All across America and around the world, this is Veterans Radio.
And now, your host for today's program, Dale Throneberry.
Hey, welcome to Veterans Radio.
My name is Dale Throneberry. I was a CW2 helicopter pilot in Vietnam in 1969.
Centuries ago, it seems like now.
Welcome to our program. This is our monthly benefits program.
So if you have any questions, start getting on the line.
Hopefully you can do that. The number is 734-822-1600.
We're going to have retired Brigadier General Caroline Falzone from Legal Health Veterans.
She is going to be on. David Sames, who is the executive of the
Washtenaw County Veteran Service Office, is going to be joining us as well.
And I also have a pre-recorded interview with Attorney Mike Cox.
Mike has been working on the Camp Lejeune water issue for a number of years.
And I was able to sit down with him earlier in the week.
So we are going to be able to get his recording.
And you can hear what's going on with the Camp Lejeune case.
Like everything else these days, it's going to require a lot of patience from everyone.
Because it seems like many of the systems that are out there are overwhelmed.
Some of the systems, I was just reading an article on military.com.
Some of the systems for even for tricare are transitioning over.
And there are all kinds of things going on that are delaying appointments,
delaying information and so forth.
So for our veteran community, especially out there,
we need to be as patient as we possibly can.
Everybody's working on this thing, trying to get it all fixed up for all of you out there.
Before we get into the program, we had to make sure that we do thank our sponsors.
We are, I should say, we here at Veterans Radio are so appreciative of the support
that our corporate sponsors and you as individuals have given us.
Of course, we start with legal help for veterans.
Legal help for veterans specializes in veterans disability claims.
You can give them a call at 800-693-4800 or go to their website, legalhelpforveterans.com.
The National Veterans Business Development Council, better known as NVB DC,
is the nation's leading third party authority for certification of veteran known businesses.
For more information, go to their website, NVBDC.org or give them a call at 888-237-8433.
Remember, if you are a veteran known business and you want to do business with the federal government
and many corporations, you need to be a certified veteran known business.
That means that just one worker for you can't be a veteran.
That's not a veteran known business.
So you've got to get certified and these are the folks that can help you the most.
That's the National Veterans Business Development Council.
Give them a call.
I think you'll find out they've got great information, put on a lot of seminars,
how to get into the system, how to work with the system and so forth.
Their number is 888-237-8433.
Speaking of franchises, how's that for it?
Segway, right?
Pure Clean, better known as the paramedics of property damage.
Each Pure Clean office is independently owned and operated.
In fact, Pure Clean is one of the nation's leading restoration franchise networks.
It is made up of entrepreneurs just like many veterans.
And in fact, veterans get a 25% off discount off of their franchise fee.
So go for more information, go to pureclean.com.
The Ann Arbor, better known as the Charles S. Kettles VA Medical Center in Ann Arbor, Michigan.
For more information, go to va.gov.
And Arbor Healthcare.
And of course, we have two local of VSOs.
The Irwin Press Corps and American Legion post 46 and the Charles S. Kettles Vietnam Veterans of America,
Chapter 310, both of Ann Arbor, Michigan.
If you'd like to support Veterans Radio, please go to our website, veteransradio.org.
Click on the donate button and thank you in advance.
Got two pieces of news for you here.
There are two events coming up that I think are really important.
Actually, there's three.
I'll get to the third one in a second.
So the first one, to remember last month we introduced this,
is that Team Red, White, and Blue is having a fundraiser
and they're going to run for whatever reason.
This is what these people do.
They're going to run across the country from May 2nd to May 17th.
They're going to run carrying a flag all the way across the country from San Diego to Washington, D.C.
So that's Team Red, White, and Blue.
And they are looking for support, obviously, as is their main fundraiser.
And I think it's something that we could all get behind.
So go to teamrwb.org or just Google in Team Red, White, and Blue,
and you'll find out information of how you can support this incredible trip across the country.
I think it's cool.
So we'll be talking to them once they start doing this running.
But I wanted to make sure that you're aware of that.
The other thing that's coming up is on April 5th here locally in Southeastern Michigan
is the Fisher House Annual Fundraising in Detroit.
This one is called Songs of Service.
And the guest speaker is going to be none other than our good friend here on Veterans Radio, Doug Bradley.
And Doug has written numerous books about the music of Vietnam, actually,
and I think he's kind of spread out with music of other conflicts.
He's also a participant in Warrior Songs, which is a group out in Wisconsin
that puts together veterans and songwriters together, and they write songs as a form of therapy
and also has written some incredible music.
It's a way to get these guys' songs and stories out there.
So Doug is going to be the guest speaker.
It is on Saturday, April 5th.
We're going downtown this year.
It's going to be at the Brook Tower in Detroit, starts at 4.30.
For more information on this, go to fisherhousemichigan.org and click on the Events button.
We will be there from Veterans Radio, and hopefully we'll get to see a number of you
there on April 5th.
So that's for the Fisher House.
And the last thing is I just want you to mark your calendar.
For Sunday, September 28th, it's going to be our, I think it's our fourth radio on the river.
And we are going to be moving out a little bit more.
We're going to be at Freedom River.
It's a space out north of Ann Arbor on the Huron River and also there are lakes and everything else out there.
And we are going to have the Michigan Flight Museum is going to be there with a UH-1 Huey
providing rides for people that want to pay for a ride.
So that's just the beginning.
That's the first act that we've been able to book for our annual fundraiser.
So mark that calendar.
Sunday, September 28th.
No football that weekend.
So it's all right.
You guys can do that.
Okay.
So as I mentioned, I had an opportunity to talk with Mike Cox earlier in the week.
And just to kind of remind you, and I know he in the interview, he does the same thing.
But the water in Camp Lejeune was toxic.
And many people were starting to suffer diseases from cancers, especially.
And they finally set up a fund to pay out, distribute funds to the families and survivors of those people that were stationed at Camp Lejeune,
which pretty much marines for about 20, 30 years there.
He's going to talk about that.
So, Derek, if you've got that all lined up, let's go right now.
We're going to be talking, as I mentioned, with Mike Cox or the Mike Cox law firm.
Here we go.
Joining us on the line right now is Mike Cox.
He's a lawyer here in Michigan.
He's a former attorney general of Michigan.
And he's also a Marine Corps veteran.
And we've had Mike on the program before talking about what's going on with Camp Lejeune.
And so I just wanted to bring him back today to see what's happening.
So, Mike, welcome back to Veterans Radio.
Well, it's great being on Veterans Radio once again.
You guys do a great service, and I'm so happy to help out.
Well, thank you very much.
So, you know, what is going on with Camp Lejeune?
Is that time period passed or are people still eligible to file claims?
Well, the time period has passed that ended August 10th of 2024.
Excuse me.
It ended, yeah, August 10th of 2024.
So, folks are no longer eligible, but 550,000 Marine sailors and their family members who
lived at Camp Lejeune for over 30 days between December of 51 and late August or end of 1986.
And so, we have put in claims.
And so, Dale, things are moving along, but you know how it is in the military, you know,
a hurry up and wait, right?
So, that's what we have going on right now.
I think former President Biden and the Republicans and the Democrats in the House and Senate
in 2022, when they enacted this, it gave the opportunity.
They were well intended, but I don't know that they did enough planning to execute quickly.
And so, now there are about 550,000 claims and I'll break it down a little bit.
The Department of Navy thinks anywhere from 50 to 100,000 of those are duplicates.
And that's a function of a couple things.
Sometimes folks put in with more than one lawyer.
That happens sometimes in these kind of cases.
And other things is that, you know, the Navy had software, they had different iterations
and we think a lot of duplicates were created that way.
So, that's like the big picture.
A couple smaller things that may matter in the nearer future for your folks, the listeners
here, or anyone who just cares about this issue and cares about taking care of Americans'
lives, is that the Department of Navy has made it a limited group of offers, settlement
offers, and they're called elective option offers.
And the criteria to me seems a little too rigid and not realistic.
But if any of your listeners were a Camp Lejeune eligible person, they had a Tier 1
disease as a result of the polluted and tainted water, and have kidney, liver, cancers, leukemia,
bladder cancer, or non-Hodgkins, you may be eligible for an offer right now.
And the basics and the most important thing is reach out to your lawyer who put in the
claim for you or filed the lawsuit for you.
That's where I'd start with.
But that gives folks a little idea who might be eligible for an offer.
The thing that's been the sticking point between veterans and their lawyers and Department
Navy is that these initial offers are promised on you getting diagnosed within 35 years of
leaving your duty station at Camp Lejeune.
So my last day at Camp Lejeune was April 15th of 1983.
And so if I had been impacted during my time being out in the field, doing drills and exercises,
getting ready for Okinawa, coming back from Okinawa and Korea and Japan, I would have
had to been diagnosed within 35 years of April 15th of 1983, which would have taken me up
to 2018.
And you and I both know that cancer, and I think every doctor knows, most anyone knows
that cancer precedes at different cases and levels.
And so if someone got diagnosed in 2019 or 2020 or if God forbid, I would get a, if I'd
put in and got a diagnosis in 2022, I wouldn't be fit the offer.
But nonetheless, that's some movement by the Department of Navy to move these cases along
to try and get relief for the impacted veterans.
So any of your listeners who may be impacted, please reach out to your lawyers and talk
to them about that.
Even if you take the settlement, the process is a little cumbersome, but it's certainly
worthwhile.
A big picture.
Okay.
So that's about 10% of the picture.
I'm sorry.
If you have a question, I was going to jump into the next phase, but no, that's all right.
I was, I was waiting for you to jump into the next phase.
I was just asking if people wanted to, in other words, are you saying that there's a settlement
out there that you don't, you didn't really have to pursue.
You just say, okay, I'll take a lump sum and I'll be done.
Yeah.
So if, if you had put in a, got a lawyer, some people, very few people tried to do it
themselves.
If you, if you'd put in a claim with the Navy before August 10th of 2024, so you were one
of the eligible ones and within the two year window.
If you did that, and you fit those criteria that I just mentioned, you may be eligible
for a payout now.
And so I'd urge you to reach out to your lawyer and, and talk to him or her and see if you
fit, if you're interested.
Now some of those offers we think, so about 12%, 11% of my clients fit that.
But for a number of them, they don't believe the offer is adequate and I don't believe
it's adequate.
For others, it is and it, and it works.
So it's, it's part of it.
These are individual cases.
So every individual Marine sailor family member, you know, they can exercise their own free
will and decide what's best for them.
So for everyone else, that, that, those offers only impact about 10% we think of the Marines
impacted.
For the other 90%.
Thank you for your patience.
You know, this is, this is the largest litigation ever in American history, as you can imagine.
And so for the past year, there, there has been a lot of activity though.
There has been daily depositions of, of impacted Marines and sailors, but more so of scientific
experts, doctors, epidemiologists of all sorts.
And they're literally amongst the leadership team and the group of, we're part of a team
that involves literally hundreds of lawyers from across the country.
It put in money and doing, you know, massive amounts of work.
Literally I don't want to equate it to D-Day, but it's the, it's the legal equivalent to
D-Day in terms of the preparation.
So there's going to be 25 trials that have been set for next spring and they're called
bellwether trials.
They're kind of like test cases.
And ultimately, you know, most civil cases don't get tried.
So those half million plus claims are unlikely to get tried, but some of them will.
And that will help both sides determine what our fair offers and what our fair settlements
are.
And those cases, those test cases involve kidney cancer, leukemia, Parkinson's bladder,
and non-Hodgkins.
Those are happening next spring or they're set for next spring.
And we think that will move the needle.
But the, but I'm starting off talking about hurry up and wait.
You know, this is going to be a process.
So I enlisted for three years.
I got in during a time you can list for three years.
If you're part of this, if you're part of this claim, you know, it's going to be a three
plus year hitch.
So people, I have to use those traits that they learned in boot camp, you know, and be
persistent, you know, be, be prepared, persistent and patient.
And a couple of other things, if I have a couple, I have a little time, a couple other
notes I can pass along.
So anyone out there, and I don't want to sound morbid, but anyone out there, it's good if
you talk to your lawyer to designate a next-to-kin in case something were to happen to you, you
know, walking down the street of, you know, a meteor hit you, you know, who can then act
on behalf of your family to make decisions about your claim.
That would save your family a lot of work later on a probate, but again, talk to your
lawyer about that and they can explain that.
And one other thing that I get asked, like from the very beginning and up to today, and
I understand it 100%, we still get the questions, well, if I win a settlement here, will that
impact my veterans benefits, VA benefits?
And the answer is absolutely not.
Right.
So this is a totally separate fund, I guess you could say.
Yeah.
That they're coming out from strictly for Camp Lejeune.
Yes.
And there may be an offset that would come out of your settlement, but like these elective
offers, and some of them are up to $500,000, there is no offset.
So again, I just say that in the setup from day one, your VA benefits that you earn that
you have right now are not impacted at all by this.
Okay.
I think that's a good place to end it, that they're not affected.
Mike, thank you very much for joining us today and kind of clearing up these things.
It's another one of those bureaucratic things that we seem to run into all the time, where
as you mentioned earlier on, we got to hurry up and wait and just be patient.
Just got to work its way through the system, and I think lawyers like you and other ones
that are out there that are helping these men and women, we're all very grateful for
the work that you're doing.
Well, thank you.
And I think it kind of tells us what you do every week, talking about veterans issues
of all sorts, and also military preparedness and national security.
Well, thank you for that, Dale.
Thank you very much, Mike.
There are a lot of things going on in the world today, and I would be anxious to have
you back on in a couple of months and see how things are working out.
Absolutely, anytime.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
We're just talking with Mike Cox here about the issues at Camp Lejeune.
For more information about Mike, you can go to his website, mikecoxlaw.com.
We'll be right back after this message.
And we're right back after this message.
Welcome back to Veterans Radio.
That was Mike Cox talking about Camp Lejeune.
I guess the big message there was try and be as patient as you can.
This whole thing has to work its way through the court system.
And as he said, I think there were 25 cases that are going to be adjudicated in the next
couple of years or so, and make sure that you designate someone that can continue your
claim if something happens to you.
And yeah, write all that stuff down so that your family knows what you're supposed to
do.
All right.
As it descends, this is our monthly benefits program.
We do have a couple of our guests back here today.
We have retired Brigadier General Carol Ann Faust-Zone of the Air Force and also from
Legal Health for Veterans.
And we have David Sames, who is the county executive for the Washtenaw County Veterans
Service Office.
And sitting in the background over there, we've got our good friend Brian Vahe there.
I think Casey has any questions, kind of representing the local veteran community.
So I wanted to welcome both of you to the program.
So Carol Ann, welcome back.
Thanks, Dale.
It was great to hear the update from Mike and we could, Mike Cox, so we could talk about
that.
But I think patience is a very important message.
Yes.
David, hi, how are you?
I'm doing great.
Yes, I concur with the general, definitely.
Well, it seems like the word patience is something that we all need to work on with everything
that seems to be going on right now with some of these changes that are being made with
the various agencies across the federal government.
And I know that the VA is going through there.
And Carol Ann and I were talking briefly beforehand.
Carol, I want to say something about the benefits and let people feel good right away.
Well, I think Mike started this.
And so I'll continue.
His comment is that when you do get a settlement, I think people hear it's going to affect if
you're 100% or whatever percentage, it's going to affect that rating and take away stuff.
No, that's not true.
And I think with all the changes is coming out very clear from Secretary Collins that
if you have a disability benefit, your benefits as a veteran are not going to be taken away.
I think in the last couple of weeks, we have gotten a ton of phone calls and veterans are
alarmed that they are going to lose some of their benefits.
They're not going to be able to go to the VA.
And I think the issue of their disability rating was going to be reduced.
And no, I'm not hearing any of that.
And so I hope there's a little comfort out there that they read the whole story and listen
to what's out there on the waves.
And if you go to the VA website, and David, I don't know what advice you guys are giving
out from the county.
It's the same.
I mean, we're getting calls as well.
And where it's misinformation out there, and I'm like, well, send me the article because
you definitely, like you said, read all of it because I have not read anything that they're
reducing benefits or taking away anything.
And just people, of course, in the federal government, there's things going on.
But with benefits and your access to the VA, I have heard nothing.
Well, that's good to know.
That's good to know.
I am concerned a little bit about some of these cutbacks.
I guess it's only because I jumped to conclusions before I read everything that I need to read.
It's too bad that we don't have a representative from the health care side available, like we
normally do during our benefits program.
But I was reading an article about, again, it's not going to affect our benefits at all.
I think some of the things that I'm concerned about is that the layoffs might affect the
people that write our claims.
If those people are missing, the process of we submit our stuff, how long is it going
to sit on a desk before it gets moved to the next desk and on up the chain?
I did get a letter that really didn't make any sense to me recently about outside exams.
And it told me who was going to do the exam, but there was no exam in there.
So I was curious about that.
Of course, I tried to call and was on hold for a long time.
And so I mean, that's one of the things.
If all the cuts are always made at the bottom, a lot of people at the bottom do a lot of
this gut work.
And that's one of the things that I have a concern with.
I'm sure it'll work itself out.
And I think it goes to the same thing that Mike talked about with Camp Lejeune is that
we need to really be patient if we can and to make sure that our relatives know what's
going on.
Dale?
Well, you know, I think as we've all talked, you know, Dale, the VA and this process of
disability rating and applying caregivers is another example.
And I think we've said this before, whether you go to a county counselor, a great VSO,
or come to legal health for veterans or any law firm, don't try to do it by yourself.
I mean, we're not taking away from you that you don't have intelligence and you don't
understand.
But there's a process out there that all of these groups have, I want to say, mastered
and they know how to get the claim in maybe a little quicker.
And caregivers is a great example.
All of the individuals that I've talked to in the last four months that have done it by
themselves and sent it into Washington have been denied.
You could start the caregivers right at the local level and be approved through your primary
care team.
And that's real critical.
If you know where to start and how to fill out the forms, I talked to somebody on Thursday.
They waited eight months to get an answer back, did it by themselves to find out they
filled the form out wrong.
So now they got to start all over again.
But I gave them some tips how to go back to their team, get a 2688 filled out regarding
activities of daily living and started at a different level.
So I really do think and I don't care who you go to, call back your person, whether it's
the attorney, a county counselor, a VSO and find out what's going on.
Utilize those resources.
Agreed.
Brian, you had a comment?
Yeah, actually, I'm one of the guys from Camp Lejeune and also have a number of guys that
I'm still in touch with that were there with me and I can't remember exactly, but I think
I went through to the VSO office and apparently I'm still on a list because once a year they
send me a thing that's still in the works.
And I haven't caught anything that I know of on the list.
So for some reason they keep sending me that letter.
But the one friend of mine, the veteran in Louisiana, they're working on him big time
because he passes a couple of those problems.
And he keeps wondering if he's going to hear back at some point before he comes to his
problems.
So one of them is a prostate problem he's dealing with.
So we all know how that can happen.
So yeah, it's just like from firsthand experience, I tried to tell all my buddies when I got a
hold of them that don't go through the lawyer, go through the VSO because that's the right
way to go.
So half of them had already gone to a lawyer, but that's just what happens, I guess.
So I just thought I'd interject that.
So, thank you.
Thanks, Brian.
We've got a call on a line here.
That's good.
We have Tom from Clinton Township, I think it said.
I had a question on his benefit denial.
So hey, welcome to Veterans Radio.
Yes, glad to be able to talk to you guys.
My situation I'm caught in is that someone in the state of Michigan has turned around
and put my VA health records.
They said that they got this from my VA health records that I'm mentally ill.
So I went to the VA and I asked them, when did you give the state of Michigan the information
that I was mentally ill?
And I went down there at the VA hospital and they said, we never did such a thing.
So it's still on my state health records that I'm mentally deranged and the state of Michigan
refuses to take that off.
And so I've been trying to get it straightened out for now four years and I just find it,
you know, I keep running into issues with people that do nothing to get it straightened
out.
So I might add that I belong to Chapter 154 and about three weeks ago I went to our meeting
and they told me that I was no longer able to go there because I disrupt the system there.
So they threw me out of Chapter 154, which I can tell you that I've been a member of
the Vietnam veterans for over 50 years and have contributed a great deal of time and
money to them.
And since I can't go there anymore, I joined the VFW and decided that, you know, you got
to go somewhere, right?
You got to have some friends someplace.
What can we do to help you out?
Well you can call the people in the state of Michigan and tell them that they're not supposed
to put false information into someone's records, okay?
That's a pretty deep, would be a nice thing to have someone get it straightened out because
the reason that the state did this was to cover up a huge situation that the governor
didn't want to have come to light, okay?
That's basically what it's all about.
They wanted to make sure that I couldn't say anything to anyone.
So they made me crazy.
They turned around and labeled me as being insane.
And I'll tell you something, I never stopped, okay?
I'm one of three sons that went to Vietnam and I'm the only one that got home alive.
And I got news for that governor and that attorney general that they ought to be up
both in jail at this point.
And if you want to know more, give me a call and I'll tell you the whole story because
I have it all on print, of course.
I've been trying to get through this for years.
Okay, hold on here.
Let's see what we might be able to do to help you out.
I'm going to still be...
I called before you, you know.
No one ever called me back.
Kellyanne?
Well, what I could say is if it's in his medical records as a nurse, documentation is very
critical.
And so I try to go back.
I already have it all.
I've had it for years.
I've talked to, you know, the attorney general for Southeastern Michigan.
She just resigned or she just got changed.
You know what she did?
She told me never to bother her again.
And I have a call, I'm supposed to talk to the new attorney general for Southeastern
Michigan and I'm supposed to call her Monday.
And I just wonder if she's going to give me the same category as we don't need to hear
from you.
I'll tell you what, Michigan needs to be totally redone.
We have a governor and an attorney general that cover up crimes and they do not care
about people, people that went to war that could give a damn about.
Believe me.
Okay.
And I have called you before.
We want to be able to help you.
We don't want to get into the politics of the whole thing.
Yeah.
You know what?
That's what it is.
It's politics.
That's the problem.
We have a bunch of politicians.
They're a crooked.
That's what's the problem.
They don't care about people that went off to war.
They don't care about people at all.
In fact, they could care less.
They think they're above the law.
That's the problem.
Politicians do not give a damn.
That's our biggest problem today.
They love money more than they love people.
That's true, but I think thank you very much for calling.
Why don't you give Derek your phone number and we'll see if we can come up with an idea.
You won't have to give my phone number.
Okay.
Thank you very much.
Derek, if you would do that, that would be great.
All right.
I don't have any solution for that.
I'm trying to figure out how to get what I don't know what the state's allowed to do
and not to do.
I think that's part of the confusion here.
I don't know if there's any more suggestions.
You also have the Michigan Veterans Affairs Agency that's right there in Lansing and you
dial 1-800-MICH-FET, right?
And they have service officers that are expanding that and they have the ear of the legislature.
They have mental health.
They have everything.
They're interconnected, so that would be my first choice to tell the caller to get a hold
of MVAA.
You have Director Brian Love and then maybe they can use their influence because they
are all thing veterans to work on that.
What was that phone number again, Dave?
It's 1-800-MICH-VET.
Okay.
Sometimes you just, you got to be in the hallway at the same time with the same people and
say, oh, by the way, did you know that this is what's happening here?
Let's see if we can fix that.
Yeah.
Okay.
Well, I thought that was interesting.
Anything else going on that we need to be aware of?
I know, we were talking briefly before that.
If you have filed a claim and it gets kicked up to the next level, and as Carol Ann explained
to me, and the next level says, hey, you need to, can you explain remand to our audience,
please?
Well, I know Dave sees a lot of these and so do we.
So as you get a claim and it gets denied, whether it's VSOs, county counselors, or us
illegal health for veterans, we will file the appeal.
And there are certain, there are three lanes that you could get involved with.
Depends on your case.
It depends on what the decision is to go after.
So it goes up to the board and it's called Board of Appeals, Veterans Board of Appeals.
And as they start to look at that, if they see that maybe an exam should have been done,
maybe it wasn't executed the way that they are suggesting at the higher level, they will
send it back down either to that RO that gave you that ruling or put it in the national
queue for somebody else, get other eyes on it, another eyeball.
It's like a second opinion, but when they send it down, they want there to be more,
as they call it, development.
They will sometimes identify the area they're concerned about and they will say, take a
look at this, study it, come up with a different answer.
Now, the beautiful thing is that when they do remand it, let's say they remand it back
to Detroit.
Detroit could peel it apart and look at what the original decision was, send you for maybe
a different exam day or the same one with a different examiner and come up with a different
solution.
They could decide it at the local level right there.
So they might write a decision in your favor and then it doesn't have to go back up with
the new evidence.
So there's different things that could happen in the different lanes.
You have a year to decide what you're going to do, but if the board remands it, there
should be a quick decision either from the local level or it goes back up with more information.
Dave, do you got anything else to add that you see with the remand?
No, a lot of times I see it's a duty to assist there where they didn't do something that
they were supposed to do, either order exam or clarify something or get records.
And so a lot of times it's a duty to assist and then they'll make the decision and if
it's good, it's great.
If it's not, it should go back up to the board.
Okay.
Oh, all right.
Anything else that you've been running into recently?
For those out there that are listening, if you do have a question, you can give us a call
at 734-822-1600.
The only thing I have is I have some friends over at the Detroit Regional Office and one
of them did say that you definitely want to keep an eye, especially if it's the PACT Act
or even about liberalizing legislation.
So even though the date's over, right?
And so you finally figure out that, oh, I have a condition that's on the PACT Act list,
right?
So let's say it's COPD and I've had it since, you know, 2019.
So if you have it and you have proof and you file a claim, liberalizing legislation allows
you to go back a year before the date of claim.
So it won't go back to the PACT Act because we're past that.
But liberalizing legislation is because they changed the law and you had that condition
before that law was implemented, you can get a year retro on that.
And there is, with anything, there's new VSOs, there's new RVSRs that are training and doing
this type of work and sometimes they miss that.
So just be aware about those dates.
Okay.
That's really helpful, I think.
Is there so much confusion out there?
You know, depending on where you get your news, sometimes it's just off the charts wrong
or it's right, but you don't trust it.
And I think that, you know, unfortunately, many people have gotten to the point where
they just don't trust whatever they read and that can delay their claim.
It can delay a lot of different things that are going on.
And so I'm going to take a real quick break here and do our Medal of Honor.
And when we come back, if you have any questions out there, jump right on in in the conversation
and give you guys a while to think of things that you might want to bring up for our audience.
We're coming up with about 15 minutes to go.
So all right, you're listening to Veterans Radio and we will be back right after this
message.
The Medal of Honor is the highest award for valor in combat given a member of the Armed
Forces of the United States.
There have been over 3,400 recipients of the nation's highest award.
This is one of them.
Captain Lewis Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation.
Details after this.
If you have a VA claim denied by the Board of Veterans Appeals, contact Legal Help for
Veterans at 1-800-693-4800.
There are experts in handling cases before the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.
Their number again, 1-800-693-4800.
While personally leading his company in an attack against a strongly held Korean position,
Millett noted that the first platoon was pinned down by small arms, automatic, and anti-tank
fire.
Captain ordered the third platoon forward, placed himself at the head of the two platoons,
and with fixed bayonet, led the assault up the fire-swept hill.
In the fierce charge, he bayoneted two enemy soldiers and boldly continued on throwing
grenades, clubbing and bayonetting the enemy while urging his men forward by shouting encouragement.
Despite vicious opposing fire, the whirlwind hand-to-hand assault carried to the crest
of the hill.
His leadership and personal courage so inspired his men that they stormed into the hostile
position and used their bayonets with such lethal effect that the enemy fled in wild
disorder.
During this fierce onslaught, Millett was wounded by grenade fragments but refused evacuation
until the objective was taken and firmly secured.
The Medal of Honor series is a production of Veterans Radio.
Military veterans touch everyone's life.
I'm guessing right now you're thinking of a veteran, a close friend, relative, maybe
it's you.
Even the toughest of us sometimes need help but don't know where to turn for support.
You don't need special training to help a veteran in your life.
We can all help someone going through a difficult time.
Learn how you can be there for veterans.
Visit VeteransCrisisLine.net VeteransCrisisLine.net A message from the U.S. Department of Veterans
Affairs.
We're back here on Veterans Radio and I just wanted to ask our two experts, are you running
into any unusual claims with the new generation of veterans?
Are there any conditions that are popping up?
I know there's probably some mental health issues but I was wondering if any physical
things that you're running into.
I think the biggest thing our office runs into is sleep apnea when a veteran gets diagnosed
with sleep apnea.
Of course that's not on any presumptive list.
And then tying it back to service whether it's exposure to burn pits or herbicides.
With that you need a medical nexus linking your sleep apnea to A to service or to one
of the secondary conditions.
There's been studies that PTSD could exacerbate it and I've seen it secondary to PTSD but
I've had a lot of issues trying to get that service connected after the fact even with
secondary and the studies of linking it to PTSD.
I don't know what you have had general in your instances.
Dave, it's about the same and proving that you were in Afghanistan, Iraq and exposed
to the burn pits.
I think it's really important depending on the time.
One veteran literally had a diagram of where they were in condition to the burn pits and
that seemed to get us over the hump with some of that documentation.
But I think the research is very important and if you look back on some of the research
and that's what we try to do.
And once a case is decided by law, whether it's Shinseki or a previous VA secretary,
that's really important because then if it happens to one, we could do the similarities
which I think if you're a veteran and you're out there trying to do this by yourself, you
might not find all the research and the good law evidence that's out there.
Another thing that occurred during the week and I want to give a shout out to Dave because
a veteran called me with a big concern about insurance and how could he provide insurance
for his family.
He is now 100% and as we well know, his healthcare is great through the VA.
But you have a concern for your wife and your dependents.
And so he had called around and got some advice that he could never get Champ VA and he was
a veteran not of 20 years plus because I started to ask him about tri-care and tri-care you
will get Champ VA if it's 20 years or greater.
And he was having the worst time and I knew with his 100% total and permanent, she is
eligible for Champ VA.
And so just to make sure I was telling the correct info, we had given him some hope,
I called Dave to help me validate the process and you feel good sometimes and you hate to
go back but I will go back and say I'm sorry I didn't interpret this the right way or I
gave you wrong advice.
But in this case, I reach out to Dave a lot to make sure the info we are giving to our
veterans is correct.
So search it, get a second opinion like we do in medicine.
So I really want to say Dave, thank you so much for being there and answering those
questions.
Yeah, like I tell everybody, even my staff, I've been doing this for 14 years but I learned
something new every day.
Things change, things morph into different things, laws change and then there's things
that you've never even came across to across for 14 years and then you're like, oh, okay,
well, let me, I don't know that answer but let me find out and by doing this type of
work, you have a lot of associates around so you can bounce things off and we have a
message board throughout the state of Michigan through the Michigan Association of County
Veteran Counselors that we can throw it on our board and then of the, you know, there's
probably 80 counties that have offices that if somebody has come across that they can
chime in and say, oh, well, I ran into that.
And so it's about the resources and experience VSOs and like the legal help for veterans
to, you know, we're not going to not tell them, well, I don't know about that so you're
just going to have to find out because we're going to go find out and then we're going
to get them an answer.
Yeah.
And I think that's really important because we can't know everything but you've got the
three pillars.
You've got the cemetery, you've got the HA which is healthcare and the VBA side that
we tend to deal with.
And as a nurse, I get really involved on the VHA side, you know, whether it's how to reconstruct
your house, get a ramp, then you go through the different departments in VHA.
And so I think it's really great that we're utilizing all these resources.
I was thinking when you mentioned the the Champ VA or the TriCare program out there,
I thought that was sort of automatic if somebody was 100% or if somebody died as a result of
their diagnosed disease, whatever happened to me.
Is it something I have to apply for?
Well no, but what the automatic is, if you've served 20 years or greater and you're an honorable
discharge on your DD 214, then you get the TriCare for life, the TriCare benefit.
But it just doesn't happen if you're two years, four years.
Now if you get 100% total and permanent, that opens up another lane for your spouse.
And that's where Champ VA comes in.
But if you're a retiree and you've got TriCare for life, then you get the Champ for your
Champ VA for your spouse.
That's what automatic is.
Okay.
Well, so the 20 year thing is not that important.
It's very important.
Except for the person that has the 100% total and permanent disability.
That doesn't have the 20 years of service.
Correct.
So they would be entitled to TriCare.
Yeah, not TriCare.
Champ VA for the spouse.
Okay.
You only get TriCare when you're 20 years or greater.
Okay.
And you don't need, yes.
And you don't need 100%.
You served on active duty or you served combinations and you get TriCare for life.
And then your spouse goes with you and your spouse gets Champ VA.
That's what's an automatic tail.
But this young man did not have 20 years.
I think he had three, but he had the 100% total and permanent.
Okay.
That's what made him eligible.
And part of that is you have to apply.
So it's not, it's in the award letter.
But you get a, you know, a 56 page award letter and it says everything in there.
And a lot of times people read the first page or second page and see what was, what's my
rating not, not going through everything.
And so, yeah, like the general said is, you know, 100% permanent total or IU, you can
apply for Champ VA.
Okay.
Another reason that you should contact a VSL or a third party and not try to maneuver your
way through the VA system by yourself, because I am sure that it probably changes pretty
much every day in some cases.
And you know, and as you mentioned also, Caroline, the idea of somebody setting a precedent.
So if you, you know, if you get a disability claim for some unknown disease that suddenly
says, oh, this is caused by this, then the next person can go in and say, well, you know,
this disease was discovered by the VA and now it's, you know, I'm entitled to this or
somebody else is entitled to it.
So it's really important, I think, to just continually remind our audience that if you
do have any questions to go to your local VSL, whether it's, it's a law firm like legal
help for veterans or it's a county VSL or your VVA, VFW, all those other things.
So we've only got about a minute to go.
So if you got 20 seconds, is there anything that you would like to say to our audience
today?
Dave, the other thing to bring up about that is if you go to a lawyer as opposed to the
VSL or somebody in the system, you have to pay the lawyer and it comes out of your settlement.
So isn't that the situation?
Sometimes there's not VSOs in different states that can help, but yes, you know, and but
if you go to an attorney, a new claim, Brian, there's nothing and that happens a lot of
the time that you'll get an award and there's no payment.
Yeah.
So the veteran works all of the legal help for veterans.
We work all of that up.
Oh, we got to go.
Thanks for listening.
Until next week, you are all dismissed.
God bless America.
Land that I love.
Stand beside her and God her through the night with the light from above.
From the mountain to the prairie to the ocean white with foam.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.
God bless America.
My home sweet home.