Leo Solis |
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Problems with the VA
Leo Solis: A Vietnam veteran’s story about his ordeal with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) after sustaining multiple bullet injuries from Vietnam in 1968
Interviewer: So what was the VA like at the time?
Leo: My first encounter with the VA was the rep who I spoke with you really gave me some great advice, as far as financial. But in ’73, I received information, I received a letter, saying that they wanted to re-evaluate me. I went before a board and later I was told that it was cut down to ten percent, so now I had forty percent disability. So I was really upset, I was really mad.
Interviewer: Where you walking by then?
Leo: Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. No, no, I was walking by then, yeah. And I was, like said, upset, I felt wronged, I felt betrayed so I never went back to another VA facility again. Never, ever, all these years. And then it was just about four or five months ago when I was talking with my doctor at the motion picture, I was talking to him and I was telling him that my leg and my back and my shoulder and neck problems and I was finding it very difficult to do my job. He said, “Well what you need to do is talk to the VA.” And I thought, oh God no. I’m not going back to the VA. So I get in there, and I give them my DD214 and they can’t find me. I’m not in the computer. I’m not a vet. What happened was my social security that they had on my DD214 was incorrect. The middle two numbers were incorrect. So I gave them my license and they looked it up and they found the award, that portion of the information. So then I received my, they interviewed me for about three hours to get information from me. I had to get a veteran’s card, identification card. So I went to the VA over on Plummer and Hascal overhere on Sepulveda. And they gave me the card, you know, my card, the identification card and I set up an appointment for a reevaluation, I had to go through another reevaluation. So I’m like really nervous I said, did I open up another can of worms? They’re gonna take things away.
Object Description
| Profile of | Leo Solis |
| Title | My Body Is My Evidence |
| Profile bio | Leo Solis was drafted into the Army in 1968 and during his time in the Army he was wounded several times, his platoon-mates dubbing him ""Tin Can"" because of it. He was temporarily paralyzed from his injuries, earning him a medical discharge from the Army in 1969. Within a year, and with lots of rehabilitation, he was walking again. Within that year, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs demanded that he return to get his disability (which had previously been put at 50%) reevaluated to make sure that he was not ""scamming the government."" This reevaluation reduced his benefits by 10%, making him feel wronged, and so he never wanted to be treated at the Veterans Affairs Facility ever again. Mr. Solis has worked his way up in the ranks of physical special effects and currently has his own special effects rental business. He has worked on such wide-ranging films as Pirates of the Carribbean and Inception. A link to his work is below: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0813105/ The nature of his work has made it difficult for him to function with the lasting effects of his injuries, namely the malformation of his leg, where his calf has almost completely atrophied. Mr. Solis lives in Granada Hills, California near his family and still works in the special effects business, creating explosions, rain, snow, hail, gunfire, you name it. He does not see his experience in Vietnam as one that drastically changed him emotionally, but physically it has forever left its impact. |
| Profiler bio | Trenton Lum Junior, Biological Sciences He is applying to change his major to Film & TV Production in the college of Cinematic Arts to fight for social improvement and fair representation for Asians and Asian-Americans. Kasey Vaughn Junior, Political Science, Air Force ROTC (Minor in Air and Space Studies) "Leo Solis is my Great Uncle, and it wasn't until we did this project that I heard a lot of his Vietnam stories. As a ROTC Cadet and member of the USAF I took this class wanting to learn as much as I could about the Vietnam War. I was fortunate enough to be able to learn about my family as well along the way." Harrison Wong Senior, Economics "As an Asian, it is interesting to learn about how history that we learn is different from reality" Justin Lewis Junior, Accounting |
| Subject |
draft Vietnam war military VA injury combat |
| Profiled by | Lum, Trenton; Vaughn, Kasey; Lewis, Justin; Wong, Harrison |
| Geographic subject (city or populated place) | Granada Hills |
| Geographic subject (county) | Los Angeles |
| Geographic subject (state) | California |
| Geographic subject (country) | USA; Vietnam |
| Coverage date | 1968 |
| Publisher (of the original version) | http://anotherwarmemorial.com/leo-solis/ |
| Type |
images video |
| Format | 1 image; 4 video files (00:10:20); 4 transcripts |
| Language | English |
| Contributing entity | University of Southern California |
| Part of collection | An Other War Memorial -- Memories of the American War in Viet Nam |
| Filename | solisleo |
Description
| Profile of | Leo Solis |
| Title | Problems with the VA |
| Format | 1 transcript, 1p. |
| Filename | solisleo-vid1_tr1.pdf |
| Full text | Problems with the VA Leo Solis: A Vietnam veteran’s story about his ordeal with the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) after sustaining multiple bullet injuries from Vietnam in 1968 Interviewer: So what was the VA like at the time? Leo: My first encounter with the VA was the rep who I spoke with you really gave me some great advice, as far as financial. But in ’73, I received information, I received a letter, saying that they wanted to re-evaluate me. I went before a board and later I was told that it was cut down to ten percent, so now I had forty percent disability. So I was really upset, I was really mad. Interviewer: Where you walking by then? Leo: Oh yeah, yeah. Oh yeah. No, no, I was walking by then, yeah. And I was, like said, upset, I felt wronged, I felt betrayed so I never went back to another VA facility again. Never, ever, all these years. And then it was just about four or five months ago when I was talking with my doctor at the motion picture, I was talking to him and I was telling him that my leg and my back and my shoulder and neck problems and I was finding it very difficult to do my job. He said, “Well what you need to do is talk to the VA.” And I thought, oh God no. I’m not going back to the VA. So I get in there, and I give them my DD214 and they can’t find me. I’m not in the computer. I’m not a vet. What happened was my social security that they had on my DD214 was incorrect. The middle two numbers were incorrect. So I gave them my license and they looked it up and they found the award, that portion of the information. So then I received my, they interviewed me for about three hours to get information from me. I had to get a veteran’s card, identification card. So I went to the VA over on Plummer and Hascal overhere on Sepulveda. And they gave me the card, you know, my card, the identification card and I set up an appointment for a reevaluation, I had to go through another reevaluation. So I’m like really nervous I said, did I open up another can of worms? They’re gonna take things away. |
| Archival file | Volume3/solisleo-vid1_tr1.pdf |
