This book was written to help Veterans make their way through the
maze of VA regulations, written and unwritten, that prevents them
from attaining service connection. The VA, like any governmental
entity, is difficult to work with. They do everything on paper and have
not advanced to electronic files yet. Only 12-15 percent of VA claims are
approved due to red tape and a misunderstanding of what is required.
VA prefers you use Veterans Service Organizations to file your claims. I feel Veterans are not very well served by this method and advocate a do it yourself approach. This works well until you get to the Court
of Appeals for Veterans Claims(CAVC) at that point, you would be best
served by having a good attorney and nothing less.
About the Author
I’m 61 years old and a Veteran of the Vietnam War. I served two years on the Indochinese peninsula in Thailand, Laos and the Republic of Vietnam in the Air Force from 1970-1972. I have diseases from Agent Orange as well as Hepatitis C virus from a transfusion there. In addition, I have degenerative Disc Disease from a fall and an airplane crash. I filed my first claim with VA in 1989 and lost. I finally won in 2008 and am now cleaning up their mess from claims never completed in 1994. I live in Washington State. I use a pseudonym because my claims are still being appealed to the VA. The Veterans Administration has shown that they can be very vindictive towards those who criticize them. I have no desire to cross swords with them.