Wrapping up an active retirement (in the ARC) and wondered about best way to do the VA process? I’m already at a major airline but want to get my VA paperwork accurate from a long career. What recommendations are out there? Do it through the normal process, get a specialist or use someone like the DAV? Just don’t want to get tied up in this for a long time. Not trying to rip the system but would like to get all my things accurate from a long career with a lot of combat ops.

 

I have disability, a % for my screwed up knee. It's fine. It's fine unless you are claiming full disability and inability to work at all. What exactly are you asking? I went through the VA. This is who does this. You fill out the online paperwork, submit records, they set up an appointment, etc. It is possible that said appointment might be screwed up by a low-paid Doc that doesn't care, that happened to my dad with his hearing, but if you are a decent advocate for yourself and have paperwork and records to back it up, it shouldn't be much of an issue. In my case, I could show how this was affecting me now, today, after military service. Did you save your military medical records?

 

Thank you for your service. Having said that, don’t even think of going to one of these “services” that are going to put you in for PTSD for all those combat ops, not if you want to keep your Class 1. Like many of us you may have service connected injuries that are not impairing. Go ahead and claim them, even with only a rating of 0% disability, that establishes the service connectedness if the disability worsens as you get older. But don’t let anyone push you into the mental illness-du-jour, be it PTSD, ADHD, or whatever, unless you really have symptoms that affect you. And if that’s the case, expect the FAA to look at you long and hard.

 

You also can’t hide it. You are required to report if you have or claim any disability.

 

Yes. If it's not already on paper, don't let anyone steer you in that direction (unless you really have an issue and need help).

 

Copy all on PTSD,etc. It’ll be mainly old fighter pilot issues - back, neck, knees, shoulders, etc. that have taken a beating at high g’s.

 

FAA is cool with all that.

 

Check with local Veteran Services Officer, VSO. most counties have one or due a search via web. They helped me file all the paperwork would also suggest creating log in at VA website to tract and see your records. When reported on my medical the AME just asked for the total percentage, I listed it individually by percentage since I have knee, back problems, and tinnitus, nonevent for AME. I believe the issue with reporting was some pilots in CA were getting 100 percent unable to work from VA but still had a 1 st class medical and flying for a living. The VA is notoriously slow but since they are contracting the medical exams out the process is much faster.

 

Thanks. Who are VSOs affiliated with?

 

Take a look at this website, it lists out the national VSOs who can do your VA claim for you:

https://nvf.org/veteran-service-officers/

I would HIGHLY recommend you go through a VSO for your VA claim. A good VSO will do everything for you through a limited power of attorney, and it will all be free. Like when shopping for anything, make sure you do your research on a specific agent at a VSO, some are better than others.

If you realize you found a crappy agent, you can definitely dump them and find another. You are not married to them, but I believe you can only have one VSO represent you at a time. There may be some hoops to jump through if you decide to go with a different organization or officer after starting the process with someone, but definitely do it if you think you need to. Not all offices/agents are created equal, please try to find reviews on specific offices/agents, regardless of what VSO you go with.4

there are paid services out there that will charge you a certain amount of money based on what disability percentage you get, but paying for that is totally unnecessary and I don’t recommend it when there are literally dozens of agents at VSOs who will do the same thing for free.

I know many people who have used DAV with great success, but again, do research on the specific agent(s) in your area.

Edit: not sure where you’re located, but here’s a list of all of the DAV offices at military bases:

https://www.dav.org/veterans/tso-locations-2/

Edit edit: it’s Reddit, but this link has some good info and further links on VSOs, what they are and what they do:

https://www.reddit.com/r/Veterans/co..._who_are_they/