Jim Strickland Speaks

By Jim Strickland, Vets Advocate, VAwatchdog.org

As the year 2007 comes to it's end, I thought I'd take a moment to
reflect on a few of the Veterans I've been honored to know in the past
12 months. It's a privilege and a great joy that I'm able to connect
to so many fine people and sometimes lend a hand.


Although I'm a grouchy and curmudgeonly sort by my nature, I wanted to
end the year on a high note. My intent was to dig deep into the cellar
of my inbox and root out the success stories.


It seemed to me it would be a kind and gentle thing to do; sharing
with you the happy days of winning deserved benefits for those who
have had the courage to don the uniform, accept the harsh duty of
serving in the military of our great nation and in the process,
sustaining lasting physical and mental wounds.


I've failed.


I don't have any big success stories in dealing with the VBA. I'll end
the year knowing that my brothers and sisters who served so bravely
are continuing to struggle with a government that views them as so
much cannon fodder, a disposable piece of broken equipment to be used
up and thrown away.


No matter the eloquence of slick politicians as they address us, the
stark reality is that our government's obligation "To care for him who
shall have borne the battle and for his widow and orphan" has not been
met. It was 1959 when President Lincoln's words became the motto of
what is now the Department of Veterans Affairs. Each year since then,
the DVA has fallen farther behind in its duty to serve.


The DVA presents a tightly closed door to the neediest of Veterans.
The wounded, sick or injured Veteran who seeks help must go to the
division of the DVA that deals with disability compensation benefits,
the Veterans Benefits Administration.


Before any monetary help is parceled out, the Veteran must stand up to
that most adversarial agency of our government, the VBA. The Veteran
seeking assistance is guilty until proven innocent at VBA. He or she
is seen as guilty of overstating pain, injury, conditions of battle,
time of service and even the status of discharge. More than anything,
the Veteran is looked down on by VBA as if we were wanting something
for nothing...we're beggars looking for a handout.


The arrogance of the organization is steeped in its tradition and runs
to its very core. The BVA doesn't have any requirements to serve the
Veteran in a timely fashion. If deserved benefits are delayed by one
or two years, it's routine. There are countless examples of benefits
delayed for 5 and more years, mired in bureaucratic red tape. There
are no negative consequences to any VBA employee, manager or director
in any instance that this occurs. VA Regional Office managers
routinely receive year end bonuses of $15,000.00 or more no matter
that the Veterans in their service area are suffering dehumanizing,
degrading personal financial losses because of VBA delays. As the GAO
was reporting that benefits claims fell behind for the 3rd year in a
row, VBA management was busy back slapping and celebrating hefty
bonuses.


If a Veteran doesn't timely respond to a notice from VBA however, the
consequences are immediate and near impossible to reverse. If you fail
to return a questionnaire within 60 days or you can't make it to a C &
P exam, your benefits will be suspended with little notice and you'll
spend months, maybe years to reinstate them.


VBA doesn't have to answer your questions. If you call to ask the
status of your appeal, you're most likely to hear no more than a rude
reply that it's being worked on. If you write to your VARO, it's most
often the case that you won't ever receive a reply. If you've called
your Congressman's office and they inquire, they will receive a
soothing form letter telling them that "all is well, these things just
take time".


If the VBA queries you and you don't respond, the game ends. You lose.


I'll close 2007 thinking of the stunningly poor service given by VBA
to Veterans like these following;


In North Carolina, early in the year, the Veteran Marine was diagnosed
with lung cancer. He was a Vietnam Vet and it's established that his
crippling, fatal disease is service connected because of exposure to
Agent Orange. His cancer soon invaded his brain and he was quickly
becoming paralyzed and unable to care for himself. He lost bowel and
bladder control and frequently fell to the floor.


The letters came from the VARO to assure him that his condition was
only temporary and that he was not permanently and totally disabled.
His spouse was not allowed to receive any additional benefits as the
VBA was sure that on his calendared reexamination in 2009, there would
be measurable improvements. Some 10 months after his diagnosis, he was
dead.


In Florida, the Veteran soldier suffers from PTSD and severe psychoses
that are connected to his service. He's often housebound and bedridden
due to side effects of his anti-psychotic medicines. He's been rated
as 100% IU for over 3 years and was told that in October 2007 he would
be notified to report for reexamination to assess his "temporary"
condition. These reexaminations are conducted with the express intent
of looking for a way to reduce your benefit.


The notice for reexamination never came. In November he received a
letter from his VARO that his family was now eligible for CHAMPVA
benefits and that they were welcome to apply. As CHAMPVA benefits are
reserved for dependents of Veterans who are 100% permanently and
totally disabled, it was apparent that his file had been reviewed and
no exam was necessary to award him this deserved benefit. When he
started the process of application to CHAMPVA, he was suddenly
notified that a mistake had been made and he was given a one week
notice to report for reexamination or he would lose his benefits.


His fragile mental health was sent spiraling down and when we last
spoke, he was terrified and in tears for fear of losing everything.


In Illinois, the young wife of the Iraq war Marine Veteran wrote me in
an attempt to understand why her Veteran husband was rated at only 30%
disabled. After 2 grueling combat tours, he was a shell of his former
self and afflicted with nightmares, unbridled anger, an inability to
face the daily challenges of life and speech that was slurred from his
powerful medications.


Unable to hold a job, he had crawled into a hole and often refused to
shave, bathe, change clothes, groom himself or even play with his
young children. Although he had confessed to random thoughts of
suicide, he wasn't being scheduled for any particular aggressive
therapy and no proactive services were being offered to him by VBA or
his clinic. With 2 young children at home, she was unable to work and
had to take care of her Veteran too.


All she asked was that the VBA help them with a little more money
before they become homeless. Some treatment for the Marine would be
fine too but their first thoughts are to simply survive.


In California, the Vet had been diagnosed with an Agent Orange related
lung cancer. His wife had a good family plan health insurance from her
work and he took his treatments at a civilian facility long before he
gave the VBA any thought. After months of radiation therapy,
chemotherapy and a diagnosis of a stage 4b terminal cancer, he finally
got around to applying for his deserved benefits.


His VARO soon gave him the award of a service connection that ceded
that his lung cancer was related to his exposure to Agent Orange while
he served in Vietnam. Although he had lost his job, was on a
continuous doses of morphine and other narcotics for pain, couldn't
breathe without his daily nebulizer breathing treatments, had
developed diabetes and hypertension and was mostly housebound...his
VBA awarded him a 0% (Zero Percent) rating.


Their logic was that his disease, those tumors occupying that large
space in his lungs, had "stabilized" and soon he would show
improvement. Later, VBA would relent and award 100% but only as a
temporary condition. He was soon reexamined and VBA saw improvement
enough to attempt to lower his rating from 100% to 60%. That he had
become dependent on tanks of oxygen in his home and increasing doses
of narcotics to control his pain didn't have much effect on the VARO
decision makers. He's appealed and has waited months for any final
word.


In Missouri is the female Veteran who injured her back in training.
She wrote to me to ask why she had been denied a raise in her benefits
to the level of 100% IU. There was a lot of evidence to support her
injury and the VBA had granted her 30% years ago. She'd had spine
surgery by the VHA that was well documented to have been only
partially successful. After years of work and dealing with her
worsening pain, she'd been fired from her job as she couldn't perform
the tasks required to keep up. Attempts to find employment were
futile...she was on a lot of pain medicine and couldn't pass the sorts
of employment drug screening that so many employers require today. She
remains unemployed.


She went to civilian doctors and obtained MRI exams that VA wouldn't
provide. The MRI reports were clear that she has suffered progressive
worsening of her condition. Her VA doctor recommended to her that she
apply for IU.


After 3 years of waiting, innumerable visits to physicians and
physical therapy, now wearing a back brace and in intractable pain and
dependent on narcotics, she's been notified that her condition doesn't
warrant any increase, there will be no unemployability award and she
is now scheduled for reexamination in 2009 as the VBA anticipates that
there will be improvement in her condition.


According to her VARO, she's fine and needs to get up and go to work.


Across America I've received dozens of letters from Navy Veterans who
served off the coast of Vietnam. They recall the days when clouds of
misting Agent Orange drifted across their deck as they provided
support for the fighting on shore. They remember going ashore with
mail and other supplies to deliver those goods to troops on the
ground. Both air and water craft that had been used in the delivery of
that deadly herbicide were stored above and below decks and today,
these proud sailors are dying of prostate cancer, lung cancer and
diabetes...all diseases presumed to have a connection to exposure to
Agent Orange.


But, your VBA has drawn a line in the sand. No matter what the federal
courts have ruled, no matter what common sense and reasonable judgment
would tell us, these vets aren't going to get what they earned because
of an arbitrary decision by VBA that they didn't have boots on the
Vietnamese soil thus there was no exposure to Agent Orange.


I've failed today. Out of the hundreds, maybe a thousand or more
emails I've received in 2007, I can't bring you any good news from
your Department of Veterans Affairs.


We had a single moment of hope in 2007 as Secretary Nicholson resigned
after a disastrous tenure blighted by computer data theft. His brief
reign at DVA may go down in the books as one of the worst ever. He
accomplished nothing while the VBA got ever more behind in
adjudication of benefits claims. We had a brief hope that finally a
secretary might be appointed who would make the change called for by
GAO, The Veterans Disability Benefits Commission and many others.


That hope was quickly dashed however. There will be no sweeping
reform. The swift confirmation of another favored insider, Dr. James
Peake, was one of those backhanded slaps to our faces we've learned to
expect from our VA.


Peake was the chief medical director and chief operating officer of
QTC Management Inc., providing Compensation and Pension examination
services for the VBA. Former VA Secretary Anthony Principi is Chairman
of the QTC board.


The VBA pays untold millions of dollars to QTC and even the VBA is
often forced to admit that many of the exams are worthless, full of
error, inadequate, rushed by poorly trained and unsupervised examiners
who provide a great disservice to the injured Veteran.


In any other arena, these sorts of back and forth ties would have the
popular press screaming for RICO indictments. In our world, the world
of the Veteran and the DVA, it goes unnoticed. Another day, another
slap to all Veterans.


Thank you sir, may I have another?


After all that though, we did win one. We won a single momentous,
historic battle in 2007.


This victory gives us hope that we will watch as VBA experiences the
shock and awe of a legal onslaught, a tsunami of actions by the only
friends a Veteran will have while facing the VBA.


On June 20th 2007 Veterans won the right to approach the Veterans
Benefits Administration with an attorney advocate at their side. Prior
to June Veterans were only allowed to use the services of a Veterans
Service Officer as they faced off on a battlefield with the VBA. No
matter how well meaning some VSO's may have been, they were largely
untrained and had few skills beyond helping you to complete some
forms. Many were volunteers and only worked a few hours each week,
eagerly accepting the glory of their positions and basking in the
light of self importance.


It was disheartening to watch the process of legislation of the act
that would allow Vets to retain a licensed, skilled, motivated
attorney. Most of the Veterans Service Organizations, those very
people who say they represent our interests, sided with the DVA and
worked against their own Veteran membership.


Led by the 800 pound gorilla that is the Disabled American Veterans
(DAV) group, the VFW and many others fell into lock step and marched
along, beating a loud drum to announce that we Veterans didn't need
lawyers. They were nearly successful in knocking the legislation off
the tracks with back room lobbying and expensive marketing to our
elected lawmakers.


We won.


Today hundreds of lawyers across America are jumping into the fray.
These are good lawyers. These are men and women, licensed and
certified professionals who have been advocating for Americans with
disabilities in other courtrooms for years. Their practices are often
limited strictly to people with disabilities. Their paycheck depends
on their success in representing their clients.


Unlike the DAV or VFW Veterans Service Officer, these lawyers aren't
on a salary that pays them for losing. If you don't win, these lawyers
don't get paid. Unlike the DAV, you won't be encouraged by your lawyer
to fork over money for a "lifetime membership" or buy a colorful hat
with a cute little pin on it. All your attorney wants to do is win,
it's not a game to them.


The lawyer won't accept your case if it's not justified. Attorneys are
strictly held to canons of ethics by their governing bodies. If a
lawyer is known to file a frivolous claim that has no merit, they may
be harshly punished. The VSO isn't held to those rules or any rules at
all. There is no standard across America that defines a qualified
VSO...take a short quiz and you're in.


I've already set up a pattern of referring to attorneys who I've
concluded are going to work hard for us. I've surprised myself in
making a referral sooner in the process than I thought I would. It's
paying off. I'm hearing of decisions that are being won by lawyers
soon after they've taken the case. I expect that in 2008 I'll refer
many more than I'd anticipated.


I also know that your VARO is in for a surprise. As I write this these
lawyers are in meetings training themselves and each other in the
intricacies of VBA law. They're networking and talking to each other
and to me. Law schools are beginning to design curricula to train
lawyers in VBA law. The machine is rolling.


At your VARO there will be the shock and awe of 10, then 20 and then
40 lawyers who won't accept being turned away by the gatekeepers at
VBA. Unlike your local good ol' boy VSO, the lawyer who advocates for
you will be quick to discover how to use the courts to force that door
open.


I've said it before; these lawyers aren't used to being treated
discourteously. They won't accept delaying and stalling tactics. The
dynamic of the process at VBA will change at your VARO as 2008 marches
along and that's a huge win for veterans, one of the best ever.


There is hope. If we won that one, we can win more. Maybe my 2008
won't be quite as gloomy and filled with the stories I told you of
earlier.


I'll be here in '08, fighting by your side, covering your back and
cheering for those lawyers who want to stand up for America's heroes.


Merry Christmas and a joyous New Year to all my Brothers and Sisters.


May God bless every one of you.