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Charge Forward Podcast
Navigating Veterans' Benefits, Grit & the Dark Legacy of Agent Orange with James Cripps
🎙 James Cripps joins us today on the Charge Forward Podcast and shares his tips, tricks and insights on how to prove even the un-provable / AKA "Classified" when dealing with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
*Spoiler Alert! It takes GRIT.
Imagine.... What if the air you breathed held the key to a battle that would define your life? In this powerful episode of the Charge Forward Podcast, we delve into the extraordinary journey of James Cripps--a man whose resilience and determination turned a personal health crisis into a lifelong mission to fight for veterans' rights.
James’s story is one of unwavering resolve, from his days as a military driver and skilled mechanic to establishing a custom wood products business. But his life took a dramatic turn when he was diagnosed with chloracne, this was the smoking gun that allowed James to start connecting the dots of his many seemingly unrelated illnesses. They were conditions linked to Agent Orange exposure. This episode uncovers his relentless pursuit to prove the U.S. government’s use of Agent Orange within the continental United States--a battle that saw him gather crucial evidence and expert testimonies despite overwhelming odds.
Join us as we explore the deep impact of dioxin exposure on health and family, and the tireless fight for justice that James has championed for nearly two decades. We also shed light on the labyrinthine veterans' benefits process, revealing the systemic challenges and biases that make securing rightful benefits an uphill struggle for many veterans.
From the transition to digital records to the crucial role of veteran service offices, James’s journey provides a sobering yet inspiring look at the complexities of navigating the VA system. His efforts have not only brought financial relief to countless veterans but have also ignited a broader conversation about the support and recognition our veterans deserve.
Whether you're a veteran, a supporter of veterans' rights, or simply someone inspired by stories of perseverance and justice, this episode offers invaluable insights and a call to action to continue the fight for those who served this great country.
You can follow and get additional information about James M. Cripps, Veterans Benefits and Agent Orange at his website www.VAtheRedNeckWay.com
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Welcome to the Charge Forward podcast. I'm your host, jim Cripps, coming to you from HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Joining me in the studio today is my dad, james Cripps. Thanks for joining me in the studio. Sure, so your background is random Raised here in Nashville, then went into the military and then went to work as a mechanic Right. Then opened your own company.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, first I was a produce manager for HG Hill Company, then a mechanic again, and then opened my own company, Custom Wood Products.
Jim Cripps:And then due to a heart attack.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Two heart attacks, pacemaker defibrillator. I'm on number five now Heart surgery, bypass surgery In 2020,. I had to be reconstructed from my knees to my navel, was given 4% chance to make it through the operation and 12% to make it another 90 days. But here I am.
Jim Cripps:That's right. Well, I think just about any of the segments of your life I think are interesting, but when you push them all together, they're really interesting in in that. So you retire from exxon as a mechanic well, let's back up even before that. So in the military you get kind of picked one day in order to be the driver for the general, and then the general wants you to keep driving for him, right I was selected as the driver of the deputy Commanding General of Fort Warden, georgia, for unknown reasons.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:I have no idea why he picked me to be his driver. I was a lowly private. That was a job for an E6 or E7. Private, that was a job for an E6 or E7. So the next day the motor sergeant substituted somebody else to drive for him and he sent that guy back and requested that I be his permanent driver.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:And then when he retired, when he retired, he wanted to know what I wanted to do. When he retired, he wanted to know what I wanted to do. I said I have no idea, because the new general taking his place was bringing his own driver with him. So he had me appointed as a game warden because he knew I liked to hunt and fish. It was a really good job. I can't say it was an easy job. There was a lot of responsibility, a lot of risk. Had a shotgun stuck in my navel once All the guy had to do was pull the trigger. It was a good time, mixed with some bad times, but it put me on the road for the rest of my life.
Jim Cripps:Right and crazy how it would come back kind of full circle again. Because you know you leave the military, you go to Exxon. 15 years at Exxon 16 years with Exxon.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:They eliminated my job in auto mechanic. They decided they were going to close all of those stores where we worked on automobiles and opened up C stores. So we all had to find something else to do and I went into business for myself as a furniture maker. Didn't know a lot about building furniture, but I ended up building furniture for some very prominent people music people, doctors. When I had the heart attack I had five doctors walk in. I couldn't open my eyes but I recognized every one of them's voice because they were my customers.
Jim Cripps:That's right, yeah, and I mean really back then it was kind of the who's who of either medical care or country music that you were working for.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, the type work that I did, that you actually assisted me. There was no competition, right, you know we did quality work, we did custom work. It's a lost trade. Now I can't even recommend anybody to build you a custom piece of furniture anymore.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, meant anybody to build you a custom piece of furniture anymore? Yeah, and some of the ones that stick out for me is, you know, a big project for Billy Ray Cyrus, and then the desk units for Vince Gill and a lot of work for Stephen Curtis Chapman.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Yes, stephen Curtis Chapman was one of my favorite customers. He had a beautiful, wonderful wife. She knew exactly what she wanted. She hired decorators. Most of the work came straight out of my head. They had a plan, they knew how to get it across to me and, uh, we just built their furniture. Yeah, and they were great to work with, did some work for genesee riley never forget that a lot of the country music stars. They're wonderful people as a whole yeah and easy.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Most of them were easy to work with real easy to work with, uh, particular people, but then you charge because you know you're working to do a particular job in a particular way or you're not going to get paid. So it's that simple. They can be as particular as they want to be.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, absolutely, and then you know Absolutely, and then you know fast forward a little bit.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:So we're in 1997, at your birthday, and you have a double heart attack. Well, back then I played music. That particular night I was playing guitar, playing harmonica and singing and I started getting an aching in my tongue. Actually, I just kept blowing that harmonica. It went down. The pain went down my throat and into my back. I just kept playing, kept singing and it turned out to be a full-blown heart attack. I had to be rushed to the hospital, had open-heart surgery. Well, that night I had a stent and ended up with open-heart surgery A little while later, a pacemaker, defibrillator, like I say, still going.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, Well, and then, if we circle that back, you know I think a couple things happened right in that moment. You contacted VA to see if there were any benefits available. About the same time you were in the hospital and you got told no.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know, back in the day when we ETSed out of the service, I actually flew back in from overseas assignment in Heidelberg, germany, but we went into Fort Dix, new Jersey. But we went into Fort Dix, new Jersey, and they announced at about noon when we flew in that they were going to get everybody on a plane on their way home unless anybody wanted to claim a service-connected disability. And if anybody did, we wouldn't make it home until Monday. So nobody raised their hand as wanting to apply for a service-connected disability. We wanted to go home. So we were given a piece of paper and were told verbally that we would be taken care of for the rest of our life our medical care, for the rest of our life, our medical care. Go, sign up for unemployment until you can find a job, which I did when I had the heart attack. I did call after the heart attack to see if I had any medical coverage and they said no, you have no benefits coming. I only served three years.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, and it turns out that was a lie.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:As it turns out, that was a lie and that was actually back in. President Reagan was the first to recognize that. Hey, these guys served the country. We made a promise. It's about time we start keeping our promise and we got our medical care that we had coming all along. In 2003, I learned not only did I have medical care but I could file for service connection for any disability that was caused by my military service, and I actually did that. I found out while I was a game warden. I was involved in the testing phase of Agent Orange there at Fort Gordon phase of Agent Orange there at Fort Gordon. They came in from Fort Drum and did some testing. I was ordered to aid them in any way that I could and work along with them in forestry when they finished the testing with a Bell G2 helicopter.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:The product orange h blue and agent white came in 55 gallon drums and they didn't use it all. For instance, agent blue, they only used two gallon. That left 53 gallons. Something had to to happen with that 53 gallons. As the low man on the totem pole and fishing game, it was up to me to use that herbicide up. Uh, to me it was a weed killer. It didn't even have the name agent orange back then. Uh, it was just a herbicide 240 245 t uh meant nothing. I sprayed in my shirt sleeves. It's, uh, the deadliest poison on demand and it's tried to kill me several times and it's still chipping away. Eventually it'll win, but I fight it every day.
Speaker 3:That's right.
Jim Cripps:Well, and one of the things that stick out in my mind is not only did they lie about whether or not you had benefits you could have applied for back in 97, but once you did file, because it was classified that that was used in um in the United States that was not public knowledge and they said you're never going to win this.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, it's funny how things happen. Since I got out of the military I've had acne really, really bad acne my face, my back, my ears and I saw on the Internet one night I learned to use the Internet. Without the Internet I never would have went anywhere. But I saw. You know I'd tell my wife, look at me. I'm 55 years old and I've still got acne. You know I don't understand this, but I happened to see one night on the Internet the word chloracne. I never heard that word before but it was interesting because it internet. The word chloracne I never heard that word before, but it was interesting because it had the word acne in it. And I looked it up and it's an acne-formed disease that resembles teenage acne but it never goes away and it's gosh, 50 times worse than teenage acne.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:The only way that you can get chloracne is by dioxin exposure. Dioxin is a byproduct in the Agent Orange and, like I say, it's most toxic, toxic chemical known to man. It's known as fat loving and water fearing mean meaning. When it gets in water it seeks out fat, so it goes to the fish, so the minnow absorbs the dioxin. In turn, that minnow is eaten by the bigger fish and, right on up the line until me, the human who was fishing in those lakes after I sprayed, ate those bigger fish transferred to me as fat-loving. Then it goes to the fat in my spine and then it fizzes to the surface over your lifetime, causing the chloracne.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:The US government when I realized what had actually happened to me and caused all of my problems with my heart attack, and I filed a claim with the US government. But the US government tells me we have never, ever sprayed Agent Orange in the continental United States period. Well, I knew that wasn't, so I wasn't about to fall for that. And you can't be made a liar. You have to stand up and you have to prove it Right. If you say it, you have to back it up, and I set out to do that. It's been a lifetime challenge do that.
Jim Cripps:It's been a lifetime challenge. Well, one of the things you know as your son seeing this unfold over the last you know, uh, well, it's been 25 years, just that part. You've become a different person, not that your core value, your core values haven't changed, but you had to become something different in order to take on the government and prove this.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, you know, I can look back and I was an easy going let's cause no trouble, let's not, let's get along, let's uh. But I had to abandon that and I had to learn how to be tenacious. I had to learn how to be tenacious. I had to learn how to fight for myself. Let the hair stand up on your back. If you see something that's wrong and not right, then you stand up for it, you fight for it, you be tenacious, you research it, you do whatever it takes. I did eventually win that claim. I proved that it was used in the United States and that I had sprayed it, which has also led to other veterans getting their benefits. But I won that claim and I told the VA. I won that claim and I told the VA I won that claim because I didn't sleep. You did While you were sleeping, I was researching and I've proven my point.
Jim Cripps:Well, you even collected a lot of data points from all over the United States. What I mean by that is you had experts that would weigh in as to the half-life and how toxic Agent Orange was, so that when you proved that they did use it you could also prove that it hadn't gone away.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Yes, it's known to last 100 years and the government knows that. They still tell you that, they just don't want to talk about it. Right now we're digging up the soil and then I in the name, after all of these years, since the 70 years since the vietnam war, uh, and we're digging up the soil and heating it up to a certain temperature to get rid of the dioxin and then putting it back. We're spending billions of dollars. The aircraft that were used in the spraying in Vietnam. Those aircraft, when they finished with them, were flown back to the United States and given to National Guard and Reserve Units. Back to the United States and given to National Guard and Reserve Units. Now, if you can show that you were a Reserve member or National Guard member and you had anything to do with those planes after they returned back to the United States all of these years later, then you're presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange because of the residuals that's still in those airplanes.
Jim Cripps:That's just the residual. That's not somebody spraying it with a backpack sprayer getting covered in it day after day.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Yeah, you know, it was my job to use that up. I would let my detail men out. In the morning I opened a chain of lakes chain of 13 lakes and managed those At daylight. I was standing there with my fatigued shirt, my military shirt off, with a backpack sprayer strapped on my back, waiting for daylight, and I would spray maybe an hour until fishermen started coming in. I didn't want to be, not because I thought it was toxic, because I didn't want to disturb the fishermen. Right, and I took my shirt off because the stuff is sticky. I didn't want my shirt smelling like that. It smells like diesel is mixed with diesel fuel, so I would spray in my T-shirt. When I'd get finished spraying, I'd take my T-shirt off, put my fatigue shirt back on, wash my hands and arms and the like. I was set to go for the rest of the day.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:So you know, I didn't know it was dangerous. I had no idea what I was spraying. It was a weed killer. It was a job I had to perform. I never questioned it. I couldn't question it. You follow orders. It killed everything it'd come into contact with, and I'm talking about weeds, vines, broadleaf herbicide. Uh, didn't bother the pine trees because it was broadleaf. Uh, everything else died, and I mean coons, deer, possums, you, I'd see those things Still. I'll never put together how deadly this stuff was.
Jim Cripps:Yeah Well, and then you know, fast forward a little bit. You know, back then you know you guys were trying to have a family and didn't know that it was the dioxin that you'd absorbed into your skin. It was the reason y'all weren't having kids.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, you know, we thought we would have children before I got out of the Army, specifically because we couldn't afford it and we figured, you know, if we had kids while we were in the military, there would be no medical bills. But the half-life of dioxin is somewhere around 9, 10 years and that's the time it takes the human body to get rid of half of the toxin. So you weren't born until 10 years later. Right, sure it affected. I'd be 10 years older. I'd be 10 years younger, baby. Yeah right.
Jim Cripps:Well, and then you know it's almost. I consider it almost lucky, as your son, that direct exposure and indirect exposure work differently, because you've got a lot of friends that were indirectly exposed in Vietnam and their children have birth defects.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:That's true. It's not something you really want to think about. You can do your own research on that and see what percent of the population you know cleft palate, born without limbs, born without eyes. You know the Vietnamese people have suffered greatly, but our own troops and their children, it's passed to our children. It's almost killed my daughter twice now. I'm still worried about what's going to happen to my daughter. You seem to have, it seemed to have skipped you so far Right, but then you don't know. You don't know. You've got the rest of your life to live. It took a long time for it to catch up with me. It took 20 some odd years to catch up with my daughter Mandy.
Jim Cripps:And the first time you know, 20 years ago, 20 years ago this year, you know she was minutes from death.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Right, I was wondering where I was going to bury my daughter. Right, and you know the shame of it is, you tend to think the government didn't know. But I have a letter that was written by a German chemical company to Dow Chemical in 1953. And it says all of our people who are working with Agent Orange are coming down with chloracne and we have found out that if you will boil it at a higher temperature for so much longer, then it boils off the toxin. Dow Chemical Montesano, the chemical companies here, decided not to do that because they wanted to keep the price at $10 a gallon.
Jim Cripps:Well and I was hoping you were going to bring that one up, because that's one that sticks out in my brain as the government and Dow Chemical. They knew about it, they knew that it could be fixed and they chose to endanger and destroy lives.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know, I, the guy that was in charge of all of the spraying in Vietnam, admiral Zumwalt Jr, claimed to know that he knew where every drop was used. In other words, he had complete control, which that's a fallacy, right? He had no idea where all the herbicides went. They were called rainbow herbicide. You had pink, blue, orange, white, but his son was Brown Water Navy. Brown Water Navy meant they went up the rivers. Brownwater Navy, brownwater Navy meant they went up the rivers. His son was involved in the spraying in the Brownwater Navy and it actually killed his son. The admiral was pro-Agent Orange until that event. The admiral made the statement before Congress after his son died. We actually knew that it was harmful and we actually knew that we might be spraying our troops. But had we sprayed our troops? We knew our government would take care of them. Well, we know how that turned out, right?
Jim Cripps:Well, and it seems like you know, as the fight continues, you know veterans, a lot of veterans, especially of that era, have passed more and more pass each year, and it seems like every once in a while, they'll include a new group. They'll include a new group. They'll include a new group, like somebody has pushed hard enough for long enough, like was it blue water navy that was one of the ones that was recently added, or just a couple years ago yeah, as it started out, you know, we came from the dod, put their finger in my face and they said mr crips, we have never, ever sprayed agent orange in the continental United States.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, we now know. I won the very first case of Agent Orange exposure inside the continental United States because I proved that it was used. You know, I got the aircraft tail number, the pilot's name, who they leased the helicopter, from, how many gallons they were spraying, name, who they leased the helicopter, from how many gallons they were spraying. The helicopter had two booms, each boom being 26, each one having six nozzles. Each nozzle was set on three. I know how many gallons of each agent. I know the exact strips they were making 50-foot swaths. There's no question about that now. But then finally they had to recognize.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, maybe, I guess, maybe you were involved in the testing of in the continental United States. And then it kind of over time, when they couldn't avoid it anymore, it got stretched a little bit more. We won a case at Fort McClellan, then we won another one down at Eglin Air Force Base. We won at Fort Chaffee, arkansas, and now they're finally coming forward in the last year, well, maybe we used it at Johnsonson's atoll and maybe guam and maybe you know, maybe we did use it in laos and cambodia and if you were in thailand at any military base, yeah, I guess we use. You know it's finally breaking open, but the what about all the veterans that died?
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:and the lives because they didn't know they were exposed so they couldn't seek medical help. And what about all of their wives? You know they couldn't draw their, their dependency and they uh, it's it's just a. I don't know what you would call it, but it's a shame. It can never be corrected.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, and it was damage that can't be undone, it can't be undone.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know you can come back and you can compensate a wife 20 years after her husband died of dioxin exposure. But what?
Speaker 3:does that do?
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know she missed 20 years. What about the children? What about my daughter? What about her children? You know there's a professor at Vanderbilt she was our guest speaker at one of our meetings that can't perform these tests on humans, so they have to use rats. In a rat the birth cycle is so quick that they can start with two parent rats and a year later they're working on great-grandparent rats, you know. So they take a female rat and the rate of birth and birth defects rise 50 percent after she's exposed to dachshund and conceives. So then they get to thinking about the male rat, so they expose a male rat to the dachshund. Same thing happens with a female that hadn't been exposed. So then they come back and they expose a female rat and they expose the male rat. And they made them. There was no reproduction period ever. They could not reproduce. You know that tells you something, right there? Oh yeah.
Jim Cripps:Well, kind of branching off of that. So, after you and correct me if I'm wrong here I think your proof to win to prove that there was exposure inside the United States, that they had in fact sprayed Agent and that all these things were classified in lies was over 200 pounds of pieces of paper in order to win that case.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Oh gosh, I've got two four-drawer file cabinets full. Yeah, my C-file. A year after I made application for my benefits I got a copy of that. It weighed 19 pounds. They mailed it, so it was weighed and that was in the first year. It took me 20. I've been fighting the VA 20 years.
Jim Cripps:And how many years did it take to win, to actually prove it the first round?
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Five, five years take to win, to actually prove it. Oh, the first round five, five years. You know, nobody ever thought that claim could be won because the government said it hadn't been used in the united states. And everybody believes the government. You know, we were taught in school our government don't do things like that. So every you know, back then everything was paper. Everything now is digital. It's been put on disk. You know all my files are on one disk. But back then Philadelphia Regional Office is in a tall multi-story building. It had so many records in it they had to move them out because it was destroying the building. The building was falling in.
Jim Cripps:Because of the weight of the files, because of the weight of the files.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:It was paper files back then. I still have my records. I'll never get rid of them because I don't trust the VA. I'm sorry, I just don't.
Jim Cripps:They could have a fire, they could delete digital records, they could do all kinds of things.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know I went from not having any benefits to right now. No veteran of any error, of any service has ever been paid a higher benefit rate than I draw.
Jim Cripps:Oh, and there's only a handful of R2s in the world, right.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Yeah in the world. Right, yeah in the world, in the state of Tennessee. I know of three and I was personally involved in their cases. Not that there are only three, but I would say there's not over five yeah.
Jim Cripps:Well, after you won yours, not only did other people get to use your evidence or or your case as as proof in theirs, because when, when you proved that they had used it, I think you overwhelmed them to a certain extent, because they actually admitted to things. You didn't even accuse them of using the other agents.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Yeah, because they really actually didn't know what I had.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:So better to fess up than to get caught in a crossfire, so to say but yeah, they're finally coming forth a little more and a little more, admitting more, and I know it's costly, but that's the cost of war. You know, we were expendable. We were not a nation of complainers. We were not a nation of complainers. Had I known the trouble that the dioxin was going to cause me in later life, I couldn't have said no, I'm not going to spray this stuff. I didn't have that option. I was expendable.
Jim Cripps:We were in a dangerous business and that was part of the danger. And then you know, everybody gets stateside, they think they're going to be taken care of. And then you know, one of the things that I find interesting that you know I would have never even thought of is a lot of veterans, they don't even want to talk about it, they don't want to even want to talk about the fact that they were in or they have ailments. A lot of they don't even want to talk about it. They don't want to even want to talk about the fact that they were in or they have ailments. A lot of them don't file for benefits. It's, it's not even a thing. And then you've worked for now. I mean now going on 20 years, not only working on your own but at the same time, once you figured out how the system worked. Now you, over the last 20 years, you've helped a lot of other veterans get their benefits.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Right when we came home, we were known as baby killers. Actually, I was standing leaning against the wall in Columbus, georgia, at the train station waiting on my train, and a young lady walked up and spit on my medals, called me a baby killer.
Jim Cripps:And you're just a 21-year-old trying to get home, trying to 19. 19.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Now I look back and I think how did she know?
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Because with my sprayer, I don't doubt that I didn't harm some kids. You know, it's just deadly to kids, right? I would do my spraying and come back through and there would be fishermen there, their kids playing at a picnic table that I had just sprayed. So yeah, I don't doubt that I inadvertently caused some harm. But we came home, we snuck home during the night, we took our uniforms off, we throwed them away. I actually worked with another veteran for 10 years and never knew he was a veteran, and he didn't know that I was a veteran. He was in the Navy, I was in the Army. You didn't talk about those things. But now, actually, we rode in on the backs of the post-9-11 veterans to get our benefits. We came home as the baby killers. They came home as heroes.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:And so we actually used. You know, we rode in on their backs and we got noticed. Maybe we did do something for our country after all, you know, after all these years. So yeah, we didn't seek our benefits because we didn't want anybody to know that we were veterans. Right, we didn't want to be known as baby killers. And you know that was a political war. You didn't fight that war to beat the Vietnamese, you fought to protect your buddy. That was your reason for fighting. You protected each other. Those people never did anything to us, you know.
Jim Cripps:Right. Well then you know, even when let's just say fast forward and you've got your benefits, you're helping other people get their benefits, even in our own County, cheatham County being one of only two counties in the state of Tennessee with no veteran service officer.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:When I started out yes, we had no veteran service officer. I was headed up going to the commission and fighting to get the money appropriated to get a veteran service office. We had to load up on Tuesday mornings after breakfast, go into Davidson County to see a service officer to file for benefits. They resented us being there because we were from out of county and they would actually make us line up on a couch. So they got damn good and ready to see us. So, yeah, we fought to get a service officer. That's coming back to haunt me.
Jim Cripps:Well, I'm just going to say the thing that a lot of people don't want to say is there are some good service officers out there and there are a lot that just want the veteran out of their way, out of their office, and they halfway do it. They give them bad advice, they tell them once you get to 100%, you stop, don't poke the bear. And how many levels are there above 100%? There are 12. 12 levels and you know you've got veterans. What would you say is the average amount of time it takes a veteran that doesn't know how to work the system that just goes in and files their claim, from the time they file their claim to the time that it gets approved.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:If it's a simple claim, that's not going to pay a lot of money. If it's a simple claim, that's not going to pay a lot of money Six to nine months. If it's a complicated claim 10 years.
Jim Cripps:Yeah, that's a long time for somebody to potentially pass away. And then it's even dirtier than that in that the wife or the spouse can sign on to the claim, but they only have how many days after the veteran passes away Best.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:I remember about 90 days to sign on in which they remove the veteran's name after they're deceased, insert the wife's name in case there are any accrued benefits. A case is finally won, then she would get the money in place of the veteran Right? But you know, I approached a service officer our service officer yesterday because she was discouraging veterans from filing claims so nicely. I said you know things are not going right here. You know you're telling a veteran, if he's 100%, they might take something away from you if you file this additional claim. She said yeah, that's right. I said you know that's not right. How are they ever going to get to the upper levels there's 12 more levels above that if they don't file another claim? She said I have been instructed If a veteran is 100%, unless it's life-threatening, do not file another claim for him.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Oh my god, that is I have been instructed that your organization is not recognized by the us department of veterans affairs, so I have been instructed not to not to deal with you or anybody in your organization.
Jim Cripps:It still happened. They're still trying to cover it up.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:I could not believe that in this day and time, to be so biased as to sing on. You know we've got over 100 people in our organization. United States Veterans Alliance been meeting ever since 2010. If you belong to the United States Veterans Alliance, I'm not filing your claim.
Jim Cripps:You know the thing that I find I'm not even going to say funny, it's not funny. So she wouldn't have a job.
Jim Cripps:Had it not been for me that's right If you hadn't pushed so hard. And what? What really just irks me is you know you went down and you said look, if veterans get their benefits here in the in Cheatham County, they're going to spend money here. There is a tax benefit to the County. This is not going to cost you anything. And if we fast forward now, a decade later, there's still that bias. She's part of it now and I'm going to tell you right now, if you're the veteran service officer, you need to do better.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:No, she won't have a job before long.
Jim Cripps:Your own notice. You heard it here, your own notice. But after all that, what I also think about is how many millions of dollars? Okay, we're not talking about free money. We're talking about benefits that these veterans were owed for the damage that was done to them and their family and their lives, that those veterans are now that are at 100% or 90% or have letter awards that are getting, and that money is being spent in the county. So the county benefits, and yet still there's this bias.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, the first of the month the veterans get paid their benefits, that money comes into the county and it bounces eight or ten times in the county before it ever leaves the county because I spend it in the county at the barber shop and then the barber buys barber clippers. It balances again. He pays his electric bill and he pays his taxes. It balances again.
Jim Cripps:He buys his car tags, he buys a new car or even when you put it in the bank, which is a local bank, it's still benefiting the county, it's still benefiting the people here, and yet they still have this crazy amount of bias toward the people that made it happen.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:There is a certain amount of jealousy in a veteran getting his benefits, but what you've got to realize? When I was in the service they paid me $87 a month. Can you imagine trying to survive Now? They make good money.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:We made $87 a month and then when we were broke, we couldn't borrow any money from anybody Everybody else we knew were broke. We got paid once a month If we were anybody Everybody else we knew were broke we got paid once a month If we were broke. Everybody else we knew were broke. And then we went without any benefits for 50 years, right? So when you consider that you know, look how much better time we me and you could have had with a little extra money. You know we always had what we needed, but we never had. We couldn't afford anything we wanted. I could have helped with your education, we could have had insurance, we, you know life could have been so much better had I been given the benefits that I earned and actually had all this time and didn't know it.
Jim Cripps:Well, I think even I would go back to 97 when you had the heart attack and you called and asked if you had benefits and there was a presumptive. I think that ended that year. So when they told you no, basically it just pushed you off till after you couldn't file or would have to go prove that the government lied about spraying Agent Orange in the United States.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:Well, you know, I couldn't go back to work for more than nine months and we didn't have a lot, and I went down to see if I could get food stamps. Well, when I got out of the Army, I had $10,000 worth of insurance and you can elect to pick up payments and keep that insurance, which I did. It was a $10,000 policy. The lady at the food stamp place said, mr Cripps? I said all I need is something to help me get on my feet so I can go back to work. I've had a heart attack. I got stitches. She said, mr Cripps, you've got an insurance policy worth $10,000. I said, yes, ma'am, had a cash value of maybe, I don't know, $1,000, $1,500. She said you go sell that insurance policy, spend the money, come back and maybe we can help you. I said, lady, I've had a heart attack. Nobody will insure me again. I can't buy no more insurance. I can't sell this policy. She said, sorry.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know I made it through. I made it the nine months and went back to work, went back to work, worked two more years. Then I had to have the pacemaker defibrillator, was cardioverted with a paddle 16 times. That was a rough, rough period. Trying to work when you couldn't work.
Jim Cripps:Well, and to your, you were using saws, you were around heavy machinery. Those types of things wouldn't slip up and it's over, and it's over, yeah, yeah. Or you you've cut a limb off, You've cut a, uh, even a finger off and there's no insurance to to cover that. But you've got a limb off. You've cut even a finger off and there's no insurance to cover that, but you've got a family to feed.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You've got responsibilities. No matter your medical condition, you've got to provide somehow for your family. You know you had to have milk, you had to have diapers, you had to have, no matter what. So you work, you push through, you persevere, you don't quit. We're not quitters, we're winners.
Jim Cripps:That's right. Yeah, well, and you know, I think one of the things you know I started this conversation saying that your background was, you know, random or however. However you want to look at it, as your son, I see this evolving like you evolved. And yes, when I was, when I was a young man, you were strong but you were passive for the most part, meaning, you know, as long as it it wasn't somebody hurting our family there was, there was no reason to get involved. There's no reason to raise much ruckus.
Jim Cripps:And then you open your own company. You get stronger there, you know, you build something. You have this reputation, fast forward. Then you have the heart attacks. You get knocked down. You choose to charge forward because everybody's hitting you, Everybody's trying to keep hitting you, everybody's trying to keep you down, everybody's trying to tell you no. You don't accept no for an answer because you know that the truth is different and so you push forward. You get your benefits. Then you start helping other veterans get their benefits.
Jim Cripps:You know we won't name names here, but you know I remember a family that was days away from foreclosure on their family farm and as a last-ditch effort, they reach out to you and just, I don't even want to say hours. It was just before the foreclosure. He wins his case. That had been out there seven, eight, nine, ten years. Yeah, they save the family farm. They, you know he passes a couple of years later but she's taken care of the whole family. That whole family tree is different because of what you went through, because of what you had to push through, because you would not back down and you were set to prove the truth. And then, once you proved it, you helped others have hope and helped others improve their lives.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:You know, when you're fighting the United States government and a large entity like the Veterans Affairs, you've got to get smart, you've got to have a plan. You've got to get smart, you've got to have a plan, you've got to get it figured out. So nobody having ever done this before, there was nobody to talk to, there was nobody that believed in my case, nobody to get instruction from. You're a first, you're the spearhead, you're the point. So I learned that the veteran service officers were taught by the state. The state trained the veteran service officers. I learned that anybody could attend the service officers training. So I did Almost 20 years. I went to service officers training with the state service officers when they sent out invitation for training. Right now, today, it goes to all of the service officers in all of the counties of Tennessee and to James M Cripps. I love it, I absolutely love it.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:But I was actually a Trojan horse. I went to learn how to win my case. In doing so I learned how to win everybody else's case. So it would make sense. When I won my case and I'm done, there's nothing else to win but a burial flag. There's no higher award to go after I've got it all. It would make real good sense for me to sit back, stop fighting and enjoy what I've earned. But I can't do that. I know too much. I see too many veterans that don't know the same thing that I didn't know, and I've got to help them Right. You know I've got to give information is all I've got to give, but I have a monumental amount of information. You know, their hard claims are just a speed bump to me because I've educated myself.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:I did the research. I went to the service officer's training. I actually went to one training class. It's five days. At the end of the class, on Friday, they give you a test. When you go back for the next service officer's training, they pull those test results and hand them out to you. The director of claims handed out the test and he said Crips, you cheated. I said well, you may not cheat. He said you made 100. I didnps. You cheated. I said what do you mean? I cheated. He said you made 100. I didn't even make that. I said, roger, it was an open book test. So you know yeah.
Jim Cripps:Well, you know, I think next time I have you on I want us to walk through what a veteran should do, what, what somebody out there that's listening that maybe is fighting for their benefits or hasn't even filed yet. You know because it correct me if I'm wrong that to file it it's a 26 page form used to be okay, we got that cut down some because it was too complicated.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:A A veteran couldn't do that.
Jim Cripps:It was designed that way, though.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:It was designed to keep them from filing. You know the Code of Federal Regulations. It controls veterans' benefits. That's the laws and regulations. Every year the service officers got a new set. They were $118. I didn't have $118. But when they got a new set I asked for their old ones and I kept one by my crapper and every time I had to take a crap I'd sit there and read that code of federal regulations. So every time I took a crap I got a little smarter and in 20 years you take a lot of crap and you read a lot of it. I believe it. I believe it. But that's VA, the Redneck Way, and that's your website. That is my website, vatheredneckwaycom. A lot of information on there, a lot about me, a lot about how to win benefits. Vatheredneckway Okay, vatheredneckwaycom. Information's there, my contact information's there. You might want to look at it. The VA does Right.
Jim Cripps:Well, dad, I appreciate you joining me in the studio today and thank you for just teaching me, leading me. I mean it's, it's an example that most don't get to witness. And you know from the bottom of my heart, you've you've just gotten stronger and stronger the more years you put on this earth, and today you help so many people. You've you've just gotten stronger and stronger the more years you put on this earth, and today you help so many people. You've changed so many lives and impacted so many families. It's just impressive. So thank you.
James Cripps - US Army Veteran / Agent Orange Survivor:It's, it's my duty, it's a. It gets in your blood and that's just what you got to do. There you go.
Jim Cripps:Well team, you heard it here on the Charge Forward podcast. I want to say special thanks to our sponsors HitLab Studios, sense Custom Development and Charge Forward Solutions. Until next time, charge Forward.
Speaker 3:Team. Thanks so much for joining us for this episode of the Charge Forward podcast. Look forward to other amazing guests and until next time I'm your host, jim Cripps. Look forward to other amazing guests and until next time I'm your host, jim Cripps. Special thanks, as always, to Nick Heider and the creative team at HitLab Studios here in Nashville, tennessee. Special thanks to our sponsors, sense, custom Development and Charge Forward Solutions. Please be sure to like and subscribe.