Errors on Your DD214? Here's How to Fix Them.

VetLine: Coming up on vet line, I have errors on my DD two fourteen. You had all that support, finance, personnel, all the stuff. If you needed something updated and fixed, it was an office. The County Veteran Service Officer is the heart and soul of the veteran community across any community in the States. Didn't get arrested for three years. That's usually the biggest roadblock we run into is finding qualified medical opinion. You can't go right from basic training to being a basic training instructor. That would be wild. So can you explain how important it is to be accredited in order to do this? The emphasis can't be loud enough. Would you ever direct ⁓ veterans to go to like an unaccredited AI-based? Absolutely not. That would be a no. Everybody, welcome to Vetline. My name's Adam. My name's Zach. And we're here with our good friend Sean Rivers, who is the Racine County VSO, that's veteran services officer. Almost every county. in the US has a VSO, unless you're in a super rural area or you know there's some transition going on and like sometimes they'll get connected with multiple counties or a larger region. But for the most part, most most counties have their own VSO. And they do a whole bunch of things for veterans. We're actually here because I'm gonna have Sean help me with something that I need help with that some of you may also need help with. So I thought we'd we'd go through that process. But first off, Sean, what does a VSO do? So the veteran service officer for each county. And to your point, Wisconsin's kind of unique because we actually have a state statute that says we must have a C VSO or County Veteran Service Office in every single county and all but one of the tribal nations have ⁓ their own service offices. So it's really you you've got resources throughout the throughout the whole state for these types of benefits. So what our main focus is is helping veterans file VA claims and getting VA benefits from the federal level, but also at a state level. So we also assist with ⁓ the Not just the federal GI Bill post nine eleven and Montgomery, but also the Wisconsin ⁓ GI Bill for state benefits and there's certain qualifying factors that get you eligible for those sort of things. But you reach out to us and we will always make sure you get the connection and make that happen. So that and then of course we hold outreach events in the community to ensure that people know and veterans know that we're here. Anything from a veteran stand down to, you know, just having a a table at an expo, just to make sure people know, veterans know to reach out to us and how to get a hold of the benefits. If there's a young veteran listening and they want to get involved and help veterans, like what kind of advice would you give them? Like what would they have to do to qualify to be a C V SO at Help Vets? Well, to be the C V SO for each county in Wisconsin, you must be a veteran. So meet that standard veteran requirement that you might see on the federal level, which is ninety days of ⁓ wartime service and ⁓ two years of non war or n two years of non wartime service. So ⁓ they have to meet that that basic stat. But if you want to work in a veteran service office, you don't have to be a veteran at all. So assistant or ⁓ certain ⁓ veteran claim agents within veteran service offices. I actually have a civilian non veteran that works for me here in this office. Nice. And she's fantastic. Zach actually used to be ⁓ VSO himself for like five years in this very office. ⁓ he was my assistant when I was here. So we're ⁓ we're connected that way. How did you get into this field? How did that work for you? So I was already doing the advocacy piece in the community. Every veteran I'd speak with, if I saw the hat, I I was a vet I'm a veteran, so of course I wanted to claim my benefits and I wanted to share that with anybody I encountered. How do you share it? Now now that I I was introduced to this office through well our predecessor and then then through you that this was a great way to do that. I'm able now to organize these things and go out in the community and make sure that we're known. And I still feel like we we need to do a better job. This is why I agreed to do this today. This is another way to A great way to reach a a huge audience to make sure that folks know to reach out not just to our office, but whatever county you're in, reach out to that county office or at least an accredited claim agent, right? So we get cla accredited, you get VFW Micro Legion, the NACDSO, National Associate of County Veteran Service Offices, but also ⁓ law offices reminding people that law offices are also accredited. They gotta be accredited to do this job. If you don't know what your benefits are, ⁓ just when you get out and you get to you know, wherever it is you're moving to, whether you're moving back home or going to a new place or whatever, check it with your county VSO because not not only are there federal benefits that you need help navigating, but there's also state level benefits. ⁓ like he mentioned in Wisconsin, there's a state GI Bill. I think something like 30 states in the country have a state level GI Bill with different obviously different requirements to to access it and and whatnot, and they can help you with that. And sometimes you have county level or even local municipality. Benefits, everything from free fishing licenses and trout stamps to, you know, to your your federal level disability benefits. So always check in with your local VSO. They're pros, they're experts. So what I need help with today, I have errors on my DD two fourteen. When I wanted to get out of the military, when I was about to separate, I was very much in I'm out of here mode and did not take My DD214 review period, which everybody has before you get out. They send you your DD214. I didn't take it very seriously. I did look at my separation code to make sure that they got it right. They got that wrong. So had I had I not told them to fix that, it would have been the code they use was somebody who washes out a tech training. And I had like been in for eight years. So it was clearly a mistake. ⁓ but it was other than honorable. So it was like, I'm glad they got it fixed. But I didn't check the rest of my DD two fourteen. You should check your DD214 very, very, very carefully. Because if there's an error, it's easier to fix before you get out. Now, if you're like me and you skip that process and we're just like, I'm out of here, it's never gonna matter. Then you reach out to your buddies who are VSOs and ask them to help. ⁓ and that's what I'm doing today. I have two errors on my DD214. So where do we start? What do you need? And these are things that you can do. If you have errors on your DD two fourteen, if you need a change to your character of service, if you believe that that that's a mistake, go to your BSO. They're the people who help. All right, what do I do? So many times veterans drive out for the last time, out they leave the base and they leave the whole base behind. You had all that support, finance, personnel, all the stuff. If you needed something updated and fixed, there was an office. You just went to it. So don't feel lost when you go out into the community once you've separated from service or retired. Because that's what these offices are here for and that's what we're gonna look up two fourteen. Now that we've now we're on the other side of it and that time's kind of elapsed, you can't go back and correct it with your ⁓ personnel office at Air Force Base, whichever one you were at when you left. Now let's go ahead and go through the errors and see what we can correct, right? You know that you have it up there. They can also access all of your records with just your name and ⁓ if you can't access or you lost your DD two fourteen, all you gotta do is contact your C V SO office, they will be able to contact it for you. If you're in that same state or if you're not, there's still records. There's a way to request all those records for them. So it's not all you have to have it. If you don't have it, but I don't have it, I can't move on. They will work with you no matter what. So sometimes to to access local benefits, you need to have not just a D D two fourteen, but a D D two fourteen certified by either stamped or signed by a VSO on the back. Like I I think I to get a free fishing license. Yep. Once the first time I had to bring a certified copy, so I had to get a VSO to sign it or whatever. It's discouraging to me when I talk to veterans in the community and they say, Well, I've been waiting for my I lost my two fourteen, so I'm waiting to file. I'm waiting to get benefits because I can't I've been waiting for my medical records. I've requested them from the archives or whatever. I don't know where this is coming from that I must have these things before I even engage in a conversation with our office. That doesn't exist. You can come to us with proof of your identity and we can get started. Because all we need to know is you are who you are and we can get started with your with your at least getting records requested for you when you file a claim to the VA. They have a thing called the duty to assist. They have to pull your records in order to for you to file a claim. Not many things, not many litigations in your life will you run into it where the defendant is going to say, ⁓ and by the way, I have a video of this so I can help you litigate this claim where your kid says they scratched your car. No, this is the VA has to help. They must. So it's a much different process. Way different process. So many people are just held up by waiting for those documents. But in your case, you already have your two fourteen. And I happen to have it. And you happen to have it there. So I don't know ⁓ for our for your viewers here and for public consumption, I don't know how much you want to discuss about what's on your two fourteen. I just gonna put my whole DD two fourteen up, edited, one. I still believe you lived there. The error in my DD two fourteen is what my job was. So I started out under the Greater Wing of Public Affairs, my my AFSC, ⁓ or if you're an army nerd and MOS, ⁓ was 3N151M. And then when I got out, I was had been doing a special duty. I was an eight Bravo as a military training instructor. So when I got out, for some reason, my D D two fourteen said my whole tenure, seven and a half years of active duty. was spent as a military training instructor, which, as any of you know, is impossible. You can't go right from basic training to being a basic training instructor. That would be wild. So so we I would love for my D D two fourteen to reflect my service accurately, Air Force bands, and then being a military training instructor. And then there's one other error. It does not have on my D D two fourteen this lovely commendation medal that I was awarded. So what was it for? For just being great, you okay. Yeah. No, it's for my time as a military training instructor. ⁓ look, I distinguished myself by meritorious service. ⁓ look at you. It says that you showed up most of the time. Didn't get arrested for three years. Fantastic. Yeah. Basically. That's that's that's good conduct medal. And I was an Air Force ⁓ that for myself, so I nerds it. We we get we have we get medals a little easier than you marines, sorry about Yeah, we earn ours, so I get it. We do too. I mean we have to book those hotels. Somebody's gonna do that. It's hard for they don't just do it for you. Okay. I mean most of the time. It's more complicated for rings to get awards. ⁓ yeah. I mean army, they get ribbons for like anything and everything. You guys get it for being there on time. We gotta earn our stuff. Well yeah, moving on. ⁓ leaving that there with no substance behind it. So taking a quick twenty second break in the action to talk to you about our incredible sponsors, Tayback Law. Best in the business, the most reliable when it comes to VA disability claims and appeals. They've personally helped me. I am a client, and I highly recommend that if you need some support with your ⁓ VA disability claims, that you check them out. Brand new website at tabacatorneys.com. Back to it. So we are gonna work on this. And I brought all the military records that I could find. And I'm gonna just throw him some stuff and we're gonna see how we can get this get this to to get fixed. Well for clarity, we we joke around around a lot, but this is this is important. This is serious. It is. So I have a veteran who's presenting himself with the need for screen on his two fourteen. ⁓ this isn't as serious as trying to get a bad conduct discharge or even a general honorable discharge upgraded to honorable, which is typically what we have in requests. So this is a little bit I wouldn't say different, but it's not in that usual lane that we're usually shooting for corrections. Often it's either that or social security numbers, incorrect or something like that. So missing it. Which complicate filing filing for federal body. The data birth can screw a lot of things up if it's incorrect on a two fourteen. So these are things that we can we can put in requests for correction. And in this case, ⁓ it definitely looks for lack of a better word, a little strange, henks that are missing MOS. AFSC or eight, in this particular case AFSC. What it is, it's going to be a packet that will sent to the Board of Correction of Military Records. So this all really starts with what's called the D D form ⁓ 149. And so the 149 is a request for correction of military records, right? The form itself is fairly simplistic. It check boxes and fill in the blanks. But really what the meat is is what goes along with the packet, right? So by simply saying got my thing wrong, need fix. Send it's not quite enough. You've brought the ⁓ required documents. Really filing it and doing it all right here on the spot and filling all the blanks, I don't think is the really the thrust of what we're trying to do. Yeah, you don't need to see us do the paperwork. ⁓ right, but what I think you're trying to convey it isn't that hard. ⁓ not hard. That's why we're here. I'm just gonna hand them the paperwork. They have snacks here too. So even if you don't have the paperwork, like you said before, still come in if you have nothing. They will still work with you. Any county office, any veteran service officer across the US has a capability to update your ⁓ D D D two fourteen and obviously assist with extra benefits. So Adam is very well prepared, most and then most veterans coming in with everything he has. ⁓ and that helps expedite the process. I don't know why it's So he kind of knew what we'd be looking for, but just have that initial meeting and get the ball rolling for lack of a better way of putting it, just coming in to meet with us. Because then we'll make sure you're set up with the correct instructions. What kind of a personal statement do we need from you? Do you need something from an employer to show, hey, I've got good character now if we're doing a character discharge upgrade? Those sorts of things are super important to this entire process, but you don't have to have all that set up before you come to see us. Come and see us. Just that's the that's the bottom line. Come and see your local accredited representative. We can definitely get things happening. Real quick, you say say your local accredited representative. Can you explain how important Aaron The emphasis can't be loud enough. We, as accredited service officers, we go through extensive training. That's at a federal level. This isn't something that we just come up with locally and internally. ⁓ I'm accredited through the National Association of County Veteran Service Officers and an ACVSO. They are the largest accrediting body across the country. That accreditation allows us multiple. multiple acc sub accreditations, which allows us to access the VA system, the federal VA system. Every county veteran service officer has accreditation through one source or another, whether it's the DAV, VFW, multiple. It doesn't matter which one you're with. Law offices also must be accredited, right? ⁓ absolutely. Right. In all honesty, we try to avoid sending folks to the ⁓ to to law offices unless we run into a dead end. Or if you a little more firepower. They need small they just need a little bit more help than where or even just to reach out. And that's why I'm glad we've got where we have a partnership with a local law firm, we're able then to reach out to you and we can connect. And sometimes it's just a hey, ⁓ did you think of this avenue? No, that's great. Otherwise, here, you know what? This is something that's gonna be a better fit. And can we c we have the conversation with the veteran and we make sure that they understand, hey, we're not washing our hands. We're not saying we're we don't want to help you, but I think you need ⁓ we need we need to go to the next step here. So that's sometimes where we have to go. Yeah when you mean that next step, like do you mean like you know, somebody's constantly denied, right? Your services are free for vets, obviously across the U.S. Yeah, that's an important point. Hundred percent free zero VSO totally free. Yeah when you do go to law firms, obviously there is a percentage that the VA sets up, whether it's twenty or thirty percent that we would have to take Of back pay grant. Yes, of the back pay and the back pay only, that's it. ⁓ now when you say when we hit a roadblock, what is a roadblock to you? Would it be like having to spend extra money on like a medical opinion to support that disability claim, or what does that look like? That that's n that's usually the biggest roadblock we run into is finding qualified medical opinion. Yes. But that's not to say still work with us. Work with your C V SO, work with your local accredited agent because we're gonna Do everything we can to keep you from having to surrender a portion of your back pay. We're gonna do ever and and you see, look at this is we're working with a law firm here. ⁓ unless you have some extraordinarily complicated whatever. When you file your initial claim, I usually tell people do a VSO. Yeah. I just recently referred a claim over to you because ⁓ of the very, very unique the there's a lot of uniqueness with the ki with the situation. So symbiotic relationship here. Would you ever direct ⁓ veterans to go to like an unaccredited AI based Absolutely. If you win, they still can't by law, they can't even touch your they can't even touch the forms. They just throw your stuff into AI and bar. ⁓ Yeah, barf out some paperwork and you file it on your own and they're like they take your money, sometimes enduringly, forever. Have you ever had a veteran come in your office that's worked with somebody unaccredited that may have messed up their claim or maybe they owe them a lot of money? 100%, yes. Recently I've had several and they'll even come to me with a blank form saying, They told me to fill this out. ⁓ I already wrote them a check. And I st ⁓ of course we're gonna help them. We're gonna help them. But I can't help but feel I feel kind of responsible because that means I didn't reach that veteran. See how this affects us? Again, our services are free. So we we work for the county. That's the only income stream I have is just my I come to work, I get paid and that's it. We don't make more money for family. I but being here, I'm not making more money and this is my job. This is what I do. This is part of my outreach. We don't accumulate extra because we're doing more outreach. We get more makes us busier. That's a lovely thing. That means more veterans are coming to us. If I have more veterans coming to me that say they've w they've gone to a AI-based or an outside-based, ⁓ non-accredited based, they don't they don't have the access to this system. They can't get into the VBM what's known as VBMS, the the veteran benefits system. They don't have access to that because they're not accredited. And most importantly Since they're not accredited, they're not accountable to the VA or any larger governing body, which means if they mess it up, which they often do, you have no recourse aside from the con the flimsy predatory contract that they made you sign. So don't do it. Go to these people, they're nice. Look at this guy. I don't know. He's a nice guy. Your VSOs are free. Go there. And and so, like, is the prevailing advice then when you retire or separate and Go home or move back into wherever it is that you're gonna be planning your roots for a little bit. Whether you feel like you have something to do or not, go check in with your local VSO. That should be on your list of things to do. Hopefully you did it as you're separating and do that benefits delivery on def ⁓ d separation maybe a B D D. Benefits on delivery smart. Yeah. If you do it right upon separation. So if you're active duty right now listening to this, do a B D D claim. You get that ninety to a hundred and eight day window to do that. But if you haven't, you haven't missed anything, you're okay. You can still file and you're presumptive to your military separation date up to twelve months from your date of separation. So if you're already back here in Racine or wherever you are, go see that service officer in if you've meet if you've missed out on that one year from date of separation, go see him anyway, because it still benefits you. I've had veterans come to me ⁓ w we're still filing Vietnam war claims, we're still c filing Korean war claims, not too many. World War II. We don't see a lot of World War II, but we're still trying to get benefits even for veterans that have been out of service for over fifty years. So or survivor benefits for spouses of veterans who have passed away. And those are all the services we do. I'm super passionate about this. I could totally go on for hours just talking about this and Zach knows I mean, separate from the disability claims and all that stuff we're talking about, if you're a veteran struggling with, you know, mental health services, food, housing, literally anything. The county veteran service officer is the heart and soul of the veteran community across any community in the states, across the US. So connect with them, they will help you get to that next step. Even if you don't want to file a disability claim, they'll help you get food or whatever it is you need. So Right on so pleasure. Thank you, Sean.