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;

One of the men from my platoon in VN contacted me last night regarding initiating a DVA claim. As strange as it may sound neither he nor his wife are internet users. I told him, in part, he needs to learn how to at least use word and google at a free library or whatever computer.

Also, I told him to not do anything else until I got back to him. He's gonna need some help and obviously I'm not the one to give it to him. I can send him info re: how to get his MSRs, medical records etc etc as he hasn't done anything yet, but past that, except for my personal experience, reading your information, and working with the lawyer you recommended, I'm clueless.

I was thinking about copying (is that OK?) your series for new veterans and sending that to him.

Recommendations on what I should tell him? As always, thanks for all you do for all of us.

Reply;

I work with guys like this often. It's easiest to print off a copy of the 21-526 and a Statement in Support of Claim and have them complete it. Don't try to get sophisticated, just the basics.

Mail it in for him, wait for the denial. Then turn it over to a lawyer.

The way I see it, even if you turn in the most perfect application that has ever been done, the odds are 70/30 that it will be denied anyhow. So if you get it in and set the date as early as possible, eventually you'll have a lawyer who will grab all he can by telephone and then have his staff do the rest. Yeah, it takes longer but it's very effective.

I went to a veteran's home last week and did just that. He and I sat and filled out the 526 and now we'll wait for the moment I can give it to a lawyer. The vet is happy, the lawyer will be happy and VA is, as always, clueless.

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Jim;

FYI:

HEADLINE

"VA Offering Free Agent Orange Exposure Test. KLFY-TV Lafayette, LA (6/10, 5:21 p.m. CT) broadcast, ―An important health note for Vietnam veterans in Acadiana. Veterans advocates are urging that you contact the Department of Veterans Affairs ―to be tested for exposure to Agent Orange. The VA ―is now offering a free agent orange exposure test to veterans that could help them qualify for medical benefits. For more information on this free test, contact the VA hospital in Alexandria."

(The thread from various replies in part reads):

"As you know our government fought and denied there ever was such a thing as agent orange until sufficient exposure made them fess up, and even then few ever got much of anything besides a notation in their health records. The VA, and I am sure at the direction senior government officials have done their best to keep this issue on the back burner just as they have with those exposed to the atomic and nuclear tests long ago. The logic as I see it is that most will die off if they do not make much of an issue of it, and they are right as our numbers are dwindling just like those of the WWII and Korean Veterans. A few congresspersons made some moves to improve the status of agent orange casualties, but in reality it has done little to really change much for veterans overall. I do not have any answers, but am always cautious if our government nowadays gives out anything to us veterans as was recently seen with the gun control and PTSD issues."

"Major; I know how popular it is too blame Obama for all... but let me relate a continuing saga; In the last two months two of my 3rd Force Recon team, same age, have been diagnosed w/AO cancers; brain, throat, lungs x2, stomach and colon. One additional member of my team has AO colon cancer also. As you know us grunts also beat the bush in Northern I Corps (in my case about 16 months with 1/4 before my 11 months w/3rd Force). Therefore I was justifiably concerned and asked the VAMC WPB this week who and where was their AO section/office/info.... Answer, there isn't any! Col. Dick Meadows, my Peru connection,(of Son Tay fame) died of AO leukemia and told us from his death bed that IF he had had an AO leukemia blood test he probably would have beat it. He was diagnosed and then within a month died. How is it possible that the VA has not established an AO affairs shop in each of our major VAMCs?! I went to the Patient Advocate who went to the Director of Medical Services who called my Primary who told me any test that I wanted...just ask for it. But I'm NOT a doctor so I don't know what tests are available so I ask for what???? The VA has recognized AO for years yet can't pro-actively screen us?! I'm already service-connected for AO but I want some preventative checks NOT compensation. No joy! Stay tuned."

Reply;

I'm not sure what you expected I'd do with this thread? It's very misleading. To state that anyone offers an "agent orange exposure test" is simply wrong. There is no such thing...it's a myth that's been around for years. The chemical dioxin enters your body and is metabolized out...much like nicotine or marijuana would be. If you smoke a cigarette or a joint today I can test you next week and get a pretty reliable answer about exposure.

In two weeks it's less reliable. In a month if you're a fat guy and holding on to some traces in the adipose tissue, I may be able to test you 6 weeks our and be somewhat sure you had contact with the substance.

Beyond that there is no hope. Oh, some folks would say that immunoassay of hair would do it and I suppose that may be correct. However, in the decades since many of us were exposed to dioxin, most of us have had our hair cut more than a few times.

Keep in mind that I'm a retired health care professional. I will fall back to that to say that my knowledge of how all this works is often greater than the average. I spent 35 years doing much of this stuff and I know a little about it.

There is no test to determine AO exposure back in the day. Even if there were, so what? What's the point? I'm an ex smoker. I was exposed to nicotine and all the other harmful effects of inhaled tobacco. You can't tell that by testing me, I haven't smoked in 20 years.

But I know that I was a smoker and knowing that I am now being screened for the ill effects of such.

VA doctors are screening veterans...all veterans...for the ill effects of dioxin. I was just screened last week and I'm not a Vietnam veteran...I'm Vietnam era. The RNP who cared for me was concerned about prostate cancer. She mentioned my Vietnam era service and Agent Orange. I explained I wasn't actually ever in Vietnam and she skipped right past that fact and told me it didn't matter...I was being screened anyhow.

If a veteran has prostate cancer or DMII, how it's diagnosed and how it's treated has nothing to do with the veterans past service...doctors treat DMII the same no matter what.

There is no "AO/Leukemia Test"...there are only the routine tests for leukemia that are offered when symptoms come up. If there are no symptoms, blood tests won't show anything.

The Agent Orange Registry wasn't/isn't a test. It's a registry to gather scientific information about veterans who were exposed to AO.

Whoever published that announcement probably misunderstood how the AO registry works. The Registry will get the vet a medical exam and if anything is noted, the vet can then apply for health care and compensation benefits.

On another note, it is odd how many voices are raising up to blame Obama for everything possible; if there's a pothole in front of your house that started in 1987, it's his fault it isn't repaired today. The economy that started with Jimmy carter? It's Obama's fault. Our fouled up VA that I've been fighting since 1970? Obama is behind it all.

I voted for the man...I also voted for Bush. I like them both. I believe Bush had great intentions and made the fatal error of surrounding himself with morons. I admire his convictions and his tenacity. I believe the last 3 years he was so well painted into a corner by the aforementioned morons there was no way out.

I admire Obama and I don't think he will listen to the usual gang of morons that circle the White House. He is brilliant and arrogant to a degree that rather than listening to others, he will bully his own opinions onto them.

I worry that the fringe will cause our country more problems though. That Jerry Springer crowd isn't swift on the uptake. A friend told me last week that Obama is a "closet Muslim", whatever the hell that is? That's the sort of close minded stubbornness that takes my breath away. I pray. I've read the Bible. I attend a Methodist church when I attend church. Most of my friends are Christians but I do know some Jews and Muslims.

So...if you use my friend's rationale, I must be a "closet Muslim".

To watch my peers wallow in and glorify their ignorance of facts is sad. As it was said by Dean Wormer in the movie Animal House, "Fat, drunk and stupid is no way to go through life son."

So many of us are choosing that path...sigh.

(You followed up with me soon after, "Dear Jim; I shoulda wrote you before I bothered the VA, THANKS! I was just concerned about the statistical coincidence of my mates all getting the big C. As you say in your informative answer...there is nothing I can do....if and when it hits then I'll know."

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Jim;


My disability claim is about a year old.

Originally, I received the rating board decision on Mar 2009 granting me non-service connected pension for my bipolar disorder, but service connection could not be established due to the nexus (I am trying to prove that the stress I endured in Basic Training, along with biological vulnerabilities, triggered my bipolar to start while I was in service.) I did not have time to submit all of my evidence proving my service connection with the original claim.

Upon receiving this info I gathered all of my evidence and turned it in May 2009: 1) Nexus Letter from my private Psychiatrist of almost 10 years 2) My Statement of the case 3) Sisters Letter in Support with Basic Training Letters I wrote her describing in detail the stress I was under 3) I gave 6 different kinds of medical evidence (studies) proving stress, like experienced in Basic Training, triggers the start of bipolar 4) Private Therapist for 2 years to help prove service-connection and 100% disabled explanation 5) Proof of SSDI. I turned in all of this at the same time with a statement that I had no more evidence to submit.

The last I hear my case is with the Adjudicator and they said they will determine service connection and they are going to give me the greater award.

Questions:

1. Do you think I have a good case?

2. Because they awarded me non-service connected pension, does that mean I automatically receive the 100% level if I prove service-connection?

3. Does it help that I am receiving SSDI for bipolar?

4. How much longer do you think it will take?

5. Will I have to go to a C&P examination?

Thank you so much in advance for your time!

Reply;

I don't have enough information to hazard a guess for you. If your bipolar disorder became evident while you were on active duty or sometime soon after discharge (within a year or so) you'll have a good case. The NSC pension may not have anything to do with an SC rating. The SSDI will only come into play if the bipolar disorder is found to be SC. I advise most veterans today to be prepared to wait 2 to 4 years for resolution of their case. A C&P exam is almost always given.

The biggest variable here, information you didn't offer, is whether or not your condition was documented prior to service or during service...or soon after. If you successfully completed your obligation and then did reasonably well in life for a period of time over a year or so and then were diagnosed with a mental health condition, it's not likely to be service connected.

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