The Official Military Thread. Vol 1

I just received my payment from the 3M earplugs lawsuit. Easiest $4K I ever made

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You guys need to read up on Project 2025 and how it impacts Veterans. Republicans are going to do everything in their power to screw over Vets. In an attempt to balance the budget they would make cuts to the 4 largest sources of unfunded expenditures: social security, Medicare, Medicaid and VA disability compensation.

So many Vets vote for Republicans without knowing that they are the party trying to screw us over the most.

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In a way it’skinda lighting a fire under everyone’s asses to vote. Nothing like ******* with the money to get people to take action.



With that said can the VA give me my decision already?
 
You guys need to read up on Project 2025 and how it impacts Veterans. Republicans are going to do everything in their power to screw over Vets. In an attempt to balance the budget they would make cuts to the 4 largest sources of unfunded expenditures: social security, Medicare, Medicaid and VA disability compensation.

So many Vets vote for Republicans without knowing that they are the party trying to screw us over the most.

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Yo wtf
 
You guys need to read up on Project 2025 and how it impacts Veterans. Republicans are going to do everything in their power to screw over Vets. In an attempt to balance the budget they would make cuts to the 4 largest sources of unfunded expenditures: social security, Medicare, Medicaid and VA disability compensation.

So many Vets vote for Republicans without knowing that they are the party trying to screw us over the most.

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Since I'm still active I try to stay away from political discussions at work...but man so many people believe the Project 2025 is something the Democratic party is putting out there to deter republican voting....

This week has been insane with the "assassination attempt"

These guys talk about Trump like he is a god.
 
Since I'm still active I try to stay away from political discussions at work...but man so many people believe the Project 2025 is something the Democratic party is putting out there to deter republican voting....

This week has been insane with the "assassination attempt"

These guys talk about Trump like he is a god.

It really is crazy. So many veterans vote against their own interest. The Republican party is pro-war, anti-veteran. They love sending military into combat but hate the idea of having to take care of those veterans when they come home (in some cases these vets need treatment for the rest of their lives).


It's all over the heritage foundation website.

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They believe that too many veterans are making too much money from VA disability compensation and want to do everything in their power to make it more difficult going forward. Like it or not, being able to double dip VA disability compensation with pension is a big recruitment tool. I know a lot of guys who did 20 plus years and they look forward to having all that money in retirement and for many of them it's one of the reasons why they chose to stay in the military. In a time when the military is having a recruitment and retention shortfall, taking away benefits like this will only make things worse.

Putting a 10-year limit on when veterans can make their initial VA disability compensation claim would also screw over a lot of veterans. A lot of the times people get out of the military in their twenties but don't feel pain until 20 or sometimes 30 years down the line. If this past all of those guys would be screwed over. Also we learn about ailments and issues much later on. Look at things like agent Orange, fumes from the burn pits and the 3M hearing protection lawsuit. We didn't learn about this stuff until many years later.

One of the big proposals is not covering injuries sustained during direct military duties. This means that if you get in a car accident or terrier ACL playing basketball you wouldn't be able to get VA compensation for it. The military emphasizes that you are a service member 24/7 but now they're trying to cut your benefits. They can't have it both ways.
 

The crazy thing is that the sums of money talked about seem big but they are not in the grand scheme of things. Even if they instituted all of these policies it would only save around $288B over a decade. That seems like a lot until you break it down.

$288B over the decade means around $28.8B per year. The annual federal outlay is $6.5T per year meaning that these measures would only save .004% of the annual budget each year.

Instead of taxing a billionaires and trillion-dollar corporations conservatives would rather screw over veterans (along with screwing over old people by cutting social security, Medicaid and Medicare).

I left active duty in 2019 and made my VA disability compensation back then so I would be safe regardless (and I am somewhat protected by the 5-year rule the VA has), I'm more concerned about those guys still serving and how they're going to be screwed over whenever they get out.
 
atlsfinest atlsfinest appreciate all of this insight bro!

And like tupac003 tupac003 I’m still active duty but the long term effects of who we vote for is very important…a lot of SMs, especially the younger ones, don’t really care about voting but this shows how important it is to do research and make a logical decision on who needs to be running the country.
 
I just received my payment from the 3M earplugs lawsuit. Easiest $4K I ever made
Fam, I got almost $4k on my mid month check and my admin not DFAS can explain where it came from, hopefully that money is this….. even so, I put that money to the side just in case they want it back, so can you explain how you came up, not trying to get in your business or anything, but I’ve been racking my brain as to where this money came from, I didn’t sign up for anything or owed anything….
 
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Fam, I got almost $4k on my mid month check and my admin not DFAS can explain where it came from, hopefully that money is this….. even so, I put that money to the side just in case they want it back, so can you explain how you came up, not trying to get in your business or anything, but I’ve been racking my brain as to where this money came from, I didn’t sign up for anything or owed anything….

I thought that ish was a scam, glad to see it was legit!

Is it too late for the 3m thing and can active folks be apart of it?

I missed out on the window. My friend told me about it...but it was too late to submit for the pay out.

You would have had to sign up for it years ago. I left active duty in 2019 and I've been getting progress reports on it since then. It's been a long time coming.

I'm not sure if it was available to active duty service members. I work with a law firm who was handling all of it for us. Not everyone was eligible, you had to prove that you had some hearing loss and you are an active duty between 2003 and 2015. I had already been diagnosed with tinnitus in my ears so I was eligible.
 
Yea I missed out on the 3m.. I have a hearing aid for my left ear from the va.. tinnitus .. ringing of the ear.. man this would’ve been some nice change .. oh well.. I got my 100%.., working on my SMC now., trying to get to the holy grail of va compensation of $10,700/month

Tell me more about this SMC. 👀👀👀

I got out in 2019 and immediately made it VA disability claim. I was awarded 80% right away. I'm in the process of putting in some additional claims to get up to 100%. I actually had a C&P exam earlier this week and I'm working with a VSO.

Also, admittedly random question here, but are you Liberian? Every person named Kamara I know is Liberian
 
Tell me more about this SMC. 👀👀👀

I got out in 2019 and immediately made it VA disability claim. I was awarded 80% right away. I'm in the process of putting in some additional claims to get up to 100%. I actually had a C&P exam earlier this week and I'm working with a VSO.

Also, admittedly random question here, but are you Liberian? Every person named Kamara I know is Liberian
Nah breh I am not Liberian... My parents are from Sierra Leone though.. Kamara is a Sierra Leonean name though...funny that the ppl you know with that name are Liberians cuz all the ones I know are Sierra Leoneans... all good though... but back to this VA issssh...

So usually once veterans get to 100%, they usually stop and take their happy selves home but actually, VA compensstion doesn't stop at 100%.

After 100 they have higher levels which now changes to SMC...the requirements are stricter to get and most vets don't even know about SMC... so cats thats missing limbs and have non functional parts of their body, this is what SMC is for and the highest they pay is over 10k/MONTHLY.

Its all on the VA website but the thing is this... when you going for SMC, they will open up all your claims again and the chance of them reducing your 100% now becomes a possibilty. Since now they can reevaluate you on all your claims and nobody wants that. However, if you're willing to risk it all, that 10k is up there and also like i said the requirements are stricter.
 
I’d be afraid of rolling that dice 😂

Give up $3,800 for $10K.

I didn’t know that was a thing. Id imagine tighter scrutiny.
 
Nah breh I am not Liberian... My parents are from Sierra Leone though.. Kamara is a Sierra Leonean name though...funny that the ppl you know with that name are Liberians cuz all the ones I know are Sierra Leoneans... all good though... but back to this VA issssh...

So usually once veterans get to 100%, they usually stop and take their happy selves home but actually, VA compensstion doesn't stop at 100%.

After 100 they have higher levels which now changes to SMC...the requirements are stricter to get and most vets don't even know about SMC... so cats thats missing limbs and have non functional parts of their body, this is what SMC is for and the highest they pay is over 10k/MONTHLY.

Its all on the VA website but the thing is this... when you going for SMC, they will open up all your claims again and the chance of them reducing your 100% now becomes a possibilty. Since now they can reevaluate you on all your claims and nobody wants that. However, if you're willing to risk it all, that 10k is up there and also like i said the requirements are stricter.

Thanks for breaking that down. I know a good bit about VA disability and I haven't heard about SMC so I would imagine the vast majority of people have never heard of it either.

I'm not willing to take the risk of getting all of my claims reevaluated though. Frankly, the whole reason I waited five years to even put in a claim to go from 80% to 100% was because I was waiting for the VA 5-year rule to kick in.

The 5-year offers some protection for service-connected disabilities that haven't improved in 5 years. It's not totally locked in after 5 years but it becomes much harder for the VA to reduce your rating.

I'm not trying to poke the bear like that, I'd be more than happy with getting the $4K/month that comes with 100%. If anything I might push to get P&T but that's it. My experience is weren't that bad and I certainly don't want the VA looking up old stuff.
 
Damn missed out on the hearing thing too… Navy just kept changing my baseline during the audio exams smh
 
What’s P&T? Ya all sharing game I didn’t know

Understanding the VA disability compensation and benefits world is difficult to and I consider myself a novice. 100% P&T (which stands for permanent and total) means that your service-connected disabilities will not get better over time and you are at no risk of having a VA reevaluate you to potentially lower your rating. If you are at 100% without being P&T the VA can request to re-examine your injuries and if they believe your injuries have improved they will lower your rating.

This is why it is so important to continue to schedule and attend VA medical appointments even after you have received your rating. It is important to continue to build on your record so if the VA does re-examine you you have a documented history of ongoing treatment needs.

If you are rated for nerve damage in your lower back but you never receive any treatment over the course of a decade the VA may make the assumption that your injuries have improved and lower your rating.

The VA also provides additional protections to your rating. These are the 5-year rule, 10-year rule, 20-year rule and 55-year old rule. Each of these rules are different but basically the longer you have had your VA disability rating the harder it becomes for the VA to take it away.

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