Don't Be Stupid, Get the Truth

Thom Stoddert

Veterans keep making stupid mistakes when dealing with the VA while a simple understanding of the VA  would keep the frustration levels way down from the start. Understanding the basics of how the VA worksalso goes a long way in insuring the benefits sought will be successfully awarded.

Recently I was at my Viet Nam re-union when our commander asked me to talk to a fellow trooper. After talking to the veteran for a few moments, I realized he was very confused about the VA. It seems that a VA hospital employee told him that his Combat Infantry Badge would guarantee him a 100% rating evaluation for PTSD. No matter what we said to him, we could not get through to him that this was not so, thus elevating his frustration level toward the VA and at the re-union. Where did he go wrong?

First of all the vet did not realize that the VA is made up of several departments just like with the Department of Defense with the Army, Navy and Air Force. Often the different departments of VA do not communicate well. There is the Cemetery Dept., it handles burial benefits. Then there is the Hospital Administration that provides medical benefits.  Finally, there is the Veteran’s Benefits Administration (VBA). This department is the Regional Office in each state that determines what benefits the other departments can give to a veteran. The VBA determines whether the applicant is even eligible for medical care, burial benefits, or compensation. It is the VBA, through the various Regional Offices, that a veteran applies to for service connection of a medical condition, which allows the hospital to treat free. The VBA can make the determination that a person who  received a less than honorable discharge is not eligible for any VA benefits or medical treatment. Therefore, it is the federal laws under which the VBA operates that a veteran must comply with in order to receive benefits. The Veteran’s Hospital Administration has its federal laws that it works under in order to provide medical services.

All of this just to say a hospital employee, no mater how well intentioned, will rarely understand the workings of the Regional Office. The veteran at the re-union was given bad information.

Secondly, a combat medal has no effect on the rating percentage that is awarded for any medical condition.  I keep hearing from veterans, “I have a Combat Infantry Badge, they should have given me a 100% for PTSD,” or I hear, “I have two campaign ribbons from Viet Nam, why did they deny me service connection for PTSD”? The answer is simple, campaign ribbons are not awards for direct participation in combat. Campaign ribbons signify that the vet was attached to a unit that was in combat or supported combat operations. It does not signify the individual was in combat. A combat medal such as the Combat Infantry Medal or the Combat Action Ribbon does identify the individual as having been in combat. These medals also meet the VA’s first requirement for service connection of PTSD, that a verified in-service stressor be identified. In other words, combat medals provide evidence of a stressor that led to PTSD and it was incurred in service, nothing more, and nothing less.

Finally, the veteran at my re-union had a very closed mind. It was like a steel block, nothing the commander or I told him would make a dent in what he believed was true. I have met many vets like that. They have been given wrong information, most often from a friend who is flat out wrong. Yet, because what they have been  told is more beneficial than the truth, they won’t give up the myth. The VA and VA laws are complex, so be willing to give up half truths for the real information. Stay away from “sh** house lawyers” and get the get info from the best source, the VA. Even  after working there for several years I still check with friends at the VA for accuracy.