August 14, 2025 • 58 mins
Alex Graham, an accredited non-attorney practitioner for veteran disability, brings his expertise on VA benefits and Special Monthly Compensation (SMC) to help veterans understand their entitlements. Drawing from his Vietnam experience and years of advocacy, Alex illuminates the complex pathways to maximum benefits that many veterans and even VA employees don't fully understand.
• Recent "Barry versus McDonough" decision opens new pathways for veterans to receive higher SMC rates
• Veterans can file CUE claims dating back to 1971 for improper SMC calculations
• Multiple disabilities can now be combined to reach higher SMC levels through "Barry Bumps"
• Aid and Attendance benefits face increased scrutiny and procedural hurdles from the VA
• Combat presumptions often overlooked in TBI and PTSD claims despite clear service records
• Veterans need representation who understand the nuances of SMC calculations and medical evidence
• Even 10% disability ratings can have significant downstream effects on overall compensation
• The VA's failure to properly develop Aid and Attendance claims creates harmful delays for elderly veterans
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
John Stacy (00:00):
Fine.
Welcome folks to anotherepisode of the Expose that
Productions broadcast on thisbeautiful sunshiny, very hot
Thursday, the 14th day of August2025.
My name is John Stacy.
They call me Jay Basher.
I am the proprietor of theExpose that Productions page
(00:23):
that we do.
Proprietor of the Exposed VestProductions page that we do, we
do which it shows every week toexplain VA benefits and claims
to everybody who wants to listen.
You know, I'm glad people dolisten and subscribe.
Today we've got a special guest.
We've got the one and only MrAlex Graham.
Mr Graham is an accreditednon-practitioner.
Alex Graham (00:45):
Non-attorney practitioner.
John Stacy (00:46):
Non-attorney practitioner with the Office of
the General Counsel.
That means Alex can processyour appeal and take it all away
to court if necessary, butfortunately he doesn't have to
go there all the time.
He's that good, Alex.
How are you doing today?
Alex Graham (01:02):
Well, I'm alive, john.
I certainly can't complain.
I never thought I'd be herethis far down the road at 74,
coming up on 75.
That's fun, because now I getall my stuff advanced on the
docket at the Board of VeteransAppeals.
For myself, I'm going to filefor ischemic heart disease.
(01:25):
I just got that diagnosis abouta week ago.
John Stacy (01:29):
I told you it's coming.
Alex Graham (01:34):
And you know, just for shits and grins, if you
pardon the expression, thisstupidity.
On my stomach, this 12-inch by12-inch piece of cadaver skin
that they put me back togetherwith in 2010, starting to break
down, I developed a dry spot, abig, huge scab right in the
(01:55):
middle that just keeps onweeping.
I've been to the wound clinicand they've monkeyed with it and
put silver iodide every damnthing you can think of on it.
And they'll say, well, there'smonkeyed with it and put silver
iodide every damn thing you canthink of on it.
And they said, well, there'ssomething wrong with that.
I said, well, it's cadaver skin.
They said, well, okay, I'mgetting ready to scrub that down
and debride it.
(02:15):
Now I got to put some lidocaineon there to numb it out.
I said you guys don't get it.
This is cadaver skin.
You put cigarettes out on mybelly.
I can't feel it.
I'd like to get that.
John Stacy (02:37):
Get that sucker connected buddy.
Alex Graham (02:40):
I got six ventral hernias now just popping out.
I can't stop them because theyput a wound pump on the stupid
thing.
If you read the instructionsfor alloderm it says do not use
a wound pump, it may causeventral hernias.
I'm living proof that you don'twant to do that, but VA did it.
I think that's malpractice.
John Stacy (03:02):
It is.
Alex Graham (03:04):
I suppose if they turn me down I could always go
the other way and just get thatCrohn's disease associated with
secondary to hepatitis C and winit that way.
Anyway, I do it.
I'll still get advanced on thedocket here shortly.
John Stacy (03:21):
Well we'll see what, come April Fool's Day.
Come April Fool's Day, you will.
Alex Graham (03:31):
That's right.
Seven months from now,approximately, yeah.
John Stacy (03:37):
You look and sound a lot better than you did last
show.
I mean, you sounded a littleweak last time.
I guess you just got out of thehospital.
Alex Graham (03:44):
I acid reflex.
I got coming up in out of thehospital.
I acid reflex, I got coming upin my throat, burn my vocal
cords Hard to doctor anyway.
So I got two choices.
I guess I could start doingOmeprazole and end up screwing
up the rest of my interior, orjust go with the scratchy voice.
John Stacy (04:10):
Yeah, too much of meprazole is bad for you.
Alex Graham (04:13):
That's what I hear.
John Stacy (04:15):
Excuse me, you go ahead, man.
Sometimes you have to take it.
Alex Graham (04:23):
I don't know if you read my latest blog, but I sure
Kicked ass and took names up atthe Court here just the other
day.
John Stacy (04:30):
I saw that it's going to take a while to get
over that.
Did you ever get your shoe backyet when you shoved it up To
the rectum?
Alex Graham (04:38):
Well, I jokingly Call SMCP, as as in Papa.
I call that the poor man's R1,because you can't really get
there unless you.
I mean, it's the perfect stormof disabilities to get there.
(05:00):
But if you get a guy that'sfiled for everything underneath
the sun since 1969, eight pagesof code sheet of all the
different things he's hooked up,for sure there's about two
pages of zeros, but then there'sa ton of tens 20s, 30s and 40s
(05:24):
and 70s, so I started addingthem up.
They turned me down for aid andattendance for chronic
lymphocytic leukemia for thisold boy.
He's in a wheelchair with acombination of Parkinson's and
diabetes, so it has a doublewhammy on your lower extremities
.
For walking, Not only can younot feel your feet, they're
(05:44):
shaking like a leaf on a tree.
John Stacy (05:46):
Yes, they do.
Alex Graham (05:48):
The VA's attitude is well, we can't pair them in
here.
You've got to choose whetheryou want to get ready for the
diabetes peripheral neuropathyor do you want to get ready for
the Parkinson's.
They don't think you can doboth of them, but you can.
But they fenced me out and Ijust decided well, hell, what
they got, that Newberry versusMcDonough decision.
(06:10):
The way to go about this isstart adding it up.
If you got 100% rating alreadyfor his Parkinson's with
residuals that's his SMCL Thenhe's got the 100% for the
lymphocytic leukemia.
So that jumps him from L to M.
3.35 B3 no, that would be F4,3.35 F4.
(06:39):
So then he's got 70% for PTSD.
That bounces him to M and ahalf.
Then I said well, that sleepapnea, that's N, the headaches
make it N and a half, and throwin some diabetes with some
peripheral neuropathy and you'reat N and a half.
(07:00):
He's lost to use a Winky, sothat's a K.
And there you have it.
You're at SMCcn and one halfplus k.
You can't go any higher in p.
So that's called the maximumrate.
So if you reach the maximumrate of p or o, then or or p.
(07:22):
I should excuse me if you getthe maximum rate on P, it is an
O for all intents and purposes.
But if it's an O and you got Ato tennis for the Parkinson's,
then you bounce up to R1, eventhough you only have one L all
by itself.
John Stacy (07:40):
You have to A to tennis, or what you have to aid
the tenants, or what.
Alex Graham (07:43):
Well, I've always taught, when you're going the
other route, that you need twoL's, or an L and an M.
If you had blindness or lostuse of hands, you still need L
for aiding the tenants, forsomething else that gives you
the O, and one of them is aidingthe tenants.
That kicks you to R1.
(08:06):
Trust me, even if you don'tunderstand the mathematics,
that's how it works.
I do it for a living so I know.
But there is this alternateroute.
But before, in order to get toSMCN, you'd have to have both
your legs amputated, flush withyour torso, and be blind.
(08:26):
In order to try to accomplishthis maneuver, that would get
you to N, you need the extrahalf kicker to get in there and
you need the K.
So that was a pretty heavy loadto accomplish for most veterans
.
They don't have laws to usetheir arms or legs flush with
(08:52):
that body where you can't evenhook on a prosthesis.
John Stacy (08:56):
At the shoulder level.
Alex Graham (08:56):
yeah, I can't even imagine living like that man.
I'd want to suck on a leadlollipop before I had to live
like that.
But I never, ever had a desireto commit suicide.
Well, I did.
When I came back from NAM I waspretty depressed and everybody
was telling me to piss off anddie.
Vfw told me I couldn't joinbecause I wasn't a combat
(09:19):
veteran, I hadn't served at atime of war.
I said where the hell did theypark that 58,494 people?
Where did they die?
If they didn't die in a war,where did we lose them at?
They said that wasn't a war.
So I didn't get to join them.
And hell.
I tried to join a telephonecompany as a lineman, because
(09:42):
that's all I was trained for,among other things.
And they told me well, they'dtalk to me maybe in six months.
But there wasn't a whole lot ofopenings just yet, especially
if you're from Vietnam orVietnam vet.
So I got pretty depressed butfortunately I managed to stay
(10:03):
alive, find something else to dowith my time, went down to a
place called Vermite PowderCompany and started
manufacturing explosives.
I like explosives, john.
John Stacy (10:16):
You're biased, aren't you they?
Alex Graham (10:19):
ought to make a fragrance called Oda Gunpowder
or something like that, odaWD-40.
Both of those would smellpretty good, if you ask me, of
course.
Then again, if you could figureout a way to bottle up dog
puppy breath, you could sell alot of that too.
John Stacy (10:40):
You could, you definitely can.
Alex Graham (10:42):
Don't you ever have a litter of puppies?
Have them all licking on youand everything.
God, I love that smell.
I think that's it.
That sounds good.
That's delightful.
You can see me on the screenhere, so it's good.
I just thought I'm going toshare with you.
My dad passed away in 2008.
(11:03):
My stepbrother finally mailedme his medals.
I'm going to put them in a newframe, clean them up a little
bit.
I don't know if you guys couldsee that there's a silver star
there.
He was flying across Legion ofMerit 28 air medals.
(11:23):
My dad was an animal man.
He was a gorilla in the air.
I think he was shooting down a109, and he didn't get his
finger off the trigger quickenough.
And there was another 109 or a190 right behind that one and a
little bit to the left Before hecould get his finger up off the
(11:44):
trigger quick enough.
And there was another 109 or a190 right behind that one and a
little bit to the left before hecould get his finger up off the
trigger.
His bullets from his wing gunwalked into the 190.
He got both of them with oneburst.
They gave him a silver star forthat one.
He took out five in one monthhe got a total of 16 and a half
(12:04):
aircraft.
John Stacy (12:04):
That's a lot of kills.
Alex Graham (12:06):
Yeah, it is See, he got stuck training the Tuskegee
Airmen down in Alabama and hedidn't want to keep doing that.
So he went out into the Gulf ofMexico, knocked down a couple of
sailboats make sure they gothis tail member and they said
well, we're going to fix yourwagon, major Graham, we're going
(12:28):
to send your ass to Europe andyou're going to have to get in
combat.
My dad's going.
God, finally, two and a halfyears of teaching people gunnery
skills, I get to get out ofhere and go fight.
Nine months, shot down at 16and a half.
Nine months Shot down at 16 anda half Nine months.
John Stacy (12:48):
Just teaching, instructing.
Alex Graham (12:51):
He was a little bit pissed that the war ended so
quick.
He was having fun.
Well, I guess you could say hewas having fun.
I don't know, he was an ace.
John Stacy (13:04):
I mean, hey, every dick's only got four of them.
Alex Graham (13:08):
Well, there were a lot of aces in World War II.
I think Richard Bong was thebig one he had 40.
But there were quite a few ofthem in the 8th Air Force where
my dad was.
I remember when I was a kid, mydad's senior superior when he
(13:29):
got down to Georgia in the 31stFighter Wing, his superior
officer that he was taken overfor replacing was a guy named
Colonel Zempke, called HubZempke.
Hell, he had more than that.
He had about 18 or 19.
It was a lot of competitionback then Towards the end of the
(13:51):
war.
It was kind of like fishingwith hand grenades, though,
because they changed the rules.
They had so many flakemplacements around the German
airfields.
If you could get in therewithout getting shot down and
blow up an airplane on theground, they counted it as an
aerial kill or the equivalent.
I think my dad got a few ofthem that way, but it was still
(14:17):
a.
You know, he never got shotdown.
He was just one lucky son of agun, never got hit with any
fragments Didn't get a PurpleHeart.
What did he want to do?
Well, he was my inspirationalways.
He ran into some politicalflack in 1972 and ended up
(14:42):
getting sent to Diyarbacore,Turkey, 6th Air Force, which was
a nowhere job.
So he retired real quick, movedover to McDonnell Douglas,
started working on the F-15,created that little masterpiece.
John Stacy (15:00):
That's not bad, that's a good point.
Alex Graham (15:02):
Well, he was instrumental.
Sandy McDon McDonald was mygodfather at my christening.
He was quite the whole McDonaldfamily.
We were real close.
But my dad was reallyinstrumental in building the F4,
strapping two engines on it andgetting something that had more
(15:23):
thrust-to weight ratio than aone to one.
It was like what, 1.5 to one,where you stand the thing like a
rocket and go straight up withit.
But uh, he helped develop that.
And then magnum air comes alongand says well, how many bombs
can it carry?
My dad's going no, no, no, ithas machine, it has machine guns
(15:44):
and it uses rockets.
It doesn't hold bombs.
It holds extra fuel and droptanks but it doesn't hold bombs.
Well, they made it a bomber.
John Stacy (15:56):
When it first came out though when it first came
out they didn't have that many.
It didn't even have machineguns, all it had was missiles
because it had becomemissile-reliant.
Then they had to go back andadd that pod on it.
Didn't really have machine guns, all it had was missiles
because they'd become missilereliant.
Then you had to go back and addthat pod on it, right?
Alex Graham (16:10):
My dad's the one that inaugurated that pod,
strapping a G minigun into thatcenter line pod and used it like
a machine gun.
He started using that in 1966because they were using those
AIM-54 side blinders.
They were sparrows and theywere using those AIM-54
sidewinders.
They were sparrows and theywere radar-guided.
The sidewinders are heat-guidedand they're a little bit more
(16:33):
realistic and reliable.
But those AIM-54s they'd squirtoff the thing and the MIG turns
a hard right and the thing justkeeps going straight like
where'd it go?
Where'd it go?
Lost?
It Missed it by that much soall the fighter pilots hated
those goddamn rockets and withno machine gun you don't have
(16:54):
anything else to fall back on.
In close combat the Migs hadguns that pissed my dad off.
John Stacy (17:02):
Mm-hmm, dog fighting was a forgotten art back then.
You know, after World War II inKorea dog fighting became a
wasted art and they got reallyreliable in their missiles and
that hurt.
Alex Graham (17:17):
Dog fighting was an art.
It was a close-in art.
It was kind of like a knifefight in a dark alley.
You better learn how to do itreal quick or you're going to be
on the ground walking if yourparachute worked.
John Stacy (17:31):
If you're lucky.
If not, you'd be ground upsawdust.
Alex Graham (17:37):
Anyway, going back to SMC, we never had the pathway
where you could start buildingall these little bits and pieces
the way they do in SMCP now.
And there's a good old boynamed James Percivali.
I don't know if you've had himon your show.
He and his wife, terryPercivali, lived down in I can't
(18:01):
remember the name in Texas, thetown, but he's accredited, he's
a member of NOVA.
He's the one that pushed Barryinto the limelight.
It was his.
He worked with the guy, I thinkhe was a VSO, but he had all
these difficulties and he gotstarted pushing towards this
(18:26):
thing where he said you know,why can't you have two bumps
like F-4 under 350, f-4, and F-3?
Why couldn't you have multiplebumps under F-3, 50% or more,
but less than 100?
50% or more but less than 100.
And they took that all the wayto the Federal Circuit and they
(18:47):
won, even after they lost to theCAVC.
He opened up to me what is mostpossibly the biggest gain for
veterans in the last 50 years,certainly since the Court of
Veterans Appeals came into beingA lot of Q claims.
(19:08):
But you know one of my favoritesup at the court, mike Allen.
He's the one that swore me in.
Real nice guy In fact.
He was at the last regionalNOVA conference last fall up in
(19:28):
St Paul and gave a speech andduring the cocktail party I
walked over to him afterwards.
I said your honor said yeah, Idon't know if you remember me.
You swore me back in 18 in DC.
He says oh hell, yeah, Iremember you.
You go by, alex, right?
(19:49):
I said God, how could this guyhave that kind of a memory?
But he did.
He remembered me.
He says yeah, I see you'rekicking ass and taking names
down below.
I said, yes, sir, I am.
I've had my ups and downs, buton SMC it just seems like I've
(20:11):
got the gift of the healing,where you just touch somebody
and heal them, like one of thetent revivals or something.
I can't believe I could win asmany SMCs as I have, which is
all of them to date.
I didn't take one up to theboard.
They had this old boy who livesdown in Texas, midland.
(20:34):
He was in attendance for awhole bunch of stuff and then I
filed him for loss of use of thelower extremities due to
diabetes and then came back andI said, well, you know, you guys
(20:54):
forgot to give him his berrybumps here.
You know, you should havebounced him from L to M back in
2018.
And they went in and they cuedthemselves or tried to and
started to, and then theystopped, but they took away his
loss of use of his lowerextremities.
That got him and he turned itinto aid and attendance for
Parkinson's and I said, well,wait a minute.
(21:16):
No, no, he had loss of use.
You can't just change it.
You can't say, oh sorry, youdon't have loss of use, but it's
no fault, no harm, becausehere's aid and attendance and
they're both the same thing.
Your paycheck stays the same.
Nothing happened here.
Move along.
Well, something did happen.
Now, all of a sudden, his legswork.
(21:37):
They gave him a car.
John, how are you going to takethe car away?
He doesn't have loss of useanymore of his lower extremities
.
You can't get a car for it.
John Stacy (21:48):
Well, that's against the rules anyway, because
they're supposed to maximize thebenefit to the veteran.
Alex Graham (21:54):
Well, of course they are.
I filed him for PTSD.
This guy's got a purple heart,a CIB.
His best friend got blown inhalf and he picked him up to
carry him up the hill to safety.
He should have got a SilverStar for that.
Halfway up the hill he realizeshe's hauling a half a human
being.
God, I tell you I'd tear my assin half.
(22:15):
Mentally I don't think that Icould do that.
I've seen a lot of guts.
I've stuffed guts back intoguys' bellies and lit them
Marlboro and stuck it in theirmouths and said calm down, that
dust off.
We'll be here in five minutes.
And they died in three.
But you gave them somesustenance, you gave them a
(22:38):
cigarette, you did something totake their mind off it dying.
But man, I don't know if Icould pick up a half a human
being and carry him still betalking to him.
I'm not.
I've seen some weird ass shitin vietnam and that the indy
sailor did the same thing.
John Stacy (22:56):
They're floating in the water and the one guy would
swim over to another guy.
Hey, buddy, you okay and pathim on the back and he'd turn
over.
Half his body be gone.
Alex Graham (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, I imagine that happened quite a
bit in World War II.
I can't remember what the nameof that one ship was, indiana or
something.
John Stacy (23:14):
Indianapolis.
Alex Graham (23:15):
Indianapolis?
Yeah, Wouldn't they have lostabout three thousand?
John Stacy (23:21):
Eight hundred men.
Eight hundred some men hit thewater and only a hundred some
were rescued.
Yeah.
Alex Graham (23:27):
Can you imagine sitting there swimming in a
tight group of people watchingguys getting jerked underwater
every 30 minutes?
I don't know.
Here's a lot of guys.
I have a lot of respect for oneof my close, close friends,
bruce Bruce McCartney, down inGeorgia.
He did four tours as a dust-offpilot in Vietnam Not a pilot,
(23:52):
excuse me, as a medic and ranthat penetrator down and pulled
guys out, brought them back up.
He got Purple Heart, bronzeStars, combat Vs up one wall and
down the other.
He did that for four years andI have the most respect in the
world for him.
I did it for two years.
(24:13):
I was trying to sign up for athird because it's a disease.
Once you get into it you got tostay in it.
I don't know how to describe it, but Bruce did it for four
years, from 68 to 72.
And yeah, he's rated 100% ptsdand I can understand why, but
(24:37):
he's still.
He's still everything up hereand there's a lot of guys you
would.
You would, you'd wonder howthey made it as far in life as
they did.
But you know, there's just atestimonial to what veterans are
capable of or what they canhandle mentally.
(24:58):
I'm not degrading or downplayingwhat happened in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
I'm sure it was every bit asmessy in terms of combat.
I don't have that experience.
I do have experience ofSoutheast Asia.
(25:18):
I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
I don't understand how it isyou go to a BMW bar or something
and they're all sitting aroundand, oh, I sure wish I could
have gotten into combat inVietnam.
They stuck me in Germany.
Oh my God, who would ever wishto be in combat?
That's an insane desire.
(25:40):
I don't think anybody's thatcrazy.
John Stacy (25:44):
No, pretty much.
Alex Graham (25:47):
What gives me?
John Stacy (25:47):
Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, what do you mean?
Alex Graham (25:49):
Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry.
What?
John Stacy (25:51):
We all have our own bit of post-traumatic stress
disorder.
We're all crazy to a certainextent.
Of course, everybody's issuesare different as far as what
they go through in order todeserve this kind of stuff.
Alex Graham (26:03):
But still, you know , my wife says I have PTSD.
John Stacy (26:11):
I can't see it on me .
Well, if you can't see it, youcan't file a claim for it, right
?
Alex Graham (26:16):
I never wanted to file for it because I thought it
would make me appear weaker asa human being, but that was 50
years ago.
I got kicked out of the servicewhen I came back Not for PTSD,
because they hadn't invented ityet, john.
John Stacy (26:35):
They said I had, you were shell-shocked.
Alex Graham (26:37):
Well, man, I don't know what I had, but they said I
had antisocial personality withpassive-aggressive tendencies.
John Stacy (26:46):
Yeah, back in the day, I've actually changed it.
Alex Graham (26:51):
But those are personality disorders, so you
don't get paid for them.
John Stacy (26:55):
I've changed a few of those decisions in the past
with a couple of friends of mine.
One guy was on USS Mars and hewas a body collector.
Alex Graham (27:06):
Boy, I'll tell you what that graves and
registration job I've done you,what that graves and
registration job I've done.
Two guys for that job, got themboth Got.
One of them was a World War IIvet.
One of my very first clients.
Got him his 100% for that rightbefore he died at 95.
Then I got another guy that wasa grazer in registration in
(27:28):
Afghanistan running around witha refrigerated meat wagon
scooping up, throwing it in theback, you know.
So we'll take it all back tothe shop and we'll figure out
whose feet belong to who.
That's pretty gross Sorting.
Yeah, sorting.
I wouldn't want that job, but Icould see where you can develop
(27:50):
some PTSD from it.
Smc has evolved so much just inthe time that I've been working
with it.
You often wonder what else isgoing to come down the road.
I never saw Barry versusMcDonough coming to fruition
(28:10):
during my lifetime.
I figured it would take another30 years of monkeying around
with it.
I also thought that TDIU wouldnever ever be considered a 100%
rating where you can use it toget to SMCS 100 plus 60?
.
John Stacy (28:29):
I've got one question.
I've got one question, alex.
What's that?
Why in the hell with a capitalH, after all these freaking
years 1940s, when they wrotethat regulation did it take
somebody 80 freaking years totake this to the damn court?
Alex Graham (28:53):
Well, that's a damn good question.
First of all, you've got tounderstand.
I'd swear 90% of the people whowork for VA and I hate to say
it, but probably 90% of thepeople that I call my fellow
litigators and friends at NOVAdon't know anything about SMC.
They know there's somethingcalled K if Winky doesn't work
(29:16):
and they know there's an S ifyou somehow manage to cobble
together 60% in ratings on topof a 100 that are separate and
distinct.
John Stacy (29:26):
Well, kid, I'm going to call you and lock yourself
in your bedroom.
And they just said.
Alex Graham (29:32):
Well, you know, yeah, I'm sure there's a whole
bunch of other letters there L,m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, V and
all that shit, but I don't knowhow to do that.
I don't even want to learn it.
I'm going to stick withtinnitus and hemorrhoids.
John Stacy (29:45):
They don't listen to that.
They've got their own alphabetsA9, B9, C9, D9.
That's all.
Alex Graham (29:54):
Speaking of the devil, where's Ray?
I don't see Ray on your screenthere.
Where's he hiding?
Is he still on vacation?
John Stacy (30:03):
No, ray is actually on assignment.
We've got him down there inWinchester Tennessee guys.
Hey, you guys are listening tothis weekend and you live close
to Winchester Tennessee, saydown northern Alabama or
anywhere in the national area.
Get yourself down to WinchesterTennessee.
The Traveling Wall is therethis weekend and, ray, you're
doing a live broadcast tomorrowand Saturday.
Alex Graham (30:24):
That's right.
He's got the flag gig, usuallyabout November, doesn't he?
John Stacy (30:29):
Or is that November?
He's got the flag gig.
Usually about that, doesn't he?
Or is that November?
He's got the travel wall.
This weekend he even got BillRobinson down there with him.
You know who Bill is well.
Alex Graham (30:42):
I have to admire the man that he's still got the
stamina to be up and about withhis wife pushing him, helping
him, him unloading him.
John Stacy (30:55):
She works herself yeah.
Alex Graham (30:57):
Up there with trips in terms of disabilities.
John Stacy (31:00):
We got him a chair this time.
We talked him into getting awheelchair and it makes it a
little bit easier.
The scooter is a little bithard to maneuver but the chair
is a lot easier because there'sno front end on it.
So you know he enjoys it.
That's pretty good, so he'sokay.
Alex Graham (31:14):
Cool, that's cool.
As I was saying, smc is sohorribly complicated.
When I write a legal briefabout the whole, a third of it
is trying to tell the judge whatmy client is physically,
legally entitled to based on thecacophony of two L's make an O,
(31:42):
maximum P makes an O and O plusA in attendance equals R1, all
these different things.
You have to write it all downand say if on the offbeat chance
you get your shit together,judge you grant this correctly,
there would also be anopportunity here for you to
consider aid and attendance atthe R2 level or R1, r2, whatever
(32:06):
you know, because of yourcombination with O plus the A
detenents.
Now I just got a decision backyesterday or the day before, I
think it was yesterday.
This guy's been in a nursinghome Vietnam vet like me.
He got a below the kneeamputation on both legs.
(32:29):
They did such a VA medicine,they did such a piss poor job
with the amputation Amputationplural that there was a lot of
pain on the scarring on thestump.
There's a way to do that and ifyou're good you'd fold those
(32:51):
nerves way up inside the leg andthen take the flesh and make
your post at the bottom.
John Stacy (32:59):
Make your flat.
Alex Graham (32:59):
Get the nerves away from that area if possible, so
that there isn't a lot of painwhen you're resting all your
weight.
On top of that prosthesis, theyscrewed it up and he's been
bouncing around in and out ofnursing homes because of the bed
sores get infected and he can'tjust jump out of bed and
(33:24):
incontinence because of theprostate cancer that's in
remission.
But they fried the shit out ofhim with the radiation and he
changes his diaper about sixtimes a day, not at night,
that's just during the day.
Finally, they put a catheter inhim and I'm arguing this thing
(33:46):
and I'm saying your Honor, he'sgot coronary artery disease.
He needs aid and attendance.
Your Honor, he has extremediabetes of the upper
extremities and the loss of usebecause he can't even button his
shirt and he can't hold a spoonto scoop up his peas and his
carrots.
(34:06):
They fall off because hishand's trembling.
But he also needs aid andattendance for this.
And so I had three differentitems that he needed aid and
attendance for, or loss of useon top of his loss of use of his
lower extremities.
So I'm having a hard timearguing this and I got Judge
(34:27):
Hager, john Hager.
John and me get along like peasand carrots man.
I'm not kidding you.
I've had him I don't know threetimes face-to-face and argued
in front of him for a hearingappearance and each time, of
(34:50):
course, I won.
But the man has a tremendoussense of humor.
He's engaging.
He's a veteran.
I think just the fact that he'sa veteran is an important piece
of why he has such acommiserate with us and is
willing to bend over backwardsand truly give you the benefit
(35:11):
of the doubt.
There are not very many judgesdown there that will do that for
you.
Now there's a new batch of themcoming out Before this.
Hager, david White, w-i-g-h-tand Mike Skoutsoumas were all
three big ones.
Cherry Crawford I love Cherry.
(35:33):
She's got cornrows and adiamond stud in her nose.
Man, she's almost one of thehighest judges.
She's a supervisor.
There's 10, 20 differentyounger veterans law judges.
That counsels them on how torun their show and how to do
their business.
It teaches them by example.
(35:54):
But God, she's got a greatsense of humor.
I had three days running onthree different face-to-faces in
Seattle back in the old days ofLegacy.
I won two out of three.
The third one was the LZ Courtcase that I wrote so much about.
She wouldn't grant that one,don't know why.
(36:14):
I was still in my infancy ofknowledge in how to fight VA in
2018.
You got another seven yearsunder the bridge now.
There's not a whole lot.
You can float past me withoutme taking a gander at it and
realizing there's somethingwrong with it.
I mean, after 36 god dang years, I feel like I wrote the Cliff
(36:39):
Notes book on this shit.
John Stacy (36:43):
Looks to me like in the future.
You're denying so manyattendance claims.
Now you're going to startboxing them up and getting those
back to the BBA.
Alex Graham (36:52):
You're going to see .
Well, you've had Wes McCauleyon your show.
I train Wes, not everything.
But he came to me about 2021and said I can't get a grasp on
this aid and attendance and allthis SMC shit.
Would you please train me andteach me how to do it?
(37:14):
And when that happened, aboutfive or six other guys and gals
came to me at the same time andsaid well, if you train him, you
got to train us.
We want to do it too.
That's what started the firstclass of the smc shit that I
taught.
And then all the guys found outabout it at nova and they said
well, how come you didn't inviteus?
(37:36):
Well, you know as well as I do,if you, if you have a radio
show like this and you're, yougot 560 people, little itty
bitty tv.
You can't teach to 560 people.
Some 10 people ask a question.
You shoot the whole showthrough on just answering
(37:56):
questions and no teaching.
So I kept it down to 10 peopleper class and I think people
appreciated it.
But I only taught 30 totalthree classes of 10.
And Wesley's a classic example.
But there's other guys and nowwe're starting to really pack a
(38:18):
lot of aid and attendance claimsinto VA and going up to the
board with them and it's causinga little bit of consternation.
I don't mind telling you amongthe people in the hierarchies,
find out about this aid andattendance.
God damn, we got 5 000 claimsfor aid and attendance and in
(38:39):
the last 20 years we've had 500.
What's going on well?
So they know who's doing it andthey're starting to get a
little stinky about it.
You know how hard it is fortalking with Ray about how to
get into that PCAPC program.
Oh yeah.
On the same basis with Jesus.
John Stacy (39:00):
And one foot in.
Alex Graham (39:02):
Yeah, thank you very much, but they're starting
to get picky about that and saywell, you know, just because you
can't prepare a meal, that'snot necessarily an activity of
daily living, so I don't thinkthat that counts.
(39:22):
It's not listed in 3.352A.
It's not listed in 3.352a, butwhat va forgets and what you can
never change, is the way theregulations written.
If they revamp that regulation,there'd be a lot of screaming
and hollow howling and whatnotwhen you use the word, such as
(39:44):
an inability to accomplishactivity, a daily living such as
such as we've alreadydetermined in it's an example
that's a non-exhaustive list ofdisabilities, like, for instance
, when you're dealing with ptsd.
(40:04):
You're not required to haveevery last one of the things
that they say you need to get to100%.
You just need most of them, butnot all.
That's what such as meansbasically.
So the same thing applies toaid and attendance.
Now you're going to see themtry to monkey with the aid and
attendance and they're startingand saying well, just because
(40:30):
you can't do housework, I don'tthink anybody would expect a
veteran with 100% disability todo housework.
So that's not considered anactivity of daily living.
Shut the front door, John.
How's a veteran?
If he's a single man, how's hesupposed to keep his house clean
?
John Stacy (40:48):
That's an activity in their living room.
Put pads on his dog's seat, letthe dog walk around, let him
mop the floor.
You know, and there's thingslike that Get a Roomba.
Maybe the VLG will give you aRoomba.
Alex Graham (41:01):
You got all that extra money, you got to go out
and buy one of them room bars tomake you 40.
John Stacy (41:07):
I got the mop version now well, shit that.
Alex Graham (41:11):
I'm sorry.
I disagree with that, butthat's what's happening now.
I've had one judge that wouldoverturned it.
But I had a judge say well,just because he needs medication
management doesn't mean that heneeds aid and attendance.
And my argument to that waswell, let's see, your Honor, if
(41:32):
he can't remember to take hisThorazine or his Sertraline and
he gets a little bit antsy anddecides to get his 357 Magnum
and go down and ride the subwayand take care of business,
business, get rid of all thempeople that are beating up on
those cute little girls andstealing their purses.
Wouldn't you say that thatwould be an activity of daily
(41:55):
living?
That somebody has to protecthim from himself and others
because of failure to eat hismedicine?
Couldn't see it, but we got itoverturned and got it
straightened out.
That's a finish that we have todeal with in litigation that
(42:16):
somebody starts out with a wholenew interpretation of what aid
and attendance is or what itisn't.
John Stacy (42:25):
That's the judge.
If he was a double amputee,okay, if you were a double
amputee, would you have to havesomebody swing your gavel for
you, because you're not going todo it with your teeth?
Why not?
Because he had a neck problem.
He had to retire.
Alex Graham (42:40):
He had an eyeball hook on the ceiling or a rope.
Come down there he put that inhis teeth.
It jerked his teeth back andforth.
No.
John Stacy (42:50):
What gets my goat, which is how you say it.
What gets my goat is they'lldeny the aid and attendance
claim for whatever reason.
But in the favorable findings,what's the first sentence?
You require aid and attendance.
Alex Graham (43:10):
And that's predicated on 3.351 C3.
C1c Now, that is the definitionand you go read it and it says
you need a diagnosis of the needfor aid and attendance and
that's accomplished on a 2680.
So now the latest gig I'vegotten here is watch this one.
You're going to love this.
(43:32):
When you file.
There's a thing in the M21, andI know you know I don't
subscribe to the M21.
I think it's a piece of shit.
It changes 135 times a year.
John Stacy (43:43):
Ten times a day.
Alex Graham (43:45):
Because it's wrong.
But it says if you submit aclaim for aid and attendance on
a 526, but you do not submit a2680, the VA cannot stop the
production and say give me a2680 signed by your doctor,
because that violates the dutyto assist.
They're supposed to help youget there.
(44:06):
They can't start demanding anentrance fee to get to aid and
attendance.
So the blowback from that isyou do not need to develop a
claim or you don't need to askthem for a 2680.
And if you do ask them and theysay can you hear this?
Let me turn it up for you.
(44:28):
I do not need to give you a 2680.
It's up on you to send me outto a C&P and give me a 2680.
That's how it's supposed towork.
So what do they do?
They'll develop everything youput into that 526, but they will
not send you out for an aid andattendance exam.
So there is no 2680.
And when you get to the end ofthe rating decision, they'll
(44:55):
just put a line in there thatsays your aid and attendance is
confirmed and continued at thepresent rate.
No exam.
They just rule around you toavoid giving you aid and
attendance.
John Stacy (45:04):
They're forgetting the golden rule Aid and
attendance is not a claim to befound.
It is an ancillary benefit thatshould be awarded upon the need
for it.
Alex Graham (45:14):
Akels and Bradley both enunciated that very, very
clearly.
It's due and owing.
In a moment you can prove youneed it.
But now that they're notdeveloping, what happens?
I go to HLR and I say hey, youdidn't give me an aid and
attendance CMP.
And they go oh yeah, I guess wedidn't.
(45:35):
Well, duty to assist.
Here back in the hopper.
Five months later you get yourCMP exam for aid and attendance
and then you get denied.
So what's the panacea?
How do you get your cmp examfor aid and attendance and then
you get denied.
So what's your?
What's the panacea?
What's?
How do you get out of thisgoddamn merry-go-round loop?
You're on the hamster wheel.
You can't get off.
(45:55):
I have to take it up to theboard.
But most of the guys that Ideal with are are advanced on
the docket over 75, but they'redying literally.
So I take it up the board andwhat does?
The board members looks at meand just cries in his beard and
he says you know, and I knowthat we've got to develop this
for a 2680 so that you can bringme something that says he needs
(46:17):
aid and attendance in English,not in Greek, not in some
foreign language or whatever.
I need that before I can grantit, and if it's not there and
they refuse to develop it, I'mforced to send it back to make
them do that Still another ninemonths and then when that
(46:40):
happens they could deny again.
And they do, and then it's backto the board.
But at least the next time I goback I'm going to win it.
But I might be winning it forthe widow because he's dead.
It just sucks.
John Stacy (46:53):
Yeah, laying it down .
Alex Graham (46:59):
I'm praying that we're going to see a sea change
in adjudications, and I willtell you this I will.
I'm impressed with what DougCollins is doing.
He's getting rid of thedeadwood.
(47:20):
Now I think everybody canscream and say, well, no, we
don't have enough nurses andpsychiatrists and everything
else.
They're just deadwood.
They're just hanging on onemore year to get to 20 and get
their golden parachute and theirpension.
And they show up for work halfthe time and don't even know
(47:42):
what they're doing.
They're like this, far awayfrom Alzheimer's or something,
but they're clinging to theirjob and they're not doing it.
Or nurses that sit aroundwatching the young and the
breastless or something, I don'tcare.
They're supposed to be outthere on the floor taking care
of veterans in a VA hospital.
(48:03):
I know what it feels like.
I push that stupid, stupidbutton, the call button 15, 25
minutes with no answer, not eventhe squawk box saying I'll be
there in a minute, nothing orhide in the union hall, hide in
a union environment, becausesure they can't go on strike.
(48:35):
They're kind of like cops orfirefighters.
They can't just.
Okay, we took a vote and we'regoing to go on strike, but you
know as well as I do they canslow down shit.
They can make it difficult foryou to get your claim through
this week.
I've seen more progress thisweek on claims and appeals.
(48:57):
I got three appeals came back,no four.
Now Four appeals came back down.
Old widow lady got her bouncefrom L to M for her husband who
died.
Another guy got R2 right out ofthe box from aid and attendance
or, excuse me, from SMCS.
(49:17):
Another guy yeah, they justrefused to grant it.
John Stacy (49:26):
Good.
Alex Graham (49:29):
I want to cue back to 2014 because somebody was too
lazy to go looking at some oldboy's STR records service
treatment records and see thatright there in his records it
showed that he'd been in threenot one, but three concussive
events that knocked himunconscious.
(49:52):
Every one of them was aroadside bomb IED in Afghanistan
.
I guess it was what we call aC&P examiner at BES or QTC.
I guess it was what we call aC&P examiner at VES or QTC.
So I reviewed the record and Idon't see any evidence that some
bitch ever had TBI.
He's a lying sack of shit.
(50:13):
And they denied him.
And I went through the recordssame records they had.
I see this thing in 2011.
Yeah, I've given him adefinitive diagnosis of TBI.
He's classic.
He's got nausea and vertigo,got headaches.
He had certain things that werethe hallmarks of it, including
(50:35):
tinnitus from the first one, andtherefore I give him the
official DX TBI with PTSD.
And that's important.
Tbi with PTSD means TBI is aprominent disease process.
It ain't PTSD with TBI, theother way around.
John Stacy (50:55):
That means T equals R2, T.
Alex Graham (51:01):
So the judge looked at it and I also enunciated the
fact that he had an R-Com witha V on it.
Well, you don't get that out ofa Kraken Jack's box.
That means you've been incombat.
He had a combat action badgetoo.
So the judge ruled kind ofnarrowly.
(51:23):
He just said you guys ignoredwhat he said on his 4138.
You ignored his combatpresumption with the 1154B and
therefore the decision to denyTBI in 2015 when he got out of
the service was clearly andunmistakably wrong, and it
(51:48):
manifestly changed the outcome,because he should have got it.
Well, okay, it became a hollowwin because he got 10% yesterday
, but 10% from 2014,.
John, that ain't a chump change.
John Stacy (52:04):
Well, it's not a big change either though.
Well, it's not a big changeeither though 14, 15 grand.
Alex Graham (52:12):
I know I'm looking at it by the time I get it
straightened out.
They screwed him because thatextra 10% added to his 30% for
PTSD bumped him up to 40.
He immediately started getting40% where he was getting 30.
Now that's not a big changeabout $156, $200 back then.
(52:34):
But because that extra 10% wasadded in, when he got a bounce
to 50 for his PTSD in 2017, thatextra 10% actually pushed him
up to 60.
So then they had to computewhat his paycheck would have
been with 60 instead of 50 forthree or four years, and I got a
(52:59):
hold of him about 2020.
He's a neighbor over here.
I got a hold of him in 2020,and I drove him up from his 50
all the way up to 90.
So that 10% had a downstreameffect.
It kept kicking him higher allthe way through it and you got
to do a Fenderson rating.
You got to recalibrate it allthe way through the claim.
(53:22):
You can't just add 10 in 2014,and you're done.
John Stacy (53:27):
It has a downstream effect.
Effective date of this.
Effective date of that Go back,go back, go back 29K.
Alex Graham (53:34):
29K minus my 20%.
John Stacy (53:37):
That's good.
A couple of bottles of singlemalt scotch there, buddy, yeah.
Alex Graham (53:42):
but you know, john, I don't do it for that.
My wife buys me some of thefinest scotch known to man.
Some of it is pretty dynamite.
I've seen names I'd never heardof before.
I didn't know.
The French made scotch back inthe 1700s but they tried.
John Stacy (53:59):
You ever drink a Perri Van Winkle, you know what
I want to do.
Alex Graham (54:03):
I want to go to Scotland.
I want to go on the Scotlandtour.
You know, Do all the tastingrooms.
Instead of wine, we taste asingle malt.
That'd be fun.
John Stacy (54:13):
I'd rather take your cane with you, because you're
going to need the time to getdone.
Alex Graham (54:18):
I was thinking about taking a wheelchair or a
walker.
Here's to good life.
John Stacy (54:30):
No, here's to good life.
Alex Graham (54:31):
no, what about I tell them now go ahead one last
thing I was going to say is thisBarry Bump business that I was
talking about today.
Get yourself up to the maximumrate of P or O or something.
It's open ended.
Get yourself up to the maximumrate of P or O or something.
(54:53):
It's open-ended.
You can file a queue in 2025and go back to 1971 without any
problem.
They weren't reading theregulation correctly from 1946
all the way until last May.
So anything that happened inbetween between you can queue
and win because they scourge it.
Yeah, how much money is that?
(55:14):
I mean, it's an incomparable,incomprehensible amount of
veterans that should beremunerated.
None of them know about it, notso I love about your show,
because I hope you're going totell them.
John Stacy (55:29):
Listen, I mean all these World War II vets that
lost limbs and things like thatin World War II and were
discharged.
They're already in the sameschedule and they weren't around
back in the day.
These guys had other ratings.
So the majority of the peoplewho deserve that are dead.
Alex Graham (55:48):
Well, I didn how many people were on SMC, at any
rate, even from K, throughdifferent things, and I did a
FOIA.
This was back in 2010 or 11, 12, back when VA would tell you
these kind of things, and therewere only 3,500 people on R1 and
(56:11):
R2 in 2012.
I'd like to think that there'sa lot more, because I know I've
personally added about 150 tothat number, not many, not many
but.
Wes has probably added that manyand some of the other people
I've been training are sendingme reports back and saying got
that old boy R1.
(56:32):
Thank you, alex, for teachingme how.
So it ain't the money, john,it's the justice.
I'm married, a rich girl.
Fuck that noise.
This is fun.
This is like sticking a knifein a bad guy's back.
He ain't screwed me for 28years and I finally got an
(56:56):
opportunity to pay him back.
Thank you for being on yourshow today.
John Stacy (57:02):
Buddy, we appreciate you coming on.
We'll do this again very soon.
Be thinking of something else.
Be thinking of something else.
Be thinking of something elseto talk about Now.
You going to the NOPAconference here in the fall
conference in DC.
Alex Graham (57:13):
Yeah, I'll be there .
I'm going early.
I'm going to have a littlechitty chat with Cheryl Mason,
brand new VA OIG Office ofInspector General Trump got her.
Senate just approved her.
I want to have a little youknow this lady.
Beg your pardon.
John Stacy (57:33):
You know this lady.
Alex Graham (57:35):
I've met her at a cocktail party.
I don't think she'll rememberwho I am, but she'll sure as
hell know who.
Asnod is Not me.
Asnod's a household name downthere on 810 Vermont Avenue.
John Stacy (57:51):
Well, buddy, I appreciate you coming on the
show.
Guys, we'll see you again nextweek.
We'll have another guestspeaker on and we'll talk about
another VA issue affectingtoday's veterans.
With that, this will be John,half hour scram and the Exposed
Reproductive.
We'll be shutting it down fornow.
Alex Graham (58:09):
Thank you.
Fine.
Welcome folks to anotherepisode of the Expose that
Productions broadcast on thisbeautiful sunshiny, very hot
Thursday, the 14th day of August2025.
My name is John Stacy.
They call me Jay Basher.
I am the proprietor of theExpose that Productions page
(00:23):
that we do.
Proprietor of the Exposed VestProductions page that we do, we
do which it shows every week toexplain VA benefits and claims
to everybody who wants to listen.
You know, I'm glad people dolisten and subscribe.
Today we've got a special guest.
We've got the one and only MrAlex Graham.
Mr Graham is an accreditednon-practitioner.
Alex Graham (00:45):
Non-attorney practitioner.
John Stacy (00:46):
Non-attorney practitioner with the Office of
the General Counsel.
That means Alex can processyour appeal and take it all away
to court if necessary, butfortunately he doesn't have to
go there all the time.
He's that good, Alex.
How are you doing today?
Alex Graham (01:02):
Well, I'm alive, john.
I certainly can't complain.
I never thought I'd be herethis far down the road at 74,
coming up on 75.
That's fun, because now I getall my stuff advanced on the
docket at the Board of VeteransAppeals.
For myself, I'm going to filefor ischemic heart disease.
(01:25):
I just got that diagnosis abouta week ago.
John Stacy (01:29):
I told you it's coming.
Alex Graham (01:34):
And you know, just for shits and grins, if you
pardon the expression, thisstupidity.
On my stomach, this 12-inch by12-inch piece of cadaver skin
that they put me back togetherwith in 2010, starting to break
down, I developed a dry spot, abig, huge scab right in the
(01:55):
middle that just keeps onweeping.
I've been to the wound clinicand they've monkeyed with it and
put silver iodide every damnthing you can think of on it.
And they'll say, well, there'smonkeyed with it and put silver
iodide every damn thing you canthink of on it.
And they said, well, there'ssomething wrong with that.
I said, well, it's cadaver skin.
They said, well, okay, I'mgetting ready to scrub that down
and debride it.
(02:15):
Now I got to put some lidocaineon there to numb it out.
I said you guys don't get it.
This is cadaver skin.
You put cigarettes out on mybelly.
I can't feel it.
I'd like to get that.
John Stacy (02:37):
Get that sucker connected buddy.
Alex Graham (02:40):
I got six ventral hernias now just popping out.
I can't stop them because theyput a wound pump on the stupid
thing.
If you read the instructionsfor alloderm it says do not use
a wound pump, it may causeventral hernias.
I'm living proof that you don'twant to do that, but VA did it.
I think that's malpractice.
John Stacy (03:02):
It is.
Alex Graham (03:04):
I suppose if they turn me down I could always go
the other way and just get thatCrohn's disease associated with
secondary to hepatitis C and winit that way.
Anyway, I do it.
I'll still get advanced on thedocket here shortly.
John Stacy (03:21):
Well we'll see what, come April Fool's Day.
Come April Fool's Day, you will.
Alex Graham (03:31):
That's right.
Seven months from now,approximately, yeah.
John Stacy (03:37):
You look and sound a lot better than you did last
show.
I mean, you sounded a littleweak last time.
I guess you just got out of thehospital.
Alex Graham (03:44):
I acid reflex.
I got coming up in out of thehospital.
I acid reflex, I got coming upin my throat, burn my vocal
cords Hard to doctor anyway.
So I got two choices.
I guess I could start doingOmeprazole and end up screwing
up the rest of my interior, orjust go with the scratchy voice.
John Stacy (04:10):
Yeah, too much of meprazole is bad for you.
Alex Graham (04:13):
That's what I hear.
John Stacy (04:15):
Excuse me, you go ahead, man.
Sometimes you have to take it.
Alex Graham (04:23):
I don't know if you read my latest blog, but I sure
Kicked ass and took names up atthe Court here just the other
day.
John Stacy (04:30):
I saw that it's going to take a while to get
over that.
Did you ever get your shoe backyet when you shoved it up To
the rectum?
Alex Graham (04:38):
Well, I jokingly Call SMCP, as as in Papa.
I call that the poor man's R1,because you can't really get
there unless you.
I mean, it's the perfect stormof disabilities to get there.
(05:00):
But if you get a guy that'sfiled for everything underneath
the sun since 1969, eight pagesof code sheet of all the
different things he's hooked up,for sure there's about two
pages of zeros, but then there'sa ton of tens 20s, 30s and 40s
(05:24):
and 70s, so I started addingthem up.
They turned me down for aid andattendance for chronic
lymphocytic leukemia for thisold boy.
He's in a wheelchair with acombination of Parkinson's and
diabetes, so it has a doublewhammy on your lower extremities
.
For walking, Not only can younot feel your feet, they're
(05:44):
shaking like a leaf on a tree.
John Stacy (05:46):
Yes, they do.
Alex Graham (05:48):
The VA's attitude is well, we can't pair them in
here.
You've got to choose whetheryou want to get ready for the
diabetes peripheral neuropathyor do you want to get ready for
the Parkinson's.
They don't think you can doboth of them, but you can.
But they fenced me out and Ijust decided well, hell, what
they got, that Newberry versusMcDonough decision.
(06:10):
The way to go about this isstart adding it up.
If you got 100% rating alreadyfor his Parkinson's with
residuals that's his SMCL Thenhe's got the 100% for the
lymphocytic leukemia.
So that jumps him from L to M.
3.35 B3 no, that would be F4,3.35 F4.
(06:39):
So then he's got 70% for PTSD.
That bounces him to M and ahalf.
Then I said well, that sleepapnea, that's N, the headaches
make it N and a half, and throwin some diabetes with some
peripheral neuropathy and you'reat N and a half.
(07:00):
He's lost to use a Winky, sothat's a K.
And there you have it.
You're at SMCcn and one halfplus k.
You can't go any higher in p.
So that's called the maximumrate.
So if you reach the maximumrate of p or o, then or or p.
(07:22):
I should excuse me if you getthe maximum rate on P, it is an
O for all intents and purposes.
But if it's an O and you got Ato tennis for the Parkinson's,
then you bounce up to R1, eventhough you only have one L all
by itself.
John Stacy (07:40):
You have to A to tennis, or what you have to aid
the tenants, or what.
Alex Graham (07:43):
Well, I've always taught, when you're going the
other route, that you need twoL's, or an L and an M.
If you had blindness or lostuse of hands, you still need L
for aiding the tenants, forsomething else that gives you
the O, and one of them is aidingthe tenants.
That kicks you to R1.
(08:06):
Trust me, even if you don'tunderstand the mathematics,
that's how it works.
I do it for a living so I know.
But there is this alternateroute.
But before, in order to get toSMCN, you'd have to have both
your legs amputated, flush withyour torso, and be blind.
(08:26):
In order to try to accomplishthis maneuver, that would get
you to N, you need the extrahalf kicker to get in there and
you need the K.
So that was a pretty heavy loadto accomplish for most veterans
.
They don't have laws to usetheir arms or legs flush with
(08:52):
that body where you can't evenhook on a prosthesis.
John Stacy (08:56):
At the shoulder level.
Alex Graham (08:56):
yeah, I can't even imagine living like that man.
I'd want to suck on a leadlollipop before I had to live
like that.
But I never, ever had a desireto commit suicide.
Well, I did.
When I came back from NAM I waspretty depressed and everybody
was telling me to piss off anddie.
Vfw told me I couldn't joinbecause I wasn't a combat
(09:19):
veteran, I hadn't served at atime of war.
I said where the hell did theypark that 58,494 people?
Where did they die?
If they didn't die in a war,where did we lose them at?
They said that wasn't a war.
So I didn't get to join them.
And hell.
I tried to join a telephonecompany as a lineman, because
(09:42):
that's all I was trained for,among other things.
And they told me well, they'dtalk to me maybe in six months.
But there wasn't a whole lot ofopenings just yet, especially
if you're from Vietnam orVietnam vet.
So I got pretty depressed butfortunately I managed to stay
(10:03):
alive, find something else to dowith my time, went down to a
place called Vermite PowderCompany and started
manufacturing explosives.
I like explosives, john.
John Stacy (10:16):
You're biased, aren't you they?
Alex Graham (10:19):
ought to make a fragrance called Oda Gunpowder
or something like that, odaWD-40.
Both of those would smellpretty good, if you ask me, of
course.
Then again, if you could figureout a way to bottle up dog
puppy breath, you could sell alot of that too.
John Stacy (10:40):
You could, you definitely can.
Alex Graham (10:42):
Don't you ever have a litter of puppies?
Have them all licking on youand everything.
God, I love that smell.
I think that's it.
That sounds good.
That's delightful.
You can see me on the screenhere, so it's good.
I just thought I'm going toshare with you.
My dad passed away in 2008.
(11:03):
My stepbrother finally mailedme his medals.
I'm going to put them in a newframe, clean them up a little
bit.
I don't know if you guys couldsee that there's a silver star
there.
He was flying across Legion ofMerit 28 air medals.
(11:23):
My dad was an animal man.
He was a gorilla in the air.
I think he was shooting down a109, and he didn't get his
finger off the trigger quickenough.
And there was another 109 or a190 right behind that one and a
little bit to the left Before hecould get his finger up off the
(11:44):
trigger quick enough.
And there was another 109 or a190 right behind that one and a
little bit to the left before hecould get his finger up off the
trigger.
His bullets from his wing gunwalked into the 190.
He got both of them with oneburst.
They gave him a silver star forthat one.
He took out five in one monthhe got a total of 16 and a half
(12:04):
aircraft.
John Stacy (12:04):
That's a lot of kills.
Alex Graham (12:06):
Yeah, it is See, he got stuck training the Tuskegee
Airmen down in Alabama and hedidn't want to keep doing that.
So he went out into the Gulf ofMexico, knocked down a couple of
sailboats make sure they gothis tail member and they said
well, we're going to fix yourwagon, major Graham, we're going
(12:28):
to send your ass to Europe andyou're going to have to get in
combat.
My dad's going.
God, finally, two and a halfyears of teaching people gunnery
skills, I get to get out ofhere and go fight.
Nine months, shot down at 16and a half.
Nine months Shot down at 16 anda half Nine months.
John Stacy (12:48):
Just teaching, instructing.
Alex Graham (12:51):
He was a little bit pissed that the war ended so
quick.
He was having fun.
Well, I guess you could say hewas having fun.
I don't know, he was an ace.
John Stacy (13:04):
I mean, hey, every dick's only got four of them.
Alex Graham (13:08):
Well, there were a lot of aces in World War II.
I think Richard Bong was thebig one he had 40.
But there were quite a few ofthem in the 8th Air Force where
my dad was.
I remember when I was a kid, mydad's senior superior when he
(13:29):
got down to Georgia in the 31stFighter Wing, his superior
officer that he was taken overfor replacing was a guy named
Colonel Zempke, called HubZempke.
Hell, he had more than that.
He had about 18 or 19.
It was a lot of competitionback then Towards the end of the
(13:51):
war.
It was kind of like fishingwith hand grenades, though,
because they changed the rules.
They had so many flakemplacements around the German
airfields.
If you could get in therewithout getting shot down and
blow up an airplane on theground, they counted it as an
aerial kill or the equivalent.
I think my dad got a few ofthem that way, but it was still
(14:17):
a.
You know, he never got shotdown.
He was just one lucky son of agun, never got hit with any
fragments Didn't get a PurpleHeart.
What did he want to do?
Well, he was my inspirationalways.
He ran into some politicalflack in 1972 and ended up
(14:42):
getting sent to Diyarbacore,Turkey, 6th Air Force, which was
a nowhere job.
So he retired real quick, movedover to McDonnell Douglas,
started working on the F-15,created that little masterpiece.
John Stacy (15:00):
That's not bad, that's a good point.
Alex Graham (15:02):
Well, he was instrumental.
Sandy McDon McDonald was mygodfather at my christening.
He was quite the whole McDonaldfamily.
We were real close.
But my dad was reallyinstrumental in building the F4,
strapping two engines on it andgetting something that had more
(15:23):
thrust-to weight ratio than aone to one.
It was like what, 1.5 to one,where you stand the thing like a
rocket and go straight up withit.
But uh, he helped develop that.
And then magnum air comes alongand says well, how many bombs
can it carry?
My dad's going no, no, no, ithas machine, it has machine guns
(15:44):
and it uses rockets.
It doesn't hold bombs.
It holds extra fuel and droptanks but it doesn't hold bombs.
Well, they made it a bomber.
John Stacy (15:56):
When it first came out though when it first came
out they didn't have that many.
It didn't even have machineguns, all it had was missiles
because it had becomemissile-reliant.
Then they had to go back andadd that pod on it.
Didn't really have machine guns, all it had was missiles
because they'd become missilereliant.
Then you had to go back and addthat pod on it, right?
Alex Graham (16:10):
My dad's the one that inaugurated that pod,
strapping a G minigun into thatcenter line pod and used it like
a machine gun.
He started using that in 1966because they were using those
AIM-54 side blinders.
They were sparrows and theywere using those AIM-54
sidewinders.
They were sparrows and theywere radar-guided.
The sidewinders are heat-guidedand they're a little bit more
(16:33):
realistic and reliable.
But those AIM-54s they'd squirtoff the thing and the MIG turns
a hard right and the thing justkeeps going straight like
where'd it go?
Where'd it go?
Lost?
It Missed it by that much soall the fighter pilots hated
those goddamn rockets and withno machine gun you don't have
(16:54):
anything else to fall back on.
In close combat the Migs hadguns that pissed my dad off.
John Stacy (17:02):
Mm-hmm, dog fighting was a forgotten art back then.
You know, after World War II inKorea dog fighting became a
wasted art and they got reallyreliable in their missiles and
that hurt.
Alex Graham (17:17):
Dog fighting was an art.
It was a close-in art.
It was kind of like a knifefight in a dark alley.
You better learn how to do itreal quick or you're going to be
on the ground walking if yourparachute worked.
John Stacy (17:31):
If you're lucky.
If not, you'd be ground upsawdust.
Alex Graham (17:37):
Anyway, going back to SMC, we never had the pathway
where you could start buildingall these little bits and pieces
the way they do in SMCP now.
And there's a good old boynamed James Percivali.
I don't know if you've had himon your show.
He and his wife, terryPercivali, lived down in I can't
(18:01):
remember the name in Texas, thetown, but he's accredited, he's
a member of NOVA.
He's the one that pushed Barryinto the limelight.
It was his.
He worked with the guy, I thinkhe was a VSO, but he had all
these difficulties and he gotstarted pushing towards this
(18:26):
thing where he said you know,why can't you have two bumps
like F-4 under 350, f-4, and F-3?
Why couldn't you have multiplebumps under F-3, 50% or more,
but less than 100?
50% or more but less than 100.
And they took that all the wayto the Federal Circuit and they
(18:47):
won, even after they lost to theCAVC.
He opened up to me what is mostpossibly the biggest gain for
veterans in the last 50 years,certainly since the Court of
Veterans Appeals came into beingA lot of Q claims.
(19:08):
But you know one of my favoritesup at the court, mike Allen.
He's the one that swore me in.
Real nice guy In fact.
He was at the last regionalNOVA conference last fall up in
(19:28):
St Paul and gave a speech andduring the cocktail party I
walked over to him afterwards.
I said your honor said yeah, Idon't know if you remember me.
You swore me back in 18 in DC.
He says oh hell, yeah, Iremember you.
You go by, alex, right?
(19:49):
I said God, how could this guyhave that kind of a memory?
But he did.
He remembered me.
He says yeah, I see you'rekicking ass and taking names
down below.
I said, yes, sir, I am.
I've had my ups and downs, buton SMC it just seems like I've
(20:11):
got the gift of the healing,where you just touch somebody
and heal them, like one of thetent revivals or something.
I can't believe I could win asmany SMCs as I have, which is
all of them to date.
I didn't take one up to theboard.
They had this old boy who livesdown in Texas, midland.
(20:34):
He was in attendance for awhole bunch of stuff and then I
filed him for loss of use of thelower extremities due to
diabetes and then came back andI said, well, you know, you guys
(20:54):
forgot to give him his berrybumps here.
You know, you should havebounced him from L to M back in
2018.
And they went in and they cuedthemselves or tried to and
started to, and then theystopped, but they took away his
loss of use of his lowerextremities.
That got him and he turned itinto aid and attendance for
Parkinson's and I said, well,wait a minute.
(21:16):
No, no, he had loss of use.
You can't just change it.
You can't say, oh sorry, youdon't have loss of use, but it's
no fault, no harm, becausehere's aid and attendance and
they're both the same thing.
Your paycheck stays the same.
Nothing happened here.
Move along.
Well, something did happen.
Now, all of a sudden, his legswork.
(21:37):
They gave him a car.
John, how are you going to takethe car away?
He doesn't have loss of useanymore of his lower extremities
.
You can't get a car for it.
John Stacy (21:48):
Well, that's against the rules anyway, because
they're supposed to maximize thebenefit to the veteran.
Alex Graham (21:54):
Well, of course they are.
I filed him for PTSD.
This guy's got a purple heart,a CIB.
His best friend got blown inhalf and he picked him up to
carry him up the hill to safety.
He should have got a SilverStar for that.
Halfway up the hill he realizeshe's hauling a half a human
being.
God, I tell you I'd tear my assin half.
(22:15):
Mentally I don't think that Icould do that.
I've seen a lot of guts.
I've stuffed guts back intoguys' bellies and lit them
Marlboro and stuck it in theirmouths and said calm down, that
dust off.
We'll be here in five minutes.
And they died in three.
But you gave them somesustenance, you gave them a
(22:38):
cigarette, you did something totake their mind off it dying.
But man, I don't know if Icould pick up a half a human
being and carry him still betalking to him.
I'm not.
I've seen some weird ass shitin vietnam and that the indy
sailor did the same thing.
John Stacy (22:56):
They're floating in the water and the one guy would
swim over to another guy.
Hey, buddy, you okay and pathim on the back and he'd turn
over.
Half his body be gone.
Alex Graham (23:03):
Yeah, yeah, I imagine that happened quite a
bit in World War II.
I can't remember what the nameof that one ship was, indiana or
something.
John Stacy (23:14):
Indianapolis.
Alex Graham (23:15):
Indianapolis?
Yeah, Wouldn't they have lostabout three thousand?
John Stacy (23:21):
Eight hundred men.
Eight hundred some men hit thewater and only a hundred some
were rescued.
Yeah.
Alex Graham (23:27):
Can you imagine sitting there swimming in a
tight group of people watchingguys getting jerked underwater
every 30 minutes?
I don't know.
Here's a lot of guys.
I have a lot of respect for oneof my close, close friends,
bruce Bruce McCartney, down inGeorgia.
He did four tours as a dust-offpilot in Vietnam Not a pilot,
(23:52):
excuse me, as a medic and ranthat penetrator down and pulled
guys out, brought them back up.
He got Purple Heart, bronzeStars, combat Vs up one wall and
down the other.
He did that for four years andI have the most respect in the
world for him.
I did it for two years.
(24:13):
I was trying to sign up for athird because it's a disease.
Once you get into it you got tostay in it.
I don't know how to describe it, but Bruce did it for four
years, from 68 to 72.
And yeah, he's rated 100% ptsdand I can understand why, but
(24:37):
he's still.
He's still everything up hereand there's a lot of guys you
would.
You would, you'd wonder howthey made it as far in life as
they did.
But you know, there's just atestimonial to what veterans are
capable of or what they canhandle mentally.
(24:58):
I'm not degrading or downplayingwhat happened in Iraq and
Afghanistan.
I'm sure it was every bit asmessy in terms of combat.
I don't have that experience.
I do have experience ofSoutheast Asia.
(25:18):
I wouldn't wish that on anybody.
I don't understand how it isyou go to a BMW bar or something
and they're all sitting aroundand, oh, I sure wish I could
have gotten into combat inVietnam.
They stuck me in Germany.
Oh my God, who would ever wishto be in combat?
That's an insane desire.
(25:40):
I don't think anybody's thatcrazy.
John Stacy (25:44):
No, pretty much.
Alex Graham (25:47):
What gives me?
John Stacy (25:47):
Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry, what do you mean?
Alex Graham (25:49):
Oh, excuse me, I'm sorry.
What?
John Stacy (25:51):
We all have our own bit of post-traumatic stress
disorder.
We're all crazy to a certainextent.
Of course, everybody's issuesare different as far as what
they go through in order todeserve this kind of stuff.
Alex Graham (26:03):
But still, you know , my wife says I have PTSD.
John Stacy (26:11):
I can't see it on me .
Well, if you can't see it, youcan't file a claim for it, right
?
Alex Graham (26:16):
I never wanted to file for it because I thought it
would make me appear weaker asa human being, but that was 50
years ago.
I got kicked out of the servicewhen I came back Not for PTSD,
because they hadn't invented ityet, john.
John Stacy (26:35):
They said I had, you were shell-shocked.
Alex Graham (26:37):
Well, man, I don't know what I had, but they said I
had antisocial personality withpassive-aggressive tendencies.
John Stacy (26:46):
Yeah, back in the day, I've actually changed it.
Alex Graham (26:51):
But those are personality disorders, so you
don't get paid for them.
John Stacy (26:55):
I've changed a few of those decisions in the past
with a couple of friends of mine.
One guy was on USS Mars and hewas a body collector.
Alex Graham (27:06):
Boy, I'll tell you what that graves and
registration job I've done you,what that graves and
registration job I've done.
Two guys for that job, got themboth Got.
One of them was a World War IIvet.
One of my very first clients.
Got him his 100% for that rightbefore he died at 95.
Then I got another guy that wasa grazer in registration in
(27:28):
Afghanistan running around witha refrigerated meat wagon
scooping up, throwing it in theback, you know.
So we'll take it all back tothe shop and we'll figure out
whose feet belong to who.
That's pretty gross Sorting.
Yeah, sorting.
I wouldn't want that job, but Icould see where you can develop
(27:50):
some PTSD from it.
Smc has evolved so much just inthe time that I've been working
with it.
You often wonder what else isgoing to come down the road.
I never saw Barry versusMcDonough coming to fruition
(28:10):
during my lifetime.
I figured it would take another30 years of monkeying around
with it.
I also thought that TDIU wouldnever ever be considered a 100%
rating where you can use it toget to SMCS 100 plus 60?
.
John Stacy (28:29):
I've got one question.
I've got one question, alex.
What's that?
Why in the hell with a capitalH, after all these freaking
years 1940s, when they wrotethat regulation did it take
somebody 80 freaking years totake this to the damn court?
Alex Graham (28:53):
Well, that's a damn good question.
First of all, you've got tounderstand.
I'd swear 90% of the people whowork for VA and I hate to say
it, but probably 90% of thepeople that I call my fellow
litigators and friends at NOVAdon't know anything about SMC.
They know there's somethingcalled K if Winky doesn't work
(29:16):
and they know there's an S ifyou somehow manage to cobble
together 60% in ratings on topof a 100 that are separate and
distinct.
John Stacy (29:26):
Well, kid, I'm going to call you and lock yourself
in your bedroom.
And they just said.
Alex Graham (29:32):
Well, you know, yeah, I'm sure there's a whole
bunch of other letters there L,m, n, o, p, q, r, s, t, u, V and
all that shit, but I don't knowhow to do that.
I don't even want to learn it.
I'm going to stick withtinnitus and hemorrhoids.
John Stacy (29:45):
They don't listen to that.
They've got their own alphabetsA9, B9, C9, D9.
That's all.
Alex Graham (29:54):
Speaking of the devil, where's Ray?
I don't see Ray on your screenthere.
Where's he hiding?
Is he still on vacation?
John Stacy (30:03):
No, ray is actually on assignment.
We've got him down there inWinchester Tennessee guys.
Hey, you guys are listening tothis weekend and you live close
to Winchester Tennessee, saydown northern Alabama or
anywhere in the national area.
Get yourself down to WinchesterTennessee.
The Traveling Wall is therethis weekend and, ray, you're
doing a live broadcast tomorrowand Saturday.
Alex Graham (30:24):
That's right.
He's got the flag gig, usuallyabout November, doesn't he?
John Stacy (30:29):
Or is that November?
He's got the flag gig.
Usually about that, doesn't he?
Or is that November?
He's got the travel wall.
This weekend he even got BillRobinson down there with him.
You know who Bill is well.
Alex Graham (30:42):
I have to admire the man that he's still got the
stamina to be up and about withhis wife pushing him, helping
him, him unloading him.
John Stacy (30:55):
She works herself yeah.
Alex Graham (30:57):
Up there with trips in terms of disabilities.
John Stacy (31:00):
We got him a chair this time.
We talked him into getting awheelchair and it makes it a
little bit easier.
The scooter is a little bithard to maneuver but the chair
is a lot easier because there'sno front end on it.
So you know he enjoys it.
That's pretty good, so he'sokay.
Alex Graham (31:14):
Cool, that's cool.
As I was saying, smc is sohorribly complicated.
When I write a legal briefabout the whole, a third of it
is trying to tell the judge whatmy client is physically,
legally entitled to based on thecacophony of two L's make an O,
(31:42):
maximum P makes an O and O plusA in attendance equals R1, all
these different things.
You have to write it all downand say if on the offbeat chance
you get your shit together,judge you grant this correctly,
there would also be anopportunity here for you to
consider aid and attendance atthe R2 level or R1, r2, whatever
(32:06):
you know, because of yourcombination with O plus the A
detenents.
Now I just got a decision backyesterday or the day before, I
think it was yesterday.
This guy's been in a nursinghome Vietnam vet like me.
He got a below the kneeamputation on both legs.
(32:29):
They did such a VA medicine,they did such a piss poor job
with the amputation Amputationplural that there was a lot of
pain on the scarring on thestump.
There's a way to do that and ifyou're good you'd fold those
(32:51):
nerves way up inside the leg andthen take the flesh and make
your post at the bottom.
John Stacy (32:59):
Make your flat.
Alex Graham (32:59):
Get the nerves away from that area if possible, so
that there isn't a lot of painwhen you're resting all your
weight.
On top of that prosthesis, theyscrewed it up and he's been
bouncing around in and out ofnursing homes because of the bed
sores get infected and he can'tjust jump out of bed and
(33:24):
incontinence because of theprostate cancer that's in
remission.
But they fried the shit out ofhim with the radiation and he
changes his diaper about sixtimes a day, not at night,
that's just during the day.
Finally, they put a catheter inhim and I'm arguing this thing
(33:46):
and I'm saying your Honor, he'sgot coronary artery disease.
He needs aid and attendance.
Your Honor, he has extremediabetes of the upper
extremities and the loss of usebecause he can't even button his
shirt and he can't hold a spoonto scoop up his peas and his
carrots.
(34:06):
They fall off because hishand's trembling.
But he also needs aid andattendance for this.
And so I had three differentitems that he needed aid and
attendance for, or loss of useon top of his loss of use of his
lower extremities.
So I'm having a hard timearguing this and I got Judge
(34:27):
Hager, john Hager.
John and me get along like peasand carrots man.
I'm not kidding you.
I've had him I don't know threetimes face-to-face and argued
in front of him for a hearingappearance and each time, of
(34:50):
course, I won.
But the man has a tremendoussense of humor.
He's engaging.
He's a veteran.
I think just the fact that he'sa veteran is an important piece
of why he has such acommiserate with us and is
willing to bend over backwardsand truly give you the benefit
(35:11):
of the doubt.
There are not very many judgesdown there that will do that for
you.
Now there's a new batch of themcoming out Before this.
Hager, david White, w-i-g-h-tand Mike Skoutsoumas were all
three big ones.
Cherry Crawford I love Cherry.
(35:33):
She's got cornrows and adiamond stud in her nose.
Man, she's almost one of thehighest judges.
She's a supervisor.
There's 10, 20 differentyounger veterans law judges.
That counsels them on how torun their show and how to do
their business.
It teaches them by example.
(35:54):
But God, she's got a greatsense of humor.
I had three days running onthree different face-to-faces in
Seattle back in the old days ofLegacy.
I won two out of three.
The third one was the LZ Courtcase that I wrote so much about.
She wouldn't grant that one,don't know why.
(36:14):
I was still in my infancy ofknowledge in how to fight VA in
2018.
You got another seven yearsunder the bridge now.
There's not a whole lot.
You can float past me withoutme taking a gander at it and
realizing there's somethingwrong with it.
I mean, after 36 god dang years, I feel like I wrote the Cliff
(36:39):
Notes book on this shit.
John Stacy (36:43):
Looks to me like in the future.
You're denying so manyattendance claims.
Now you're going to startboxing them up and getting those
back to the BBA.
Alex Graham (36:52):
You're going to see .
Well, you've had Wes McCauleyon your show.
I train Wes, not everything.
But he came to me about 2021and said I can't get a grasp on
this aid and attendance and allthis SMC shit.
Would you please train me andteach me how to do it?
(37:14):
And when that happened, aboutfive or six other guys and gals
came to me at the same time andsaid well, if you train him, you
got to train us.
We want to do it too.
That's what started the firstclass of the smc shit that I
taught.
And then all the guys found outabout it at nova and they said
well, how come you didn't inviteus?
(37:36):
Well, you know as well as I do,if you, if you have a radio
show like this and you're, yougot 560 people, little itty
bitty tv.
You can't teach to 560 people.
Some 10 people ask a question.
You shoot the whole showthrough on just answering
(37:56):
questions and no teaching.
So I kept it down to 10 peopleper class and I think people
appreciated it.
But I only taught 30 totalthree classes of 10.
And Wesley's a classic example.
But there's other guys and nowwe're starting to really pack a
(38:18):
lot of aid and attendance claimsinto VA and going up to the
board with them and it's causinga little bit of consternation.
I don't mind telling you amongthe people in the hierarchies,
find out about this aid andattendance.
God damn, we got 5 000 claimsfor aid and attendance and in
(38:39):
the last 20 years we've had 500.
What's going on well?
So they know who's doing it andthey're starting to get a
little stinky about it.
You know how hard it is fortalking with Ray about how to
get into that PCAPC program.
Oh yeah.
On the same basis with Jesus.
John Stacy (39:00):
And one foot in.
Alex Graham (39:02):
Yeah, thank you very much, but they're starting
to get picky about that and saywell, you know, just because you
can't prepare a meal, that'snot necessarily an activity of
daily living, so I don't thinkthat that counts.
(39:22):
It's not listed in 3.352A.
It's not listed in 3.352a, butwhat va forgets and what you can
never change, is the way theregulations written.
If they revamp that regulation,there'd be a lot of screaming
and hollow howling and whatnotwhen you use the word, such as
(39:44):
an inability to accomplishactivity, a daily living such as
such as we've alreadydetermined in it's an example
that's a non-exhaustive list ofdisabilities, like, for instance
, when you're dealing with ptsd.
(40:04):
You're not required to haveevery last one of the things
that they say you need to get to100%.
You just need most of them, butnot all.
That's what such as meansbasically.
So the same thing applies toaid and attendance.
Now you're going to see themtry to monkey with the aid and
attendance and they're startingand saying well, just because
(40:30):
you can't do housework, I don'tthink anybody would expect a
veteran with 100% disability todo housework.
So that's not considered anactivity of daily living.
Shut the front door, John.
How's a veteran?
If he's a single man, how's hesupposed to keep his house clean
?
John Stacy (40:48):
That's an activity in their living room.
Put pads on his dog's seat, letthe dog walk around, let him
mop the floor.
You know, and there's thingslike that Get a Roomba.
Maybe the VLG will give you aRoomba.
Alex Graham (41:01):
You got all that extra money, you got to go out
and buy one of them room bars tomake you 40.
John Stacy (41:07):
I got the mop version now well, shit that.
Alex Graham (41:11):
I'm sorry.
I disagree with that, butthat's what's happening now.
I've had one judge that wouldoverturned it.
But I had a judge say well,just because he needs medication
management doesn't mean that heneeds aid and attendance.
And my argument to that waswell, let's see, your Honor, if
(41:32):
he can't remember to take hisThorazine or his Sertraline and
he gets a little bit antsy anddecides to get his 357 Magnum
and go down and ride the subwayand take care of business,
business, get rid of all thempeople that are beating up on
those cute little girls andstealing their purses.
Wouldn't you say that thatwould be an activity of daily
(41:55):
living?
That somebody has to protecthim from himself and others
because of failure to eat hismedicine?
Couldn't see it, but we got itoverturned and got it
straightened out.
That's a finish that we have todeal with in litigation that
(42:16):
somebody starts out with a wholenew interpretation of what aid
and attendance is or what itisn't.
John Stacy (42:25):
That's the judge.
If he was a double amputee,okay, if you were a double
amputee, would you have to havesomebody swing your gavel for
you, because you're not going todo it with your teeth?
Why not?
Because he had a neck problem.
He had to retire.
Alex Graham (42:40):
He had an eyeball hook on the ceiling or a rope.
Come down there he put that inhis teeth.
It jerked his teeth back andforth.
No.
John Stacy (42:50):
What gets my goat, which is how you say it.
What gets my goat is they'lldeny the aid and attendance
claim for whatever reason.
But in the favorable findings,what's the first sentence?
You require aid and attendance.
Alex Graham (43:10):
And that's predicated on 3.351 C3.
C1c Now, that is the definitionand you go read it and it says
you need a diagnosis of the needfor aid and attendance and
that's accomplished on a 2680.
So now the latest gig I'vegotten here is watch this one.
You're going to love this.
(43:32):
When you file.
There's a thing in the M21, andI know you know I don't
subscribe to the M21.
I think it's a piece of shit.
It changes 135 times a year.
John Stacy (43:43):
Ten times a day.
Alex Graham (43:45):
Because it's wrong.
But it says if you submit aclaim for aid and attendance on
a 526, but you do not submit a2680, the VA cannot stop the
production and say give me a2680 signed by your doctor,
because that violates the dutyto assist.
They're supposed to help youget there.
(44:06):
They can't start demanding anentrance fee to get to aid and
attendance.
So the blowback from that isyou do not need to develop a
claim or you don't need to askthem for a 2680.
And if you do ask them and theysay can you hear this?
Let me turn it up for you.
(44:28):
I do not need to give you a 2680.
It's up on you to send me outto a C&P and give me a 2680.
That's how it's supposed towork.
So what do they do?
They'll develop everything youput into that 526, but they will
not send you out for an aid andattendance exam.
So there is no 2680.
And when you get to the end ofthe rating decision, they'll
(44:55):
just put a line in there thatsays your aid and attendance is
confirmed and continued at thepresent rate.
No exam.
They just rule around you toavoid giving you aid and
attendance.
John Stacy (45:04):
They're forgetting the golden rule Aid and
attendance is not a claim to befound.
It is an ancillary benefit thatshould be awarded upon the need
for it.
Alex Graham (45:14):
Akels and Bradley both enunciated that very, very
clearly.
It's due and owing.
In a moment you can prove youneed it.
But now that they're notdeveloping, what happens?
I go to HLR and I say hey, youdidn't give me an aid and
attendance CMP.
And they go oh yeah, I guess wedidn't.
(45:35):
Well, duty to assist.
Here back in the hopper.
Five months later you get yourCMP exam for aid and attendance
and then you get denied.
So what's the panacea?
How do you get your cmp examfor aid and attendance and then
you get denied.
So what's your?
What's the panacea?
What's?
How do you get out of thisgoddamn merry-go-round loop?
You're on the hamster wheel.
You can't get off.
(45:55):
I have to take it up to theboard.
But most of the guys that Ideal with are are advanced on
the docket over 75, but they'redying literally.
So I take it up the board andwhat does?
The board members looks at meand just cries in his beard and
he says you know, and I knowthat we've got to develop this
for a 2680 so that you can bringme something that says he needs
(46:17):
aid and attendance in English,not in Greek, not in some
foreign language or whatever.
I need that before I can grantit, and if it's not there and
they refuse to develop it, I'mforced to send it back to make
them do that Still another ninemonths and then when that
(46:40):
happens they could deny again.
And they do, and then it's backto the board.
But at least the next time I goback I'm going to win it.
But I might be winning it forthe widow because he's dead.
It just sucks.
John Stacy (46:53):
Yeah, laying it down .
Alex Graham (46:59):
I'm praying that we're going to see a sea change
in adjudications, and I willtell you this I will.
I'm impressed with what DougCollins is doing.
He's getting rid of thedeadwood.
(47:20):
Now I think everybody canscream and say, well, no, we
don't have enough nurses andpsychiatrists and everything
else.
They're just deadwood.
They're just hanging on onemore year to get to 20 and get
their golden parachute and theirpension.
And they show up for work halfthe time and don't even know
(47:42):
what they're doing.
They're like this, far awayfrom Alzheimer's or something,
but they're clinging to theirjob and they're not doing it.
Or nurses that sit aroundwatching the young and the
breastless or something, I don'tcare.
They're supposed to be outthere on the floor taking care
of veterans in a VA hospital.
(48:03):
I know what it feels like.
I push that stupid, stupidbutton, the call button 15, 25
minutes with no answer, not eventhe squawk box saying I'll be
there in a minute, nothing orhide in the union hall, hide in
a union environment, becausesure they can't go on strike.
(48:35):
They're kind of like cops orfirefighters.
They can't just.
Okay, we took a vote and we'regoing to go on strike, but you
know as well as I do they canslow down shit.
They can make it difficult foryou to get your claim through
this week.
I've seen more progress thisweek on claims and appeals.
(48:57):
I got three appeals came back,no four.
Now Four appeals came back down.
Old widow lady got her bouncefrom L to M for her husband who
died.
Another guy got R2 right out ofthe box from aid and attendance
or, excuse me, from SMCS.
(49:17):
Another guy yeah, they justrefused to grant it.
John Stacy (49:26):
Good.
Alex Graham (49:29):
I want to cue back to 2014 because somebody was too
lazy to go looking at some oldboy's STR records service
treatment records and see thatright there in his records it
showed that he'd been in threenot one, but three concussive
events that knocked himunconscious.
(49:52):
Every one of them was aroadside bomb IED in Afghanistan
.
I guess it was what we call aC&P examiner at BES or QTC.
I guess it was what we call aC&P examiner at VES or QTC.
So I reviewed the record and Idon't see any evidence that some
bitch ever had TBI.
He's a lying sack of shit.
(50:13):
And they denied him.
And I went through the recordssame records they had.
I see this thing in 2011.
Yeah, I've given him adefinitive diagnosis of TBI.
He's classic.
He's got nausea and vertigo,got headaches.
He had certain things that werethe hallmarks of it, including
(50:35):
tinnitus from the first one, andtherefore I give him the
official DX TBI with PTSD.
And that's important.
Tbi with PTSD means TBI is aprominent disease process.
It ain't PTSD with TBI, theother way around.
John Stacy (50:55):
That means T equals R2, T.
Alex Graham (51:01):
So the judge looked at it and I also enunciated the
fact that he had an R-Com witha V on it.
Well, you don't get that out ofa Kraken Jack's box.
That means you've been incombat.
He had a combat action badgetoo.
So the judge ruled kind ofnarrowly.
(51:23):
He just said you guys ignoredwhat he said on his 4138.
You ignored his combatpresumption with the 1154B and
therefore the decision to denyTBI in 2015 when he got out of
the service was clearly andunmistakably wrong, and it
(51:48):
manifestly changed the outcome,because he should have got it.
Well, okay, it became a hollowwin because he got 10% yesterday
, but 10% from 2014,.
John, that ain't a chump change.
John Stacy (52:04):
Well, it's not a big change either though.
Well, it's not a big changeeither though 14, 15 grand.
Alex Graham (52:12):
I know I'm looking at it by the time I get it
straightened out.
They screwed him because thatextra 10% added to his 30% for
PTSD bumped him up to 40.
He immediately started getting40% where he was getting 30.
Now that's not a big changeabout $156, $200 back then.
(52:34):
But because that extra 10% wasadded in, when he got a bounce
to 50 for his PTSD in 2017, thatextra 10% actually pushed him
up to 60.
So then they had to computewhat his paycheck would have
been with 60 instead of 50 forthree or four years, and I got a
(52:59):
hold of him about 2020.
He's a neighbor over here.
I got a hold of him in 2020,and I drove him up from his 50
all the way up to 90.
So that 10% had a downstreameffect.
It kept kicking him higher allthe way through it and you got
to do a Fenderson rating.
You got to recalibrate it allthe way through the claim.
(53:22):
You can't just add 10 in 2014,and you're done.
John Stacy (53:27):
It has a downstream effect.
Effective date of this.
Effective date of that Go back,go back, go back 29K.
Alex Graham (53:34):
29K minus my 20%.
John Stacy (53:37):
That's good.
A couple of bottles of singlemalt scotch there, buddy, yeah.
Alex Graham (53:42):
but you know, john, I don't do it for that.
My wife buys me some of thefinest scotch known to man.
Some of it is pretty dynamite.
I've seen names I'd never heardof before.
I didn't know.
The French made scotch back inthe 1700s but they tried.
John Stacy (53:59):
You ever drink a Perri Van Winkle, you know what
I want to do.
Alex Graham (54:03):
I want to go to Scotland.
I want to go on the Scotlandtour.
You know, Do all the tastingrooms.
Instead of wine, we taste asingle malt.
That'd be fun.
John Stacy (54:13):
I'd rather take your cane with you, because you're
going to need the time to getdone.
Alex Graham (54:18):
I was thinking about taking a wheelchair or a
walker.
Here's to good life.
John Stacy (54:30):
No, here's to good life.
Alex Graham (54:31):
no, what about I tell them now go ahead one last
thing I was going to say is thisBarry Bump business that I was
talking about today.
Get yourself up to the maximumrate of P or O or something.
It's open ended.
Get yourself up to the maximumrate of P or O or something.
(54:53):
It's open-ended.
You can file a queue in 2025and go back to 1971 without any
problem.
They weren't reading theregulation correctly from 1946
all the way until last May.
So anything that happened inbetween between you can queue
and win because they scourge it.
Yeah, how much money is that?
(55:14):
I mean, it's an incomparable,incomprehensible amount of
veterans that should beremunerated.
None of them know about it, notso I love about your show,
because I hope you're going totell them.
John Stacy (55:29):
Listen, I mean all these World War II vets that
lost limbs and things like thatin World War II and were
discharged.
They're already in the sameschedule and they weren't around
back in the day.
These guys had other ratings.
So the majority of the peoplewho deserve that are dead.
Alex Graham (55:48):
Well, I didn how many people were on SMC, at any
rate, even from K, throughdifferent things, and I did a
FOIA.
This was back in 2010 or 11, 12, back when VA would tell you
these kind of things, and therewere only 3,500 people on R1 and
(56:11):
R2 in 2012.
I'd like to think that there'sa lot more, because I know I've
personally added about 150 tothat number, not many, not many
but.
Wes has probably added that manyand some of the other people
I've been training are sendingme reports back and saying got
that old boy R1.
(56:32):
Thank you, alex, for teachingme how.
So it ain't the money, john,it's the justice.
I'm married, a rich girl.
Fuck that noise.
This is fun.
This is like sticking a knifein a bad guy's back.
He ain't screwed me for 28years and I finally got an
(56:56):
opportunity to pay him back.
Thank you for being on yourshow today.
John Stacy (57:02):
Buddy, we appreciate you coming on.
We'll do this again very soon.
Be thinking of something else.
Be thinking of something else.
Be thinking of something elseto talk about Now.
You going to the NOPAconference here in the fall
conference in DC.
Alex Graham (57:13):
Yeah, I'll be there .
I'm going early.
I'm going to have a littlechitty chat with Cheryl Mason,
brand new VA OIG Office ofInspector General Trump got her.
Senate just approved her.
I want to have a little youknow this lady.
Beg your pardon.
John Stacy (57:33):
You know this lady.
Alex Graham (57:35):
I've met her at a cocktail party.
I don't think she'll rememberwho I am, but she'll sure as
hell know who.
Asnod is Not me.
Asnod's a household name downthere on 810 Vermont Avenue.
John Stacy (57:51):
Well, buddy, I appreciate you coming on the
show.
Guys, we'll see you again nextweek.
We'll have another guestspeaker on and we'll talk about
another VA issue affectingtoday's veterans.
With that, this will be John,half hour scram and the Exposed
Reproductive.
We'll be shutting it down fornow.
Alex Graham (58:09):
Thank you.
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