I already filed for the property tax deduction and have heard it get into state parks free (with ID) but what other benefits am I eligible or can I apply for?
FYI, I was a 19E (M60A3 armor crewman) and the disability is for tinnitus, 10%. The hearing loss was denied but it ain't over until it is over.

State parks require that you apply for and are issued the appropriate park pass.  Although the legislature meant for it to be a lifetime pass, the department makes you renew every few years, which is a pain.  They don't want passes of dead vets floating around among family members I guess.

Golden Access pass for national parks. BUT... The Golden Access pass is pretty useless, because most parks (at least east of the Mississippi) are run by concessionaires who charge a "DAY USE FEE" instead of an "ENTRANCE FEE."  The pass only covers entrance fees.  Seems like they do this to keep from letting guys like you and me use our benefits as intended by the legislature, but that is one of my pet peeves.

Discount on NRA Life membership.

If your VA medical card is marked service connected, you can get 10 percent off at Home Depot.  Any VA card will get you 10 percent at Lowe's.

You can pay a fee and get a "V" on your Florida drivers license, but I don't know what it is good for.

You can join DAV, I'm a life member, but have not found any point.  You can join the American Legion (I think) depending upon your dates of service, but you don't need to be service connected for that, just war time service.  Cheap beer but the smoke is so think I can't enjoy my local chapter.

And of course you get a foot in the door at VA healthcare.  That may be important if you don't have medical through your employer.

To be honest, I'm been playing this game for many years, and there is not a lot out there unless you are 100 percent.

Among other things I also got 10 percent for tinnitus, but zero for hearing loss.  There must be something that we are not doing right.  If you get it approved come back and let us know what you did.

If I remember anything else I come back and quote myself, so check back.

We may want to start a sticky or something here.

Not to hijack your thread but when you brothers get time check out hadit.com.  Get on the forums and they have tons of things to help you when applying for disabilities.

Have not been there for a while.  I probably need to catch up.

Thanks for the reminder of a great resource.

To be honest, the VA beat me down until I lost the incentive to fight.  The emotional stress of a letter in the mailbox got to be too much.  I gave up, just like they wanted me to.

IM SENT

Thanks guys, you help is appreciated.
BTW, the V on my DL did get me 10% off at Lowes, just had to buy a new refrigerator and it did add up.

I don't understand the question.

But if you've finished you're service, it's time to go and live your life to the fullest.

Thanks for your service.

Just wondering what other benefits might be available for disabled veterans. I know about the property tax deduction and free park entry but I am sure there are a few benefits I do not know about. Maybe reduced rates on fishing license.
I finished my service over 20 years ago. I just let everything go until recently. So yeah, I have almost deaf for decades and only now is it being recognized. I don't blame the Army, these things happen, I don't even blame the VA, they are slow but hey, we all know that. If anyone is to blame it is me. I shouldn't have waited 20 years to do this but now that I have I want to understand the benefits (heh, benefit for being nearly deaf, ironic eh?) that are available.
No problem about the service. I am damn glad I did it. Took me years to understand what the heck I did. I did it to help myself but looking back I was helping others too. Weird how things change with time.

I'm a disabled vet.  I don't use my VA medical benefits, but I do use my 10% off at Lowes.

I had good insurance at work so I never used my VA benefits until age started to compound the service related injuries and my out of pocket expenses for service connected injuries started up mount up.  10 years ago I applied for VA health and it took them 15 months to see me for a service connected knee and then told me there was nothing they could do for it  It took about 5 years to get any compensation and many appeals to get most of my compensation. 10 years later I'm still paying out of pocket for knee replacements because the VA says I'm to fat for them to replace my knees.

You may not use VA now, but sign up an get everything documented so that when age  starts to make your wartime injures more obvious you will already be in the system.

Unless you were lucky enough not to have any serious service connected injuries... in which case you can just enjoy your Lowe's discount.

F the VA I have great health ins from work as a retired firefighter. That's B.S. telling someone they are over weight for knee replacement by whoses standards. I have a buddy that is over weight because he is muscle bound not fat and the VA will not replace his knee. I feel for you. That crap hurts and can effect your entire life.

Had mine replaced 2 years ago. With my private ins. Cost me 400.00 out of pocket. No wait either. I lose 50 lbs after I had it replaced. See that's the problem. How can you lose weight if your in to much pain to function. Dumb asses at the VA and their burocacy hurt and kill people.

Thank you for your understanding.

The knee was service connected and they wanted to give me a brace.  The brace took so long to get, that I had already had the knee replaced by my civilian doc before the brace was delivered.  It cost me a total of 3700 out of pocket.

Tinnitis, sounds like a 747 taking off in my left ear, gets even worse when I'm tired, have to sleep with TV or radio on for background noise louder than the 747 in my ear.  

VA has been a joke, I've been trying to get my back fixed since Oct, the referral to the neurosurgeon was cancelled without telling me the first time; had to make an appt with the assigned primary care doc two months wait, in order to get a new referral to the neuro in Denver.   Waited over a month for them to assign me an appt, over two months out, so Veterans' Choice finally kicked in.     I got an appt with a surgeon in CS instead, waited over 7 weeks for approval for a spinal cord stimulator trial.   Called the surgeon I was supposed to be referred to, got blown off, called them back two weeks later to be told VA assigned the spinal cord stimulator to a different surgeon in CS.  Call them, blown off for two weeks, called them back to be told I needed to request the appt with VA even though VA changed the referral to them, and, if so, at what point was I supposed to know if I hadn't kept calling them?   Found out by talking to a nurse at the VA Clinic that Vet Choice sends out a packet of forms that this surgeon either didn't get or they lost or just didn't return to VA.

I have to sleep with the TV on also.  Mine sounds like crickets are living in my ears or sometimes is just settles down and is a constant tone.  Mine was from turbine engines.

My only experience with choice was also a run around.  choice doc (urologist) did procedure and wanted to follow up in 6 months with a lab test to see if things were fixed or not.  VA said I had to go back to primary care VA doc for VA to do the follow up test.  Pimary care VA doc said that the test, the choice doc wanted to do, had to many false positives so he would not order it. So, had a procedure at the expense of the VA but the VA does not want to know if it was successful.  SO I'm just sitting here hoping my pee pee does not fall off.

Sorry to hear about you back pain.  I would not wish back pain on most of my enemies.

I know most of it was posted already, but here's a better overview of available benefits.

Link

I have the dreaded eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee sound in my right ear.

I feel your pain. I was dealing with the VA for 14 years trying to get my benefits/ claims straightened out. The most messed up part was the chief of orthopedics telling me all my issues were in my head and there was nothing wrong with me. That was even after where I lost the ability to walk for a few hours, 2 years of no stop PT, epidural shots, etc etc.

there is a ton of benefits for people in Florida.  I know this doesn't apply to you but at 100% your spouse and kids get to go to college for free within the state along with a ton of other benefits.

I am Medically retired at 90% waiting for my PTSD claim to go through which they have already said I have and ok with it to where I can still buy guns.  I was a deputy when I was diagnosed with it after denying it for years.

The hearing loss I swear is denied for everyone.  Told me it wasn't bad enough for a rating more then 0% at this time.  if you haven't already try for everything they gave you a 0% and at least try to get to 30% you get more things from the VA like voc rehab at 30%. Its a great program say you want to be a photographer for a living they will pay for you classes for it and all the equipment for it.  I had a troop who did this and they were given a professional grade camera set up, laptop, desktop, high end photo printer, ink for the printer to last damn near a year and paper for it.  all very good gear.  

I spoke with them about going to gunsmithing school in CO at one of the big gunsmithing schools and they stated they would be willing to pay for it and all equipment for the school and to get me on my feet doing it.  which was going to cost over $100K for 3 semesters. Then you can combine it with your GI bill for the housing stipend to live off of while in class.

hope this helps and if you have any other questions hit me up.  Ill answer any other questions i can I have helped many people with there issues with the VA and getting those 0% to a higher rating if its a true issue.