Benjamin Krause
Benjamin entered the US Air Force in 1996 to work on aircraft avionics systems. He was honorably discharged from the US Air Force Special Operations Command, in 2001.
Following discharge, Benjamin began his 10 year fight for benefits that finally ended in 2012 after more than 10 informal appeals. He credits the Anthrax Vaccine to some of his neurological problems.
Benjamin graduated from Northwestern University, in 2007. There, he studied Economics and Nonfiction Writing.
He will soon graduate from the University of Minnesota Law School (May 2013). Topics of interest there are Game Theory, Economics, and Veterans Law.
While in law school, Benjamin wrote numerous guides for veterans on disability and vocational rehabilitation. He also joined forced with Veterans For Common Sense to assist in their public relations campaign on Capitol Hill resulting from their class action law suit against the VA.
Benjamin testified before the Democratic National Platform Committee (CSPAN) for the 2012 election cycle. He has also worked with numerous media outlets on veterans issues including Bloomberg TV, CBS Evening News with Katie Couric, the Pioneer Press, and others.
He is a high school graduate of Winter High School, with a graduating class of 40, and was voted most likely to be a huge pain in the ass some day.
A Wisconsin native, Benjamin currently resides in Minneapolis, MN with his daughter, where he manages his company and veterans advocacy platform.
About this site: DisabledVeterans.org
In his own words:
I created DisabledVeterans.org and Armo Press, LLC, to take action.
This website and others like it are designed for veterans and cut out all the stuffy lingo of academia and the technocracy in Washington DC. Here, veterans get these straight talk from me and other veterans like me who have already been through the Shit.
“The Shit” is not what many veterans commonly refer to as traditional combat. No, I mean the mental warfare that is endured by most of us after we get out of the military and try to get our disability benefits. Not only am I a military veteran, I am a veteran of what I call “The Veteran Wars.”
The Veteran Wars
In 2008, I realized that the Dept. of Veterans Affairs was nothing more than an insurance company – blocking and tackling veterans who try to get their benefits. Meanwhile, traditional Veteran Service Organizations depend on the status quo to keep membership growing.
At that time, I called the DAV and VFW because I wanted to help. I had battled the VA for some time and had insider knowledge about how to maximize one of their disability benefits. All I heard on the other end of the phone were crickets.
No one was interested in getting the word out to disabled veterans unless I wanted to pay my dues again for 20 years and wear some ridiculous hat. It’s not that I blame them. The message I was preaching was self-sufficiency.
That’s right. I developed a way of thinking about disability benefits that allows you to work around most issues. Maybe it was my economics training. Maybe it was my following legal training from law school. Either way, the message needed to get out there and the traditional channels – the VA and Veteran Organizations – wanted none of it.
Benjamin Krause with VA Vocational Rehabilitation Director Ruth Fanning
Some Accomplishments
Here is a little about what I did and why its changing their system, and winning the Veteran Wars:
- Received undergraduate from Northwestern University and law degree from the University of Minnesota (May 2013)
- Created 120 page comprehensive guide for Vocational Rehabilitation
- Published on numerous media outlets including Military.com
- Persuaded VA to pay for insurance for veterans in Vocational Rehabilitation
- Testified before the Democratic National Platform Committee on Veterans
- Ran PR for Veterans for Common Sense during their suit against the VA
- Spearheaded investigation into Vocational Rehabilitation by CBS Evening News
- Fought my own disability claim over 10 years, increasing the rating from 10% to 100%
But that isn’t enough. I’m determined to leave no one behind. For that reason, I created this website and others like it to broadcast the good news.
Resilience is key. Those who persist win. Learn to write well. Keep it short. Remember your audience.
Those are the bits of advice I give within a broader context of the guides we sell her on the site. The guides pay for the software and designers, which I might add are not cheap.
My goal here is to recreate the Veteran Voting Bloc of the post-Civil War era. That was a time when the veteran vote really mattered, and I think it’s time to get the power back. It’s time to win the Veteran Wars.
On that note, enjoy the site. Send me a note with any questions.
Read about Vocational Rehabilitation and Benjamin Krause here.
