Episode Transcript
Welcome to a new season of the collective perspective podcast. As we dive into this season, we're focusing on the pivotal upcoming election, widely considered as one of the most important of our lifetime. Join us on this journey. As we navigate through diverse perspectives, dissect key issues and explore the profound impact on our shared future, get ready for insightful discussions and thought provoking insights.
Welcome to the collective perspective podcast. Season three.
Welcome back to the collective perspective podcast. This is Jeff. And here we are again with another episode with my buddy, Travis. What's up? What's up everybody? And my buddy Jawad. Hey, how everybody doing? Today we have two guests from Clay County Veterans Services officers. One of them is Mr. Richard Carey.
Yes, sir. How are we doing today? Good, man. Good. And Paolo Asario. That's correct. Hey, hi everybody. Hey, I said it right too. Close enough for government work. Gentlemen, we have you today because we, uh, Our veterans and we want to get the word out on the street, a digital footprint, if you will, but also for the veterans out there that don't know the VSO is there to help you.
And I can tell you through personal testimony that these two gentlemen has helped me very much in my life and my life changed because of their help. I thank you for your service. Our pleasure. Thank you. Thank you. Yes. Honor and a pleasure. Can you give an overview of the role of Clay County's Veteran Services plays in supporting our local veterans?
We're with the Clay County Veteran Services, home of more than 28, 000 veterans and more. Not including those, uh, working, shopping, and visiting our county. The county is a small town's, uh, big passion. I'm Paul Osorio and, uh, you got Rich Carey and we also have Desley West. She's our female counterpart. We currently have a total, uh, we're accredited, total of three accredited veteran service officers.
We work with the veterans, their families to access veterans benefits, uh, that they may be eligible for, which includes disability compensation, VA pension, and education. Medical and death benefits. What should veterans expect when they first approach your office for assistance? What we'd like to do is sit down and talk to them real quick, kind of get their backstory, where they're at in their life, what branch of service would you do, and what are you trying to accomplish today?
Because there's a lot of things that we can find out and discover by just having that little conversation with somebody to determine what we want to do next. On top of that, the difference between state and us is that we are in office that we do appointments. So you have that timeframe where we can actually engage and talk like a Richard saying to get to really get to know you, hear your story.
Because by hearing your story, we can actually determine. Yeah, we call, I call it soap symptoms, observation, assessment, and prognation. So, and all the records do that, and you'll see that in there. So by looking for all the assessments, that's still what I do today. And, and nursing as a corpsman, we were taught the soap note and I worked with the flight ops when we were in Spain, I did, Flight physicals, uh, re enlistment physicals.
I did all that stuff and we did sick calls. The Corman were baby doc. We would go in there, we'd go and get our soap note, get our vital signs, do everything down, and then the doc would sign off on the plan and just basically sign his name to it if your note was good. Can you guys explain the difference between veteran pensions and.
Disability Compensation. The difference between compensation and pension, mainly compensation being that you suffered an injury or it was aggravated, presumptive through toxic or any of that stuff, and it's where you get compensated for the injuries that occurred while in service, while on active duty.
So that's how you get compensated for lack of better words is like workman's compensation right where pension is if you were part of a war era like Vietnam or the Gulf War that if you have no service connected disabilities that the VA created a way for you to receive monetary assistance. But there's a criteria that you have to meet in order to get pension, but you cannot have both.
Yeah, right. And of course, pension really targets low income. So if you have a really low income, that's where that VA can step in and help them get to that mandated by Congress amount. So, but, uh, but if you get disability compensation, you typically will get more than you can on pension. Can you tell us who qualifies for benefits and how does your office assist in ensuring they They get those benefits qualifying for benefits.
Well, if you go look, there is an actual definition of veteran and typically for benefits, it's 180 days, but each benefit is different. So like, if you look at the, uh, compensation for today, it says you have to have at least two years. Or, and I always use this and, or, if, but, because there's always those things and eligibility.
You may be eligible, you can be eligible, but, and you kind of got to go through that process. But a lot of times, veteran, 180 days, Or served in the military and completed their contracts obligation. And to add to that is DD 214, right? That's the golden ticket is the DD 214. Because we also have our National Guard and Reservists that also have a very unique criteria that they have to meet.
So not all Reservists and all National Guards will get those benefits. Are you qualified if you're a dishonorably discharged? You can be. And it depends. And there we go again, because there are some benefits that they can get. They may be able to get just medical. So it depends on what happened to them in service.
So even if you've been discharged other than honorable, yes, you still have benefits out there. And so you definitely want to check with a VSO because we can go back and check because. A lot of times when we send stuff to VA, VA may make a determination and say, well, we'll give them this benefit here. So definitely talk to the VSO.
So if you serve out or when you go to re enlist, you are technically discharged from the military honorably for 24 hours and then you re enlist for your second term or for your re enlistment. Does that play a big part in it too? Because some people they'll get out after say, serving a tour and a half basically.
Yeah. Absolutely. Yeah, because, so what happens there, I was a career counselor in the army, so I did this for 14 years, but uh, what happens if you've re enlisted, now you have a good period of service, so having that good period of service, you can use your time on that, so if you, Let's say you, you're in the service, you re enlisted, then you got yourself in trouble.
You went to captain's mass for you, Navy guys, but, uh, what do they call it for the army? Um, we just call it article 15. How boring. Uh, so, and you, or you get busted and, and get thrown out, you know, and you say, oh, now I can't, Qualify for anything. Yes, you can. You can qualify on your good period of service, right?
Add to that is If oth other than honorable the rich is speaking about the benefits is chapter 17 where it's medical benefits Monetary under oth unless you get it upgrade and there is a way to request upgrade and the discharge And so that's that's They'll cover the medical side. On the OTH, other than honorable, there's a, I think there's another subsection on that that says under honorable conditions.
Is that correct? Correct. Correct. Yes. Yeah. There's a couple of different, you can get other than an audible or you can get general under audible conditions. See, so there are different subs, but the two bottom ones are the ones that chapter 17 and dishonorable under court martial is the one that is the hardest one to get any type of including medical benefits, the big chicken dinner.
Winner winner chicken dinner. Yeah, you could yeah, that's the one that if you have that one you lose so much with a discharge You know dishonorable discharge. I know these questions aren't on there, but here's another one. What if you've been criminally charged with a felony? Well, would you discharge or I mean after you get out as a civilian?
Well, it depends and Apollo does work with a lot of veterans in that kind of category and with the Veterans Treatment Court, he's, he advises down there about their benefits. But with felonies and things like that, if you end up in jail and if it's more than, uh, and Rich, back me up on this one is I think 60 days, 62 days that if let's say you are at 100 percent PNT, 80%, 50, it doesn't matter.
And you go in as a felony and 62 days you will lose your. It will bring you down your rating from whatever it is down to 10 or 5%. And, but, but, uh, to add to that, if they have family members, like kids, spouse and all that stuff, they can request apportionment so that they can get that money while the, the veteran is in jail.
So it's essentially like a, uh, like a credit score in some perspective when it comes to rating, like this kind of, is that kind of the right thing to do? In a way, yes, you can, you can see it as a, as a kind of like a credit score and stuff like that, where, of course, if you're 100 percent PNT, that's the promised land, right?
That's where you want to end up at. There is other 100s out there that a lot of the veterans get confused with standard 100, 100 TDIU. Uh, a hundred PNT and the a hundred paragraph 30 benefits while you're convalescent and recuperating from a surgery. So. So were you asking more about how the percentages work for the disabilities?
Yeah, because we've had veterans in and I'm thinking it's just straightforward, but there's many different variables that are involved in getting approved. Obviously filing a claim often can be complicated. Can you walk us through the typical process of filing for disability compensation? Sure. So what happens is once you come in a lot of times, if you get ahold of this first, we'll say, Hey, make sure you get your records like on a BDD.
I did a lot of BDDs, benefit delivery before discharge. And that's for service members that are still in the military and have at least 180 days in service. And more than 90 days before their exit date. So what happens is they can file for their claim and it's kind of goes in line with the rest of them.
So once you come in, you've never filed a claim before this initial, we want your DD two 14. We need your medical records, your alter, your, your Haynes and your Genesis and your medical jacket. Cause that's got your cardiograms. Are you. Audiograms and PHAs and stuff like that in there and sometimes outside records.
So when you come in there, we go through your record and we peruse through your records and take a look at everything. And we lift them on the 21 526EZ form from the VA. And we'll review this with you and say, okay, this is what we found in your records. Anything else, head, shoulders, knees, and toes? That we might have kind of overlooked.
So when you do that on a BDD claim, that Benefit Delivery Before Discharge, once we sign everything in, send it in, because we'll send everything in for you. You don't have to mail out anything, right? We'll do it. When you send it in on a BDD, 45 days to 60 days, you're going to get a call from a three letter organization, QTC, LHI, or VES.
That's for your compensation pension exam on your other claims, like what we call a fully developed claim. If you come in there and you're out of service and you've got your DD 214 and all your records and we got everything we need, write it all up, send it in 60 to 90 days. You're going to get called for that CMP exam compensation pension exam.
And that right there is the exam is when you've got to be on your. So I always tell everybody when they ask you how often something bothers you quantify your answer four to five times a week, eight times a month, six times a year, whatever the case may be. Don't ever use several couples sometimes, or maybe, okay.
My wife went through this process and she was able to get a hundred percent. And that was exactly what they were. Someone had told her she did it before she got out, had the ball rolling well before she got out retired, they would say, yes, quantify. Can only do 60 percent of my house, household chores or something like that.
You, they want those numbers. Right. Yeah. Cause the big one is like a migraine headaches. Dashka, how often have you had them in the last six months or 10 months, four to five times a month or whatever. But then when the big question came down, how many are prostrating? And that will just get a lot of people because in the CFR, the way it's written.
Title 38, Chapter 4, Subpart B, Schedule of Rating. That's where all that stuff is. How it's written in there is you have to have at least one prostrating event once every other month on average just to even get 10%. But anyways, you do your CMPs and we have another process called the standard claim process.
If you don't have your records, we can have the VA try to obtain those records for you. Okay, you do the exams and about 60 to 90 days after the exams are done Then you'll typically get a narrative a decision report back to you. I didn't go to the VA For 20 something years. I didn't have my medical records It's on microfiche.
Don't stress these veteran service officers will help you even if that's where you got to start you just go into their office and have a conversation with them and they'll Send that out and then then you'll get CD burnable CD copy of it and then your copies and speaking of which we don't make you go out and print your records either Because a lot of places do I got CDs implemented and also we got direct access to the VA So we can take that CD put it right in there and upload it directly I was kind of concerned about that if I decide to start filing a claim myself Because I, I know I've been out since 2001 and everything, I think it went to the records in Louisiana.
I think that's where they, their main Not yours. Yours went through. That all changed. I, I used to work at the VA, the VBA in Columbia, South Carolina. So I was a fiduciary. But what happened is if you go back and look and we, and we've even got those forms, it'll tell us that chart. It'll say, okay, at that year, your records went over here.
This year they went over here. So they're in different places, but a lot of times we can get them from national archives. Um, what we like to do is we do a power of attorney 21, 22, and we have accreditations with many organizations. So, what that means is we can go in there and look at your records in the VA, which is called the VBMS system, Veteran Benefit Management System, and we can see if your records are already there or not.
So, that's why you want to come and talk to somebody like us. What are some common hurdles veterans face and how do we help them overcome these? One of the main ones is not knowing, being very prideful, that I want to sit there and submit the claim. Or, I don't want to take money from somebody else. I don't want to do this or that and so but or they wait years right from coming because the best chances to get service connected is direct service connection as soon as you come out or within a year of coming out of the military.
The longer you wait, your time is your foe. Right? Because then anything that happens, time has gone by and if it's not chronic and persistent, the VA is going to ask, well, what happened if you had that problem? Why didn't you go to the doctor? Why didn't you complain about it? Show us that evidence that after the military was quickly You hurt your back in the military and it's in your record.
Okay, great. But where is the chronic and persistent that after you left the military that you kept complaining about it? And so once we have that information, then we can submit the claim and help out the veterans. So that's one of the biggest hurdles is submit, submit, submit. The earlier, the better, closer to the time that you got out of the military.
And so what he was talking about, the chronic and persistent, is like, I got a case today and I was showing him today, this guy was in in 2005, he got out. He didn't file until 2017. From 2005 to 2017, there was no medical records. So the VA can look at that and say, well, that was not chronic nor persistent.
How do we know your job didn't cause that problem you're having today? And then the other problem with a lot of claims is you don't have a current diagnosis. So VA will come back a lot of times and say, denied, not clinically diagnosed. So I'm, I'm just blessed then I guess. Well, no, and a lot of people are good at doing their own claims and you can do them on va.
gov and apply for your own claim. No, I didn't do the claim myself. I went to Apollo and it went pretty fast actually. So what, um, what advice would you have for veterans who are filing a claim for the first time? Um, Gather as much information about the initial injuries, gather all the information about your doctors, because we're going to ask, for example, we're going to follow 21, 41, 42, and 41, 42 alpha, which is requesting records from those private providers to send us those records, so we can actually see what's going on, and the VA is going to want to see all those documents.
So gathering the information is very important. And I'm wondering, did you already bring in all your records? You had them with you? Yeah. I had them. Okay. Cause what happens is if you have all your records, you, you've been out to the doctors. Sometimes these doctors don't like send them to VA, but if you can go get those records, bring them, because I tell you what, we can do a fully developed claim and the claim process can go really quick.
That way. For my recent one, I went to Baptist and they printed all of them. It was a big stack of stuff. And I went through every one of them and. Found out things that were okay. Okay. Okay. A lot of times you just bring the whole packet because some people only take a page here and there, but there's a lot of other information on the other pages that you will want.
So bring them all to us so we can see them. Not only that, but at the same time, know that we are here to educate. Uh, that's our biggest thing is that kind of like when we went over soap and, you know, teaching the veteran how to look at the medical records and how to make those assessments, because the person that's mostly interested in your, um, Claim is you so if you're smart about what's going on then you can make those decisions.
Oh, yeah I still have that knee pain and that knee pain is what I want to go after But that one time that I hurt my back on my neck and is no longer a problem Then why pursue that or we can have that conversation to say well if it is current in a problem Then we'll submit the claim and here's one thing somebody that a lot of veterans miss So you get service connected for something.
And let's say you got a back problem, but now your knee's bothering you. And you didn't have no problems with your knee in the military. But the doctor, you know, you look at the doc, say, Hey doc, why is my knee killing me now? I never had this problem. Well, it's because of your back. So now we can get the doctor to write that up and what we call a nexus.
Now we can secondary connect that condition to your That's funny because I just got shoe inserts and the shoe inserts corrected my back. Oh wow. They're making my back a little worse. There's a time that it takes for you to adjust and make those changes correct. Yeah, it's just a muscle adjustment and I'm okay now but just trying to get used to the shoe and the insert, like my back was killing me.
So like a domino effect basically. Yeah. Oh yeah, it's mainly like the song, it goes, right? The head is connected to the shoulder bone, the shoulder bone is connected to the backbone, and you go, so forth and so on. So if the neck created the problem in the back, for sure, yeah. My question for you is, and this came up in the previous episode with James Burse, an army veteran.
I was telling him about my claim. Experience and how it's just kind of gone quick, and he said that's because you're on the new system. Is there any, I don't know if there's anything technically in writing saying that I'm in the new system and everybody else is in the old system? Or, what is it about today that is faster than before?
Oh man, when was I there? I remember when the BDD system started in the VA, all right, prior to that, everything was written. Everything was medical jackets, handwritten, everything. And those would come in and I actually did the triage on records for a while because I started as an intern at the VBA. And that was one of my jobs to pull those records in, you got to catalog them, put them in the system.
They get their own special number and they get set in piles over here and they get piles get moved around all the time. Okay. So yes, it did take a long time when I retired in 2006, it took my claim 18 months from start to finish after I left the military. Now you can get those done a lot quicker. And the reason why is they digitized everything.
Technically yeah, they've digitized everything. So it is a new system. It's no longer well historic. That's right. And also You can track what's going on Previously and I brought this up to some members of Congress and got asked about some of this stuff Some of these records that get stuck over there and they sit there And they wouldn't move and go, Hey, what are these records over here?
Oh, we found some records over here. We didn't, you know, they've been here forever. And then finally, but now that doesn't happen because that's all digitized. The VA is constantly updating their app. Oh yes. There's an app on your phone that is almost caught up to the app on just the website. Yeah. Yes. It's kind of the same, but yes, the app, so you can see the progress of it and if they send you any letters, so that way you're not relying on the snail mail, if you will, that you just receiving, waiting two, three weeks to get word.
And by the time the time has half the time already has been in because you have 30 days to respond. And yeah, the electronic has definitely sped up things, which is great. And the CMP exam, man, if you make that appointment the next day, they got FedEx overnight. Here's all your information. Basically. Yeah.
And I think that's cool, man, because, you know, people that have medical needs and that time is very sensitive and valuable. For them to get the needs that they tension in and that and that's why they started the BDD program that benefit delivery before discharge because a lot of folks would read get out of the military and have to wait months and months and months and months and If you can take advantage of that BDD The goal of that BDD program by the VA is to have your claim done within the month that you get out I don't want to give the certain president props But uh There's a certain president that would love props for knowing that he's the one that stated that if you cannot get Medical treatment within what two months you're allowed to go to a civilian doctor and the military pays.
Okay So, let me right. Can I talk about that? Of course. Okay, so This is one thing that we like to educate the veterans when they come in because they'll say the VA said this and the VA said That okay. What part of the VA? So now let me give it paint a picture here. You got the big VA They do all the policies and things like that, right?
Then you've got the VBA, which is a veteran benefit administration That's where your compensation your pension your education home loan all that kind of Things come from there. Then you had the VHA, which is your health care, and that's all they're there for. They take care of your health. That's all they do.
And then you got the NCA, which is the National Cemetery Administration. Now, a lot of people think the PACT Act, when it came out, was about presumptive items. No, its primary focus was to get veterans Into the VA healthcare system, because we would get veterans in and they go over to enroll and they say, well, you're not service connected for anything.
And you make too much money. You cannot come in now. You also got to understand that the doctors are doctors, right? And so they know doctors and they say, yes, you have this problem. But they're not the benefits side. So, and we don't talk to each other. Like I don't see the doctors for, for medical records from the VA.
I can see yours from the military, but I don't see your current VA records. So they don't see our benefits side and they really don't care about the rules and regulations. They just letting you, the veteran know that they have this issue and it could be claimable. So, oh, well, the VA doctor told me that I have this.
What's cool about too, is that, uh, once you reach a certain percentage, your healthcare is free for the rest of your life, any co pays, nothing like that. And for those that have insurance from the outside, so like my, for my family to have insurance, I have to have insurance. The great thing about that is the VA will file the claim with my insurance company, and then they'll Take the money that the insurance company sends them, which isn't much, but it goes towards veterans that need that money, right?
Well, and I'm glad you brought that up because a lot of people think, well, if I go into VHK or VA healthcare system, I gotta get rid of my private. No, you don't actually, you can use it in conjunction. Cause what I do, cause I've got, I got a cup on, I'm retired. So I got. Tricare and I use them both and whatever works best for me at the time and oh, by the way if you're in the VA health care system Please do that and that's one of our biggest problems We've got to get veterans to enroll because it for many different reasons but do that because you can use these benefits But if you have an emergency you can go to any emergency room Up to three visits a year without no cost.
I do have a question about that. My wife is, like I said, she's a hundred percent VA disabled. We, I was just going to tell you you're qualified for TRICARE. No, we have TRICARE for life or retire or retiree prime. Yes. Prime. Uh, and we have a primary care physician. How does that work? She's more than 50 percent and we still pay, uh, she still pays a deductible when she's getting a procedure or doing something.
How do you go about getting that, that benefit? Okay, so what you do is, if you're using Tricare or any other insurance out there and you got your VA, A lot of times if you want the VA to take that over, go see your VA primary care doc and your PAC team, right? Get that diagnosed and everything there and then they'll do those connections now.
Sometimes if they can't do it in house, they'll do the Community Care Act where they can send you out in town. Okay? But a lot of times I use it to my advantage because I know if I can go to the VA, I get this quicker here, but then I don't want to change my doc because I really love my doc over here.
I'll use my Tricare and I still pay, I pay my copay of 35. Yeah. It's very inexpensive. And especially on medicines too. You really got to look at that one. Right. Yeah. But for example, the emergency room with TRICARE, you have that co pay, but with VA, and that's that tricky part right there, because when you go to the emergency room, you have to let them know to charge it against VA.
You have seven days. Three. Three. I'm sorry. 72 hours. 72 hours, correct. You have to report it. Mostly though, if we need an ER visit, we go on base. Yeah, but if you need an ER visit, just go. And when you get there, you tell them you're a veteran and you're using VA. Right, but that's the thing. Sometimes, I don't know how close you live to the base, but I don't like going all the way to the base for me, right?
For family, I get because, right, the family, you don't have to pay if you're prime and whatnot. But for me, I don't have to go all the way to the base when I got an emergency room right here, right next to us. And all I have to do is report it prior to now. You don't even have to do that anymore. You just go now.
You get three visits a year now. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Okay. That's new because like the last time I went to one, they definitely said, all you have to do is report it when 72 hours and the one that you definitely cannot make the mistake on his community care with the VA. You have to get it approved first, get it approved first before you want to check in because things do change.
A lot of changes in the system, and again, back to the PACT Act, the big reason for the PACT Act was a lot of veterans, if you think you've been exposed to things, you've been overseas, or you've been CONUS, and you think you've been exposed to things, go over and enroll in VA health care, try to get enrolled, now, by the way, I don't know if we've said this, but VA health care is for the veteran.
Not the family. So I get that question a lot, but there are some programs for the family when we call champ VA I think it's pretty cool because just interviewing other veterans voice their grievances But I'm listening to you guys and I'm seeing where you are proactively making the adjustment to accommodate the veterans Much more effectively the thing I see which is the gray area is just the knowledge They, they just lacked the knowledge of, the knowledge of the 100 percent because a lot of them, the information is out there, including myself.
Ridge did my claim when I got, came out I did his BDD while he was still in there. Right. And so when I got out and I got my percentage, I knew Some of the information with the VA, I'll tell you what, though, now as a veteran service officer, I know more in the funny parties that the information is out there, but it's kind of like they say, it's so much information that you get overwhelmed and you don't know what to look for unless it's affecting you currently.
And then you have to take that time to va. gov and. That's not the, the where to go is just, that's just the entry point because CFR 38 is where you really, that's the law right there. So, but at least with va. gov, it gives you that search engine that you can actually look into it and stuff like that. And then the va.
gov points you to the actual CFR that applies to it. Knowledge is power. I mean, I'm, I'm sitting here and they painted in a certain light. And then you sit with the guys who actually are behind the desk. Helping the guys it sheds light on the fact that you guys are actually trying to do everything you can to make sure that they Have they get everything they deserve?
Yes. Well, yeah, I know what it feels like when I left the military When I retired in 2006, we didn't have a lot of programs. They're just like, yep. There you go. Go do it Go figure it out on your own I wanted to add that there are some wolves out there. Oh, yes, you're correct. Sharks. You guys want to talk about sharks, wolves.
So these companies, they pose themselves of ombudsman. An ombudsman is basically a spouse of a military member that is doing military service for military people. Right. And those people are like, we're ombudsman. They'll go out and they'll help you find your medical records and file the claim and everything, but they want a cut.
Yeah. And matter of fact, they can't file your claim for you because they're not accredited. What they do is they say, give us all the information and we give it back to you. Now you send it in, but we're going to charge you a percentage or flat fee of whatever we do. I almost got stuck in that. And then I went to the actual VA doctor's appointment, which is really close to where Rich and Paula work.
Their office is the next building over. And they're like, you should go talk to the VSO. And that, that was a life changer right there. Yeah, and I'm just private conversation with him with Jeff. He's it's it's changed his life It's given him a different perspective on the opportunities and the possibilities of things Swung the doors open for him and he's really, you know, it's just great talking to him about it because he's enthusiastic about things Getting the attention he needs with some of the medical needs that he has and it's changed his life It truly has changed his life.
Oh no. And that's the fuel to the fire, right? Because we're in and out and dealing with different scenarios and whatnot, but it's the victories, right? The victories is the fuel to the fire. We definitely have a few battles that we've lost and we continue to fight the good fight and look for ways to get the percentages, the service connections, not only for the veterans, but for the surviving spouses.
It does, that's very important. That's a huge one. And I just, again, thank you because he's, I love him and he's a dear friend of mine and, and it's just been a blessing to see the process for him. That's a huge one. I appreciate it. A lot of times I think it's not just about the money, you know, it's not the, but you are recognizing the issues that you have, even if you're 0 percent you're getting it treated because I'm telling you what, you're going to get older.
Things are going to get worse down the road, right? This is why you want to go do that. Don't think, Oh, I'm, I can do everything, or a lot of people, it's a, a negative. Well, I got a disability. Well, first of all, you're not obligated to tell any employer that you have a VA disability because it's not that kind of state disability that they look for, right?
You don't have to tell anybody that you have anything. Okay. Now, if they look through your medical records, cause you're going to be a pilot and then you've got this problem in your medical records, that's what they're going to base it on. Okay. So yeah, go out there, get help. I'm telling you, we've got people that we get phone calls during the nursing home, something happened and they're trying to get VA health care and help.
VA can't go in and step in because they've not enrolled in VA health care, or they've not maintained active status with them and going at least once a year to be seen. But if they had been now, VA can step in and there's a lot of other programs, especially for our elderly veterans out there. Now, I think it's pretty cool, man.
You listen to boxing commentators, right? They've never boxed. They don't, they don't understand the inner workings of what it takes to be a boxer. Right. And I think it's pretty cool that you guys are on the front line. You served. And it's personal because you all serve and you understand the plight of the individual that is in medical need.
Yes. And it's I think that's incredible. I think it's that they hire these amazing men that have served and served in our country. That can understand the other side of the table like they served and they continue to serve. Exactly. You'll get unsung heroes, man. That's why we do it. We, we enjoy it. We like helping others.
That's the whole idea of this podcast right now is just to get that word out there to help others. That's all we want out of it. That's the only agenda that we have out of this entire podcast. As a matter of fact, it's just helping you. And changing lives, man. That's it. Incredible. And you guys are changing lives.
Yeah. That's the biggest personal testimony. I prayed and prayed and prayed because I knew I possibly had sleep apnea. I didn't know the severity of it or anything like that. You know, to try to get an appointment as a civilian for sleep apnea is almost nearly impossible. So I go into a place, go into the VA where it's just on a folklore level saying that it's impossible.
When it's not, it's not. Yeah. And it is possible with the right help, right? No, I mean and don't get me wrong. There is timelines that you have to meet and there is time frames that you know You have to overcome but the help is there they help the benefits to help and and the people that work Really good, but there is those sour apples within the system that make it really hard To get the help that you deserve And then years ago, we get a lot of older veterans that come in, they were served in the seventies and stuff, and they didn't talk, talk about any of this stuff.
Well, this is true because the system was different then, and especially on the disability, especially if you're a military retiree. Right because prior to and I remember working on the white papers back in like 2000s on this where the Congress changed it If you got at least 50 percent in your military retiree you get your full VA disability check and you get your full military check Retirement check right prior to that.
All they did was whatever you got from the VA make that part of your Military check non taxable. So they really didn't pursue this stuff back then. So now they're trying to pursue it and it's after the fact, but a lot of our doctors and folks are getting really educated in real quick story. I, NES Jacks, I had one of the Navy docs call me and he says, I've got these veterans or service members that keep coming over and ask me for this stuff.
And I want to know why. And I said, well, you've got a couple minutes. I said, yeah, he came over and I explained to him why this is being done. And in his next. Statement was, I need you to do my claim then. That is awesome. That happens more often than not. And that's why we, that's why we do appointments and, and we talk to the veteran and give them, give him or her plenty of time.
It says, uh, apart from pension and compensation, what other services do your office offer? I would say education is one of them. Uh, we definitely, uh, sit there and, and especially for kids, right? Uh, a hundred percent, uh, veterans P and T, or even if, if you're not a hundred percent, but you are considered P and T, uh, and you get awarded chapter 35.
That's one of the benefits that we help out with. Uh, like Rich, I mentioned champ VA, if you're a hundred percent P and T, and you have no other insurance, you're That the family members can be, um, put into the system. Uh, we definitely have aid and attendance. Uh, when we get to that age where we can no longer feed ourselves, dress ourselves and whatnot, that our significant others can apply for this aid and attendance so they can hire somebody to help them with their daily activity.
Themselves, right? Or even, yeah, caregiver. Yeah, your wife could be your caregiver and the VA will pay for her. Which is great because you have aid and attendance with the VBA and then you have the caregiver program or direct care of the veteran through the VHA. So there's two different pots of money.
Remember these two different points. And then you were asking about benefits and I don't know where you're going to go next. One other thing that really, and this one is what hurts my heart the most, and has really bothered me a lot, is when the veteran passes away. The family comes in and they're expecting The VA disability, if they're retired, they get the retirement and all this other stuff.
And I'm, and I've been first one to tell them, I'm sorry, you don't get any of that. That all passes with the veteran. And that one really hurts. It does hurt. So what, what happened is here in Clay County, we got together with a bunch of doctors. The hospital department of health and county officials. And we had a couple of meetings to talk about this and what can we do?
So we came up with a service connection card. And we want all the veterans to get a card, give them to your spouses, put them in your wallet, put on there what you're service connected for. And the reason is, and on the front of the card, by the way, it says, Please present to the attendant physician and the funeral director.
Because the reason is, is if you die of a service connection disability, or a contributing factor to there, of, now the family can get dependency and vacation compensation. Which is 1, 612 a month, but I think it just went up because we just had the COLA upraise, right? So they can get that for the rest of their lives.
I just had a veteran die, young veteran. Married, two kids. I was just able, because we knew what was going on. We said, please get this on the death certificate. So now, The surviving spouse is going to get paid financially. Now, I thought that that was kept collecting the benefit or one of the benefits. I don't recall which one it was.
Unless you got remarried. That's, that's DIC. Now, you can, don't, don't confuse this with the Military Retiree Spousal Benefit Program. Okay, that's, that's completely different. That's a different kind of insurance from DOD. Two different pots of money, right? D. O. D. Then you got V. A. So, but, that's definitely The thing is to make sure that Is there, for example Veteran has a heart attack But was service connected for high blood pressure If They put that as a contributor to the heart attack.
Then the IC is awarded to the spouse and children if they qualify. How are you getting this to your office? We pass them out. Actually, I think I got them out in the truck. I keep mine in here and mine in the other ones in the computer bag. See here it is right here. I keep that on me. Okay. Because that way my spouse, I never told my spouse what this is and this is what you got to do with this card.
There we go. So, but, uh, you, you definitely got to do that because if you don't, then the spouse surviving spouse is not getting anything. And if they're, if, if they're lucky, they'll get the social security because they're retired. But then I had a spouse that wasn't retired. She wasn't 60 in her sixties yet, right?
She became the caregiver to take care of the veterans. So she stayed home and was getting paid that. Now she has lost her caregiver pay and no VA disability pay. And now she has nothing, and they didn't have life insurance, so she's gotta go work. And, and not only that, it's not that they don't get it, it's just they're gonna have a harder time proving it.
Right? Because we can still seek it, but the problem is providing the evidence, the proof, and a lot of times when you ask your spouse, What did you do in the military? I don't, I don't know. What do you have his DD 214 somewhere? Yeah. Right. So, so fortunate. I had a family member call me, their dad just passed away.
The attendant physician was there and she says, they're going to put blunt force trauma on the death certificate. And I said, well, what happened? And so, well, he fell down. I said, why'd he fall down? He said, well, he passed out. And I said, hold on. I know this veteran looked up real quick. I said, make sure you tell them that he had diabetes and hypertension.
Yeah. Right as a contributing factor get that on there So when you go to the funeral director matter of fact the funeral director is the one that initiates the death certificate to get it Done. Okay, that's why we put that on there a bit because that was done the family got a DIC otherwise Blunt force trauma.
What is DIC? Dependency Indification Compensation. Okay, thank you. Sorry. Yeah, throwing them out too quick I am navy, you know, you know Yeah, which is just a fancy word to say, you know, uh surviving spouse or kids In the military jawad. It's all about acronyms. Yes Let me throw this out real quick. We talked about the sharks and everything, and surprisingly, we get people come in and ask how much do we pay you?
Right. We get paid by the county. Right. So you don't owe us anything. Nothing. A smile and a free service by the county. Yeah. Roger that. Just seeing your smile and a thank you, it's really good. But, okay, but to add to the whole DIC and everything and the death certificates and whatnot. Well, what do I do if I didn't get that?
There is protocols, there is, that's when you come and talk to us, there's protocols, you can get it amended. You can get a letter from a doctor, you know, the presiding doctor or the actual physician that was seeing the veteran and you can have, you know, write a letter so that we can submit it to the VA.
So hopefully we can get it. Hopefully. It's not a guarantee. Nothing that we do is a guarantee. We're just advocating on the veteran's behalf and we're just giving you the best course of action. I did have another question. Clay County has this, uh, has the veteran services offices. Is this common throughout other counties in Florida or?
I was just thinking the same thing. So I mean, any, everywhere in the country, not, not always not country, but in the state of Florida, you do have the County veteran service officers and we belong to County veteran service officers association, and we go to training at least once a year, but we tend to go twice a year.
And this is how we get those creditation stay up to date. Cause we have VA personnel there, uh, folks like that. So we can stay on top of this stuff because changes come and then, uh, yeah. I'll be saying one thing and Paul goes, I didn't know that. And he'll be saying, well, I just found this and that. And I'm going, are you kidding me?
Really? Oh, that's awesome. Right. And not only through, do we go to accredited with the other county, but we also have, uh, law firms that provide courses that we took so that we can get that knowledge from a law point of view. And also in the state of Florida, which Is unique because this is where we fall under is the Florida Department of Veterans Affairs.
So you have some state folks out there, and that's where I started back in 2019 at NESJAX. I had that office out there for many years, and Clay County needed somebody, so they asked me if I would come over and, yeah. What does a listener do if they're not in the state of Florida? They get I actually, I help people from all over the world.
If we get calls, we get them from Georgia, the Kings Bay, stuff like that. Georgia, I've gotten a few New York and Virginia. Well, so you can help someone obviously anywhere out. We can help with answering questions and providing guidance, but you have to sign with us a power of attorney that allows us to advocate on the veteran's behalf.
So if they're out of state and they can't come to the office, we have to see, kind of see that interaction with the veteran to, Make sure that you can give them the proper guidance and also we like to see you be make sure because believe it or not, we have people out there faking that they're veterans and, and that's why we do wet signatures, right?
Or, or trying to file for somebody else. And we get that a lot to a lot of family members that want to file for the veteran and the veterans, like, I did not want to file. Oh yeah, that happens. Right, that happens. Funny story, I went to a C& P exam for my blood pressure and they were like, Thank you for being honest with your blood pressure readings.
We had someone come in here like, Yeah, I'm like 230 or something. Good lord. Yeah. And I was a nurse. Yeah. And the physician's assistant's like, Uh, Okay. Well, and that's one thing we also tell veterans. Hey, look, we're not, don't sit there and lie to them. Be truthful. Okay, with what your problems are. All right, but don't tell on yourself either.
I had this Uh, I'll tell you guys, cause you're all Navy. I had this Navy captain come in and he loved to talk. And I said, look. We call these sea stories. Yes. Oh, he was good at it. And I said, look, answer the question and stop. Stop. Well, what did he do? He went to the CMP. He got done. He come and saw me. He says, Rich, I think I screwed up.
I said, what happened? He goes, well, they asked me about my hearing. I used to tell him I was used to go hunting. All the time as a kid we didn't wear hearing protection and stuff like that and I'm going oh my gosh, but service guess what? Because it was not on his entrance physical And also in the CFR 38 I have this paragraph the veteran can't tell on themselves So just because he said that doesn't mean that that's not going to be service connected, but because his physical had no hearing, he had great hearing, guess what?
I appealed it, connected. Yes, that's good for him. Yes, he did. He got lucky. That happens, you know, please just answer the question truthfully and stop. You don't need to give that extra information. I mean, honestly, I was, I'm happy that my blood pressure is lower. Oh yeah, no, I mean, you know, I tell ya, I'd rather, some of the stuff I'd rather have them take away.
Hey, you know, I could write a letter for you about your blood pressure, cause that was a pretty scary event there at the, the Yale house. Right, right next to me. He was sitting there and just started. You think, that's what we call syncope, your blood pressure drop. Mmm, passed out. They said it was a vagal, vagal response.
Yeah, I know about that. There is so much stuff you can claim, I'm still going through the manual. I've been with the company for almost a year and I'm still going through the manual looking for all, uh, not looking, but just learning about all the different medical things that can be claimed. And I got to tell you, it is a lot, it is definitely a lot.
People are surprised. So a lot of times I will never turn down a claim. You know, I say, Hey, I don't see the evidence there. Well, okay, we're going to write it up and send it to the VA. We won't make that determination. We'll let the VA make that determination. But then we get though, how come we got the nine?
And we try to tell you, but here's in writing now that it's official. And then if you want to appeal, we can help you appeal, which by the way, there's two type of appeals, a supplemental, which you can introduce evidence or a higher level review, which a senior raider, uh, will take a look at the claim to see if there was a mistake made.
Right. And we can go higher even after that too. So I think the veterans shouldn't be afraid to have that senior person take a look at it. It's a, akin to what we have now, if, uh, insurance will deny a claim for even in the civilian world, you can have a peer to peer, uh, kind of a review. And that, that's what this sounds like.
Yes. That's exactly what it is. But we call it a higher level review. More experience. This has helped out because I've had a veteran come in. He got a letter saying he's going to get decreased because they saw something in his record. He was getting better. And oh, by the way, if you have a service connection and you're happy with it, And you come in and say, I want to file this and I was like, well, you're not going to die of that in that.
added conditions not going to bump you up, hold on to it, keep on going to the doctor because once if you keep your claim where it is, VA does have an obligation. They can go and look at it every five years, but they're so overwhelmed. They just did over 2 million claims recently. So they're overwhelmed.
So they don't have the time to really to go back and look at all these records every five years. And so, uh, you So most of the time it won't go anywhere. And then there's a protected categories too. And that we can go on. They actually have to send the veteran letter stating that they're going to do it before they actually, so what happens though, if you file a claim at any time that opens your claim, even if you're a hundred percent permanent total, I had a guy do this and I'm like, no, he had filed his claim.
They saw something got better and now he's 90%. Well, I was protected. No. Once you open your claim, they can go back and look at everything. Here's, uh, where that doesn't happen, um, because I've done my research for sleep apnea. So, I went in to have my follow up first exam with the sleep apnea and they said, you no longer have sleep apnea.
Pick a day. If I don't use my CPAP machine, I have apnea. Yeah. And so, they can't take that rating away from me just because I no longer have apnea because of the machine. No, they have to have medical evidence. Yeah, so if they take the machine away, then I have apnea again. Yeah. It's not a cured thing. And that's why They're, they're talking about changing that one come April, you know, and I don't believe anything until it actually happens.
I know it's been on the books, but they're actually looking at making sleep apnea a zero instead of 50. If you have a device, you get 50%, unless you're using a mouth guard, that's 30%. But if you don't have a device and they just name you have sleep apnea, you got insolvency and stuff like that. That's 0%.
Well, with the new change, if it goes in effect, what'll happen is if you open your claim and they, they got the new change in effect and you open the claim, they're gonna take that 50% down to zero. You still service connected for it, by the way, but. You're not at that 50 percent level. So you got to be careful at times filing claims.
So please ask us because we'll advise you and say, Hey, you got to be careful here. This is what's going on. Especially our 90s percentile. We always ask is this squeeze worth the juice, right? Because if, if you're opening that claim and we can see, especially with PTSD, if we, if we see, or we talk to the veteran and they tell us, Oh no, my PTSD is getting, don't open the claim.
You know what I mean? Leave it alone. Because they will come. And that's the number one. What did you say? Your PTSD what? It's gotten better. Right? Because his mental health can through therapy and whatnot could get better. And they look at PTSD getting better over time. So you do got to be careful. We'll advise you and say, okay, you got to look at this.
Matter of fact, we've got a hundred percenter and he, now he wants to file for especially monthly compensation, which is above and beyond something on his VA claim. You'll get a zero for it. But he'll get another 132. 74 a month. But we're looking at going, dude, you're a hundred percent permanent total. If you say the wrong word, you can get decreased.
I did it. It happened to me. I'm in the business. I forgot. Okay. I went in, I'm at 90%. I went in and they were looking at my stuff from the golf war. And they finally diagnosed me 12 years after service. They finally figured it out. She goes, Hey, by the way, how's your shoulder doing today? I said, it's doing okay.
And moved on. Oh, I got a letter. I got reduced from 30 percent because I said, okay. Okay. What you say, what you say to an examiner, that's how it is. I think you can say that, but you have to have that qualifier. Today, it's okay. Yeah. Right. It matters what you say, and they're looking at you. The examiners are looking at you.
The golden rule is the moment you get out of your car to the moment that you go back in your car, they're always looking at you. So, it matters what you say, it matters what you do, because they will use that against you. Remember that the examiners are being hired by the VA. Okay. So they're not there to examine you to you for your benefit.
Right? So they just, they're looking at you and there's been, you know, stories where they didn't even look at me. They didn't even put a ruler. They didn't do all this other stuff and you know, horror stories. And then, yeah, I believe you walked in the door, sat down. We could tell your back is not at 40 percent cause you just sat down with no problem.
Right. They're looking at you. So meticulous. It's so attention to detail. Wow. If you have mental health and you're claiming PTSD, depression, sadness, and they ask you, so how are you doing today? Well, I'm doing great. And then PTSD is one of the, so, and oh, by the way, mental health world. Let me talk about that one real quick.
This one really gets everybody. Well, I got anxiety three months later, seven months later, a year later. Doctors have PTSD. Guess what? All that's rated as the same thing in the same umbrella. So did the symptoms get worse? That's the question. Just because he diagnosed you with another item, did the symptoms get worse?
You're at 0, percent. Those are the only ones they have in the CFR, and I'll break that out and go look. Matter of fact, if you want, you can go back and talk to your doctor. Hey doc, which one am I at? Right, and to caveat to that, right, we have veterans that, no matter what it is, right, I'm feeling some kind of way, I'm feeling some kind of way.
And they get, let's say 50 percent or, or no, let's say 20 percent for the knee, but they feel that they should be rated at 50 percent for their knee. Well, in the narrative, it actually tells you what you should be experiencing to receive the next higher level rating. Are you feeling that? Well, I feel that I meet that.
Okay. You can feel that all day long. Does a doctor. Concur with you makes it a lot easier or we will do the what's called a rate increase and an examiner is going to look at you. And if they, they do say yes, then they'll increase you. If not, they'll say, confirm them, continue. And by the way, the examiner is not a treating physician.
All they do is examine because we've got a lot of veterans come in and thinking they're supposed to diagnose me with these problems. They don't diagnose. They don't give you the info. They're like, how come they didn't do an x ray? How come they didn't do an MRI? How come they didn't do all this? But now the CMP examiners will, you can ask for your DBQs, disability benefit questionnaire, on what they did.
You can ask for those. Yes. So you can see what the doctor wrote or the examiner wrote because it doesn't have necessarily have to be a doctor. I'm not gonna use this on the podcast, but for my hemorrhoids, they said, do you want to be examined? Well, if they're external. don't need to because, no, they're internal.
Okay. Okay. It's already in, you're already rated with it. I don't have to examine it. Why isn't that going to be on the podcast? I know right? I'm talking about, I'm okay with the single thing. I've had pictures come in with the pictures, see look! And I'm like no! For real, yes. They give us the CD with all their pictures and all that stuff and I'm like Oh no, this guy had it on his phone.
Super good, yeah. There's no need for none of that. If you're already rated for it and the symptom hasn't gotten worse Then it's confirmed and continue if now, if you know that when you got that service connected disability, and that's how you were feeling at then, but now it's, let's say it was bleeding once a week, but now it's like more continuous.
And you went to the doctor and they're like, Oh no, this has gotten worse. That's when you come back to us and say, I need to file a rate increase. Cause maybe you've met the next qualifying, fine. Definitely get the doctor check it out if it's internal because it can be something awesome. Before we close, because I know your spouse a hundred percent, right?
A lot of us veterans and myself did not know about the 10 year rule, right? The 10 year rule. If you're a hundred percent PNT from the date of effectiveness, right? If you die within 10 years, your death must be service connected. After 10 years, no matter what you die of, your spouse is going to get DIC.
Dependency and vindication compensation. However, there is a caveat to that. So if they get out of service and they die within the first five years, it's going to get covered. So, so if you have a question to ask us, And then there's a, there's a one year rule too, that is, that is if you die with after one year of service, then they get a DIC and whatnot.
But what if your spouse fakes her death? So after 10 years, we get, the spouses get the DIC. So you mean I should keep that? Life insurance policy. Oh, yes. Right. Right. And until your spouse, you got to keep me alive until this date. Until this date for sure. Yeah. That's your job. Otherwise you're not getting paid.
You're not getting anything. But, yeah, a lot of veterans come to find out they don't know that. No, I had no clue about that myself. See, the 10 I'm getting ready to do a whole bunch. I'm doing a presentation at Penny Farms. They got a big veteran population out there and I'm going to be doing all the senior centers.
We got four of them. Uh, in November, I'm going to go to each one and provide information, especially about the geriatrics and. Elderly stuff the elderly vet care because they've the VA's really jump build up their game on that, but we're everywhere I mean, we're an impact clay. We're at the college Initiative.
We have a touch a truck touch a truck over a second. By the way, we got the veteran Council of Clay County, Florida They're gonna be doing their 5k run and softball on November 9th, and then the proclamation. Yes on October 22nd We'd like to invite you all veterans for the Board of County Commissioners at Clay County It's gonna do a proclamation of the Veterans Day On the 22nd.
So we invite you all in. And while I'm talking about the board of County commissioners, we would like to invite you all out to come out military service members and veterans from clay County. We want you to come in and do the pledge. At the board of county commissioners you open the meeting with the pledge and you give a little bit about your service They give you a certificate and they put you on our page.
It's awesome. It's awesome. I've done it. It's really cool Do you have to live in clay county to do that? Yes, we prefer you. Okay prefer. Sorry. I'm in st. John's right now Yeah I'll do it. Uh Yeah, yeah, we'll get you on the list for sure. Thanks for any veterans listening. What is the best way for them to get in touch with you, your office and start the process for C here we go.
A full number nine zero four five two nine four two five six. And also you can email veterans services at clay County gov. com. I like that special voice. You gave it a DJ sometimes, so I can get in my DJ announcing voice. Yes. That's right, clay county gov.com. Look for veteran services and you'll find all the information there too.
And we have some FAQs there too. You can go to our webpage also. Yes, definitely. On Facebook. We're definitely on our communication department here at Clay County. Does an awesome job. Yeah. Facebook is for us older people. Yeah, that's right. . Yeah. Most veterans are, you know, so. Don't forget you got TikTok, Instagram, uh, I don't even know the other ones anymore.
Oh, they got a bunch of other ones. I can't keep up. Snapchat. I think that's old now to the kids. Ask them. No, no, they're still using that one. I'm convinced that the heart of life is good, man. And you guys are an example of what's good in life. Just blessing and helping people, man. I appreciate you guys. I really do.
This has been so informative. This has been so educational. It's shed like really a beautiful light on a mis misconception of the process of getting your benefits. And we only scratched the surface in this podcast, right? This conversation could have been so much longer and, uh, we've really enjoyed the conversation and just the, the banter and the knowledge that you've given us.
And we really appreciate it. And you guys are. Serving even after you already served and you're you're helping our brothers and sisters that need help and a lot of it's just Educating them. What is a GI Joe says knowledge is half the battle. See he got it. Yeah It's a camaraderie Right, so we're all better and if any of your listeners have any questions that they ask you Yeah, let, you know, let us know.
We can come back, answer those to, to more, you know, precise type questions and stuff like that. We'd love to provide information. It's great because we had, uh, some listeners of friends of mine that live in other states and they heard the Operation Barnabas podcast and they're like, can we get one of those here?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah, that, that, that's really good that, uh, you guys are out there, you're, you're working, you're helping. Continuing to serve. Uh, it's, it's, it's an honor to see, to have you guys on the show and talk to you and get, get this information. Like I said, a lot of this, I didn't know my wife doesn't know I'm actually going to make her listen to this podcast.
Uh, so she can, oh yeah, I know what they're talking about and I should do that, or maybe I will get in touch with everybody, you know, all you veterans out there that are listening to this, spread the word, spread the word about these gentlemen and look, seek for the information locally, if that's what you need, but.
These gentlemen could be the gateway to you, ensuring a better future for yourself. Yeah, and we definitely are not just Clay County. We handle Duval and we also St. John's or anybody really that has any questions. But if they can make it into, we had one veteran come all the way from Orlando because they heard about us and, and the fact that we take the time to listen and actually file the claims and you know, whatnot.
I had a Navy commander drive from Atlanta, Georgia. Come and see me do her claim. And she drove back the same day. It's crazy to think that this isn't in every cell. And yeah, cause every state is different. Some states, they really don't want to help you. Cause I get that and I won't name the state up there, but I get that all the time.
They won't, they didn't do anything for us. They just don't want to do anything. And they come down and see us. James mentioned that even the VA hospital was that way too. Like, uh, it's almost like a click. Like if you're a certain. He would say that if you want, if you're Hispanic, you better go to Miami. If you're this, you better go here so on.
Yeah, well, but I'll tell you the VA healthcare system has really improved a lot since when I started back in 2006 till now, big difference. And I hear that from a lot of older veterans that have been in the system before now go and said, Oh my gosh, this is a lot different. Oh, it was kind of funny. Cause my wife was putting in her VA claim while she was working at the VA in Gainesville.
My dad used to complain for years. He's a Vietnam veteran. He's been a hundred percent for many years. And he's like, the VA is just the worst place to go to in the world. And then, so then I start going, I'm like, There's nothing wrong with this. All this is great. And, and a lot of people don't know, especially in the Jacksonville area that they opened up the north side on the Huron Park.
It's a nice facility too. Oh, it's very nice. Beautiful. My wife's been to that one. Yeah. Yeah. It's like the one in Gainesville. They been new c Clinton down there too. And by the way, one in St. St. John's or St. Augustine is pretty decent too. Same. They just Yeah. Matter. Matter of fact. If they can't get you in here, go ahead and drive down to Gainesville, get it done.
Cause they normally get you in the next day or two. But a lot of people say, Oh, they don't have an appointment for a month. We'll ask, Hey, can you get me a Gainesville? Yeah, we can do that. And we can get you right away. And if you're 30% or more service connected, they'll do a trouble voucher. Yeah. So as long as that is a nice little bonus check too.
Especially going all the way to Gainesville. That's right. I had a C MP exam. They paid me $3 'cause it was only down the street. Oh yeah. three. There's one guy in fuel. There you go. If that, you know, so good. Yeah. Well again, thank you gentlemen. Thank you for your time. Thank you for what you do. Definitely a blessing.
Everybody. Thanks for listening. Spread the word. Well, and I appreciate this opportunity to get out of here and spread the word. That's thank you guys for doing this and spreading the word to veterans. And that's amazing. So I appreciate it. Yeah. And for having us here. Thank you. Peace out, everybody.
