My "Veterans Advocate" title came about as I was writing independent guides for Vets as they navigated the choppy waters of the VA. I was picked up as a columnist  and we

needed something to put on my byline.

Not very exciting is it? Here's the background...

I'm a retired guy...100% IU and I also receive SSDI benefits. I'm a military brat...Marine Corps...born at a Naval hospital. Dad was an E-9 and I didn't know of a civilian life until he retired.

During my Army military service from 67-70 I was injured in a training accident. I never saw combat and I'm not a Vietnam Veteran. I trained as MOS 91D-20 (Operating Room Specialist-Medic) at Ft Sam and on my way to RVN I was suddenly plucked from a crowd and shipped to 98th General Hospital in Germany.

I enjoyed my service and made my E-5 at about 15 months in. I got out in 70 and followed a career in health care, attending but never graduating from college. I was very successful becoming a cath lab technician, manager, heart surgery center director, VP of services at hospitals and consulting firms and then a few years ago my conditions caught up with me and I couldn't get to work.

I had a small SC rating and asked that it be increased. I was advised to use a VSO who shall remain unnamed but the initials are DAV. Eventually I realized that my VSO was my worst nightmare. Lost paperwork, unanswered calls, 5 different reps in 2 years, etc. My plea was a shambles.

I fired my VSO and took the reins myself about 6 years ago. I began a self study program of how the system works.

I had put an ex-wife through law school so I was no stranger to legal volumes, language and processes. In my career, I'd done a bit of work in the medical device industry and had learned government processes from FDA, DOJ, CDC and some others. I spent time then in Washington and saw the system at work...or not as the case may be.

Legal and other gobbledygook was no barrier and I wrote a mean memo in my corporate days.  Eventually, I won my plea with VBA and had already left the work force. I used a lawyer for SSDI and won that before my VBA claim.

I was spending a lot of time at home and decided to teach myself how to build web sites using HTML and other tools. I began to blog, cataloguing reference works mostly as an exercise for my brain.

That's about when Larry Scott of VAWatchdog and I began communicating. He offered some bandwidth for me to reach a larger audience and to say I was flattered is an understatement. I was picked up later by  The Veterans Voice.

I receive no compensation for anything I do. I do this out of a sense of giving to Veterans who are confused. I do not represent people to VA.

My goal is to spread as much information in plain English as I can, making it understandable to Joe Sixpak. I do pick and choose carefully a few select vets who are really desperate and I make it personal. I make phone calls, write letters and just last week drove some 300 miles to meet with a deputy sheriff in a small town who had severe PTSD issues.

In that case, I reassured him that he was in good hands. He was being represented by a Georgia State/County VSO. I never refer to DAV, VFW, AL, etc. and always refer to the state or county folks. You understand why, I'm sure.

I get much help/info from "inside". I have anonymous VBA sources who correspond with me from their homes...never from a VA computer...and will review a lot of detail with me. I also have a couple of lawyers who help me with complex issues.

It's my perspective that 90% of this stuff is just rote and if accomplished correctly the first time results in an easy award. The other 10% can be sheer terror, particularly if someone else botched it...like my claim.

I'm very pro VA. I'm a volunteer and work at my local clinic as well as the VAMC hospital when I'm up to it. I'm very involved in the Veterans History Project and I've been taken to Washington by the VA to work on the MyHealthEVet web site. Even today I'm asked by VA to sit in on nationwide conference calls to speak from a user perspective on Evet.

I speak at local high schools about Vets and VA services.

I've coerced my Congressman last year to sign on as a co-sponsor to the Veterans Right To Representation Bill and I'm working to have him get active in overturning the current bill to repeal our washed out 'win'.

I love my VA health care and as a health care professional I feel qualified to know that we have it good! I have a chronic pain issue and get outstanding care. I'm a lifelong biker and still sometimes get to ride my Harley.

There you have it...much more than you ever wanted to know.

If I may ever be of any service, please ask.

Best,

Jim