All Veterans in the U.S.

[gregk]

If you are using Verizon they will give you 15% off your monthly billing. Take your form DD 214 to the Verizon store and have them sign you up. This may have been offered for awhile but I just found out so pass this along so all Vets get this offer.

[Jess from VA]

Thanks Greg.  

Never heard of this before.  (and my Verizon bundle is my largest monthly bill)

This link does not make it crystal clear what exact services may be discounted, but I have both a DD214 and a lifetime ID.  https://www.verizonwireless.com/discount-program/#

And Q & A:  https://www.verizonwireless.com/support/employee-discount-validation-faqs/ 

[scooperhsd]

Prepaid accounts like I use are NOT eligible for this.

[f6john]

That’s great! I have AT&T

[3fan4life]

That’s great! I have AT&T

AT&T will also give you 15%, unless you are on an unlimited plan.

[gregk]

They would not use my lifetime VFW card and I have no problem any place else so that is what sparked me to post everywhere.  Be sure to let all vets know.

[f6john]

That’s great! I have AT&T

AT&T will also give you 15%, unless you are on an unlimited plan.

Hmmmm, I need to check into this then. Thanks

While on the subject, most of you may know already but Lowe’s offers a 10% military discount and they just last month changed the way you sign up and receive the discount. Once signed up and in the system you just tell them you have the military discount and give them your phone number.

[Jess from VA]

They would not use my lifetime VFW card and I have no problem any place else so that is what sparked me to post everywhere.  Be sure to let all vets know.

VFW membership is not exactly the same thing as proof of military service.  

Offense not intended to VFW.  

After my buddy's older brothers (RVN vets) started taking me to our local VFW while still in HS where I drank beer and shots, VFW continued to let me in and serve me hooch all by myself.  I looked older than 17, but it was a stretch to say I looked 21.  

Course, in those days, the drinking age in MI went from 21, to 18, to 19, then back to 21.  I went from illegal to legal, back to illegal, then legal again.  Freshman year at college, we had to lug half barrels of beer up the dormitory stairs, using the elevator could get you busted.  

[gregk]

Jess ,    you do not have to be a member in the VFW to drink beer in one.      You have to show proof of a DD 214 to be allowed to become a member in the Veteran of Foreign Wars.          Careful what you say.

[Jess from VA]

Jess ,    you do not have to be a member in the VFW to drink beer in one.      You have to show proof of a DD 214 to be allowed to become a member in the Veteran of Foreign Wars.          Careful what you say.

Greg, I said I meant no offense (and meant it).

All Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) deserve respect.

For instance, at HQ Veteran's Affairs, we regularly received applications for VA benefits with doctored DD214s, some better than others.  The guys who used white out, and a completely different font ball in their typewriters (to change names, birth dates, socials, yada, or to add a Silver Star and Purple Heart) must have thought we were idiots.  Many other kinds of manufactured evidence was also submitted, from time to time.  That was my thinking (and not a shot at VFW or any VSO).  

And at VA, once a claim is filed, we go and pull the veteran's entire service medical records (and personnel records) from NRPC (National Personnel Records Center) in St Louis.... if they weren't burned up in the 1973 fire.   For verification purposes, and for a full and fair review of any claim made.  The guys submitting doctored DD214s usually didn't have any records, because they were never veterans.

I do apologize if I offended.

[Lockiephoto]

I have it.  The 15% is based on your data plan, not the phone lines.

[RDKLL]

Another plan to look at is the T-Mobile 2 lines, unlimited text, talk and data for $60 or $55 with autopay...

https://www.t-mobile.com/offers/t-mobile-one-unlimited-55

[MarkT]

Jess ,    you do not have to be a member in the VFW to drink beer in one.      You have to show proof of a DD 214 to be allowed to become a member in the Veteran of Foreign Wars.          Careful what you say.

Greg, I said I meant no offense (and meant it).

All Veteran Service Organizations (VSOs) deserve respect.

For instance, at HQ Veteran's Affairs, we regularly received applications for VA benefits with doctored DD214s, some better than others.  The guys who used white out, and a completely different font ball in their typewriters (to change names, birth dates, socials, yada, or to add a Silver Star and Purple Heart) must have thought we were idiots.  Many other kinds of manufactured evidence was also submitted, from time to time.  That was my thinking (and not a shot at VFW or any VSO).  

And at VA, once a claim is filed, we go and pull the veteran's entire service medical records (and personnel records) from NRPC (National Personnel Records Center) in St Louis.... if they weren't burned up in the 1973 fire.   For verification purposes, and for a full and fair review of any claim made.  The guys submitting doctored DD214s usually didn't have any records, because they were never veterans.

I do apologize if I offended.

Hey Jess.  Can anybody check those records out?  I'd like to look up some old pals.  Also, the VA recently acknowledged I was exposed to herbicide (A.O.) at Takhli and U-Tapao.  I'd like to see if they put that in my records.  Interestingly, when I separated they gave me the bottom carbon copy - like #8 - of my DD-214.  I KNEW they would lose all the rest of them and besides, I'm the guy who needs to safeguard it and be able to read it down the road.  It's barely legible.  I carry a shrunk copy in my wallet.  It's been sufficient to prove Vietnam service for folks like the SSA and the DMV.  Haven't signed up at the VFW or got the free meal at various restaurants but I should do the former.  Don't feel it appropriate to wear the hat or get the free meals as I'm not a combat vet.  Was a REMF.  Though my health is FUBAR'd from the agent orange. Have the full range of maladies recognized as caused by AO by the VA. Now to get them to pay for it.

[Ken aka Oil Burner]

Also, to all the Veterans here on the VRCC forums, a solemn Thank You.

I tried like hell to get myself in, but the Army kept sending me home. I had no idea that being colorblind would completely hose your military career. In between active conflicts, anyway.

[Jess from VA]

Hey Jess.  Can anybody check those records out?  I'd like to look up some old pals.  Also, the VA recently acknowledged I was exposed to herbicide (A.O.) at Takhli and U-Tapao.  I'd like to see if they put that in my records.  Interestingly, when I separated they gave me the bottom carbon copy - like #8 - of my DD-214.  I KNEW they would lose all the rest of them and besides, I'm the guy who needs to safeguard it and be able to read it down the road.  It's barely legible.  I carry a shrunk copy in my wallet.  It's been sufficient to prove Vietnam service for folks like the SSA and the DMV.  Haven't signed up at the VFW or got the free meal at various restaurants but I should do the former.  Don't feel it appropriate to wear the hat or get the free meals as I'm not a combat vet.  Was a REMF.  Though my health is FUBAR'd from the agent orange. Have the full range of maladies recognized as caused by AO by the VA. Now to get them to pay for it.


Mark, I've been gone from VA (retired) for 8 years now, and things can change (like my memory).

You should read here:  https://www.archives.gov/st-louis

I see you can fax a request, I don't know if you can call (I'd try that first, if possible)

I think you can request a copy of your service medical records and, under a separate request, can ask for a copy of your service personal records.  While your medical records will usually have some of your personnel record information and a DD214, they are not all maintained together (thus the separate requests).  There may be a charge for copying (without arguing/proving indigency) for your personal request.

I think you cannot request these records for anyone else (Privacy Act), even if they are now dead, but now I do not know if it was a brother or a dad (family member) (another reason to call/fax and ask).  The VA, and anyone or a VSO (veterans service officer), that has a signed representation agreement can ask for THAT GUY'S records (without charge).  I think to get a buddy's records, you'd have to run down someone in his family and have them request them (again, I am not certain about family requests).  

Now if the VA has sent you some formal notice that you are recognized as having served on the ground in a place with herbicides known to be present, that notice letter (and any other documents they relied on in making that finding) should be in your VA Claims folder, which should in turn be maintained at your State VA Regional Office (VARO).

Now if you know of any local Veteran Service Organization reps in your area (DAV, PVA, TAL, VFW, Red Cross, VVA, & many more) those service reps are trained right up to the minute on NPRC records requests, and would usually help you out for nothing if you ask for help (first proving you are a veteran) (but you may have to sign up with them, again always free).

Each state has one or more VAROs (generally at a Federal Bldg), and most of these allow (free) office space on premises for various VSOs, and the guys working there are generally better trained than many guys out in the field, but records requests should be easy for any of them.  And they would be able to answer any questions you might have about any of your claims or issues too.  

If you contact a VSO at the VARO, and probably sign up with a representation agreement with his outfit (like DAV), he is able to request your VA claims folder be produced to him at his office, and you can review it there at the VARO in his presence, but you cannot take it with you.  Copies of things can be made there though. I have no idea how close you might be to any CO VARO (it looks to be in Denver).  A VSO anywhere can help you, but if you want to see (and copy) your records in person, you go to a VSO working at the VARO where your records are maintained.  

In 18 years with VA, I read thousands of appeals, the vast majority of which contained written argument from Veteran Service Officers at both the RO Regional level, and at the national level in DC (right in our federal bldg), and the best consistent representation I read was from the Disabled American Veterans (DAV), and the Paralyzed Veterans of America (PVA -  you don't have to be paralyzed to be represented by them, just a veteran).  The individual competence and training of any particular VSO (like any attorney) will vary, and I am talking in general.   I am also casting no aspersions on any other veteran service organizations.  

Here is the list of diseases presumed by law to be related to herbicide exposure (which you now have documented).  All it takes then is current medical evidence that you have any of them (only a single listed skin disease porphyria cutanea tarda (PCT) has to have been manifested (had onset) within shortly after service separation, all the others can manifest anytime) to win an award of service connection.

https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/

BUT, importantly, you should also understand that the law provides that any other disease or injury you may have (though unrelated or unproven to be related to any incident, injury, disease or exposure during service) which can be proven by current medical evidence to have been aggravated (defined as permanently increased in severity beyond ordinary progress), by any herbicide disease you  are already are service connected for, can also become service connected for compensation (and treatment) purposes.  And also, any disease or injury that is not related to service, but which can be shown by current medical evidence to have been caused secondary to (as a result of) any other herbicide diseased you already have been granted service connection for, can also be service connected for compensation (and treatment) purposes.  

Sorry for the gobbledygook, but many successful VA claims are brought for aggravation and secondary causation.  (IE diabetes causes ischemic heart disease) (diabetes may not cause something else you have, but it may make it worse than it would otherwise be).  Compensation for secondary causation is in full, compensation for aggravation is for only the amount (percentage) of aggravation beyond ordinary progress.

Finally, any claim you now present on herbicide exposure (or anything else) will only be made payable from the date of claim forward (not back to service separation, or to when you first manifested an herbicide disease).  The only way to get an earlier effective date for an award of compensation, would be if you could show you filed a claim for that disease or injury at an earlier date, and it was denied in error, or even if not in error back then, if it would have been allowed under more recent changes in the law.  (they continue to add diseases to the herbicide exposure list)

You should file any claims you may have all together.  If you have diabetes, that should be a lock.  If you file for any 2dary or aggravation claims (based on diabetes, or anything else) with that claim, you should be provided one or more VA examinations which would then be required by VARO to provide VA medical opinions up or down on your other claims.  The caveat is that any claim made should have at least some competent medical evidence in support, and this does not include a veteran's own lay opinion.  It could be a doctors report or opinion, or at least some printouts of on line medical information showing a cause and effect relationship.   

[solo1]

Jess, my records were burned in the St. Louis fire.  I just wanted to mention that my hearing loss was started in the Army in Korea, 1953 but I've been denied hearing aids or comp for hearing loss since I can't prove it to their satisfaction.  They claim that my primary MOS was xray tech but that's not what I did.

I had an American Legion service person tell me that the VA has to prove that I wasn't exposed to noise. That was a damn lie!  Anyway I've given up because there are many vets who need VA comp more than me.  So far, it's cost me over 4 grand in hearing aids.

BTW, the local VA has been very good, much better now.

[Jess from VA]

I remember our past conversations Wayne. 

I'm sorry for your negative experiences.

VA has many duties in adjudicating veteran's claims, but proving you are wrong is not one of them.  The initial burden of proof is always on the claimant.  And proving remote causation of disease or injury during service, many years after separation, is always a challenge, and generally takes new medical evidence/opinions produced at your own expense.  Especially after a prior final unappealed denial.

These presumptive diseases for herbicide exposure (and/or radiation, asbestos exposure, and others) are the exception to the rule.  Once the particular exposure during service is shown, the law presumes that certain listed diseases are causally related to that exposure, no matter how many years after service they first become manifest (have onset).   

[solo1]

Absolutely true Jess. There are a lot of Vietnam vets and later ones who need VA services more than I do.
It just fries me that a fellow Air Force Vet in my Korean Vets chapter has free hearing aids and doesn't wear them and I can't even get a 10% disability.  I can live with it though.  Too hard to prove at this late date.

[Jess from VA]

I understand.

And understanding that the VA budget is only ever 2d to DOD, no veteran should ever think he needs to forgo any available benefit so others can have the resource.

As I've written before, no politician of any stripe ever got elected on a lets screw the veterans platform.

As we discussed before, getting comp for hearing loss is tough, loss of half (or more) of your hearing may only get you a 10% evaluation ($136 a month today, with no dependents).  The big benefit for hearing loss service connection has always been VA hearing aids, which have gotten ridiculously expensive.

It's interesting to me how hi tech has advanced so rapidly over the last decades, and prices on so many things things have gone down.  But not in the hearing aid business.

PS:  If that Air Force guy doesn't wear his, make him an offer on them (who cares about custom fit?).  He can always claim he lost them while fishing and get a new pair.  (Disclaimer, I am not actually proposing federal fraud, I'm just making a joke about it.) 

[MarkT]

Thanks for the thorough explanation Jess.  That will help for sure.  BTW.  I was a weapons mechanic.  Worked end-of-runway arming/de-arming fighters a lot.  Also always on the flightline (except when in the bomb dump getting poisened) and sometimes fast-fixes when we didn't have all our equipment - like the tool box containing the muffs.  Work around running jets w/o muffs and you will have hearing damage.  When I separated the bogus separation med exam found nothing wrong. The fox guarding the chicken coop. But with independent civilian exam, 40% of my hearing was lost.  Can I prove that exam now?  Of course not.

[sheets]

While shopping yesterday, at the checkout the lady said they didn't offer a "senior" discount, but did offer a "veterans" discount with proof of vet status. Curious what constitutes evidence of status. Have never been to a VA clinic for medical so I don't have any kind of I.D. card. Curious how to get some kind of wallet card that represents official vet status.

Spent nine months floating around the Gulf of Tonkin in the combat zone. Was over there when the peace treaty was signed (for the second time). Two campaign stars; Operation Linebacker I & II.

Curious.  sheets  

[czuch]

The VA was a pain in the neck to try to enroll when I got out in '81.
Has it gotten easier?
As I recall, they were pretty damn unfriendly then.

[3fan4life]

The VA was a pain in the neck to try to enroll when I got out in '81.
Has it gotten easier?
As I recall, they were pretty damn unfriendly then.

I haven't had any issues or problems with my vet status or getting care.

The staff at my VA has been very friendly.

Some proceedures take a while to get done.

[Jess from VA]

Thanks for the thorough explanation Jess.  That will help for sure.  BTW.  I was a weapons mechanic.  Worked end-of-runway arming/de-arming fighters a lot.  Also always on the flightline (except when in the bomb dump getting poisened) and sometimes fast-fixes when we didn't have all our equipment - like the tool box containing the muffs.  Work around running jets w/o muffs and you will have hearing damage.  When I separated the bogus separation med exam found nothing wrong. The fox guarding the chicken coop. But with independent civilian exam, 40% of my hearing was lost.  Can I prove that exam now?  Of course not.

Mark, I would be happy to give you the benefit of my advocacy expertise with VA benefit issues (and hearing loss was one of my specialties), but I do not want to spend hours banging on this keyboard about generalities (as above), when we could talk on the phone about your specific facts.  My email is on my profile, if you send me a number to call, I'll call (say when/what time is best).  Or a PM on here.  I don't like putting my number up on any public forum, even in grade school code.  

I will say this however; while Wayne's listed specialty was X-ray tech (not known to be a noisy occupation), your occupational specialty with aircraft is KNOWN to have been very noisy, so that is a big leg up on filing a claim remote to service.  

What I would ask you first, is if you had actual audiometric hearing testing at service separation (headphones on, raise your hand when you hear the tone), or whether it was the old whispered and spoken voice (where the doc makes a few check marks on your exit physical based on you not continually asking what did you say(?), during that exam.   (Normal) audiometric testing at separation is hard to defeat with a remote claim (and for VA purposes, normal hearing is not perfect hearing), but whispered and spoken voice testing on exit physicals is defeated on remote claims all the time, especially for guys who worked on the flight-line (or who served in actual combat or artillery or armor or combat arms weapons training, or navy engine rooms, etc).  

You may not remember what testing you had (many don't), but your service medical records will document what testing you had.  

That's just for starters.

[Jess from VA]

While shopping yesterday, at the checkout the lady said they didn't offer a "senior" discount, but did offer a "veterans" discount with proof of vet status. Curious what constitutes evidence of status. Have never been to a VA clinic for medical so I don't have any kind of I.D. card. Curious how to get some kind of wallet card that represents official vet status.

Spent nine months floating around the Gulf of Tonkin in the combat zone. Was over there when the peace treaty was signed (for the second time). Two campaign stars; Operation Linebacker I & II.

Curious.  sheets  

The best evidence of veteran status for those who did not retire (regular or medical/early) with a military ID, or a VA medical enrollment ID, or other VA records showing receipt of VA benefits (which only veterans, but some dependents, can get) is a copy of your DD Form 214 (reflecting honorable or general separation status, though if you had a less than honorable UOTHC status (which by law makes you NOT a veteran at least for that particular enlistment), it is unlikely any of the thousand business who give veteran discounts would actually know how to look at the document carefully enough to see it or even know what it means).   

I have an ID, but not one person who ever looked at it, ever turned it over to see if it was expired (it isn't) (or if I was even the guy in the picture).  Not that I've used it much, but having used it at the auto parts, it's now in their 'puter system, and I get the discount every time at that particular auto parts, as long as I remember to mention it.

The DD 214 is a regular 8.5 by 10 sheet of paper, and a PITA to keep folded up in a wallet (and never damage your only copy like that), but like Mark T said, he did a Xerox reduction and laminated it (though it still should be clear enough to read by any it is shown to).  They changed a little bit over the years, and were a bit different between the branches of service, but they are all close to the same thing. In WWII, they were not DD forms 214, they were WD AGO Forms 53-55 (not many of those guys left).  

Here's what one looks like (all 214s are covered by Privacy Act rules, and none should actually be published on line, without heavy redaction).  But they are.

https://passagetothepast.wordpress.com/tag/dd-form-214/

https://www.slideshare.net/AntoineAllen1/antoine-allen-dd-form-214-complete-55131004

If you don't have a copy of your DD Form 214, start reading:

https://www.google.com/search?q=how+to+get+a+copy+of+your+dd+form+214&client=firefox-b&source=lnms&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwi2qNe7tZTZAhUEjlkKHdImDyUQ_AUICSgA&biw=1424&bih=652&dpr=1.33

[sheets]

I have my DD214. Honorable. Thanks for the links. I'll nose around.

[Jess from VA]

I just came across something you veterans may find interesting (or humorous).

For many years, DD214s were annotated with what was considered sort of secret or insider information called SPN Codes (Separation Program Numbers) (referred to as spin codes).  This practice was halted well before I separated in '92, and received much criticism because they were not always accurate, they had no real due process procedure for their assignment (you weren't really supposed to know what yours meant, let alone being able to object to being saddled with it for the rest of your life), and it might be perfectly accurate or just sloppy work by some E3 sitting down at the Base personnel office typing out a dozen 214s before he quit for the day.

If you have a 214, look for your code (if you have one), and see what it meant, using these links.

Some were numbers:
http://www.utvet.com/SPNnumeric2012.html

Others were letters:
https://www.thebalance.com/military-separation-codes-3356946

http://www.coalitionofvets.org/militaryseparationcodes/

[sheets]

Stumbled across this . . .

https://themilitarywallet.com/veterans-id-card/