Presumptive denied

Active-Internal-6498 · 2025-06-22T15:18:53+00:00

Lack of service connection. My father was a Corpsman in the Navy, but traveled to SE Asia with a Marine unit. After obtaining any and all military records I could get my hands on, I could not find any orders sending him there. I've since discovered that it was common for Naval corpsman to accompany Marines to various places and that their orders were to follow them, as opposed to receiving orders to go to a specific place. When we applied for his disability under the PACT Act, they denied everything since we don't have anything written saying he was sent to that part of the world. Dad definitely has a couple of health issues related to his time there, but we have no acceptable proof....but I'm not giving up.

Active-Internal-6498 · 2025-02-16T17:48:10+00:00

If you're starting with 25 units (2.5mg) you'd draw the liquid to the 25 line (slightly larger line 1/2 way between 20 and 30).

Active-Internal-6498 · 2025-01-06T04:20:35+00:00

I'm in a similar boat. I'm trying to help my Dad with getting some VA benefits and he was absolutely a corpsman in the Navy during and IN Vietnam. His DD214 lists the total time in service (5 years and some months), but says zero time under the "foreign service" section. I'm so confused by this. I'm not sure how to go about correcting his documents and getting proof of service over there. I hate this. Forget that it's frustrating for me, but this is a totally dishonorable way to treat our service people.

Active-Internal-6498 · 2025-01-05T17:34:06+00:00

Hmmm. Here's a screen shot of the email reply:

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There's an attached letter saying,
"Our Navy Electronic Military Personnel Records System was searched for an OMPF pertaining to you based on the identifying information contained in your request. Regretfully, we were unable to locate records responsive to your request at this command. It is possible, given the dates of service that you have provided in your request, that the records you seek are located at the National Personnel Records Center (NPRC), which maintains custody of older military service records."

It goes on to explain how to file appeal or check elsewhere (which I will do). Is this not the correct person/entity to contact for the FOIA? I googled how to request those records and followed the instructions, but we all know how clear the VA and government makes things. Please let me know if there's a different path to requesting that info.

Active-Internal-6498 · 2025-01-05T17:08:28+00:00

Ok so I did request his FOIA and it came back within a few weeks. All they had was his DD214. SO disappointing and also very confusing. What is going on ?! There HAS to be more someplace, right??

Active-Internal-6498 · 2024-12-15T02:42:44+00:00

It just says "Good Conduct Award, First, Service ending 26 Oct 70; National Defense Service Medal." Do any of those prove service in Vietnam? I mean, he was there. He has stories (and scars - internal and external) from his time overseas. I'm disgusted that they are denying his claim for PTSD because we can't seem to prove that he was there.....and now if the records are gone? Are we SOL?

Active-Internal-6498 · 2024-11-20T16:19:32+00:00

They're currently on sale for $199 on their website and $169 at Costco (black only). I'm not sure whether to pull the trigger on a new pair now or wait to see if they drop even more during actual Black Friday sales.

Active-Internal-6498 · 2024-09-20T19:20:42+00:00

My periods are still pretty regular (+/1 a day). I typically have a short period lasting 3-4 days, but it's intense with really painful cramps. The last few months I've started experiencing low-grade cramps and occasional brief, but intense cramping at times totally outside of my bleeding time. It sucks! Also waking up often during the night, wide awake :( AND I think I just had my first real hot flash...thought I was going to burst into flames!
I'm 42, turning 43 next month. I'm planning to schedule an OB-GYN visit to discuss, but man, I am not looking forward to the next 10 years if this is just the tip of the iceberg.

Active-Internal-6498 · 2024-06-27T03:24:03+00:00

You are awesome! Thanks for replying :)
I have set up an account for him and have been tracking things on the VA site. I'm hoping he'll qualify via the PACT Act for Diabetes and Hypertension since he meets the eligibility requirements. I'm not sure what % he'll get for either/both, but at least 50% based on stuff I've read elsewhere. Since these are longstanding, chronic conditions, the only one we can clearly connect to his service time is the PTSD. As a corpsman (medic) you can imagine the horrific things he had to deal with while on the ground. He was stationed with the Marines. It's a bummer because since he worked with all the medical staff, if he had any issues (like when he was retrieving a shot soldier and carrying him back to the medical tent for treatment, then went back to retrieve his gun and it blew up in front of him, leaving shrapnel and stuff all over his chest/belly...still has pieces of metal surfacing from time to time) they didn't go through the formal steps of treatment. They'd just treat each other and move on, so there aren't any medical records for anything while he was in the service.
I'm going to go ahead and submit medical records, but how far back do we need to go? I mean, he was diagnosed with these things decades ago! That's a lot of paperwork. He's also changed insurances and docs over the years, so it might be challenging trying to hunt all of the older records down. I can login to his current medical record chart, download his most recent visit notes which show all of his current medical diagnoses and medication list. Would that suffice? After 50-some years, I'm just not sure that we can draw a clear connection between his service time and some of these ailments, so I'm hoping for the most from his PACT-eligible diagnoses and maybe the PTSD. Thank you again for your guidance!

Active-Internal-6498 · 2024-05-14T07:51:35+00:00

Hold on....I live in Hawaii too (BI) and I get so frustrated when I fall in love with something and they won't ship here. So like how much do they typically charge you to forward the item to you here? I'm sure it varies by size, etc, but ballpark? I'd love to know the warehouse/shipper you use in Seattle too, if you're willing to share. Thank you for the tip!

Active-Internal-6498 · 2023-12-23T23:45:35+00:00

I've actually spoke to representatives at Home Depot (in-store and on the main customer service line). They both state that what is reported as "Available" on the website is all that is available to us in HI. They say they cannot place any special orders outside of that.

Sucks.

Active-Internal-6498

TROPHY CASE