If you read last week’s article, you had a challenge. You were to see if you could calculate the VA overall disability rating for a veteran with a VA disability rating of 60% for PTSD, 30% for diabetes, and 10% for tinnitus. If you came up with 100%, you would be wrong. The answer is 80%. Take the largest rating first and subtract it from 100, giving you 40%. From there, you take 30% of that, which is 12% and add that to the 60%, giving you 72%. Then take 10% of that giving you 7.2% and adding that to the 72% gives you 79.2%; you round up to the nearest 10 giving you a rating of 80%. So, if you have severalservice-connected disabilities that aren’t big percentages, even if you added them all up and got 100% you still wouldn’t be 100% ... it is hard to actually get a 100% rating. 

Just looking ahead at an event that might be of interest to the community, on June 18 is the Maine Military Community Network's 13th annual conference at the Augusta Civic Center from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This is a huge event that showcasesjust about every organization in the state that supports the military and veterans. The VHA and VBA will be there, as will the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services. Great opportunity to talk with folks about what you like and don’t like about the VA or Maine’s support of veterans. The MBVS supports veterans in ways you may not know, so if you stop by there, you may find out you have been missing something you could have taken advantage of. And then there are the speakers. In the morning, Chris Roseberry, the Executive Ambassador of the Travis Mills Foundation, and Christie Gardner, founder and President of Mission Working Dogs, will be speaking. In the afternoon, there will be the following panels: 

• Justice Involved Veterans and Best Practices with Commissioner Randy Liberty chairing 

• Military 101, Col. Mike Pooler chairing 

• Spirituality in the Military, Irene Harris chairing 

• Maine Veterans Court, Elizabeth Simoni, Executive Director of Maine Pretrial Services Inc. 

• The Value of Networking, chaired by David Patch, President, Maine Veterans in Need 

You can register by going to www.mainemcn.com.  It is worth the $30 registration fee for veterans and $60 for everyone else, and it includes a continental breakfast and lunch. So, put it on your calendar and sign up. See ya there. 

Speaking for the Maine Bureau of Veterans Services (MBVS), if you have ever used their website, I am sure you found it a great resource and answers to any question you might have relative to veterans’ benefits.  It also has the annual “Benefits and Resource Guide” that you can download.  This guide should be in every veteran’s library!  Well, as good as this site has been, they have now even made it better!  It is extremely easy to navigate.  Go to www.maine.gov/veterans/ and check it out.