“Rather, veterans in that region will be transported elsewhere at VA expense if staffing is inadequate.”
I’m one of those. The VA hospital closest to my residence is 270 miles away. The closest clinic is 90 miles away. Next week I have a civilian facility appointment 90 miles away. Next month 200 miles away. They pay for all, including mileage for driving. Getting the appointments is relatively fast.
Getting PTSD payments is not as easy as FR members seem to think. I know a guy that made it up, went to hours of therapy to convince the VA he had PTSD. then took the PTSD evaluation and flunked big time. He appealed and lost. I’ve taken the exam myself and there are bullshit detector questions in there that will tell if you are faking it. And the examiner can tell by your body language if you have PTSD or not. So it’s not a walk in the park like many think.
I worked for the air force as a civilian for a number of years and had girls as co-workers and trainees. The college grads are the only touchy-feely ones that will complain about anything and everything. The HS grad girls are great co-workers, they want to work and learn and are dedicated.
In Vietnam there were “shake-n-bakes”, or college grads promoted to E6 and sent into combat. Experienced E3, E4 & E5’s knew their job because they had experience. The new E6’s were just a huge hazard because they had no idea what they were doing. The lucky ones were reduced in rank. The unlucky ones were shot in the back (or so I heard). These new woke gender switchers will likely get the same treatment if they go to war.
It is my general impression that the VA doesn’t hand out money without state of the art testing. There are a zillion law firms out there who make money by coaching veterans through the process, knowing the process will require 3-6 months, and pay is backdated to initial date of filing. They collect the back pay and the veteran collects full monthly from then on.
The lawfirms never coach cheating. They would never risk their membership in their state’s Bar for the $30,000 in play. But the lawfirms do know the process and if a veteran has a service connected injury, they will coach how to prove it.
PTSD is 100% territory. $50K/yr tax free. Desirable, but nearly impossible to cheat. I think what happens is the general population does not understand “service connected” does not mean “combat connected”. Guys who were standing next to their buddy who burned to death in a fire while fueling up an airplane absolutely has service connected PTSD.
But the general population asks him . . . where did you see combat, and he says he never did, and they imagine scam.
Not a scam. A guy who sees a buddy burn or sees a buddy fall off a training tower and get impaled on something or whatever of that sort . . . is legit. And of course the ladies and sexual assault.
Don’t have to be combat to be legit.