is also featured on Military.com. And, you can follow Jim on TWITTER here ...

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by Jim Strickland

NOTE:  Letters in my Q&A columns are reprinted just as they come to me. Spelling and grammar are left as is and only small corrections are made to improve readability, ensure anonymity or delete expletives that may offend some readers. This is not legal advice. You should always seek the advice of an attorney who is qualified in Veterans' law before you make any decisions about your own benefits.

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Jim;

I am writing to you asking where I go to get the help on the Homebuyer Assistance Program (HAP) for use by Veteran-homebuyers in conjunction with VA--guaranteed home financing. Please direct me the proper person. I am having no luck getting through to anyone as no body seems to know about it including our bank.

The number listed under the Veteran Benefits Administration is: Circular 26-08-14 dated August 19, 2008. I would appreciate your help today May 21-2009, if at all possible, as we are trying to negotiate a purchase offer on a home.

Thank you for your assistance.

Reply;

Click http://tinyurl.com/q2sad9

Dear readers...I answered this 8 minutes after it landed in my email. It only took that long because I was on a phone call and didn't notice it. It's called "Google Search". On almost every web page in existence in hundreds and hundreds of languages, there is a little blank box with a label underneath that says "Google Search". Another label often says, "I'm feeling Lucky".

In the blank box you type in words that are a part of or close to the data you seek. In this case I typed in, "Veteran Benefits Administration Circular 26-08-14" without those quotation marks. I clicked on "Google Search" and the page I had been looking at was immediately transformed into the results of the search showing hundreds of thousands of possible matches.

The Google search engine is pretty good...the document I wanted was at the top of the page.

If the results weren't that good I may have tried, "Circular 26-08-14" or "Veteran Homebuyer Assistance Program" or any other combo that sounded right.

You can do this with anything at all...you won't hurt anything, you can't break the Internet and this won't harm your computer if you practice safe surfing.

Try it for yourself. Go to the Google Search Engine by clicking here http://www.google.com/

Enter anything you want in that blank box. Click "Google Search". (If you click "I'm feeling lucky" you just get the top response without seeing all the rest.)

Google your name or the name of an old friend or some sort of lunch meat or the make of your car...anything at all and Google will return it to you in milliseconds.

Now that you know that Google exists, take a couple of on-line and FREE tutorials to become an expert. Amaze your friends and impress your spouse with your vast knowledge of how the Internet works. Click here http://www.googleguide.com/  for all that.

I don't mind answering those very simple questions for you but I'm often amazed when people tell me, "Jim, I'm desperate for this information and I can't locate it anywhere and I need it right now today." Then I type in 15 letters in Google search and it's right there. If you're using a computer to read my stuff or to email me, you can use Google like a pro.

There are some places I want to see so I type in a "cheater" to force my search there. A good example of this is an on-line encyclopedia and research tool called "Wikipedia". A "wiki" is an effort of many people. To get to Wikipedia, simply type in http://www.wikipedia.org/ , click and and watch in amazement as your discovery unfolds.

To force my results to come from Wikipedia or a similar wiki, I'll use Google search and type in "vietnam war agent orange wiki" without those quote marks. You need to try that for yourself but here is where that takes you http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agent_Orange

Typing in "Elvis wiki" takes you here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elvis_Presley  and typing in "WWII wiki" takes you here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_War_II  and entering "Coyote Roadrunner wiki" will show you my favorite older cartoon characters here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wile_E._Coyote_and_Road_Runner  or you may type in "Spongebob wiki" and arrive at Bikini Bottom and have a delicious Krabby Patty here http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SpongeBob_SquarePants

Now you know my idea of high quality entertainment. Shh, don't tell anyone.

Have fun!

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Jim;

In today’s mail I found a requirement from the Denver VA that a Buddy Letter must end with I hereby certify that this information is true and correct to the best of my knowledge and belief.

Combat veterans only of course!

Reply;


It's one of those details easy to forget if you aren't using the official form.

If you use the VA Form 21-4138 it's already in there.

http://www.vba.va.gov/pubs/forms/VBA-21-4138-ARE.pdf

It's another one of those details that if we forget, we're penalized. If VA misses something similar, no flag gets thrown. If VA had to acknowledge it's mistakes similar to how we're held accountable for ours, this would be a new game.

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Jim;

Got an envelope from the Cleveland VARO today...it's my Employment Questionnaire. OK...no biggie right? Oh, but this is the VA. Today is 5/22/09. In the upper right-hand portion of the form, in the box that says "date mailed" it says "May 26, 2009".

Wow....I must be in a freaky VA time warp!!

Reply;

We offered a little bit of constructive criticism last year regarding these pesky papers. This may be the VA way of resolving the problem. Click these links for some historical perspective.

http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfoct08/nf101608-1.htm
http://www.vawatchdog.org/08/nf08/nfoct08/nf102308-1.htm
 
Once again though our VBA proves its utter incompetence with this kind of a bone-headed move.

When we know very well they're lying to us, how is the veteran supposed to have any faith in any decision at any time? Your Regional Office lied to you when they told you your 100% IU benefit was to be terminated because you didn't timely return your VA Form 21-4140. The inability to get even a small task completed correctly runs so deep that we'll never know if they didn't know that they hadn't sent the form to you or if they knew it and didn't care.

"This is a little thing", I can hear the argument from VA now. "What difference could it possibly make if the date is precisely correct?" Well, the difference is that you demand perfection from the veteran who is your customer and at every turn you don't pay attention to details yourself.

I'm often sickened...truly distraught...when I hear an angry veteran rail against everything that is VA. I know it isn't all bad, there are plenty of really good, dedicated people working hard for us. I hate to see my brothers and sisters condemn the good with the bad.

But when that veteran yells that he's just not taking it anymore, I understand his emotion. One year the IU vet gets no 21-4140. Nothing is said. The next year he gets a letter that his benefit is being reduced because he didn't return the 4140 that was (not) mailed to him. The following year there's a 4140 dated as being sent days in the future. That's 3 straight years of error with nobody at VBA showing that they care in the least. Each year a glaring error. That veteran who is howling mad is just fed up with it.

We are reaching a point that the VBA is soon to be lagging 1,000,000 benefits applications behind. At adjudication most of those one million applications will be decided against the veteran and full of superficial, obvious, rookie errors.

Most of those will be appealed to a DRO or to the BVA or both. The rework required to get it straight will double the time and triple the cost of the process. More lipstick will be applied to the pig; more warm bodies will be hired, more errors will be made and more erroneous 4140's and similar forms will be distributed.

And the circle will be unbroken...

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Jim;

I need help getting up to 100% disability. I am at 10% now, and keep hitting brick walls when it comes to getting increases. Are there lawyers that specialize in helping vets to get 100%?

Reply;

I promptly answered this inquiry with, "Please tell me why you believe you deserve to be awarded a 100% rating? Then we can talk about whether you need a lawyer or not."

Truth be told, that's a pretty set response to that sort of question. I rarely get an answer to my question.

It's my belief that the veterans who ask such and then disappear are probably angry with me. That I didn't jump right up and wave a flag and begin to assist him with the 90% raise in his compensation wasn't what he'd expected so he's moved on to another target.

It seems a long time ago when I first addressed the issue of "need" v. "want" when talking about our benefits http://vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfMAY07/nf052107-1.htm  I irritated a few of you then I expect I'll do so again.

If a man asks me to help him jump from 10% to 100% he has one of two things going on...he's either gaming the system and trying to achieve an undeserved raise or he's seriously ill and something has gone terribly wrong with the adjudication of his benefits.

I can help the latter, I condemn and despise the former.

As if we veterans don't have enough to deal with, our ranks are infiltrated with crooks and liars. In my duties working for the Veterans History Project http://www.loc.gov/vets/  I clearly recall a "Vietnam veteran" who sat in the office I'd borrowed with his wife and daughter in tow and spun a tale for my camera that would have made John Huston proud. He told of heroics working as a spook. He blamed the DOD and VA for losing his records and then falsifying documents to make it appear that he was in Germany while he was actually crawling around in the jungles with Montagnards.

He cried for us, broken down and sobbing at the recollection of the death of a boy who he considered as a son during the horrible days up rivers in Laos and Cambodia.

I stayed as impartial as I could and maintained a professional attitude...I was merely an interviewer, a volunteer who had a VHA camera on loan and an assignment to record personal histories of warriors. I wasn't about to confront him in front of his admiring family.

But later he called me. He called me at home on a number I fiercely protect. To this day I have no idea how he got that number. He had been drinking...I know what that sounds like. After some awkward conversation he finally went for his big question..."Mr. Strickland" he asked me, "When you send that videotape to Washington and The Library of Congress, do those guys really look at it? Do you think they may check my story for details?"

I guessed that, yes...they probably would.

A few more moments of that awkward silence and he spoke clearly, "Mr. Strickland, I may have missed some things earlier today. I don't think it would be right for you to submit that tape as it stands. I'd like to think about doing my interview over again so if you could just destroy that, please?"

And destroy it I did.

He wasn't the only one. I've interviewed a few people who I knew had done all they said. They were humble, self effacing, and never saw themselves as anything special or heroic. These were just men and women doing their jobs and doing them well.

The others were so obvious that it just would knock me over. I'll never understand how a person believes that a lie will make them more important to others.

In much the same way, I don't understand those who believe that because they gave 2 or 3 lackluster years to military service that they are somehow entitled to ride the Gravy Train until they die. If you had some sore muscles and got some Poison Ivy or your eyes were bloodshot once or twice and nothing much more serious than that happened, you aren't deserving of any damn benefits. How hard can that be to grasp?

I'll continue to work very hard to ensure that deserving veterans are treated fairly by our VA. I'll also be the fastest gun in the east or west when it comes to shooting down fakers and wannabees. Yeah...I can multitask like that, no problem.

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TOPICS: veterans, veterans' benefits, VA, Department of Veterans' Affairs, Jim Strickland, Veterans' Advocate, Larry Scott