I joined the Army while still in high school. I served my country for 8 years with no complaints. I was the chipper morning person, who sang every morning "Hi, how ya doin, isn't it a beautiful day, the birds are singing, the sun is shining, not a cloud in the sky". People wanted to kill me...I would want to kill me now, and I'm still a morning person (after I've had a chance to wake up that is). After my time in the Army ended, I went to the Department of Veteran's Affairs, more commonly known as The VA, and received a monthly compensation stipend for injuries sustained while in the Army. Not a lot by any means, but enough that I could survive if I had to without a job. I was married, and I received additional monies for being married. I had a child, and received additional monies for her as well. I failed to fill out a form to re-verify my dependency status after I don't know, 7 or 8 years of receiving said benefits, and The VA decided that I had no husband and I had no child. I had indeed divorced said husband, however, The VA took ALL monies I had EVER received for him, and my daughter in one lump sum totaling over 4000 dollars, I did not receive ANY money for over a year and a half! Talk about putting a cramp in one's style! I called and called and called and called the VA. Finally, one day someone explained what had happened, and I accepted it, but I needed to remedy the situation, please send me the forms I need to get this problem fixed. The person I spoke to said that he would indeed get these forms sent out to me.....(I would learn that I should have gotten his name). I never received said forms. I tried contacting The VA again...I called and called and called and called and called and called and called and called for over a year, actually, almost 2 years! Then finally, one day near the beginning of this year, I want to say in February or March, I got a person instead of a machine that repeated "we are experiencing heavier than normal call volume please try again at a later time". The heavens opened up, and the angels sang their wonderful tune "aaaaahhhh" Little did I know then that it was more like a scream of exasperation. A very nice lady (whose name I did not get, again I would learn very shortly that it was necessary to do this) told me that in order to talk to a person, I should wait until AFTER the offices are closed and call, then I'll be prompted to schedule a call back appointment! She listened to my situation and said after all of my story, "Wow, I'm sorry that happened to you, can you give me your Social Security Number and tell me what your full name, birthdate, and what branch of service were you in", I told her my name, my SSN, and birthdate, and stated that I was in the Army. She said "What is your Social again" I told her, she then said "and your name". I told her that she MIGHT have my name under my married name, although, I couldn't believe that because I had had that taken off my case quite some time ago. She said "I don't show that name either, give me your birthdate again" so I did, she placed me on hold...... Great, I'm on hold while this lady checks into something that's messed up, maybe she typed a number in wrong.... "Ma'am", I answer yes, she said "I'm not sure what happened, but I had to look back in your file. Your name and birthdate do not match our records".. WHAT??!!! "Yes, when I looked back in your file, I saw that your name had been Dufore at one time, but now it's under Sullivan" I never even met a Sullivan before and had said so, also, apparently my date of birth had been changed in my file, as well as my first name! It's Jennifer and my middle name now apparently starts with an R! So she says she's going to submit an inquiry to find out what went wrong. She will send me the papers to get my daughter put back on my case and get my monies back that were taken from me. I gave her my address and promptly received said papers. I filled them out and then moved to GA before sending them off.
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