The V.E.T.S. Advantage
Edition: Wednesday, October 14, 2026
An educational email by Hill & Ponton.
Thanks for reading & enjoy!
What do V.E.T.S. want to know?
Inside, you can find…
🎖️ VALOR - Real stories about real veterans fighting for VA disability benefits.
⚖️ EXPERTS - VA insider knowledge from members of our staff.
🗺️ TACTICS - Tips and tricks to navigate your VA disability claim effectively.
🦅 SUPPORT - Additional resources to help you stay on the right path towards the benefits you deserve.
Even if you have a real disability, years of service, and a supportive doctor, the VA might still deny your claim if something is missing. This does not mean they are judging you or your service. It’s simply because the VA has strict rules about what evidence is required. Your claim must show a current diagnosis, an event, injury, or exposure during your service, and a clear connection between the two.
If any of these are missing or unclear, your claim might not go through, even if everything else is right. The good news is that you can usually find what is missing, and understanding what the VA needs is the first step to getting your claim approved.
Veterans: Share Your Experience with the VA Claims Process
Hill & Ponton Attorney Kate Kovarovic is conducting a short, anonymous survey on how the VA disability claims process affects veterans mental health and well-being. The survey takes about 15-30 minutes and will help inform a presentation for military psychologists on how advocates can better support Veterans throughout the claims process.
If you’ve gone through the VA disability claims process, please consider sharing your experience and encouraging fellow veterans to participate. The survey closes on October 23.
🎖️ VALOR
James Stockdale: What He Knew About Not Quitting
In 1965, James Stockdale ejected from his A-4 Skyhawk over North Vietnam and spent the next seven and a half years as a prisoner of war. He endured long periods in solitary confinement and was repeatedly tortured. As the highest-ranking Navy officer among the prisoners, he led a resistance that kept them united. When his captors tried to use him for propaganda, he made himself unrecognizable by beating his own face. He returned home with a leg that never healed and a philosophy shaped by hardship, that sometimes you must face the hard truth of your situation, but never lose faith that you will get through it.
Author Jim Collins later called this the Stockdale Paradox, and it’s a mindset that can help in any tough situation, including dealing with the VA. If your claim has been denied or you know the road ahead will be hard, don’t pretend everything is fine, but don’t give up. Be honest about where you stand, and keep moving forward.
Read James Stockdale's full story at the Congressional Medal of Honor Society below.
Get the Facts on Your Conditions Now
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Take the First Step Toward Your VA Benefits—For FREE!
Navigating the VA disability claims process can be tough, but you don’t have to do it alone. Our expert-written guide, The Road to VA Compensation Benefits, breaks it down with clear steps and actionable advice to help you succeed.
Request your FREE copy today (a $17.99 value), and we’ll mail it straight to your door.
⚖️ EXPERTS
The Three-Part Test Your Claim Has to Pass (And Where Most Veterans Fall Short)
The framework the VA uses to evaluate every single claim
Every service connection claim, whether it’s for a knee injury, PTSD, hearing loss, or a Gulf War illness that no one can quite name, rests on three elements:
A current diagnosis
An in-service event or injury
A medical nexus connecting the two
The VA will evaluate your claim through that lens, in that order, every time. Understand the framework, and you understand exactly where to focus your energy.
Why the third element is where claims go to die
The first two elements are hard enough:
Diagnosis: Getting a formal diagnosis means finding a doctor who takes your symptoms seriously, which isn’t always as easy as it sounds.
In-service event: Documenting it means locating records that may be incomplete, missing, or buried under decades of bureaucracy.
But the nexus is where most claims collapse, and it’s not hard to see why. Time passes. The connection between what happened to you in service and what your body looks like today isn’t always obvious, even to the doctors treating you.
No documented nexus: A claim without one has almost no chance.
Nexus letters without medical rationale: These get denied, too, because a doctor’s opinion without an explanation of the reasoning behind it doesn’t carry the weight veterans assume it does.
What makes a nexus letter actually work
A nexus letter is a document prepared by a physician or other qualified medical professional that explains your current condition and links it to your military service. Veterans aren’t required to submit one, but in practice, a well-constructed nexus letter is often the difference between an award and a denial.
The critical word there is “well-constructed.” A letter that says “in my opinion, this condition is related to the veteran’s service” is not enough. The VA wants to see:
The reasoning: Why the doctor reached that conclusion.
Citations to medical literature: Support for the opinion beyond the doctor’s word.
The Gulf War veteran community knows this reality intimately: 80% of Gulf War-related claims are denied, in part because the conditions themselves are notoriously difficult to document and explain through a standard nexus framework.
The one thing you can do right now
If you’ve been denied: Pull out your denial letter and find the reason for the denial. In most cases, it will point directly to one of the three elements. Either the VA said there wasn’t enough evidence of a current diagnosis, or it disputed the in-service connection, or it found the nexus insufficient. That language tells you exactly where to rebuild.
If you haven’t filed yet: Start by writing down the in-service event in as much detail as you can recall, including dates, locations, units, and any witnesses. That narrative becomes the foundation on which every other piece of evidence is built.
If you’re facing challenges with your claim and need assistance, reach out for a free case evaluation.
Think your VA disability rating doesn’t fully reflect your condition? Don’t go it alone. Our dedicated team exclusively helps veterans with VA disability cases and is ready to advocate for your rightful benefits.
Call us at (855) 494-1298 to speak with our team now, or send a request for a free case evaluation today, and we’ll reach out within 30 minutes during business hours to get started.
🗺️ TACTICS
13 Minutes That Will Change How You Think About Nexus Letters
A nexus letter can be your most important evidence in a claim, but it needs to be done correctly to be effective.
In this video, accredited VA attorneys explain why many nexus letters are not strong enough and what should be included to make sure yours stands up during VA review. If you plan to ask a doctor for a letter, watch this first so you know what to request.
🦅SUPPORT
Additional Resources & Tools
Dupixent Linked to Rare Skin Cancer
Were you prescribed Dupixent (dupilumab) and later diagnosed with Cutaneous T-Cell Lymphoma (CTCL)?
Recent studies have linked long-term Dupixent use to an increased risk of CTCL, a rare skin cancer. If you took Dupixent for at least one month and were diagnosed with CTCL—or a subtype like Mycosis fungoides or Sézary syndrome—after your first dose, you may be eligible to file a claim.
Find out if you qualify. The case review is free and confidential.
Act now. Contact us today at (855) 494-1298 to learn more about your options or to begin your claim. You’ve served your country; let us serve you.
Feeling overwhelmed by the VA?
We invite you to take our new FREE course, Master the VA Disability Claims Process, that offers advice, tips and tricks from our team, plus our VA Disability Calculator to see how your rating measures up.
This course covers every step of the VA disability claim process and answers the questions veterans ask most often. Best of all—it’s FREE!
Please note that you will need to create a free account for the course, and it will also allow you to take additional courses we plan to offer!
