r/USMC • u/anonemoose07 • 1d ago

Go. To. Medical.

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Hey guys, it's that annoying devil doc. This is just your friendly reminder to go to medical and address your aches and pains. These can add up over time, and will vastly support any VA claims that you may have. I highly encourage all of my devil dogs (and devil dolphins) to go get yourself checked out, make sure that you're up to snuff.

I'm more than happy to assist and any concerns that you might have with engaging with your chain of command, or if you feel that you are being pressured to not go to medical. Documentation is important, and making sure that that documentation is in your record is equally important!

Why do I do this? Because I had a good mentor, and I had six-figure knee surgery completely covered by the VA. If you served, you deserve medical treatment for what you got during service. Anyways, September fiddles and such!

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u/Groundhog891 1d ago

On a call up from the Army reserve after, I hurt my foot and ankle. The VA examiner refused to read my call up medical records, so along the appeal route to the real federal court over the VA, I sat down with the Legion VSO and claimed every line of every med record, Marine and Army.

Not only am I 50% now, which is a nice monthly payment and free admission to state parks, but when I needed surgery for the foot and ankle they paid for it all. Literally everything, zero out of pocket, even buffered aspirin because I was in a boot for a month. The fancy medical socks.

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u/anonemoose07 1d ago

I appreciate you adding your experience my dude. Hopefully you could agree that having VA coverage for shit that got complicated while you were in is definitely a boon. I know while I was in a lot of my Marines struggled with filing claims, and the number one roadblock I saw was lack of medical documentation. But I'd be curious as to your experience.

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u/Groundhog891 1d ago

I got to the VA hospital, and the woman spent like five minutes with me and in her report she said it had been over a year since I got out of the Corps. She never looked at the Army records.

Then that was upheld on the 'SOC' and I kept appealing until it got to the real court, the CAVC, where a DC firm working with the Legion handled it and got a 'remand' because it was pretty fucking obvious if they had only read the records. At the same time the new claims were moving, and when it got all done I was at 50%. It was a lot longer going from the regional office SOC to the BVA, then it was from the BVA to the federal court.

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u/anonemoose07 1d ago

Jesus fucking Christ dude. I am first off sorry that you had to deal with that. I've done my training as a vso, but that just sounds like absolutely dog shit review. Did you have to do attorney fees, or was this subsidized in any way?

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u/Groundhog891 1d ago

Zero payment. The law firm gets paid because a remand is a win under the Access act so the VA pays their fees.