The only real help I received was during one of my MEB briefings (muster). The VA Representative that was explaining the Voc Rehab process explained the rule that if you have at least ONE day of Post 9/11 GI Bill benefits, that you could get those for another 45 months, a light bulb went off in my head and I decided this would me my transition plan.
I applied for the Voc Rehab, but it did not come immediately, it took at least a year for them to get back to me, then I had to do a orientation, then the boundaries for the VA that served me changed and I had to start all over. Once I got hooked up with my Voc Rehab counselor, she required that I attend a program at community college that specializes in education fro TBI (they call it Acquired Brain Injury (ABI)). I was not super cool on going to community college for a special education program, but since my counselor was the gate keeper, I needed to just follow what she had in place. I did the community college for a year, learned a bunch about TBI/ABI and developed quite a bit of skills to improve my successes.
After my year at community college, my counselor wanted me to do an internship at the VA, to ensure that I could physically and emotionally be successful in a work environment.
So then this leads me to the next step in the road, which was applying for, getting accepted and enrolling into University of Southern California for a Master of Social Work. I completed my first of four semesters today and head into my second semester at the end of the month.
It has not been easy by any means, there are roadblocks every single step of the way. I try to keep it all into perspective and just keep pushing forward. Many of the agencies do not even understand most of the programs/entitlements that are available to Veterans.
Some Veterans on here have talked about how they feel guilty about utilizing benefits, because they feel that they may not be as "bad off" as someone else, but everyone should try to self advocate and do the best they can for themselves.
Financially I have been taken care of pretty well, but if I had not self advocated things could be very different. Here is a breakdown of my current benefits.
DoVA Compensation and Pension 100% permanent and total Payment is $3100.00 a month
DoD 40% disabled (offset by DoVA)
SSDI 100% disabled $1699.00 a month
Voc Rehab Stipend (Post 9/11 GI Bill) $2449.00 a month
CA State Retraining Benefits $1950.00 a month (same as unemployment)
Total of payments just under $9200.00 a month, the only benefits that are taxable are the SSDI and CA State).
I was denied every step of the way however, I cannot think of a single scenario since the day I was initially injured that there was not an attempt to brush me off and deny benefits/entitlements.
Examples of Denial
1.) Sent to the WTU after surgery, the WTU wanted to send me home because it was holiday exodus, took intervention from the base commander
2.) Applied for and denied SSDI, took five years to get approved
3.) DoD tried to separate me with 10% rating, offering severance pay
4.) Army changed ratings that were given by DoVA
5.) It took several appeals to get through the MEB/PEB
6.) VA denied Voc Rehab
7.) VA was not paying stipend, had to fight for it
Had I not self advocated, I would not be where I am at.
