Questions about the VA from my buddy Curt

The VA system here and in Houston has been most effective and consistent with health care. That's true in my case and it encompasses every department from Neurosurgery, Oncology and  Radiology all the way down to helping us get from our cars in the parking lot to the front door of the hospital.

Lots of us use walking canes and wheel chairs and they are even prepared for that. It's a huge facility and one of the parking lots is a half mile away from the front door of the hospital, maybe a little more.

For the Fighter Pilots and the members of the Sharks and Dolphins, please know that last night, as I was checking the various military sites that I'm active with, I checked the site from one of my units in Vietnam.

I ran across a request for help from a pilot / friend I flew with but couldn't answer because politicizing the site is not allowed. Since the funding is a political process and that involves politicians, I am forced to answer it here instead of there and I will attempt to do that to the best of my ability.

Sorry to get off the path we had been on but I consider this to be another bit of evidence that we really need to get together and help each other out and do that through the Every-Veteran site I've been working on. There will be no restrictions to freedom of speech there.

Since my printer doesn't work, I'll have to recall most of this from memory so if it isn't exactly to the dollar and cent, you will have to give me a mulligan. I have a hell of a doctor's excuse.

I'll go out on a limb here and say that they are roughly 99% accurate but will add that you can go to the VA site and get the numbers yourself. That's where I got mine. Here's a list of things that I've uncovered and experienced personally.

1.   The VA system requires an annual budget of roughly 58 Billion dollars to run the hospitals.
2.   The benefit package requires another 65 Billion.
3.   Those budgetary requirements are funded by the tax payer and allocated by the government.
4.   The Shreveport VA has a budget that was stated to me to be 364 million dollars.
5.   This is not an entitlement, it is a benefit from your service to your Country.
6.   You paid your premium in Vietnam and Cambodia.
7.   There are horrible shortfalls in the budget.
8.   It causes a shortfall in funding for the VA staff and it includes doctors and administrators.
9.   It causes a shortfall in medical equipment like the kind that was required for my brain surgery.
10. To understand the budget process, you must involve yourself in the political aspect of it.

I'm not in a position to say exactly what Tim Jr did to accomplish the same goal you have as I was unconscious when they brought me there by ambulance and I don't remember anything except the hot rod magazine my brother brought to me. Thanks to Leland, Tim Jr and Kristin.

I do remember that they did not have some kind of medical equipment that was needed for my brain surgery and that was explained to me as a function of another shortfall in the budget.

I also remember that I could not have surgery at the highly respected Neurosurgery Department at the LSU Medical Center in Shreveport because the budget shortfall would not allow payment to that hospital.

In view of that, I had to be transferred to Debakey Medical Center in Houston where the VA is set up as the brain trauma center for the wounded Vets returning from the Middle East.

I was already in the system and being treated and medicated to stop the bloody feet and hands that came with the Agent Orange problem. That was already in place when the brain surgery requirement surfaced. Thanks again to my USMC brother Leland for getting me to sign up before the bleeding became too bad for me to do it myself like you are having to do.

After the brain surgery, the biopsy was determined to be malignant and I was given 3 to 12 months to live. When that was issued, I remember Tim Jr being directed to the Patient Advocate office where he met Rosemary Mason, another high achiever in the system and a great credit to the VA staff.

I don't know if you have already been directed to the Patient Advocate Office in California but if not, I suggest you go there immediately as the PAO worked wonders for me and hopefully, the one at your VA can do the same thing for you.

All of this happened while I was basically living on the ward at the VA in a semi private room that I shared with a World War II Veteran. At some point during that time, I remember hearing that Tim Jr's frustrations had a chance of being reduced as he had been directed to the DAV where the Disabled American Veteran's representative, Bob Petrus, was located.

I don't have any idea what happened during that time but I know that when he returned he had a smile on his face when he told me that the DAV officer knew what was up and would assist with the paper work situation that was somewhat like the one you are experiencing now.

If I had to guess I would say that the DAV meeting took place somewhere close to a month or so after my brain surgery. As I understand it, you've already been there for a year so maybe you are already in contact with them.

In any event, they put together the paper work and with the help of Doug Haywood, Mike Olinger and many others, my service in Vietnam was confirmed and my records were mysteriously no longer missing and finally wound up at the VA thus providing the truth that I was in Vietnam. It even included my OER's but not the information regarding the Flight Surgeon grounding me because of the concussion I suffered during my time with the 199th.

With all of that in place, the records went to the main service center in New Orleans. Unfortunately, under staffing there, another function of the budgetary shortfall from the government, caused that to be another long process. The suicide prevention counselor, the PAO and the DAV communicated with them on a direct basis and did a great job in helping the process along.

I hope that this account will let you fill in the blanks or answer the unknown and lead you to a faster path to being in the system like I am.

I hate to say this but I will ask you not to copy this and post it on the site as I've already been dressed down through their definition of statistics like this being something that makes me guilty of politicizing the site.

I hate to feel like I need to defend myself by helping a pilot from my old unit but with that in mind, I will finish with this:

The above ten point list is information that I am NOT responsible for. I can not help the fact that the budget is a function of the political system and one that, in some cases, classifies this information as politicizing.

I will say that it's okay to send it to Don via his personal email as I don't want him to incorrectly confuse his earned Veterans benefit package as one that puts him in, as he stated, the "47% column".

I'm sorry it took so many hours to answer this but please understand that I tried to provide an answer until I finally gave up at 3 a.m. I gave it as good a shot as I could but only found myself saying: "I didn't make the rules or set the definition of politicizing the site". With that, I went to bed.

If I can help you further, please communicate directly with me on my personal email so that both of us won't have to suffer from the time wasted through restrictions of speaking freely. Good luck and hollar if you need me. Will put Pam on the prayer list and pray for her to have the endurance that Tim Jr and Kristin had to get me through it.