What’s going on at VA?
TSO send us a link about mighty Sgt. Dustin J. Douglass from Scottsbluff, Nebraska;
Messed up his eyes (all the dust and muzzle flashes and artillery blasts and fires from exploding vehicles).
Messed up his ears (all the noise from rifles, diesel engines and generators).
Messed up his back (all the backpack and body armor weight he carried on patrol).
Gave him a rash on his arms and back. Gave him tonsillitis. Gave him post-traumatic stress disorder.
Gave him a traumatic brain injury, depression, anxiety.
And next month it could give him up to 10 years behind bars — for faking his service-related injuries and illnesses.
Yes, that’s right he spent a year with the 67th Area Support Group in Al Asad Air Base from 2005-2006, but he never left the wire. But he collected more than twenty thousand clams in benefits from the VA. Benefits that should have gone to veterans with real injuries.
See, here’s my problem with the VA; someone told me about their how in their state, the Pentagon lists 15 POWs, but the VA lists more than 600 residents of the state receiving benefits for being a POW, at a cost of $21,000/year per veteran. How do these ritards slide through the system? Especially when there are veterans who can’t get what they deserve?
Do they have a quota of people they just let slide through? Are they on some sort monthly cycle where the applications they process can’t get through and then for five days everyone get in?
It’s good that they’re prosecuting this douchbag, but how did he get overlooked for 2 years? Especially when there are so many being scrutinized?
Category: Phony soldiers, Veterans Issues, Veterans' Affairs Department
Obviously just another “miscreant”.
It’s the method of processing and storing data, along with the stratification of processing and SysAdmin. Know this through trial and error. My trials from their errors. To begin with, vets are usually sending hardcopy claims, with numerous forms per vet per injury/illness/wound claimed. Committee 1 checks to see if the vet has filled out all the required blanks. A letter saying ‘we’re processing’ is sent out. If there’s a mistake, the paperwork is held for a variable set of time. Committee 2 checks to ensure an M.D. (or DDS in some things) has made a diagnosis. Committee 2 has nurses and some doctors on it to ensure the diseases and injuries have an appropriately inscrutable name. Committee 3 checks the diagnosis against the VA’s rules and regulations to see what, if any, remedy should be applied (medical, dental, psychiatric, Rx, or none at all). Committee 4 validates the work of all of the previous committees. Committee 5 notifies VA Benefits and the medical side that the vet is approved for benefits, et cetera. Committee 6 determines a percentage and a separate percentage for getting money. Committee 7 approves all of the work done before, and the vet’s record goes into holding. Somewhere in this is data. According to the paperwork reduction act, the hardcopies are likely shredded, then burned. The information is transferred by human to a database. Call it Database 1. It has all the information provided by the vet. Database 2 is all the medical information when the vet inprocesses at his or her local VAMC. Database 2 is not connected to Database 1. That’s why when a vet inprocesses, s/he has to wait while their status is verified, using Database 1. Database 3 is the money. Database 4 is when the vet’s been overpaid. Database 3 and 4 are hushhush G-14 classified. But if an error is found by Database 4 (recoup of $$$), neither the computer nor the human SysAdmin can correct Database 3. In my case, I was to receive $500, but an error Database 3 spit out a hardcard saying I owed $5000.… Read more »
I was just talking today with one of my brothers about friends of his who received up to 50% disability for PTSD from the VA. These are guys who served during VN, never saw combat,a couple weren’t even in VN and applied for the benefits within the last 10yrs. They all went to the VA in St. Cloud, MN. I just don’t understand how a bureaucracy can go so wrong so often. It’s criminal and so wrong. I asked him how these ‘friends’ of his could justify taking benefits away from soldiers who needed the benefits from REAL injuries? He said, they hear from one guy how easy it is to get the benefits and justify it to themselves. I have a young veteran who really needs the benefits and has been waiting for a year and when I hear this crap it makes me so angry and crazy.
Here in TX I had to fight tooth and nail to get my rating completed (took couple of years to get something I can live with).
Every injury was checked and verified, even requiring multiple appointments for the same injury. They don’t just take your word for it or just look at old records, you have to go see a doctor in Compensation and Pension to get it in the rating file. So how in the hell did these crap bags take the VA for a ride?
What I want to know is how these phonies get all this VA money but I’ve been waiting 6 months since I filed a “quick claim” when I demobed from afghanistan
Here is part of the problem. The rules for PTSD have changed. There is NO VERIFICATION of stressors. None, zippo. Say you were in combat of some sort, have the symptoms, get your check. That easy. The pendulum never stops in the middle. In early 80’s through just about a year ago getting a PTSD claim was hard even with “recognizable stressors”. CIB, PURPLE HEART, AWARD WITH “V” DEVICE. You needed to give places, dates, names, etc. to the best of your recollection. VA then sent off info to DOA, DON&MC, DOAF, to verify that you were in these places at that the time stated, in the unit, hospital, whatever. My best friend and I filed, after years of debate, within a week of each other. (he was 1/327th, 101Abn, Ah Shau valley his whole tour). We each have CIB’s and Purple Hearts. It took 23 months to get our claims through but they were verified by DOA. 2 years is a bit ridiculous, especially if the person is trying to survive, but all was verified. Now….learn the diagnosis and just say you were in life threatening conditions…bingo….a check. I was totally against the new criteria, but always felt that 2 years was crazy also. So, instead of the pendulum going to the middle….it’s gone completely to the other side and that’s why we’re getting all this crap. Vetting a veterans credentials is not a bad thing…only the time sucked. Now…no vetting. Sad.
Honor and Courage
The problem is that no one has an incentive to stop this BS. VA officials are too afraid of accidentally cutting bennies to someone who actually deserves it, that they go overboard in making sure everyone gets approved.
Toni; I have heard of that happening and unfortunately, I have a neighbor who was in country VN and has depression and other ailments that could quite possibly have a tie-in to his time there. We got him to go to the VA where he was sent to the shrink, had the full boat med exams, etc. Before he even had finished with all the exams they wanted him to have they had sent out a preliminary letter stating he was being denied! That was the Minneapolis VA, which is the one I go to, but I don’t think it matters which VA you go to, St. Cloud or Minneapolis, the paperwork gets shuffled by the same people. I’m sorry to hear about your young Vet. Usually the CVSO (County Veterans Service Officer) can get things moving. One other thing to remember is to get the Dept. Service Officer from one of the VSOs, like the VFW, AL, etc. involved by invoking them as the Vet’s representative to follow up the claim being filed with the VA. I think the reason mine processed quickly (well, quick but low-balled) was because I provided all my med records documenting it all. Good luck with your Vet’s case.
I look at it this way–I’ve got (slight) hearing loss. I’ve got scars from steam piping burns. You get the idea. And NO, I’ve never applied for a disability, nor will I ever. I look at myself at my age and consider myself incredibly lucky compared to some folks who have served and have come out far, far worse.
If you’re applying for benefits 40 years after the fact, you weren’t that bad off to begin with.
Sparky…without getting into a long diatribe..you’re not correct about that 40 year thing. There are lots of reasons that veterans have waited to file claims. Sometimes as your body ages, old wounds that didn’t bother you then, bother you now. Agent Orange problems occurred later in life. There are PTSD triggers….9-11, today’s wars, etc. that can have an effect on a veterans life well after the fact. In my case, I was going to have to leave my job due to medical reasons caused by Vietnam. I wasn’t ready to retire yet had too. I’ve written about it before. So, I decided to file as this is exactly what compensation is about. I didn’t file for years and knew I could, but thought I was getting along good when others weren’t. So…there are good reasons some vets have waited. See what happens to that “slight” hearing loss when you are in your 60’s, 70’s…. You made need their help. I sure hope not.
Honor and Courage
Sparky-
the happy compromise is to apply for disability but request a 0% rating. That way your issues are documented, but you don’t collect a check that you feel you are not entitled to.
1AirCav69; That’s the way I was. I didn’t file for almost 20 years and it took convincing by others to get me to file.
“But these cases “are rarer than rare,” said Lempke, now an aide to U.S. Sen. Mike Johanns, because the VA’s screening process is so stringent.” So stringent that jackhole would have gotten a lifetime of VA benefits had he not gotten greedy?
PTSD will be this generation’s VA cash cow. The symptoms, and exposure requirements are so broad, and the VA mindset so determined, that it is easier to claim PTSD than to be excluded.
Disclaimer: I’m a member of the DAV.
Recommend using the DAV Service Officer. For whatever reason, those folks get results. Whenever a vet has a question, concern, or issue, I tell them to call the SO.
Sparky,
I agree with 1AirCav69 and Dave Thul in their comments. Most of the folks I saw in the VA were VN vets. The basic theme for them was: as soon as they were discharged they wanted to get far away from our government, and considered their health issues to be normal. Only when they’d reached a point in their lives where they could take a breath and look back did they understand that their normal is not ordinary.
And, 0%-but-documented is just a hedge bet against the future. You may change your mind, or have it changed for you.
I stand corrected in the last sentence of my remarks. But I certainly have no intention of applying for benefits to which I personally feel I am not entitled.
Sparky…I would take Dave O’s and Dave T’s advice. You have earned it. You just never know what will happen to you in life…believe me. I also respect you for your beliefs.
Dave O’s correct. Many of us didn’t have a clue anyway as to what we were entitled to. I spent 14 years paying for my own treatment for my hip as it desintigrated into nothing. Only when I could no longer walk and had no money did I call the VA. The phone counselor was a Vietnam Vet and told me straight out that I had been screwed for 14 years. My medical records indicated that the hip would only get worse. When some other vets tried to get me into treatment for PTSD…which it wasn’t called then, I wouldn’t go if it had anything to do with the VA. When I was told it was a DAV Program, (Forgotten Warrior Project), I went and it saved my life. It took me off the path to destruction and from then on spent my working life dedicated to helping vets and active duty. God Bless those that started that project. Even in retirement I’m the local Service Officer for the MOPH.
OT…I think you, me, and my buddies were too proud and had worked for everything we’d ever owned. I’d never taken a “hand out” in my life. I think I felt as Sparky does. Took some real convincing to get me to understand I EARNED my benefits. I have no problem shaving every morning.
I sure hope Bobo’s wrong….I hope morals and scruples win out….but with the new process for PTSD claims….I fear he could be right.
Honor and Courage
What could stop the fraud is a lack of imagination.
We live in an age wherein if any one of us applied for a credit card, or bought anything online, the merchandisers know our name, SSN, address to send the bill, credit history, cars you drive, credit card numbers with the special extra numbers, and so on.
If I go to Amazon and buy a book, and then go to Cabela’s for fly-fishing material and use the same card – one database system collects and fuzes the information into one record – mine.
And the VA and DOD can’t do this why?
Dave…the VA has one of the most advanced medical computer systems in the world. It really is a work of art. DOD’s medical system sucks and I know doctors that have left the military because of it. A few years back the DOD was looking for another new system. They had been wasteing millions on junk. VA offered their system to DOD. One of the main benefits is obvious, VA and DOD computers could talk to each other. Info transferred in seconds when discharged, retired, etc. DOD refused. Then next system we got was worse. I know many of our mental health records disappeared into cyberspace. I asked how these records can be pulled when a vet makes a claim he was treated at NHB in Behavioral Health. I just got blank stares. There was nobody to handle that request and get into specific MH files.
DOD doesn’t want to. VA offered in this particular case. Would seem everybody wants their own bowl of rice at DOD.
Honor and Courage
@#18-1AC69 “Would seem everybody wants their own bowl of rice at DOD.” That pretty well sums up government info sharing systems all together.
1AirCav69; I guess what Sparky said in #15 is what I felt and still do feel, as well. The reason it took me so long to file (now that I think about it, it was 22 years) is I have always thought that there are those that are much more worthy and deserving to get it than I. I’m no one special and I didn’t think that mine was that important. Mine isn’t much and that doesn’t bother me at all. My issues will get progressivly worse as I get older and that’s why they wanted me to file, so it could be taken care of later on.
A friend of mine went back in a couple years ago and injured his back in pre-deployment training. He let it go until he got back and then had surgery at the VA in Minneapolis. He now gets 100% and one of our other friends, who is also a Vet, has a problem with him getting the full load, because he sees him out crawling around at frontier days events and working underneath wagons, etc., everything that he could do before (which to me is a testament to a successful surgery) but now he doesn’t work, which he still could do if he wanted to, and instead just lives off the disability. I told our friend that whether we like it or not, it doesn’t matter, he earned it and if he chooses not to work, then that’s his call. What he was getting at is that there are wounded and injured troops that are more in need of that money than he is. I say live and let live. I didn’t go through what he did; so who am I to say what he should get?
Part of the VA’s problem is that they have to have numbers to justify their existence, and the bigger the numbers, the bigger the existence. Hence, the little to no accountability WRT PTSD. Anyone who has been shot at is honestly going to exhibit some manifestations of PTSD, but, if it isn’t debilitating, there shouldn’t be any disability payment. I know an “officer” who was sent TDY to Baghram for a month, and spent two weeks there before the “officer” was returned to home station with PTSD. No ACM, no ICM, no badge with a wreath. This “officer” has a background in psychology, so playing the game, and having been in Afghanistan, regardless of the fact that the most stress this person was under was getting to the chow hall before they ran out of banana pudding or to the gym before the line for the Cybex machine was too long, will guarantee some level of VA disability for PTSD.
The other cash cow is, honestly, sleep apnea. Every male in my office, except me, has been diagnosed with it, and, according to the retirees working here, it is a 50% disability. We have become an Army of CPAP machines. How the hell sleep apnea can be attributed to military service, I don’t know.
You didn’t file for 20 years Old Trooper becuase their is nothing wrong with you.
Yeah, you’re correct Richter, except when I see your name, it always registers in my mind as sphincter. Who woulda thunk it?
Bobo….a perfect example of why I’m so against the new protocol for PTSD. It cheapens those that really do have it and turns something that is real into something to snicker about. It’s like giving out Purple Hearts for heat exhaustion. I also knew a Navy Chief who was retiring and getting at least 50% for Sleep Apnea. Here’s the problem as explained to me by a DAV NSO. I complained to him about my real combat vets and what they were going through, in the “old” days to get a PTSD Eval yet people suffering from mental disorders that are organic and could never be caused by service have no problem getting awards. He said that it has taken years for the all the National Service Organizations to fight the VA to get benefits for veterans. The VA would shoot just about anything down as SERVICE CONNECTED. They eventually convinced congress that if it happens in service or aggrivated by service then it must be considered “service connected”. That’s the short version but basically the VA nit picked everything and the Service Orgs don’t want to see it go back to that. Now…50%rating for sleep apnea? Not sure how it rates that.
Honor and Courage
So, sphincter; are you still planning your trip up here in August? I’m just wondering so I can have a happy meal ready for you when you get here. Do you want the boy or girl toy with yours?
When my Nasty Guard unit demobilized and got to home station, the VA rep there referred to my (shiny new) combat action badge as a “30% badge,” telling me that it was documented combat stress and good for 30% disability right off the bat. I respected the little gold jump wing pin on his suit collar and smiled and nodded, but I’ll be damned if I consider myself 30% broken for an occasional nightmare.
Sig
as the wife of dustin all i have to say is that you don’t know anthing but what this papers said. There is more to this story then what they are leading on. I know that you only see the fraud and the money he “Stole” from the Government but he is much more then a con artist trying to get cash. he didn’t even care about the money.