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this hearing is is very troubling to me because this case really
shows how things can go wrong, I want to support us small business owners as
much as possible
I want these set asides to be successful.
But I am absolutely appalled by the advantages of being taken at the system.
Mr. Floure, I know you cannot discuss Mr. Castillo's case because you would need
his permission to discuss this particular case.
That's why he could not answer the question earlier.
My understanding also is that the VA, VBA is specifically is bound by
legislation that says
a certain condition has a certain are disability rating, for example below the knee
injury is forty percent...
it just is... correct? That is correct ma'am.
so it seems like there is uh... an opportunity here too, uh for some
legislative fixes to this to the system uh Mr. Childress uh... true that
any disability even if it's just five percent would qualify someone for
service connected disability,
service connected disability owned business?
So long as they qualify under the VA's rules for service connected disability
that is adequate for the self certification. Thank you, Mr. Castillo
how are you? Thank you,
thank you for being here today.
I am not well, but
you're welcome
alright... so
your foot hurt?
left foot? Uh... yes ma'am... It hurts yeah my feet hurt too. In fact,
the balls of my feet
burn continuously and and I feel like
there's a nail being hammered into my right heel right now so
I can understand pain and suffering and how service connection can actually
cause long-term
unremitting unyielding unstoppable pain
uh... so I'm, I'm sorry that
twisting your ankle in high school
has now come back to you to hurt you in um, such a painful way....
And also opportunity for you to gain the status for your business as you were
trying to compete for contracts
uh... by also understand
why uh... here so we can take years to manifest themselves from when you you
heard them i'm in fact i have a dear, dear friend who sprayed agent orange out of his
huey in vietnam
who it took forty years
forty years for leukaemia to actually manifest itself and he died six months
later.
So I can see how military service uh... while at the time you seem very healthy
uh... could forty years later result in uh... devastating injury
So can you tell me if you on hurt your left foot again during your football
career subsequently to uh twisting it in high school?
Ma'am I don't understand the high school.... .... uh but the gentle lady... prep-school ,post-high
school ok post high school , prep school, before college.
Prep school.
Did you injure your left foot again?
After prep school?
uuuummm... I'm not sure I understand the question ma'am. You played football in College correct?
Yes ma'am. As a quarterback?
Yes ma'am I did. Did you hurt? did you injure that same foot again?
Subsequently in the years since you twisted it in prep school?
Not to my recollection ma'am...Not to your recollection..... okay
Uuummmm
Why didn't you Mr. Castillo
tell the VA that your doctors note that was in-accurate when you knew that
it was?
i don't feel that it's inaccurate ma'am
uh... would like me to address that?
Yes go ahead. Yes ma'am so
my... one of my doctors that submitted letter so as part of the injury you
have to establish that is chronic and re-occurring so
when I returned home to San Diego my doctor from San Diego had also return
had had said that he treated me for that for injury that has suffered on active
duty.
When I moved to Las Vegas couple years later that doctor submitted that he
continued to treat me for that left foot broken foot injury.
uh... finally when i moved to Virginia uh... I,
I went to a doctor in that it would continue to hurt and he established that
it would... Uh so Dr. Sam Wilson uh... who ironically was also stationed at
mommath. Okay, I have to catch you up because I'm running out of time sorry... So I just wanna...
So let me finish so in talking to Doctor Wilson who himself is a disabled veteran
and they 're familiar with
mommath in that his son had went through as well and played football.
Uh... he actually was the one that talked to be about hey this may be...
uh... something that is connected and I believe I told him ....so let's first..... let me...
I have to cut you off... not this is not an argument.. I'm talking... I'm up here.. .
Yes ma'am... Let me ask you this. Do you think that that thirty percent rating that you
have for the scars and the pain in the foot... is is that accurate to the
sacrifices that you've made for this nation?
Uh.Uh.Uh......That the VA decision is accurate in your case? Yes ma'am i do.
You know, my right arm
was essentially blown off and reattached
uh... I spent a year in limb salvage with over a dozen surgeries over that
time period.
And um... in fact we thought we would lose my arm and i'm still in danger of
possibly losing my arm.
I can't feel it. I can't feel my
three fingers.
My disability rating for that arm is twenty percent.
In your letter to a government official
I think it's the SBA. Attention Jeanna Moo...
You said "My family and I have made considerable sacrifices for our country
my service connected disability status should serve as a testimony
to that end."
"I can't play with my kids because I can't walk without pain. I take twice daily
pain medication so I can work in normal days work. These are crosses...
These are crosses
and I bear due to my service to our great country and I would do it again to
protect this great country."
I'm so glad that you would be willing to play football in prep school again
to protect this great country.
Shame on you Mr. Castillo! Shame on you! You may not have broken any laws
we're not sure yet. You did misrepresent to the SBA.
But you certainly broke the trust of this great nation.
You broke the trust of veterans. Iraq and Afghanistan veterans right now are waiting
an average up two hundred and thirty seven days for an initial
disability rating. And it is because people liked you who are gaming the
system.
Are adding to that backlog so that young men and women who are suffering from
post-traumatic stress were missing limbs
cannot get
the compensation and the help that they need.
And i'm sure you paid through the.. played through the pain of that foot all through
college.
Well let me tell you something I would recovered with a young man
and navy corpman who while he was running into a ambush where his
marines were hurt had his leg knocked off!
With a RPG. He put a tourniquet on himself and crawled forward
He is who played through the pain Mr. Castillo. You did not!
You took advantage of system!
You describe the saddest just today.
That other companies are using the special status is as competitive for
weapons against you. You who never picked up a weapon in defense of this
great nation.
Very cynically took advantage of the system you broke the faith with this
nation you broke the faith of both with the men and women
who lye at hospitals right now at Walter Weed
in Bethesda at uh..
Brook army medical center in lines to. You broke the faith with them and if this
nation stops funding veteran's health care and stops and calls into
question why veterans deserve their benefits, it is because cases like you
have poisoned
the public's opinion on these programs.
I hope that you think twice about the example that you're setting for your
children. I hope you think twice about what you are doing to the nation...
this nation's veterans are willing to die to protect this nation. Twisting your
ankle in prep school is not defending or serving this nation Mr. Castillo.
Mr. Chairman, I'm sorry, you've been very indulgent. I yield back. I think the gentle-lady
and the time was well spent.