VA and the VSOs....

General General Discussion
1

Has anyone found their local VSOs considerably worse to deal with than the VA?

After being out of the service for quite awhile, I was recently treated like a POS by the VSO who I was trying to get to help me. The VA on the other hand was great.

It looks to me like Trump straightened out the VA, but the local VSOs are busying being lazy GOV employees who don’t want to do any work. In my case, one of the things I was told was that I couldn’t get a certain series of issues looked at because she would have to write an extra report.

2

Please report it. Our local VA has been pretty good to me, luckily for me it’s a major center and 10 miles away.
Having seen the system and it’s recent improvements, we need to get this fixed for folks forced to use VSO’s. Have you tried reporting this to your local VA?

3

The VA recommended I use the VSO. It was a pretty 19 year old girl who didn’t know much who helped first. I get she was new, but the head person who came in was almost mocking even though the injuries were documented in my records. She looked at the Anthrax/ Gulf War Syndrome issues which were listed and told me she had never seen anyone get anything in over 20 years for that, then smugly asked me if I personally knew any vets who had. I told her yes, and it was the guy who worked at the VA who did my intake who had it. So she turned to my wife and then smugly asked her if she personally knew any vets who had successful complaints for it.

The injuries noted in my med records she said could have all been caused by me working as a cop after I got out. I was beyond offended. This lady is toxic, and totally full of herself. Her answer was to have my doctor fax a facesheet over at that moment before she would look at doing anything.

It was worse than zero help.

4

Yeah, there is nothing worse than being insulted by the people who are supposed to be looking out for you.
There are still a lot of people needing help, a lot of people who were afraid to get help when they were in the .mil that have carried that attitude with them, all the while carrying health and mental issues that have made their lives a living hell.
I would report her by name and send a copy to the VA and one to your Congressman.

5

My current one is a leftist…

She was helpful but stopped helping me once she found out I voted for Trump.

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6

I had a similar experience. Nam bet VSO with the Nam vet hat, not a unit cap btw. Looked at my stuff for about 3 seconds. Saw I was a DS bet, said “you don’t have shit. Were you even in combat?” I’m at 60% now and waiting on my appeal to finish after 8 years.

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7

You have to report these people.
Your VA and Your Congressman are a great avenue of approach.

8

My county VSO is the best. They do all of my claims filling on my behalf. Top notch group of guys. It is also a county organization.

If your local VSO group sucks then you may need to look at where you live. I am sure that any VSO in San Francisco will simply try and commit you or at least make you a felon or some demeaning stuff.

9

My stuff worked great.

There was a program when I was retiring, where about six months prior you get a copy of your medical records and take it to the rep. He was a VN vet and retiree. I handed him my 214 from 4 years active enlisted, 214 for 4 yrs NG, and the medical records from that plus the almost 20 more active. Now, I had a good record of injuries, x-rays, op report, etc. I was mailed an appointment with a VA doc. A guy that had been active duty. From that exam and x-rays I had a couple more appointments.by the time I was retired, that stuff had been done. Wishing a few months of retirement my rating was complete.

I can’t say anything bad about the rep or system. The rep was great. The doc that did the exam was great. The notices for the appointments came in the mail, and were reasonable times and waits.

I had zero issues with system in terms of verification of injuries and not recognizing them and giving a rating.

Now, to be clear, each thing was documented and recorded and had objective findings and results. Everything was rated. I can’t say the system did not work from that perspective.

The only issue I could really complain about regarding the VA system is that medical issues and some stuff that may have nothing to do with service let alone combat related seem to count for proportionally more than actually injuries and wear and tear.

Do the math on what someone with chronic pelvic pain, a hysterectomy, sleep apnea, migraine headaches, traumatic brain injury despite no real exposures, and “PTSD” gets for disability,
vs some combat arms/SOF/direct support on the objective guy with multiple concussions, cervical DDD/DJD, EMG verified radiculoparhy, Lumbar herniated discs and DDD, shoulder separation, arm fractures, wrist surgery, torn meniscus and ACL one side, blown PCL other side, multiple bilateral ankle sprains, chronic joint effusion, torn/ruptured biceps, etc. gets in comparison.

You don’t have to use the specific examples, but it is nuts. Someone could literally get shot in the face and have a foot blown off and get less of a rating than some fat fuk with diabetes and sleep apnea. Pushing 30 years of service and I can offer no explanation as to what makes sleep apnea or diabetes a service connected disability.

10

The “benefits at discharge” program had a wide range of completion times here. Mine took about a year, I have friends whose claims were done before they retired.

I get what you are saying about diabetes, but I had two good friends who went to Korea healthy and both had diabetes when they came back.

I tell everyone to go to the Vet Center if they qualify. They are pro-veteran and they know how to get through some of the bureaucratic red tape. As far as I know, they are also the only organization outside the VA that can see your medical records.

Andy

11

I need to talk to Monty, it sounded like he had people who knew how to get legit things done.

SF would listen to about a half a sentence out of my mouth before they hated me.

12

The guys getting out now are supposed to have it pretty good, and in many cases, to the extreme. I’ve got a nephew who was a cook who has a nice rating for his PTSD. Personally, I took a few injuries while deployed, but had more stateside during training.

I got back from a final deployment and went straight on terminal leave, my discharge talk with the doc went something like him saying, “you have a job as a cop already lined up, shit, you don’t want me to list anything that could get you to lose that position”. I agreed, and never worried about it until later on when some things were getting much worse.

13

It is all about who you find that know what you are going through. It helps if they can relate.

LOLOLOLOL

That about sums it up.

14

Seriously if you can contact an organization called still serving veterans, I know they helped some of my friends the DAV is a good resource and like I said if you go to the Vet Center they can really cut through a lot of the bureaucratic BS.

I work with at least 10 retired veterans from the whole spectrum of services and they range from combat arms to Lieutenant colonels. My manager is retired CW5 and one of my employees is a retired SGM . I will definitely have some free time between Christmas and New Year’s if you want, IM me I’ll do what I can to help you.

Andy

15

The day I ETS’d in 1987 was way different than how things go now. You went to a quick out-processing briefing and that was it. No briefings by different people about different subjects, no VA rep or filing advice. What they did do, however, was hand me my medical records (yeah, this was pre-digital age and mine were in an off-pink colored folder). Original documents in it. When I filed years later I had to turn them over to the local county-level VA rep (he wasn’t a VA employee though) but he gave me certified copies of it. He was amazed when I flopped that folder on his desk. He asked “How did you get those?” I said “Uh, they handed them to me when I ETS’d.” He chuckled and said “They weren’t supposed to do that”.

16

My vengeance would be Biblical for that hag. Everyone from the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on down would shudder involuntarily when they recalled it.

Names, dates and actions of the responsible parties - send them registered mail to everyone in the food chain. Start a fire under her over-privileged ass that makes thermite look tame. :mad:

17

I’ve never heard of a VSO until I read this thread. I got out in 2005 and didn’t go to the VA until 2006.

I ended up walking out because the guy that was doing my “interview” kept pushing me to say I have PTSD because it was a “guaranteed 3k pay check”.

I feel bad for the guys getting out who are truly hurt/hurting. My advice would be to get a hold of your reps and start calling them and getting your voice heard.

18

It’s highly tempting to go that route.

At this point, I’m going to go back to the VA and try to determine what my options are.

19

I am NOT saying someone shouldn’t seek help for PTSD but with the way things are going (gun-wise) I can’t help but feel it’s come back to bite those rated for it in the ass. That is sad too, because it may turn folks off from seeking help if they have PTSD pretty bad.

They wave that “guaranteed” 30% or greater rating at you and a lot of people see $$$.

20

I retired May '01.
When I first went to the VA I walked past what must have been a WWII vet sitting in a wheelchair smoking. I said “Hi, how are you doing buddy”, you know a little small talk with a guy old enough to be your Grandfather.
I go in, do my physical and come out like 4+ hours later, he’s still there. Except now he’s sitting in a puddle of his own piss. I wheeled him inside, he said “Thanks.” and I asked him if someone had been checking on him, “No.” was all he said.
I swore that I would never allow that to happen to me. They’ve gotten better, but they still creep me out there.