Veterans explain why they give up on the VA

When you know you do not leave the service the same way you went into it, it's easy to know it happened because you went in. You know you have health problems and then you read about chemicals being used where you were and you know why you're sick. This happened to veterans exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam and the veterans exposed while processing it, loading it and delivering it. Veterans that never set foot in Vietnam were exposed to it along with other chemical contaminations on bases like Fort McClellan .

Fort McClellan
Home to the US Army Military Police and US Army Chemical Schools (Chemical Defense Training Facility - CDTF).

They filed claims for what was caused by their willingness to serve, but the claims were denied. They tried to fight but sooner or later, they figured they couldn't fight anymore something they shouldn't have had to fight at all for. Some of my friends are still fighting.

When women were sexually assaulted, again because they were willing to serve, they were rebuffed and denied justice for the criminal actions of someone else and the results of the attacks when they ended up with PTSD. They fought to have claims approved and then gave up.

When will this country ever get this right? People working with claims get all defensive about denying claims stating that it's up to the veteran to prove the claim. The veterans' view is the VA should have to prove their disability was not caused by service to the country. After all, when VA doctors, trained by the VA to know what they're talking about link the illness with the service, it's only logical that they are not making baseless claims.

Take a veteran with PTSD. They have flashbacks. They are not having flashbacks of life outside of Vietnam, but of events during their time in Vietnam. When they have nightmares, it's about Vietnam not of things that have nothing to do with Vietnam. Same thing with the Iraq and Afghanistan veterans. It's always about the events causing the traumatic reactions. The VA tells them they have to prove it. The last thing on the minds of the troops is getting names and phone numbers in case they needed to have claims substantiated years in the future. Most Vietnam veterans never saw the people they were with again because they were deployed alone under DEROS. (Date Expected Return From Over Seas) They would get orders to go, catch a plane from the states and end up in Vietnam in with a bunch of strangers they would end up bonding with for their year and then never see them again.

If you go onto the Lost and Found site, you'll read about Vietnam veterans still looking for people they were with online.

Army Lost and Found

Some are trying to just find friends they used to have but most of them are trying to find someone that can tell the VA what they say happened really happened. In a perfect world you'd assume the military has records of all of it and who was there at the time, but they don't. Records get lost and paperwork ends up in someone else's file because of clerical errors and wrong social security numbers. This happened to my husband when his social security number was typed on documents about six different ways. Yet when veterans file claims, the VA doesn't care if they have all the paperwork they were handed or not. It's not the fault of the processors because they cannot just approve claims. They have to back up their decisions. If they decide wrongly in favor of the veteran, there is hell to pay but if they decide wrongly in favor of the VA, well then, that's a different story. They have to make sure all the "i" are dotted and the "t" are crossed. If not, then the claim is denied and then the veteran has to file an appeal.

There are over 800,000 cases waiting to be processed and over 300,000 appeals waiting. It's not a matter of a one shot appeal because often there are multiple appeals filed. The veteran is given so much time to respond and if they do not within the time the VA gives them, the claim begins fresh. In other words, the claim, if approved finally, does not go back to the original filing unless they meet every deadline. The veteran keeps going to the VA seeking treatment but without an approved claim and an act by Congress, they have to pay for the treatment because in the eyes of the VA, it's not service connected until the claim is approved. Imagine having a disability you and your doctor know is connected to your service, then finding out you have to pay for the treatment! Would you be angry? Would you want to give up?

Read the following and find out why they feel the way they do.

Veterans testify about health problems
By MIKE BARBER
P-I REPORTER

A special Veterans Affairs panel aiming to do justice for the long-neglected veterans of the 1991 Persian Gulf War convened in Seattle on Wednesday -- at the same time retired Gen. Eric Shinseki was testifying at a Senate confirmation hearing Wednesday to be the new VA secretary.

While Sen. Patty Murray, D-Wash., spoke at Shinseki's hearing about the need to change the current culture of the VA, several veterans in Seattle told the 14-member Advisory Committee about problems they had after returning from Operation Desert Storm 18 years ago.

Each veteran had fallen ill in the 1990s and never recovered from similar, mysterious symptoms they said they were discouraged from reporting or treating after returning from war:

"I felt kicked out, humiliated ... I looked elsewhere for answers" and dropped all contact with the VA in 1996, said Mark Nieves, 38, of Seattle. He came home ill displaying a variety of mysterious symptoms after serving as a cavalry scout with the 1st Armored Division in the 1991 Iraq invasion.

Lee Christopherson, 47, of Seattle, a former Coast Guard commander who also served in the Iraq war in 2003, was urged to attend the meeting by his mom, who said she wanted him to share what she had seen him bottle up over the years, including multiple strokes, blood clotting, vascular dementia, severe joint pain, fatigue, sweats, and involuntary muscle spasms all over his body.

"I had significant medical issues but I avoided recording them due to the fear of repercussions to my career," said Christopherson, who has been waiting since 2004 for a decision on his disability claim.

Beckie Wilson, a retired enlisted sailor and veteran of Desert Storm in 1991, said she gave up seeking VA treatment 10 years ago, opting for private doctors, in part from feeling vulnerable as a woman and made to feel "crazy."

"I didn't feel like the VA is changing so why bother? Is it truly changing? Are you truly trying to do something for us?" she asked. click link above for more