RETW Loc: Washington

A distinguished young woman on a flight from Switzerland asked the priest seated beside her: "Father, may I ask a favor?"
"Of course. What may I do for you?"
"Well, I bought an expensive electronic hair dryer that is well over the customs limits and I'm afraid they'll confiscate it. Is there any way you could carry it through customs for me? Under your robes perhaps?"

"I would love to help you, dear, but I must warn you: I will not lie."
"With your honest face, father, no one will question you."
When they got to customs, she let the priest go ahead of her.
The official asked: "Father, do you have anything to declare?"
"From the top of my head down to my waist, I have nothing to declare."
The official thought this answer strange, so asked: "And what do you have to declare from your waist to the floor?"
"I have a marvelous little instrument designed to be used on a woman, but which is, to date, unused."

Roaring with laughter, the official said: "Go ahead, Father. Next


RETW

usewillow

Another not as it seems...To all who read this...(hopefully to the end) This is a series of emails sent to and from the Congressman from my district. It concerns actions from the VA taken to recover short comings from their own mistakes. This is a very short review of my fight with our government and the VA. One thing I did not mention in my email but will mention here. I got a review several years ago (I am 78 years old now) from the VA review board stating that "No evidence exists showing shrapnel wounds were received while on active duty military." Add that to Agent Orange did not cause any problems at the time and severe PTSD and you have me.
This is a reply from the Congressman's office.
Mr. Taylor,

I have received your inquiry and have contacted the Spokane VA and will follow up with any new information that I receive.

Best,

Zachary Guill
Senior Outreach Manager/ Grants Manager
Office of Congressman Dave Reichert
22605 SE 56th Street, Suite 130
Issaquah, WA 98029
P: 425-677-7414 F: 425-270-3589

Hi...Today I sent a email to the Congressman (Dave Reichert) about a new attack from the
VA. I have been told there was an over payment of over $42 thousand. They
did not say for what or when. I have tried to obtain help in other areas but
no groups exist in Wenatchee like there was several years ago. The VA
intends to start collection of this debt(?) starting Jan 1st. I need some
help to delay the process until I know some details. They are already not
paying me for my wife. The VA and their tactics started many years ago when
I first applied for disability. About 22 years, two Congressmen, and several
doctors later I was told that they would begin payment at the 100% level of
disability but, they would not go back the 22 years. Supposedly, there was a
federal law preventing them from doing that. Over the next years I have had
to fight for and reprove to them that I was indeed entitled to receive my
payments. Now it begins again. They were notified when my wife died and when
my daughter had finished college. Then when I got married again on March 1st 2014, they were notified and I registered her with CHAMP-VA for her health coverage. Then I received a notice in February (2016) that beginning March 1st 2016 I would not be paid for my wife. She was reported dead in
their records. I responded to that but no return information was sent to me
until I got the letter that I owed them a debt and they would be collecting
beginning in Jan 2017. I sent in response letters asking for the reason and
that if it was real that I wanted a debt relief due to it not being any
fault or fraud on my part. Again no response. Please ask the Congressman to
at least put a delay on this problem and some advice of who I can contact
for help with this matter. The road has been and is very rocky for disabled
veterans. I would ask that I be notified in reference to this problem. I
cannot afford an attorney. I thank you in advance for your time and effort
in this matter.

Second email... Hi Zack this is a test to see if the links worked. I think I met you once in Wenatchee. I also sent you an earlier email. Did you get all the files I sent via fax?
(Note I had sent copies of various VA forms and letters via fax to his office.)
Let me know. My main concern is to try and stop the VA from taking more of my disability until I have some idea of when and how I acquired a debt of overpayment.

next email... I just wanted you to know the VA took all my disability pay check. I have automatic deposit and automatic bill pay (so I don't forget) but it now looks like I may miss my house payment and others. Why are these people allowed to ruin a life for their own stupid mistakes? I had hopes that this year would be different and it sure is. I guess the VA is taking a chapter from the reenlistment pay screw up. If you can help thanks but I know from experience they just feed you and anyone else trying to help a bunch of form letters and then it is written off as satisfied. The same thing happened when I had asked for help in 2013 when I ended up paying for treatment as a result of a heart attack which ended up in a surgery with such complications I could not travel. Where was the collectors when I was stonewalled for over 20 years trying to get help? Even if we take an average of $1,000 per month over the twenty years I was shorted 240,000 dollars but they sure as hell did not try to pay me back. Am I mad yes because physically, mentality and my age I cannot fix this. Happy New Year. Sorry but my spell checker is not working so this may have some errors in spelling.

My last email to Congressman office... Zack...First I want to say "sorry" for the phone call. I know it is not your
fault. I am just so tired of every person who I have talked to accepting
that the VA is always speaking the truth with their responses and the
veteran is always wrong. That is just one reason why they will not give
names nor allow tracking to who got what when. The common response is OH we
never got that or we just received that information and it is no longer
valid. I am going to attempt to answer your last email by referencing the
paragraphs. Paragraph 1. the VA had only answered part of the actual
information about me. In order to understand I must give a bit of my history
with the VA and other problems that plagued me after my return from Vietnam.
I did get out of the Army in 1968 but I returned to the military in late 69.
I had gotten a call from a Major at the Pentagon I think his name was Stykos
or pronounced like that. He was talking about a new program for the Army
being done at Ft. Benning. they had started a Sniper training program and I
became one of the instructors to teach while serving in Vietnam. After
Vietnam I went to Germany for another tour. Ultimately I was discharged from
the Army after losing a stripe as a sergeant and with an honorable discharge
in 1976. About a year later I had ended up divorced because my wife at the
time claimed to be afraid of me. Not for anything I had done but for what I
was capable of doing whatever that meant. Sometime later (memory is not a
strong thing anymore) I got married and began a somewhat successful life.
It did not last. 18 months after our wedding I was out on a long haul and my
wife shot herself. Although I was unaware she had a miscarriage and could
not take the loss. Several years later I learned that exposure to agent
orange can and does affect a fetus and our government knew about it. I was
one of the original persons involved with the lawsuit against the
manufacturer of the product. We won the lawsuit but I like others did not
receive a penny (the government decided they would take the money and give
it out to those they wanted whether they were part of the suit or not) nor
did the VA allow any compensation except for a special kind of cancer. Now
they consider nerve damage (which I have and had) as an additional problem
but not one they added to my disability at the time of the suit. So, I lost
a wife, a baby I knew nothing about yet, and a million dollar business that
owned everything we had at the time. I became a wandering lost person again.
I went from job to job many times just up and left. I did not know why I was
on a destructive course. I later met and married Linda (Murray) Taylor.
While married to Linda I met a counselor who helped PTSD survivors of the
war. He got me to see several different psychiatrists and to the VA hospital
in Seattle. Eventually with help from different persons (Doctors, Counselors
and Congressmen) I ended up with what I now have 100% pay and 80% damage
(kind of strange but the VA way). I thought that perhaps my life was
changing for the better. Again I was wrong. My wife had total kidney failure
and died in April 2003. Her illness lasted for a few years and the medical
bills took their toll. In addition I lost my Mother and that was the last
straw. Once again I became a wandering basically homeless person hating
people and crowds. In 2012 on
thanksgiving day my daughter took me to the hospital in Wenatchee. I needed
open heart surgery right then but I had a bleeding ulcer and that had to be
fixed before surgery could be done. My surgery had complications in the
recovery room and the heart stopped. The nurse did CPR and I eventually
recovered and left the hospital I think on the 23rd or 24th of December
2012. Further complications began almost immediately. The result was I had
to see several doctors in Wenatchee since I could not travel. The result of
these complications was the VA required the bills to be reported using their
forms and the doctors used their own method of billing. I was in the middle
and ended up paying much of it out of pocket. I had Congressman Reichert
involved and some was paid but most was not. The VA did pay the hospital but
not the doctors who I saw in their own office places since they did not have
an office in the hospital. That created a problem with the VA who by that
time did not have an office in Wenatchee as they had earlier. While still in
the Wenatchee area and making my recovery I met Nancy Baird and later in
March 2014 we got married in Nevada. During the year I applied for CHAMPVA
to cover my wife Nancy. I sent the paperwork required to the addresses
CHAMPVA wanted it sent to and later in Aug 2014 I had to send proof that we
had actually got married. I do not know why but VA forms and letters began
to come from other places and my pay was cut because Linda Taylor had been
removed and the VA had her death listed as 2 different years. I had sent the
death certificate to them in 2003 and no I cannot recall how it was sent or
which office I sent it to.

Much of paragraph 2 is not true. But I cannot say when or how the
consolidated intake center got their copy. Although the system is set up
such that there is no way to prove the Veteran's statements I know that I
was not remiss in my obligation to inform the VA of changes to my status.

Papers were not sent to the debt collection center as there was no address
to send them to. Attached to this letter (a copy of it will be sent to the
VA at the only addresses available to me.) is a copy of the only addresses
available and they are sorted according to the state. They are also on the
last page of the attachment you sent to me. I simply do not trust myself to
make a call and talk to someone about this debt. It took them over 10 years
to pay it with their backlog. If I had been the one to keep this going why
would I even try to register my wife to receive CHAMPVA and fill out their
paperwork? When I first replied to the notice that I had a debt I filled out
at least one of their forms and in the comments I wrote see attached letter.
The letter said I knew nothing about a debt and to let me know when and how
I had gotten to be in debt. I know they never gave me a lump sum for that
amount and they did not say what it was for. Remember a phone call to the
office is not recorded and then no proof is available but if they send me a
statement I could maybe keep it and then have some proof of what was said.

This is really causing me mentally and physically and is taking me a long
time to put to paper. I do have a suggestion for the VA. Since they have not
been paying me for my wife Nancy and it took years for that overpayment to
take place how about they recoup it the same way over the same time period?
I simply cannot afford to not get my pay and the house is financed under a
VA guarantee loan. I had to borrow money during Linda's illness to pay bills
and still have that account with the finance company open. I don't know if I
can borrow again to make this month's house payment. If there is a mailing
address to the debt center please have them give it to you or send to me.
Even a fax number would work but I know if I call I will just get into more
trouble hopefully they will furnish an alternate method of contact. I would
send it overnight to them. One last question...how much did the VA personnel
pay back for their party they attended and got caught using the funds
earmarked for the hospitals or other to have a meeting?

Robert Taylor DAV
820 Circle St.
Wenatchee, WA 98801

Phone 509-699-1187 usewillow at nwi dot net.

The result...I can call the debt relief section of the VA and try to set up a payment schedule or a comprise payment. That comprise payment must be paid in full within 30 days.

Anybody out there know of any attorneys or groups that may be able to help I would appreciate it.