I met veterans advocate John Stacy about twenty years ago in cyber space. John was, as I recall, the host of the Stardust Radio broadcast, along with Strech, his co host. We began communicating and sharing information on how to win veterans claims.

About the same time, 2004, or 2005 I began communicating with this guy who called himself asknod. We exchanged ideas and shared our tactics about veterans benefits and how best to work around some of the VA’s denials. Later on, I found out that my friend,asknod, was actually veterans advocate, Alex Graham. Alex later went on and got his VA certification and became an independent claims agent.

A few years later I was working with five US Army WAC Captains who were stationed at Fort McClellan Al back in the late 1960s. Those five captains were purposely exposed to agent orange as an experment, just to see what would happen to them. We were all trying to win our agent orange claims for exposure within the continental United States and were sharing information and research. I finally won my claim which became the very first AO exposure case to be won for a veteran’s exposure to AO inside CONUS. We never did manage to obtain the evidence needed to prove the exposure and win the cases for the five captains.

After the five captains died, I finally met Mr. Ray Cobb. Ray was the Fort Mclellan photographer who was assigned the duty to photograph those five captains as they were being sprayed back in the late 60s. Had I met Ray Cobb earlier, his testamony would have won the claims for the five WAC captains. I was able to help Ray win his case of AO exposure at Fort Mcclellan which became the second case to be won for AO exposure in CONUS.

On November 8th 2023, Mr Cobb, who is now the Post Commander of American Legion Post 44 in Winchester Tn. is sponsoring a seminar on veterans benefits with special emphasis being those, “little understood”, special monthly compensation ratings beyond 100% all the way up to and including SMC R-2.

For the very first time, the guest speakers at that event, James Cripps, Alex Graham, John Stacey and Ray Cobb will meet face to face in one place. I have never met John Stacey or Alex Graham, nor has Ray Cobb. For us, this is an event of a lifetime and I can’t wait to meet, in person those rare gentelmen who have devoted so much time and effort towards the betterment of their fellow veterans as they truly are a rare breed.

The following was written by Alex Graham on the subject of that seminar.

And if that isn’t enough, I’ve been invited back to the Winchester, Tennessee Veterans’ hoedown in November. The County VSOs are mystified as to why no one at VA will brief them in on SMC. I was asked to do the honors. I’ve never had the pleasure of meeting some of these great gentlemen in person. James Cripps, John Stacey, Ray Cobb and I will break bread for the first time in our lives after over a decade or more of friendship. We epitomize the ‘Win or Die’ mantra. We’re like the Energizer Bunny- we take a lickin’ and keep on tickin’.

Yes, Alex is exactly right about taking a lickin and keep on ticking. As far as myself, along with several other comorbidities, body has been reconstructed from my knees to my navel and I am on my fifth defibrillator, all as due to my military service. I have the maximum VA disability rating of R-2.

Mr Ray Cobb has also suffered greatly and paid a huge the price as a direct result of serving his country. Ray also is also a R-2 rated veteran.

Alex is a two tour Vietnam veteran who should have met his demise a long time ago as a result of his military experience. Alex survived unimaginable surgery and was invited to live room and board free, in a VA hospital for many months while his enteros were rearranged for him. He might have been just malingering, I don’t know, but he does wear the scars.

John Stacey, well John didn’t get off lightly either, He has endured his own equally serious medical problems as due to his military service. I would imagine the same thing drives John that is so compelling to Ray, Myself, and Alex. We feel a need to help other veterans to not go through what we had to go through in order to secure and obtain our own VA benefits.

Hope to see you in Winchester!