Answers From The VA Question Bag

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How can I request a waiver to not pay back the debt?

 To request a wavier you need to explain, in writing, the reasons you feel that you should not be held liable for your debt. Please explain the circumstances leading  up to the overpayment, and the steps you took to prevent the overpayment from occurring. You should also complete and return the Financial Status Report (VAF 20-5655), which was enclosed with your notification letter.

I filed a claim for unemployability due to PTSD. I told the DAV rep I was 100 percent disabled from Social Security for a physical disability, but he didn't want to use that information for now. I told a VSO the same thing and he said to use the information. What should I do?

 The VA is supposed to consider information from Social Security is you want them to, but...if you are 100% from Social Security for a physical condition, don't use that information in a PTSD claim because the VA could argue that you're unemployable because of the physical condition and not the PTSD, even though PTSD is the major problem. This could increase delay time for adjudicating the increase. The DAV rep is suggesting the smart move.

Is there any advantage to filing a claim for Type 2 Diabetes when I’m already 100% Unemployable?

  If you have been unemployable for at least ten years, there is no real advantage. You get treated for everything anyway after 50%. But if you have only been  rated UE for a few years, you must die of your service connection to make your spouse eligible for DIC survivor benefits. So if you were unemployable for PTSD and you died of complications from Type 2 Diabetes, but you were not service-connected for it, your spouse may have a hard time collecting DIC even though you were 100%.

  So below ten years unemployable, I would file. After ten years, you’re covered for any illness that can kill you so it’s not that important if you are total and permanent. It’s all about our wives or minor children if we have them. So I guess I would have to say file the claim, especially for Type 2 or any other Agent Orange related illness because it’s considered presumptive, and if you have it you get an automatic service connection.

If I am rated 100% for unemployability, can I do any kind of work at all?

  You can work as long as it’s not long term full time employment for a year or more. You can also help out in a family business or have scattered employment as long as it’s not long term full time employment. If you have your own business and show a huge income to the IRS, that could be a problem with the unemployability rating because  you are able to support yourself.

  The VA always sends me a paper every year wanting to know if I had taxable income or wages that were subject to Social Security. I imagine they will begin sending all kinds of papers to anyone on unemployability in the future, trying to find out if your ability to make money is restored.

  Just remember, working a few days a month or helping a family business on a scattered basis does not mean your earning capacity is restored. Being restored means a regular full time job.

Can the VA take away my money award?

  Generally, for physical disabilities, the VA can reduce your compensation, even for combat wounds, if the condition improves to the point where it has no effect on your life.

  For PTSD, once you are service-connected, you are pretty much service-connected for life. There is no cure for PTSD, and once you have a percentage for five years, the VA would have to review the entire claim history before cutting your percentage. They can call you in for Comp Exams, and they can give you a high GAF score on a given day. Just because you may feel good on a given day, doesn’t mean you are cured. And they cannot reduce you for a temporary improvement in your condition.

How long should it take a claim for unemployability to be granted?

  There is no way of telling because each case and RO is different. For PTSD, when it is the only disability, it shouldn’t take more than a few months is you are rated 70%. If you meet the combined criteria for unemployability for physical wounds or other disabilities, then it may take longer because the VA deals with each disability as it rates to working. The only good thing in waiting is that it will probably go back to the last day you worked or back to the day you filed. I’ve known a few vets who received over $100,000 in back pay by the time it was over. The main thing is to not give up when you have a good claim.

My View On Combat PTSD

Combat PTSD

Have you seen a change in the stigma associated with PTSD and "mental health problems"?

  There isn’t much of a change except no one refers to troubled veterans like they did in the Vietnam Era as the "crazy Vietnam veteran". You never hear the "Crazy Iraq veteran". I also feel since so many people are claiming PTSD, many for being separated from their family or being forced to serve outside the US on many tours, the term PTSD is being softened too much and those who may really need help will be neglected.

Some soldiers suffering from PTSD commit suicide. What do you think stops them from getting the help that they need (in general)?

  I don't believe having PTSD makes you suicidal. If you are a combat veteran with PTSD, you are normally a survivor and will survive at all costs. That's what the military teaches. Your job is to kill the enemy and survive to do your job.

  I think many military suicides today are from family problems back home because many more people are married. I saw guys in Vietnam get Dear John letters and lose it. I had to wait nine months to get one two minute call to the states when I was in Vietnam.

  Today with communication being so good, troops can be close to home each night or stay in touch. So they have to deal with their own problems and the problems back home, too. It's a bad idea to give troops cell phones and computers. So I figure most people who kill themselves were mentally ill going in because of lower standards of admission or they had family problems. I don't think many kill themselves over combat issues. This is just my view of things. I’m sure some psychologists would argue with me, but most of them will have not served in combat.

Explain what you're doing specifically to help those with PTSD and why it's important to you.

  I have dealt most with Vietnam veterans, but some veterans of all wars. What I do is listen. I've been there and I wrote the original instructions for PTSD claims the VA uses while I was a work-study under Voc Rehab. Most veterans want someone to listen to their stories and to guide them through the PTSD claim process. The service organizations don't have the people to do that. The service officers often don't know what to do or have so many cases they can't take the time to listen or help beyond filing a claim. That's what I do.

  I've had calls at all hours of the day and night, and several times vets have come to my house for help. Most times I've never met the vets I help. I write a bi-monthly newsletter, The S-2 Report, and I've published it for 18 years. Many of the vets have subscribed since the first issue. Helping other combat vets makes me feel I'm still fighting the war in a positive way and helping others I couldn't help during the war. I have issues with survival guilt.

Do you think that some veterans are just falling back on PTSD to avoid  trouble? What do you think that this does to compromise those who truly have a problem?

  I think PTSD has often been used as an excuse for crimes or bad behavior, and most times criminal behavior has nothing to do with PTSD. PTSD will not make you torture or kill your family or beat your wife and kids or rob banks and rape children or others. Anyone who did those things and claimed PTSD had issues before their military service, like alcohol and drugs or previous mental illness. PTSD is a convenient excuse for crime in many cases when every other defense fails. PTSD is a reaction to combat situations, which usually involves survival and fear of loss and the inability to not be on guard 24/7. If a PTSD vet is attacked by strangers, the vet will usually react with deadly force if possible, but having PTSD is by no means an easy excuse for criminal behavior.

What do you think would help to lower the PTSD rate in the military?

  My solution to prevent PTSD, or an idea that would go a long way in preventing PTSD, is to require the MMPI for every recruit to uncover personality disorder, and to make it a requirement that all new recruits be single without dependents.

  Also, all daily communication with home should be severed in a combat zone and should be rationed like in previous wars. I believe that would not only lower the suicide rate but it cut the rate of severe PTSD.

  A soldier cannot face war daily and deal with problems at home at the same time. The politicians would dismiss this route as impractical because they would have to begin a draft, and bringing back the draft might hurt them during election years.

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Law and Order Is Breaking Down

The Criminals Are Winning

Here is some inside information out of Cincinnati, which I believe can be applied to many cities in the country. The criminal cases number 35-40 thousand a year, over 100 a day. Most criminals have an open-end get out of jail free card.

There are currently no women in Cincinnati jails, unless they have done something extremely violent. Right now there are no women being held in the system.

For men, almost any crime short of murder rates probation instead of jail time. Breaking and entering, robbery, drug offenses, etc., all probation offenses and the criminals let out on the street to do it again. Probation departments can't possibly handle or track all their clients.

There is no room in the jails, and the funding keeps getting cut. Crime in Cincinnati is rampant, with multiple shootings almost everyday. We are on the verge of a society where citizens will have to fend for themselves because the police and courts will no longer be able to help.

If you have no means other than good intentions to protect yourself or your family, it is time to arm yourself for defense or you chance of become a victim increases daily.

PTSD Veterans

 For a combat veteran suffering with PTSD, this can only lead to a heightened security approach to home and family defense. PTSD veterans don't need additional paranoia to complicate their daily lives. But it is here whether we want it or not.

In some ways this is a good thing. PTSD becomes part of your permanent personality, and is horrible to live with 24/7. But having a combat veteran in the home, especially one with PTSD, creates benefits for family protection. Like a good watchdog, we will always have our perimeter secure. We will have enough weapons within reach. We won't try to reason with the enemy, and we won't hesitate to protect our family unit and home base camp.

I once asked a hardcore anti-gun liberal what they would do if someone broke into their house to rob and possibly kill their family.

"If we are supposed to die that way then we will," the person said.

I was shocked at the answer. It doesn't register in my brain to just give up and not protect my family. In fact, such behavior is psychotic and goes against the will to survive. And that's one thing most combat vets are going to do: survive.

So don't let your guard down. As combat veterans we are still this country's most valuable asset in preserving our freedom.