First post.

J

Jumpmaster2015

PEB Forum Regular Member
Registered Member
Hello everyone. This is my first post. Hopefully the moderators can put it where it needs to go if I am in the wrong area. Where to begin? I spent seven years working as a mechanic (91B) for Special Forces. This involved a lot of strenuous work with long hours, as many people who have worked around a motor pool can comprehend. I initially hurt my back at Special Forces Assesment and Selection in 2012. I was performing log and rifle PT, and felt a tear go up my back two hours into the log portion. My back pain was chronic on a 2-3 out of 10 on the pain scale for the next two years. I was seen for the condition in the beginning, but learned to live with it since it only hurt about once a month.
Fast forward to 2015. I graduated the SOF jumpmaster course in August of that year. I came down on orders for Korea in October, and had to jump in order to square away my jump pay in November. My MC-6 parachute malfunctioned, and I hit the ground in upwards of 30 knots. To make a long story short, I have a herniated disc, DDD, and sciatia which flares up to an 8 out of 10 on days where I have to work. I also am diagnosed with a mTBI from the incident. I was knocked unconscious for about an hour. My referring condition is psychiatric, as I am experiencing intense TBI symptoms in Korea. I was also diagnosed with PTSD after an intense deployment to Afghanistan, and the TBI magnified those symptoms.
My condition has deteriorated immensely since the accident, and I am going through the MEB process. My commander just submitted her paperwork this week, and my permanent profile is being generated right now. My provider says everything should work out, and I will be at a WTU at JBLM within a couple of months. I am writing this to introduce myself. The next 10 or so months will be pretty busy for me, and I am thankful for this forum. Thank goodness I decided to enroll in college 3 years ago. I am almost done with a business degree, and plan to take up accounting after I transition. I have a solid plan, I just need to get healthy as I possibly can. Thank you for reading my rant! I am happy to have a place where I can communicate during this process.
 
Welcome to the forum.

Your first targets should be the C&P exams and NARSUM, after that the MEB findings. Don't know how that will work if you're still in Korea, so adjust accordingly.

For the C&P exams, make sure that they cover all the conditions and be honest about things but careful what you say. If you're in misery most of the time and you happen to be there on a good day, talk about the days on average. Eg; if you say that sometimes you can run without too much problem, but there's a lot of days you can't - that might translate in the C&P report to "can run without any problem". Hopefully they won't jack you over like that, but it wouldn't be the first time someone gets short changed during the C&P exams. Also, much of the spinal rating centers on "forward flexion" (how far forward you can bend), the further forward you can bend, the less the final rating will be. Pain and suffering doesn't seem to mean much in the calculation, even if that's what's the real problem is, just VA logic.

Get a copy of the C&P report(s) as soon as its published by the VA. You can do this by asking the VA directly. That way you will have a better idea of what the MEB will be looking at before you get blindsided by the MEB findings. Once the C&P report(s) are in the system, you should be able to get a hard copy at any VA facility.

The NARSUM is a consult with a military physician, in person or over the phone, where you will talk about your military duties and how your injuries affect them. This is important because the military tends to focus only on those injuries that negatively affect your military duties.

The MEB findings is a critical stage, your goal should be to get every condition that "does not meet retention standards" listed as such on the MEB findings. This is key because at the PEB stage, the military will only look at those conditions listed as "not meeting retention standards" for the PEB. Be careful to know what conditions should be listed separate of each other. Eg; Often when you have a spinal injury, it includes pain and numbness going down the legs, known as "lumbar radiculopathy". If done properly, the MEB should list the spinal injury itself PLUS "lumbar radiculopathy" for EACH leg as conditions "not meeting retention standards". They are separate ratable conditions, so even if you're only rated at 10% for your spinal injury, 10% for each leg would bring the total to the 30% needed for a medical retirement with benefits.

When the MEB findings are given to you by the PEBLO (PEB liaison officer), you will only have a few days to work with an attorney (a JAG attorney will be assigned to you unless you decide to pay for a civilian one) to file an appeal. The appeal should be to include those conditions which "do not meet retention standards", such as the lumbar radiculopathy for EACH leg (if that applies to you).

Other than that, just know its going to be a long process, there are times you have to be keyed up and focused, and times you will have to be patient and wait as things are processed. Be ready for each step and key task, but don't get wrapped around the axle and stress yourself out too much during those times when you're waiting.

Good luck
Hope this helps...
 
Thanks for the info! It should go smoothly. I want as much compensation as I can get, but ill be happy with a car payment worth of compensation for the rest of my life too. My anxiety is out of control, so with this process im trying to just chill out as much as I can. My doctors in korea have been phenomanal, but im worried about the documentation. There seem to be one provider for every 1000 patients, so everything is slow. My back is still being treated. I see pain management soon and then the surgeon.

As far as my psych issues go, ive been to inpatient here twice and once following my deployment at lewis. There is a ton of documentation for the psych, im just waiting on closure for the back. I will have a permanent profile for my back after pain managment. My provider is an eye doctor, and he wants pain managments opinion on how to word things.

So everything wrong with me will be covered during the c and p exams? I think my back will be squared away treatment wise by then
 
The C&P (Compensation and Pension) exams are supposed to be a "fair" assessment of your service connected injuries. That report is the meat of what is used to decide your ratings (also done by the VA) later in the MEB/PEB process. So they are critical to your success.

If they C&P exam report is jacked up, which many are, you can get your OWN physician to fill out a DBQ (Disability Benefit Questionnaire) to counter anything false or under rated in the C&P exam. Think of the DBQ as your reserve chute. In my own experiences, the C&P report was totally jacked up and didn't even begin to cover the injuries, so I got a DBQ done, and used it as new evidence for a VARR (VA ratings reconsideration) during the PEB stage. It doubled my ratings and compensation.

Try not to stress out, a lot of Soldiers have cheated themselves along the way by being so stressed by the end of the process that they took ANYTHING the PEB gave them just to get it over with. Relax as best you can, and concentrate and focus when you have to.

Speaking of documents, now is a great time to get a hard copy of EVERYTHING. Especially your medical records and anything that might be of important later. Once you're out of the military its very hard to get anything that you need from the archives. FOIA are routinely ignored and you won't have access to IPERMS etc...

Make sure you have the documentation that shows you spinal injury was aggravated or caused by military jumps, as Airborne operations qualifies for CRSC (Combat Related Special Compensation) later on down the road.

Hope this helps...
 
I am sure I will reference this post when the time comes. Thanks to you and anyone that else that wants to add something.
 
I have two of my C&P exams tomorrow. Very nervous about them. Marine with exertional compartment syndrome of the upper and lower extremities. And as mentioned of course my body feels perfect right now. Hopefully, I'll have one of my bad days tomorrow.
 
foggybayonet said:
I have two of my C&P exams tomorrow. Very nervous about them. Marine with exertional compartment syndrome of the upper and lower extremities. And as mentioned of course my body feels perfect right now. Hopefully, I'll have one of my bad days tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Good day or bad day... talk about your bad days. The way a VA nurse told me, it's the bad days you should be rated on, so when you're there, that's what you should talk about.
 
UPDATE
I finally received a report date to the JBLM WTU from Korea. It took about 1.5 months from the moment my profile was approved until the email from HRC with my report date. I ship one month after the report date. The medical system in Korea is stretched thin, and I am excited to continue my journey and receive compensation/actual medical care.

If anyone needs advice on the MEB process in Korea, I am practically a subject matter expert now. Feel free to respond.
 
I am currently going through the process now, can you explain it to me, I’m waiting on orders now
 
@Worrell1

May I suggest you start a new post with your information. The post you arre replying to is several years old.
 
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