Combat PTSD Compensation

Nice & Easy

2018-07-29T05:43:00.001-04:00

National Vietnam War Veterans Day March 29

2018-03-21T12:27:00.001-04:00

Our National Day

March 29 is National Vietnam War Veterans Day that President Trump signed into law from the Vietnam War Veterans Recognition Act of 2017.

I don't know how most of us Nam veterans survived in the years after the war. I was told to get back to El Toro Marine Base with the "rest of the animals" by the California Highway Patrol because I was trying to hitch a ride on a freeway ramp because we hadn't been paid and we had no money. They gave me a ticket. I tore it up.

I was spit on at LAX by war protesters from Berkeley and other Communist preaching schools, who were also giving blood to the North Vietnamese and calling us baby killers. We were under strict orders not to react while in the Marine Corps uniform. That was hard to do.

I came home alone late at night. My parents didn't have a car. No one greeted us. We were jerked out of the war and thrust back into civilian life without any time to adjust. I took a cab home. The driver had a brother in Vietnam so at least he understood.

I went downtown with my mother in uniform, and people crossed the street to avoid us. My Italian mother was angry about that. The war helped to kill her at a young age. My sister told me she cried every night I was gone. Once a military car stopped at the house and they came to our door. She thought I had been killed and lost it. Turns out they were looking for the guy next door who had gone AWOL and they got the wrong house.

I went to the American Legion with my father, a WW2 Navy vet. He introduced me as a Marine Nam vet. The Legion Members said: "Oh, we were in a real war not some police action."

My father grabbed my arm and we left, and he never went back. That's how we were treated back then. The Legion, VFW...none of them wanted us. When the WW2 guys started dying...then they wanted us, but it was too late. Most of us were bitter at the way we had been treated.

A few weeks after I came home my friend John Englert called me and told his brother Jimmy had been killed. At the funeral, his mother screamed at me because I had survived and Jimmy didn't. I could understand why she did that because of her agony, but it still made me angry. Everyone except our families seemed to been against us.

The VA back then would treat any veteran for anything, but I had to wait sometimes for six hours to see a doctor. We had to sit in the hall on the floor next to bodies on gurneys. They never had chairs back then. The doctors were medical students who probably knew about as much as we did about medicine. It was not a positive experience at all. I stayed away from the VA for a long time. They didn't have time to deal with Nam veterans.

I don't know how many of us are left, but those Nam veterans I know have been some of my best friends over the years. I truly believe we were and are the true last knights in shining armor because we answered the call without question and signed away our lives to defend our country at a time when we would have everyone against us. Our lives were forever changed. For a long time we were just considered to be psycho killers...for no reason other than we fought for our country when millions of others wouldn't.

I'm glad that perception is changing, but still when I hear someone called a hero today just because they graduated from boot camp, it makes me cringe. I can't help it. It's all about the way we were treated. For Nam vets, that will probably never change

PTSD Years Later: Stopping Therapy (Or Taking A Break)

2017-12-22T06:29:00.000-05:00

My question is this.

I am 100% P&T for PTSD. I have been in therapy for 16 years with no real cure. I am fed up with therapy and want to stop. Will the VA reduce me if I stop therapy? Yes I am P&T with no future exams scheduled. I have Champ VA for my wife and children and education benefits for them. I have been 100% for 9 years. I know that 20 years at 100% they can’t reduce me unless fraud is involved. But if for some reason I am called in for a review.....can they reduce me because I stopped treatment (therapy).

Answer:

I stopped direct therapy about five years after my T&P rating. I had gone to therapy almost five years before I was service-connected for PTSD. I went back years later for the 12 week PTSD session outpatient.

Like all the rest of it, it never did me any good. If you have been in group or individual for 16 years, they can’t say you are not accepting treatment. Tell them it’s not doing any good. They know there is no cure. Then just don’t make any appointments and tell them you want to take a break. Sometimes therapy can make you feel worse after a session than you did before a session. That’s why I stopped, and one time my therapist fell asleep so I said screw this. They can’t cut you, and if you are P&T with no future exams, they are not going to mess with you. Don’t worry about getting cut.

Working While Rated Unemployable

2017-09-15T17:06:00.000-04:00

Marginal Employment

Some veterans will argue that when you have reached unemployable status, you are supposed to stay at home and sit in your house, or spend all your time at the VA. They are terrified of doing anything that could be remotely related to work, but the Code of Federal Regulations does not require a veteran to stop functioning.

4.17 Total disability ratings for pension based on unemployability.

All veterans who are basically eligible and who are unable to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation by reason of disabilities which are likely to be permanent shall be rated as permanently and totally disabled. For the purpose of pension, the permanence of the percentage requirements of 4.16 is a requisite. (One disability at 60% or above, or a 70% combination of two or more, with one being at least 40%.)

When the percentage requirements are met, and the disabilities involved are of a permanent nature, a rating of permanent and total disability will be assigned if the veteran is found to be unable to secure and follow substantially gainful employment by reason of such disability. Prior employment or unemployment status is immaterial if in the judgment of the rating board the veteran's disabilities render him or her unemployable. In making such determinations, the following guidelines will be used:

(a) Marginal employment, for example, as a self-employed farmer or other person, while employed in his or her own business, or at odd jobs or while employed at less than half the usual remuneration will not be considered incompatible with a determination of unemployability, if the restriction, as to securing or retaining better employment, is due to disability.

(from 4.16) Marginal employment shall not be considered substantially gainful employment. For purposes of this section, marginal employment generally shall be deemed to exist when a veteran's earned annual income does not exceed the amount established by the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of the Census, as the poverty threshold for one person. Marginal employment may also be held to exist, on a facts found basis (includes but is not limited to employment in a protected environment such as a family business or sheltered workshop), when earned annual income exceeds the poverty threshold. Consideration shall be given in all claims to the nature of the employment and the reason for termination.

(b) Claims of all veterans who fail to meet the percentage standards but who meet the basic entitlement criteria and are unemployable, will be referred by the rating board to the Adjudication Officer .

What all this means is that you don’t have to stop trying to earn some money when you are considered unemployable. The VA will, according to a letter I received a few weeks ago, check Social Security and IRS records on you each year when you are rated unemployable, even if self-employed. So, in theory, if you work a job involving taxes you will be hassled, if you make a ton of money. (The law doesn’t provide much incentive to improve yourself if you are declared unemployable.)

In part b above, the law states that you can file for unemployability at any percentage if you can’t work based on a service-connected condition. The VA and probably the service organizations will frown on this, but it is your right to file for unemployability if you can’t work. Don’t ley anyone tell you that you can’t file. It is the law.

(From the S-2 Report Newsletter)

Contact email

Dennis Latham Books of War and Other Creepy Things

The Trump Budget and Individual Uemployability

2017-06-01T16:44:00.007-04:00

The Trump Budget and IU

There are rumors that the Trump budget will force everyone who is of retirement age (62) off of IU and on to Social Security alone to save money. This would mean a massive cut for seniors on Individual Unemployability who need it the most. Most vets would lose over half their income.

This won't fly, and I will tell you why. If you are unemployable, you are considered 100%. Just because you lose the IU because of budget cuts does not mean you are suddenly employable.

The VA would have to review every single case based on the level of disability, (even if they are eligible to collect Social Security because many people work past retirement age), and probably have to make everyone drawing IU before the budget cut 100% schedular.

You are not suddenly employable once again just because they cut your funding. And if you are too old to work by then, they just can't cut your money and benefits to save funds. So you would switch from say 80% IU to 100% schedular. Same-same.

I don’t think the cuts will ever happen, and if it does, I believe those already on IU will stay there based on their age.

In my own case, I’m 70 years old. I'm 130% disabled (combined 90%) but next February I will have 20 years on IU rating. After 20 years of the same rating the VA is not supposed to be able to cut your percentage. You stay that way for life.

Diet Soda: Is It A Killer?

2017-04-22T10:14:00.001-04:00

Diet Soda Killer?

I've seen two articles this morning on how bad a diet soda is for you. You have to be shitting me. All along they say you shouldn't have sugary drinks and now they are saying diet soda causes strokes and dementia...but when all the factors like smoking, age, weight, current medical problems, and health are figured in...the figures don't mean anything and are inconclusive. So in the end it's all bullcrap, probably promoted by the sugary drink manufacturers and the sugar growers.

They should be concentrating on the effects of mixing prescriptions and the many ingredients in the flu shots they now keep trying to push on people, who in nine out of ten cases get the flu anyway. Seems to me they would cause dementia and strokes more than any ingredient in diet soda.

At age 70, I have a case of Type 2 diabetes, which they say is from exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. I was exposed to it...but I never got diabetes until I started taking blood pressure meds, some of which make your blood sugar go up and down. So I quit drinking regular soda and switched to diet. Now they are saying diet soda can kill you?

When I first got back from Vietnam, normal blood sugar levels at the VA were 140 or under. Then it went down to 130. When I was diagnosed it was 125, and that day my blood sugar was 126. Years later, it was an automatic service connection, but since I was already 100% service-connected, the extra 30% didn't matter in the long run. Pretty soon they will have blood sugar levels down to 100, and anything over will be diabetes and you will have to take meds...and the only people happy will be the ones who own the drug companies.

Live your life. If you like diet soda, drink it. They don't really know what causes anything, and sugar is a lot worse for you than no sugar.

PTSD: Temporary Improvement

2017-04-08T07:54:00.000-04:00

PTSD: Temporary

Improvement

You’ve been fighting a long time with symptoms of PTSD, and after the VA grants your claim, you are told that your compensation may be cut in the near future due to a temporary improvement or even just an improvement.

I tell veterans not to worry about this. PTSD is a lot different than a physical disability. Certain physical conditions do show improvement, and the rating percentage can be reduced at some point. But with PTSD, any long term improvement is not likely to happen (at least improvement that would deserve a rating cut).

When you are first service-connected for PTSD, you may be called in for the first couple of years for a Comp Exam, but this doesn’t mean you are going to lose your percentage.

The VA is so swamped with claims right now from the new wars that an easily settled PTSD claim is not going to be called back in any time in the near future. That would just add another claim to the already full docket.

Also, the VA cannot cut a veteran with PTSD for any short term improvement without considering the entire claim history.

One veteran who is currently 100% for Individual Unemployability was told that he would be called in for a future exam because ‘improvement was anticipated with continued therapy’.

Just because a veteran improves on a temporary basis (there is no permanent long-term improvement of PTSD) does not mean the veteran is all of a sudden capable of holding a job, or spending months or years in some Voc Rehab training program. Still, it would be best for the veteran to continue therapy, or start therapy again until the condition is made permanent.

The VA must follow regulations in the CFR (Code of Federal Regulations) before reducing the percentages of any disabled veteran.

Veterans who have held a rating for less than five years are protected under several rules. According to the CFR, the VA must find that there has been an improvement in the level of disability before reducing the percentage rating. The entire history of the disability must be reveiwed. The evidence must show that there has been some positive improvement in the veteran’s ability to live and work. (Improvement does not mean such silly things as your ability to walk your dog down a public street or playing cards once a year...such excuses have been used to cut veterans by saying their social interaction skills have improved).

Any attempt at reduction must also include a current Compensation Exam covering the issue of the disability. A Comp Exam for PTSD which does not include the issues bothering the veteran is not valid.

Veterans with PTSD can expect to keep their percentage without fear of reduction

CUE: When The VA Violates Their Own Laws

2017-01-20T16:38:00.000-05:00

CUE

CUE means the VA did something in your claim which is a clear violation of their own laws. One example can be when a veteran files a claim, the claim remains open until they adjudicate it.

Many times, the claim will sit in a file for years before someone gets around to deciding the issues. Once in a great while, a veteran will submit a claim, and nothing will ever be done about it. Years later, the veteran may submit a new claim for the same disability. If the VA grants the claim, the effective date of the award should be the date of the old claim, not the new one.

This applies only to claims that were never adjudicated. If the VA did anything in the way of rejecting the claim, then it has been adjudicated. I often suggest to every veteran to save every letter or piece of paper they receive from the VA. That way, if you do file for the same disability years after you haven’t heard about an original claim, you have the proof in hand. If you don’t save your paper work, the VA may say you never filed, and you wont be able to prove that you did.

This situation is really not a mistake in the law, but a mistake in applying the law because they didn’t adjudicate your claim. In another case, a veteran was rated at 70% for PTSD and filed for unemployability based on the fact that he couldn’t work. Voc Rehab had turned him down for training, and he was on medication. The VA denied him the 100% rating because they said his isolation from society (typical among vets with PTSD) was self-imposed.

The Code of Federal Regulations doesn’t say anything about self-imposed isolation, as far as I know. The only way you couldn’t have self-imposed isolation is if you were in prison in solitary confinement. The VA never mentioned anything about his inability to work or anything about his work history. The total isolation and withdrawal from society due to PTSD rates 100%.

Not only did the VA violate the law by not examining him for his ability to work, they made up some fiction about his isolation. This is really grabbing at straws on their part, and is a clear violation of their own laws. This claim went to the Veterans Court of Appeals, and was remanded back to the Regional Office to be fixed. It had been going on since 1989. In the end, the veteran was granted 100% going back to 1989. He ended up getting somewhere around 60,000 in back pay.

CUE can be hard to prove, but your service organization will probably be able to spot clear violations in the law, and follow up with you. If the service organization offers to take the case to the Veterans Court of Appeals, you probably have a good chance because they wont take a case they don’t think they can win.

Any veteran rated at 70% for PTSD should file for unemployability when they can’t work.

If you’re not sure about CUE in your claim, ask someone who knows the law. And never give up!

Dennis Latham Books

PTSD Claims & Combined Ratings

2016-12-20T17:40:00.004-05:00

BLT 1/3 Vietnam 1967

PTSD Claims & Combined Ratings

When you file a claim for PTSD, you believe combat stressors have altered your life. Combat stressors are the key to the original rating. The VA admits you experienced events that changed your life forever. When you apply for an percentage increase, the increase is not based on additional stressors. You don't need additional stressors when you apply for an increase.

Some veterans believe the more stressors they submit during the course of the claim, the higher their percentage. After the initial service connection, your percentage is based on your ability to function and support yourself in the work force.

Most combat veterans mistrust authority, which can make life difficult when you job search or try to hold a job. Many veterans who had a position of authority in the service suffer from extreme survivor guilt over troops they lost. They often do not want to be put in a position of responsibility for others again. When you add drinking, drug addiction, paranoia, startle response, lack of sleep, and inability to feel emotions, it results in a bad case of PTSD.

Some veterans can mask it for awhile, but others fall apart sooner. A severe employment handicap covers any increase beyond initial service connection. So if you put in for a increase, you must stress the problems you have at work if you are working or with a past employer if you no longer work. Don't bring up additional stressors unless they directly relate to your job. Many PTSD combat veterans prefer to work isolated so they don't have to deal with other people. This can result in job problems or self-employment, sometimes in a family business. The VA cannot penalize veterans for being self-employed

Combined Ratings

When a veteran has more than one disability the VA combines them, based on the principle that a veteran can never receive more than 100% disability. I’ve met veterans with up to five distinct 100% disabilities, but there is no way to go past 100% for compensation without receiving an additional letter award for loss of use or missing limbs.

The VA and service organizations use a rather complicated numerical formula involving fractions to combine percentages, but there is a simple way to do it that will be accurate 99% of the time, if not all the time. I call it the Disabled-Wellness Formula.

I will use a veteran with three disabilities received in this order: 30% for back injury, 10% for hearing loss, and then 30% for PTSD.

Added up they total 70%, but they will actually combine out to 60%. The veteran will lose 10% in the process. This is how it works:

The 30% back injury service connection makes the veteran 30% disabled but leaves the veteran 70% wellness (functional).

When the veteran receives an additional 10% for hearing loss, you multiply 70 x 10 (you multiply the new percentage by the amount of wellness and drop the zeroes on the end.)

This leaves a total of 7. Any result below 5 means no increase. A result of 5 or above means going to the next higher percentage.

In this case, a 7 means going up to a 10% disability. The veteran loses nothing and will now have a 30% back injury rating plus a 10% hearing loss rating for a total of 40%.

The veteran has a 40% disabled and 60% wellness. But the veteran now receives a PTSD service connection rated at 30%. When you add them all together, it equals 70%, but due to the combined formula, it doesn’t turn out that way.

You multiply the new 30% by the wellness 60% and drop the zeroes for a total of 18.

Since the 8 is above a 5, you go up to the next higher percentage. In this case, the 18 goes up to a 20. The veteran receives and additional 20% disability rating, even though he was granted 30%.

The veteran now combines out at 60% even though he is 70% disabled and only 30% well.

We can take it even further. Say the veteran gets another 50% for a brain tumor. Multiply the 60% by the 30% wellness and drop the zeroes. In this case, it’s a total of 18.

Since it’s 5 or above, the 18 goes up to 20%. The veteran would get a combined rating of 80%, even though he is now 120% disabled.

This combined 80% rating would leave the veteran a 20% wellness, meaning he would have to obtain another 50% disability to get another 10% on the combined percentage.

To obtain enough percentage to actually reach 100% combined, the veteran would need two more 50% disabilities, leaving him actually 220% disabled to receive 100%.

This probably wouldn’t be necessary by then because the veteran would probably be rated unemployable and get the 100% for unemployability.

I imagine there are one or two instances where this formula could be wrong, but for most circumstances, it will work when a veterans want to figure their own combined rating.

Dennis Latham Books

PTSD Claims: VA Unemployability

2016-11-25T06:35:00.000-05:00

Over the years my advice has probably helped over 2000 Vietnam veterans get service connections, most for PTSD. I wrote the original instructions for PTSD claims while I worked for the VA. There were no instructions up to that point (1987). I developed the format for the stressor letter and what to include and not include, and hints on how to act at a comp exam. I also became an expert on how to get increases in PTSD Compensation when warranted. The VA approved my instructions and they have been used in some form ever since. I could not represent veterans but I could give them advice to use along with their service organization rep. The small article below is on unemployability.

Paragraph (a) below is the CFR requirement for unemployability. The VA and even some service organizations will tell you that you must meet those percentage requirements to be considered for unemployability. The VA will probably turn you down if you don’t meet those percentage criteria.

(a)Total disability ratings for compensation may be assigned, where the schedular rating is less than total, when the disabled person is, in the judgment of the rating agency, unable to secure or follow a substantially gainful occupation as a result of service-connected disabilities: Provided, that, if there is only one such disability, this disability shall be ratable at 60 percent or more, and that, if there are two or more disabilities, there shall be at least one disability ratable at 40 percent or more, and sufficient additional disability to bring the combined rating to 70 percent or more.

In paragraph (b) of the same section, the CFR does a complete turn around, stating you don’t have to meet the percentage requirements for unemployability if you can’t work. So if you can’t work because of service-connected disabilities and the VA turns you down because you don’t meet the percentage criteria, they violate their own law, unless they examine you again to bring your percentage up to fit the criteria in (a) if you are unable to maintain employment. They just can’t tell you that you don’t meet the requirement and you should go away.

(b) It is the established policy of the Department of Veterans Affairs that all veterans who are unable to secure and follow a substantially gainful occupation by reason of service-connected disabilities shall be rated totally disabled. Rating boards should submit to the Director, Compensation and Pension Service, for extra schedular consideration all cases of veterans who are unemployable by reason of service-connected disabilities, but who fail to meet the percentage standards set forth in paragraph (a) of this section

. The rating board will include a full statement as to the veteran’s service-connected disabilities, employment history, educational and vocational attainment and all other factors having a bearing on the issue.For example: If you are 50% for PTSD, but you can’t work because of the PTSD, then the VA must re-examine you and kick your percentage up to 70%, if the actual cause of your unemployment is PTSD.

It is up to you to file for the unemployability. It can be a drawn out process if there are other disabilities or factors involved such as alcohol, drug addiction, or physical disability. You will also probably have to be rejected by Voc Rehab for retraining. Considering the age of most Vietnam veterans with PTSD or other disabilities and a spotty employment record, Voc Rehab isn’t likely to qualify such veterans for retraining. If you have years of treatment for PTSD, the Regional Office may not turn you down on your claim for an increase. There is no sure way to tell. I went from 50% to 70% to unemployable within six weeks, after fifteen years of treatment.

Now, what may happen is the Regional Office may turn you down if you file for an increase for unemployability. Then, you appeal to the BVA. The BVA will more than likely send it back to the Regional Office for additional work. You will then be called in for an additional Comp Exam and then you are likely to get the increase. (This is the best case scenario if nothing gets screwed up with your claim along the way.) The main thing is to never give up on the claim.

Claim Appeal Stalled

2016-11-08T06:55:00.002-05:00

Claim Appeals

I reported last issue on a veteran who received a notice from the DAV that they didn’t know what his gender was after 40 years. This is ridiculous.

Now, the same veteran has received a notice from the VA on his appeal that they don’t know who is representing him because there is no representative listed.

I believe the DAV and the VA both dropped the ball on this one. I don’t know how, but the veteran is service-connected for wounds and it has to be listed somewhere in his claim that the DAV represents him. He had already filed a previous claim using the DAV.

He called me after he had called the DAV, cussed them out and told them they were killing Nam vets with their lack of help.

If he had called me before he called the DAV, I would have told him not to call and cuss them out. You really shouldn’t cuss people out you want to help you.

I understand his frustration. Nam vets are on the back burner now. Like WW 2 vets, the VA wants us gone. I just read today that the medical field no longer wants to test vets over 75 for colon cancer. This is for insurance purposes, I’m sure. It costs money to keep us alive. The New World Socialist Order wants old working class people, especially veterans they can’t use for service any longer, to die.

Another article showed unclaimed veteran bodies in the morgues so long before they are buried that the bodies had rotted in the body bags. This is terrible, but nothing is being done about it.

New Tactic To Stall VA Claims: Gender

2016-08-15T10:39:00.001-04:00

I'm in the back in a blue shirt.
B Company Reunion at the wall 2012

New Tactic To Stall Claims: Gender

A Marine Vietnam veteran called me the other day. I had been advising him on his claim for Agent Orange since he had major heart surgery back in 2014. His claim had been on appeal because the VA is trying to fight an increase for Ischemic Heart Disease under the presumptive Agent Orange Ruling for heart disease. He has heard nothing on his appeal since 2014.

He had been trying to call the local DAV (his rep) for months and kept getting busy signals or no call backs. He called Cleveland, and finally got a call back from a DAV Rep. The guy was kind of nasty to him, like he was bothering him, and told him an appeal can take 4-7 years.

My friend got angry over that, but what was worse, the DAV guy also said his claim was stalled because they didn’t know his gender.

“I’ve been service-connected from Nam since 1971. My first name is John, and you’re telling me they don’t know my gender. What the hell is that?”

“You don’t have to cuss at me,” the DAV guy said, and hung up on him.

When he told me this, I got as angry as he did. An appeal should not take that long, especially with a Nam veteran. He also had cancer in addition to a five-way bypass.

And on top of that they insult him with this gender thing.

(For a Nam veteran with an obvious male name, that is an ultimate insult. The VA is just trying to stall until he dies. I believe they want all us Nam veterans to die, just like they do the WW2 veterans and they did with WW1 veterans.)

Since he is from Ohio, I told him to contact his Congressman. Steve Chabot had also grilled Clinton in her scenario that went nowhere, but he was in there trying.

Chabot’s office responded and they are making an inquiry. Once a politician makes an inquiry, things usually move along faster on a claim.

John should be 100% for his Agent Orange conditions, dating back to the day of his diagnosis and surgery. He submitted all the documentation they asked for several times. (It’s amazing how much stuff the VA loses if you don’t send it certified where someone has to sign for it and get a returned receipt.)

Finally after he followed my advice to send it certified, they received it. I believe that most times if you don’t send them something certified, it gets tossed.

The gender thing was a new one on me, and I got really angry that anyone would try to use that on us. I also feel the DAV Rep should be instantly fired. Anymore it seems like the organizations are working for the VA and not the veteran.

If you have to send anything to the VA on request, I would sent it certified/return receipt. I went through the same thing back in 2009 when one of my stents caused a problem a few months after being placed and I had a minor heart attack.

The local hospital kept sending the paperwork to the VA a total of three times, and each time they said they didn’t get it. I went to the hospital. They were nice and said they would send it once more. I asked them for it and I sent it Certified/Return Receipt, and told the hospital that would be the only way the VA would admit getting it.

The people at the hospital couldn’t believe what the VA does to us veterans on the claim end. And it is truly a crime.

I will post updates on my friend. I hope he can outlast them. I still shake my head over that gender thing. It truly shows how brain dead and insulting some people at the VA and service organizations can be.

PTSD From War

2016-06-02T18:57:00.002-04:00

Leaving the deck of the USS Okinawa in an H-34 chopper/BLT 1/3 Vietnam 1967

PTSD From War

I read an article this morning about a Navy Public Relations Officer taking his son to Vietnam for a visit. He had spent six months in Saigon during the war and wanted to see the place again.

He talked about Hanoi, and how the people make 8.00 a day and work seven days a week, and how the Uncle Ho Burial place, where he was on display, was the highlight of the peoples’ lives.

The more I read the angrier I got, from their claiming to have shot down 35,000 American war planes to their claiming to have won the war. (When you lose three million and the other side loses 58,000, that’s not a win. Politics ended that war and got many Americans killed. We didn’t lose nothing on the ground.)

Then, he talked about how the Hanoi government claimed the American prisoners were all treated good and showed pictures of them playing volleyball and other ridiculous stuff.

I know most of the Vietnamese who were alive when I was in Vietnam are gone...but I can’t get my hatred of that war or that country out of my mind. It’s not even so much hate anymore. It’s a rage at how that place changed all of our lives.

I could never go back there. I left myself over there, and what came home was someone new who was lost. I didn’t even know who I was. I came home and sat in a chair and just stared straight ahead, not believing I was home, and wondering what I was going to do now that I was home. My parents didn’t know me. My mother would stare at me, knowing something had changed but she felt helpless to understand what was wrong.

I couldn’t go back and I don’t know if I’ve ever gone forward in the sense that I left the war behind.

I didn’t understand PTSD when I came home. I didn’t even know it existed or that I had it. I understand it better now, and I imagine I used to be a lot worse than I am now. I know I was because at one point I blacked my living room windows out with garbage bags so know one could possibly know where I was inside and take a shot at me.

But even now after dark, I can’t sit in a room to relax unless I have the shades drawn.

My feelings have never changed about Vietnam. Some guys can go back to the actual place and make peace with themselves. I could never do it. I would either breakdown and cry or I would want to begin shooting. In my heart, I still feel that Vietnam and the people are still my enemies.

I imagine a lot of people from WW2 and Korea feel the same way about their enemies and their countries. The same with veterans of the new Iraq and Afghan Wars.

Like many vets with PTSD, I try to keep it hidden. I do believe if you were in Vietnam or any conflict and under fire or forced to deal with the dead and wounded, you have some symptoms of PTSD. You are not the same person you were after you came home. Some veterans can’t handle it as well as others.

I believe PTSD is worse for Vietnam veterans in part because we felt everyone in Vietnam hated us and everyone back home hated us, and we didn’t know why the people back home hated us.

I get angry today when the media and others call anyone who even joins the reserves a hero. If you are in boot camp you are a hero, if you are on a ship you are a hero, if you are in the military at all you are a hero.

To me, a Marine with PTSD, this is overkill; an attempt by the media to now display phony patriotism. It has nothing to do with the actual veterans. Their families will always consider them heroes. This is an over-attempt by a media that hates the military to make people think they respect the military...when they actually think anyone who serves is a fool, just like they thought anyone who served in Vietnam was a baby killer.

I guess I’m just one of those people who can never go back or make peace with myself about that war,

from the S-2 Report Newsletter

The Valid PTSD Compensation Exam

2016-04-29T08:53:00.000-04:00

The Valid PTSD Comp Exam

If you receive physical wounds in combat, and the VA examines you for compensation, the examiner won't be the guy who works in the cafeteria or a social worker. The examiner will be a medical doctor, one who probably specializes in your injury. Veterans should expect the same treatment when being examined for a PTSD rating. If the VA calls you in for a Compensation Exam, you must be examined by a psychiatrist. A psychiatrist is also a medical doctor. A psychologist is not a medical doctor, and any Comp Exam for PTSD by a psychologist, if it goes against the veteran, should be considered an invalid Comp Exam based on non-medical opinion.

I'm bringing this up because a veteran just contacted me saying they are sending him to a child psychologist for a PTSD Comp Exam. That makes it an automatic invalid Comp Exam if it goes against him. So, if you apply for PTSD and you get turned down, and you find out the person you saw is not a medical doctor, then appeal on the grounds of an invalid Comp Exam. Say this:

I wish to appeal the decision on my PTSD claim because it was an invalid Comp Exam and I was not examined by a qualified medical doctor.

That is all you have to put in the appeal. Also, if the Comp Exam does not cover your war issues that are causing the PTSD, it is also an invalid Comp Exam.

I wish to appeal the decision on my PTSD claim because the examiner did not cover the war issues that have caused my PTSD.

If you get caught in such a scenario, appeal just as above. If your National Service Officer does not want to co-operate with you (a lot of them don't want to be bothered or don't like you knowing what to do), tell that person you will go over their head if they don't want to help you. Since they may not want to lose their job, that should bring them around.

Remember, you can file a claim at any time for anything that injured you in the military. Don't let anyone tell you that you can't or you are wasting your time.

Semper Fi

Books by Dennis Latham

The Bad Season Returns

2016-04-24T16:14:00.001-04:00

A New Cover from Clocktower Books

Something stalks Owenton Hollow...in rural Kentucky during certain summers known as the bad season. Locals bury their dead and keep the events secret so the media will avoid Owenton County, which had become a prime marijuana source. By 1995, several outsiders had built houses near the hollow, and the DEA began enforcing drug laws in Owenton County.

None were aware of the danger they faced.

Based on fact and myth, this is an account of what happened when a misfit squad of strangers led by a Marine Vietnam veteran faced the impossible...an enemy that could not die.

Critics raved. Gary Braunbeck, Bram Stoker Horror Award Winner, called The Bad Season "a fast, hard, unnerving ride from first page to last."

Hellbound Books' Walt Hicks wrote: "The Bad Season crackles with an eerie, eldritch energy that shines a pallid light on a netherworld of fact and myth."

This is the Clocktower Books Second Edition (2016).

The Bad Season link is below

The Bad Season

Vietnam Tet Offensive 1968

2016-03-11T06:54:00.003-05:00

Vietnam Tet Offensive 1968

(first time pictures published anywhere)

Deadly 122 rockets (click to enlarge)

Marine Corps Vietnam/ Tet Offensive 1968

Camp Books north of Danang during Tet 1968. 122 mm rockets fired into base almost daily. Sometimes several times a day, and a lot at night. You either lived or you died. Each rocket was six feet long and carried 40 pounds of TNT. It could explode on impact or be delayed to bury in the soil and then explode. All the shrapnel usually went forward from the blast so if it passed over your head before impact, you were usually safe.

(You could be KIA or injured by blast, too. I had a Timex watch and my left arm was outside the bunker when a rocket exploded. The watch stopped at 6:00 and could not be fixed.)

They sounded like freight trains coming at you. If the train sound passed over you, you waited for the blast on impact. If the train sound stopped like it was cut off, you were in trouble because it was close or on top of you. Little different than mortars. If a mortar passed over, you were safe, but the one that lands on you makes no sound. That's why the saying, "You never hear the one that gets you," is true.

Rockets were real bad. They couldn't aim them for accuracy but only point them in the right direction. They had a six mile range. When they hit someone usually died.

In B Company, most rockets passed over us on the North end. We were the blocking force for any ground assault, and almost every other fighting hole had a machine gun. Our numbers were few but our fields of fire were deadly.

The mess hall was at center base, empty at the time at night. One man KIA, could have been 50 during chow. The other two buildings were empty, I believe, or everyone inside would have died.

(The base camp in the movie Full Metal Jacket was Camp Books)

Semper Fi, Marines and all Nam Vets

Vietnam Shrine

2016-02-03T04:57:00.005-05:00

Vietnam Shrine

My family doctor outside the VA is someone I see on an emergency basis when I feel that I won’t be able to get a VA appointment in a timely manner.

Her family is from Egypt but she has been here forever and considers herself American and loves our country. She is older than me and very wise, and we have long talks about everything. She gave me some advice.

“Stop watching the news,” she said. “This isn’t the America we knew. These people are all crazy. We don’t even go back home to see relatives anymore because they are all crazy in Egypt, too.”

This is great advice. I’ve tried not to get angry about things since she told me that. Sometimes, even an old Nam vet needs someone to give him directions. She could be a Gunny.

Then she told me about her trip to Vietnam with her husband. She said it’s all North Vietnam now and looks nothing like it did when Americans were there during the war.

She also told me she saw something that really surprised her. Each time they build something in Vietnam, the people erect a shrine, usually religious. They saw one large building under construction with a shrine that was a statue of an American soldier. It had fresh flowers, food, and a full bottle of whiskey as an offering. No one would ever think of touching the whiskey or the food.

She asked the tour guide what it meant and told him she was surprised to see a shrine to an American soldier.

“Americans are an important part of our history,” the guide said. “Many died here, and we must erect a shrine to appease the spirits of dead Americans who fought here so they won’t put a curse on our new building. The whiskey and food is our offering.”

She told me she never thought she would see anything like the respect the Vietnamese show for dead Americans warriors. I never thought I would hear of anything like that, either.

That war still haunts all of us including the new generations in Vietnam. I’m surprised the Communist government would allow such a shrine, but I guess they have to respect the religious customs of their people in a place where so many have died.

Transcendental Meditation For PTSD?

2015-12-07T06:08:00.004-05:00

Vietnam: 122 rocket attack at Camp Books during Tet 68 (click to enlarge)

Transcendental Meditation For PTSD?

(from the S-2 Report)

I read a story recently about a veteran with PTSD who practices transcendental meditation.

The article said this vet was an incident investigator in Iraq and had PTSD depression very bad. He said transcendental meditation helped him to function with his PTSD so he could support his family.

This has been tried before along with other types of meditation, playing war games, jogging, medications, other forms of exercise, hypnosis, and everything in between….and has pretty much failed in the long run because there is no cure for PTSD.

You have to learn to live with it like this veteran is supposed to be trying to do. In his own way, he is trying to cope with it.

The big flag I got when I read this article was that the guy had his wife and two kids in the room with him. He sat in a chair and put a gun to his head in front of them.

This direct action in front of loved ones that could also change their lives forever is something very out of the ordinary for combat PTSD sufferers, It may be done out of anger and frustration, but...

This is not a cry for help.

It’s as if the veteran is trying to convince the family he has PTSD and is going to possibly kill himself in front of them and pass on his PTSD for the rest of their lives.

But he’s probably is not going to do it, but wants a witness to the fact he might do it. Most vets with severe or even moderate PTSD don’t want to admit it, ever.

They may be hyper-vigilant, carry a weapon, have severe startle reaction, or maybe show signs of severe depression. Those vets with PTSD normally don’t go out of their way to parade the symptoms in front of people. They isolate themselves. Family can sometimes take the brunt of this frustration, but it also usually involves alcohol or drugs.

At VET Center years ago we had two people hang themselves in their own yards where their kids could find them after school. One jumped off a bridge (this guy wasn’t really trying to die but wanted attention. He did die when they moved him to an ambulance because of a broken spine. He kept saying that he didn’t think he would hurt himself that bad.)

We had one vet cut off his own arm in front of his son, for what reason, no one really knows, except he was trying to get 100% PTSD. He was just crazy.

And that’s what concerns me when a vet threatens suicide in front of his family. There is something else going on besides PTSD, and this situation, though calm right now, has a good chance of ending bad.

Alcohol or drugs could possibly make this happen. I can’t say 100% of the time. But I can say when a veteran makes his family witness his suicide attempt or possible suicide attempt, there is a lot more going on than PTSD. The veteran had mental issues before being exposed to a war situation.

PTSD will not make you beat or rape your wife and children or terrorize them. It will not make you beat your mother or father or any relative.

This is something I truly believe. PTSD alone will not make a veteran do some of the things the shrinks believe can happen because a veteran has PTSD.

Infidelity

Infidelity can also play a role in PTSD or family reactions.

(I believe this reaction to infidelity would apply whether a veteran has PTSD or not. It’s human nature to be hurt when your partner strays.)

Approximately 50 to 60 percent of military couples seek marital therapy as a result of infidelity, according to a paper released by researchers at the National Center for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in Connecticut.

Military relationships are marked by frequent and extended periods of separation, which prompted researchers at the National Center for PTSD in Connecticut to investigate the issue of infidelity among deployed service members.

Researchers began by distributing surveys to recently deployed veterans who were in a relationship at the time of their deployment. The participants answered questions about their infidelity experiences and concerns, PTSD and depression symptoms and post-deployment stressors.

Of the 573 veterans who participated, 22 percent reported that their partners were unfaithful during deployment. Of the participants who did not report infidelity, 37.8 percent indicated that they were concerned that their partners had been unfaithful.

The results of the surveys also indicated that veterans whose partners were unfaithful during deployment were significantly more likely to experience depression and symptoms of PTSD. The research suggested that infidelity can function as a contributing stressor during deployment and ultimately leads to greater post-deployment stress.

(I disagree that infidelity is a PTSD stressor, since any normal person can be expected to react the same.)

Baby Boomers: from the S-2 Report

2015-10-04T08:13:00.001-04:00

This is my idea of what hospital care will look like
for the few remaining baby boomers in the year 2060.

Baby Boomers

The number of people aged 65 and older is projected to reach 83.7 million by 2050, compared with 43.1 million in 2012. This sharp rise is due to aging baby boomers, who were born between 1946 and 1964 and began turning 65 in 2011.

An aging population will have implications for health care services and providers, national and local policymakers. Businesses will also have to adapt to meet new demands as a rising number of elderly influences both the family structure and the American landscape.

Baby boomer-influenced growth in health-care related industries began a few years ago. According to the census bureau, there were about 819,000 health and social assistance-related facilities and businesses in 2011...a 20 percent jump from 2007.

As the population ages, the ratio of working-age Americans to retirees will change as well. There were 22 people aged 65 and older for every 100 working-age people in 2012. By 2030, that will rise to 35 people aged 65 and older for every 100 working-age people, which means there will be about 3 working-age people for every person aged 65 and older.

By 2050, there will be 36 people aged 65 and older for every 100 working-age people. But the Baby Boom generation will also begin to fade in influence, as well. The number of boomers will decline to 60 million by 2030 and to 2.4 million by 2060, when the youngest boomers will be 96 years old.

Baby boomers accounted for about 24 percent of the U.S. population in 2012. That will decrease to about 17 percent in 2030 and about 4 percent in 2050.

The trend is a global phenomenon, with people aged 65 and over accounting for a rising percentage of the populations of all developed nations over the next two decades. Seen from that perspective, the United States is expected to remain one of the younger developed countries during this time, with people aged 65 and older accounting for only about a fifth of its population.

(But since Americans don’t consider their old people national treasures like many cultures and countries, the trend is more of a push us aside attitude. Not everyone is like that to their older relatives, but there are enough to make it a trend.)

Creepy or Crazy Books By Dennis Latham

47 Years After Nam

2015-08-12T06:18:00.002-04:00

USS Okinawa: BLT 1/3 August 1967 (click pic to enlarge)

47 Years

August 1 will be 47 years since I left active duty in the Marine Corps. I still think about Vietnam every single day. When I was in Vietnam I never thought it would be with me this far down the line. I didn’t even know there would be a “this far down the line.” I really did expect to die there.

There is a country road that goes past one particular field about a mile from my house. I pass many fields all the time, but this one puts me right back into Vietnam.

The field looks like a rice paddy, especially when it rains. About a hundred yards away across the field are several structures that look like hootchs in a jungle village tucked within a tree line. Near the road is a long ditch like a fighting hole.

I can see Marines in fighting holes along the ditch, waiting for dark. And then I’m back there. It doesn’t look exactly like Vietnam, but close enough to bring everything back again, and it’s not a positive thing. I had spent too many nights sitting in the dark waiting.

The next day my wife asked me if I was in a bad mood. I wasn’t in a bad mood but I was having trouble dealing with that damn war again. I just don’t understand why I can’t let it go. I’ve been through about every form of treatment the VA has to offer, and nothing seems to change.

I go back to the war every single day, and it’s horrible. The only time I really feel comfortable is when I’m with other combat vets or close relatives, or isolated at home with my wife. I love singing and performing, and when I do that, I can escape for a few moments and be a performer. Then, no one can see the side of me that deals with PTSD each day.

Survival guilt is part of it, and feeling as if I didn’t do enough is another part. The fear of being ambushed if I fall asleep is still another part of it. Maybe my lack of empathy for the enemy is another part. While I was with 1/3, being responsible for the lives of enemy prisoners in the field is another part.

It was hard enough dragging my own body through Nam without having to keep some VC or NVA alive long enough to get them to the rear so they could be interrogated again. I participated in field interrogations, what today would be called torture. I felt nothing for them as humans, and I still don’t. Getting any information that would save Marines was our job, and some of the enemy were real hardcore. I would do it all again.

Even this far down the line, if I went back to Vietnam, I would want to start shooting. I’ve never wanted to go back to that country.

I think some veterans believe they can find peace by returning to the war zone. I don’t believe it. Things always seem smaller and out of proportion when you visit some place that was a big part of your life at one time, and it’s never the same.

I’m still a Marine inside, with survival skills, wondering how all the time went by so fast. Sometimes, a sight or sound will send me back. I hate it, but this is my life now. The person I was before Vietnam is gone forever.

Dealing With A Shaky Service Organization NSO

2015-06-09T16:44:00.002-04:00

B Company 7th Motors 1968 Vietnam I Corps

Dealing With A Shaky

Service Organization NSO

I hear complaints almost every time I talk to a vet about how the service organization officers in charge of their cases are never in or never call them back. I don’t know why this is happening. Maybe the service officers have too many claims. Maybe they don’t know what they’re doing or know the CFR or VA law. Maybe they just don’t care and are just concerned with having a job. It could be all of the above in many cases. There are many dedicated NSO (National Service Officer) personnel from the service organizations and state and county vet reps who will try to help all they can.

Here are some tips when dealing with a shaky service organization NSO.

1. Don’t let them tell you that you can’t open a claim.

You can open a claim at any time if you feel you have a condition that may be eligible for service connection. They may talk about "frivolous" claims, meaning a claim that has no merit or is not based on logic and is sure to be turned down. I once met a guy who was service-connected because he twisted his knee while playing touch football outside his barracks in Hawaii. I met another who was 30% service-connected for compulsive gambling.

So don’t let a service officer make you feel guilty or try to discourage you from filing the claim if you were injured in the service.

2. Don’t let them tell you that you should happy with what the VA gave you and you shouldn’t put in for an increase if your condition gets worse.

Any service officer who tells you that should be fired because they just don’t want to do their job. They are there to represent you and they should not be advocates for the VA or tell you that you should be grateful that the VA gave you anything.

3. For PTSD, don’t let them tell you that the VA will take your percentage away or decrease it, if you reopen the claim for an increase.

This is not true. Once you are service-connected for PTSD, your percentage is likely to only go up and not down. There is no cure for PTSD, and though, you may improve on a temporary basis, PTSD does not go away. This is a scare tactic to stop you from re-opening the claim for whatever reason the service officer may have for not wanting to help you. It’s not your fault they have a big caseload, or that they just don’t want to take the time to work on your claim. You shouldn’t be punished for it.

4. If your service officer won’t take your phone calls or never calls you back, leave a message that you are going to call their national headquarters to file a complaint and to get the claim service you need.

The service officer will usually call you back in a timely manner after you leave this message. They don’t want you contacting their main office to complain about them. This could lead to an investigation of their work habits. They don’t want that to happen.

5. The Bottom Line

The service organizations are there to help you, the veteran. Their rent and office space is paid for by the government so they can help you. It should not be the other way around, with the service organization favoring the VA when it comes to veteran claims. When filing a claim, always ask to deal with a National Service Officer (NSO). They are supposed to be trained in the law and know what they are doing.

You should never have to feel guilty for being injured in the service and then requesting the help or care you need.

Non-Profit/ Profit VA (Really Bad Idea)

2015-04-24T20:28:00.001-04:00

The VA IS For Veterans Not For Some Corporation

The VA should not be privatized, non-profit or not, because it will become even more top heavy with salaried manager and managers to managers, etc. The VA is one of the biggest landowners in the United States, and for years there has been a move to make it a for profit corporation, and it would be that way under a non-profit.

Just look at some of the big charities and see how much their top leaders make. And if it becomes a non-profit and government chartered, then it will have to serve anyone who walks in, including illegals. Then the VA land and hospitals will suddenly disappear as they are sold off.

To me this is just a move to take over the VA and dismantle it. We fight the wars and now they don't really want to take care of us when they are finished with us. I agree that if the VA can't perform a certain procedure, it should be sent out for the service. This is nothing new. The VA has been doing it for years.

The main focus of the VA should always be the veteran, and mainly the disabled veteran. No one, and I mean no one, should be allowed to take the VA away from the veterans. So from my viewpoint, and this is the same movement that was tried back in the 80's, this is an attempt to gain control of the VA by outside forces, for profit and socialized serve anyone who walks in hospitals medicine.

Do you think the former CEO of P&G was put in charge by chance? He's a corporate man, put there to find ways to make the VA a for profit corporation.

The non-profit organization Concerned Veterans for America has sponsored a study entitled "Fixing Veterans Health Care."

The report advocates radical changes in the medical system for veterans, including a choice to receive subsidized private care and conversion of the Veterans Administration into a non-profit corporation rather than a government agency.

More Veterans should be able to choose where to get their health care. Based on eligibility, veterans should have the option to take their earned health care funds and use them to access care at the VA or in the voluntary (civilian) health care system.

Because private health care is somewhat costlier than VHA-based care, most veterans who choose this option will be expected to share in some of the costs of such care, through co-pays and deductibles.

Don't anyone go along with any attempts to take the VA away from the veterans. Never. It’s all we have and now the private sector wants it.

PTSD: Advice On How To Survive

2015-02-02T11:26:00.002-05:00

PTSD: Advice On How To

Survive

I’ve lived with PTSD most of my adult life. It’s often hard for me to even discuss the problems PTSD has caused me over the years. I don’t even know anymore what kind of person I was before the war. It often seems like I had lived another person’s life when I was young.

My childhood was nothing to brag about. I came from a poor Italian family and we lived in a tenement in the Bottoms and then in Over The Rhine in Cincinnati. I was well on my way to becoming a criminal who would spend most of his life in jail when Vietnam came along.

The Marines changed my attitude, and war gave me a different outlook on life. After being spit on at LAX on my return from Vietnam and being shunned by the service organizations of my father’s generation for not being “in a real war”, I kind of kept to myself for years.

I woke up every two hours. Before Vietnam I could sleep all day and night. After Vietnam, I never just woke up. I jumped up alert, and I still do. To me, this was normal behavior and I accepted it as just being me.

I had to carry a gun. Once again, normal behavior, even though before the war, I never had a gun. After Vietnam, it became a necessity. If I pulled it, I was going to shoot, and that happened several times. But I had a good sense of self-preservation and used it to control a situation where I was being attacked rather than to kill anyone. I knew if I got locked up, I couldn’t remain sane.

If you were my friend, it would take your almost trying to kill me to make me angry enough to try to hurt you. If you were a stranger and tried to attack me or insult me, chances are you were going to spend major time in the hospital. I considered all aggressive strangers objects and I didn’t care what I did to them.

My mother used to comment that I seemed to have no emotional response to anything, and I was cold and uncaring. I never saw myself that way.

I drank back then, whiskey, even though I didn’t like it. One night I just stopped drinking whiskey because when I drank I became dangerous. After I almost killed a guy one night who had struck me from behind with a bottle (another Nam vet pulled me off of him or I would have finished the job)

I stopped drinking.

I was fortunate enough to realize that I had to keep iron control over myself if I wanted to survive back home. (As I write this I saw that they just executed a 66 year old Nam vet with PTSD in Georgia for killing a deputy during a traffic stop. His lawyers argued that he had PTSD and should get life in prison.)

I don’t know his situation or how much combat he went through, but I would have to say there were other outside factors involved besides PTSD. Possibly, some kind of drug, whether illegal or for PTSD. Courts are not likely to be convinced that PTSD made you kill a cop.

So my first advice is, if you drink, stop. Or I should say, if you have a problem when you drink, stop all together. Some people can have one or two drinks and be fine, but if you have the genetics for alcohol addiction, try to control yourself. Alcohol will make you a monster.

Don’t take PTSD or Illegal Drugs.

Often anti-depressants or anti-psychotic drugs can have terrible side effects and make you worse than you were before. Plus, you become drug dependent. Many VA doctors will give you drugs to help control symptoms, but you may often pay the price. You already have discipline from being in the military and surviving. Use that discipline to control your symptoms. If you try to escape with drugs, reality is always worse on the return once the drugs wear off. Do your best to control PTSD without the pills.

Exercise several times a week.

Exercise can make you feel good about yourself and protect your body. Walk, run, lift weights. The older you get the harder it is to stay in shape. Exercise will give you a high once you get used to doing it.

Worry about things you can change, not what you can’t change.

PTSD made me want to save the world. I figured I couldn’t save myself, but the rest of the world could use someone like me to make things right. I would see things on the news that really made me angry, and I would go nuts with worry about things like terrorists overseas or wars or watching protests where people screamed they want to destroy us.

One thing I learned from the 12 week PTSD program was to worry about stuff I can change in my own life, not about things I can’t do anything about. It’s good advice and helps keep me from going ballistic.

Don’t worry about losing your percentage if you are service-connected for PTSD.

PTSD can be controlled but it doesn’t go away. Vets contact me a lot worrying that the VA is going to cut their percentage. I’ve never heard of anyone either being cut in percentage or losing their PTSD percentage.

PTSD cannot be cured. You can only learn to cope with it. Once you are service-connected for PTSD, it will be for life. The only way I’ve ever seen anyone go is up in percentage.

The VA knows PTSD is permanent. They constantly try to find cures, but in the end all they develop is ways to cope.

Don’t blame everyone for your PTSD.

PTSD in the military usually comes from war or other major trauma involved in war. Don’t take it out on your family and friends. It’s a reaction to combat, and once you accept that, you can learn to avoid blaming other people in your life.

PTSD vets have extremely high divorce rates and often lack ability to feel close to loved ones. Your family and friends are not the enemy. They don’t understand what you went through, but you should practice iron control over your tendency to blame others. Accept you have a service related condition and live with it. Prayer can often help. You are not alone in the world. PTSD support groups or individual therapy can help, for awhile. But in the end, we must help ourselves cope.

If you can employ some of the steps I’ve listed that I use, you won’t be cured...you will still have PTSD, but you will have some measure of calm in your life and maybe be able to control it better.

Taken from the S-2 Report

Dennis Latham Books

A Combined Ratings Formula You Can Use

2015-01-10T08:11:00.000-05:00

Combined Ratings Formula

I will use a veteran with three disabilities received in this order: 30% for back injury, 10% for hearing loss, and then 30% for PTSD.

Added up they total 70%, but they will actually combine out to 60%. The veteran will lose 10% in the process.

This is how it works:

The original 30% back injury service connection makes the veteran 30% disabled but leaves the veteran 70% wellness (functional).

When the veteran receives an additional 10% for hearing loss, you multiply 70 x 10 ( you multiply the new percentage by the amount of wellness and drop the zeroes on the end.)

This leaves a total of 7. Any result below 5 means no increase. A result of 5 or above means going to the next higher percentage.

In this case, a 7 means going up to a 10% disability. The veteran loses nothing and will now have a 30% back injury rating plus a 10% hearing loss rating for a total of 40%.

You multiply the new 30% by the wellness 60% and drop the zeroes for a total of 18.

Since the 8 is above a 5, you go up to the next higher percentage. In this case, the 18 goes up to a 20. The veteran receives and additional 20% disability rating, even though he was granted 30%.

The veteran now combines out at 60% even though he is 70% disabled and only 30% well.

* * * *

We can take it even further. Say the veteran gets another 50% for a brain tumor.

Multiply the 60% by the 30% wellness and drop the zeroes. In this case, it’s a total of 18.

Since it’s 5 or above, the 18 goes up to 20%.

The veteran would get a combined rating of 80%, even though he is now 120% disabled.

This combined 80% rating would leave the veteran a 20% wellness, meaning he would have to obtain another 50% disability to get another 10% on the combined percentage.

To obtain enough percentage to actually reach 100% combined, the veteran would need two more 50% disabilities, leaving him actually 220% disabled to receive 100%.

This probably wouldn’t be necessary by then because the veteran would probably be rated unemployable and get the 100% for unemployability.

I imagine there are one or two instances where this formula could be wrong, but for most circumstances, it will work when a veterans want to figure their own combined rating.

Check out my new novel: Is Everybody Nuts?

Vietnam Veteran Death Rate

2014-12-28T09:56:00.002-05:00

Vietnam Vet Death Rate

It is apparently based on an estimate that 800,000 Vietnam-era veterans had died by 2000. That number was reasonable: About 9.2 million Americans served in the military during the Vietnam era (1964-75), so that would mean about 8 percent of them had died and 92 percent were still alive.

The problem arose when someone applied the 800,000 figure to a different denominator: 2.7 million, the estimated number of veterans who actually served in Vietnam, rather than at home or in some other theater. This made it appear that nearly one-third of those veterans were dead in 2000 and that they were dying at a rate of almost 400 a day. That would have meant more than 100,000 deaths a year, or nearly two million between 2000 and 2015: a path to near-total disappearance.

In reality, the death rate for Vietnam-era veterans in recent years has been comparable to or lower than that of other men in their generation, according to the CDC.

Of the men with the age distribution of Vietnam-era veterans who were alive in 2000, about 12 percent had died by 2010, with about 1.5 percent of the survivors projected to die each year since then.

(I don’t know if I believe these figures because there is a lot of room for mistakes and unknowns. Plus, it doesn’t show the percentage of actual in-country veterans still alive.)

There is no real way to know how many of us are left. Phony in-country Nam vets are everywhere. The DOD probably has an accurate count of who actually served in Vietnam, but I don’t know if they have an accurate count of how many of us have died.

I try not to worry about it anymore. I thank God every morning I wake up still breathing and ask him to give me twenty more years because I’m not finished with all the things I want to do in this life. That may sound silly to some people, but I believe attitude has a lot to so with long term survival.

When I think back on how PTSD had control of me ever since Nam, and how much I have fought it off and made strides to correct the symptoms inside me, I realize there is hope for us. We can adjust and live with it and become better people at peace with ourselves in our twilight years.