Those Now Serving: How to Ensure VA benefits for PTSD or Undocumented Injury or Illness:

Those Now Serving: How to Ensure VA benefits for PTSD or Undocumented
Injury or Illness:
What the Military and VA won't tell you.

10, 20, or 30 years from now you may find yourself suffering from an
undocumented psychological or physical injury or illness that
originated while you were serving in the military. To obtain
disability compensation from the Veteran's Administration you will
required to produce evidence or witnesses confirming that your
condition is military related. If you are unable to provide evidence
or witnesses to the cause of your condition you will not be entitled
to the full amount of disability compensation you feel you deserve.
The difference between having evidence or producing witnesses could
mean receiving less than 10% disability compensation and as much as
100% compensation.

To ensure that you will be eligible to receive the fullest amount of
deserved disability compensation for any military-related
psychological or physical trauma, injury or illness you are advised to
fully document your initial condition with a medic or in a letter to a
loved one or in a diary you can preserve. You must also collect and
maintain a roster of names and addresses of those you serve with. The
men and women you serve with today can later serve as eyewitnesses to
events or occurrences that produced a condition warranting disability
compensation.

Rosters of names and addresses should be sent home to a family for
safekeeping in a secure location. Copies of rosters can also be
preserved by mailing or emailing them to The American War Library
(www.amervets.com) for online access archival.

Take a lesson from the thousands of Vietnam War era veterans who
missed out on obtaining deserved disability benefits because they
failed to preserve documentation or witness lists of incidents that
caused psychological or physical injury or illness. The majority of
these veterans can testify about the many years it has taken them to
advance their disability claim through the VA only to have it either
approved for far less the deserved compensation percentage or rejected
outright because the veteran failed to provide convincing
documentation or eyewitness testimony confirming their condition was
military related.

WHAT TO DO IF YOU ARE EXPOSED TO PSYCHOLOGICAL OR PHYSICAL TRAUMA,
INJURY OR ILLNESS

1. See a medic immediately. Ensure that your examination, diagnosis
and treatment is documented in your military file. Obtain a photocopy
of your medical report. Mail that report home with instructions it
must be placed in a secure location.

2. If your incident does not require immediate review by a medic,
fully document the incident in great detail and mail your report home
with instructions it must be placed in a secure location.

3. Obtain the names and addresses of those who witnessed the incident.
Also include the names of enlisted and officer superiors as well as a
complete (if possible) roster of all the personnel in your unit. Mail
this/these lists home with instructions it must be placed in a secure
location. You may also mail lists to The American War Library for
permanent online archival (www.amervets.com)

The above is very important advice to meet the need of any future
requirements. 10, 20, 30 years from now you will be eternally grateful
for following this advice. Just ask any veteran who is grieving the
deprivation of disability compensation because he or she failed to
consider the future when they were younger.

Note: The above Advisory is also published at URL:
http://members.aol.com/veterans/vetben.htm

-- Brooke Rowe
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
www.amervets.com

---------------------------
Otis Willie
Associate Librarian
The American War Library
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com