Twenty years, then the paperwork
I spent two decades in the Army. I came up enlisted as a 19D Cavalry Scout, made it to Sergeant First Class (E-7), and then earned my appointment as a 131A Field Artillery Targeting Technician — a warrant officer. A Chief. The job took me to Iraq in 2006 and again in 2008–2009, to Afghanistan in 2011–2012, plus rotations through Europe, South Korea, and Kuwait. I retired in 2026.
When it was my turn to transition out, I filed my own claim through the Benefits Delivery at Discharge (BDD) program. I was rated 100% Permanent & Total on the first pass. I’m proud of that — but I’ll be straight with you about what it took: I had to build my own checklists, dig through an overwhelming pile of scattered information, and figure out most of the steps on my own. That result came from my service and my evidence. It wasn’t handed to me, and it isn’t a promise to anyone else — every claim stands on its own.
The knowledge no one handed me
Here’s something I noticed along the way. As an enlisted soldier — all the way up to E-7 — nobody really talked about the VA. It wasn’t until I put on the warrant officer’s bars that I found a different culture. Chiefs mentor. They talk openly about the things that matter later, and they take care of their people. That “chief knowledge” changed how I left the service.
VA Ready is my way of handing that knowledge down — to every soldier, regardless of rank. Chief to soldier.
How it actually started
The honest version: I’d already tried building apps during my transition. They flopped. But I learned how to ship. Last year, in a passing conversation with a good friend and fellow retired Chief — Pablo — we floated the idea that something like this could really help. Then it just sat there for a while.
One Easter morning I woke up wanting to be productive, so I started wireframing it out. It got addicting fast, and it looked right. I put my head down for two weeks, shipped it — and I’ve been improving it almost every day since.
I’m not doing this alone
To make sure VA Ready grows around what veterans actually need — not just what I think they need — I brought on Andrew, a battle buddy with extensive experience navigating the VA claims process and helping others through it. He keeps us honest about the real world: what claims look like on the ground, and what veterans are actually asking for.
What VA Ready is — and what it isn’t
It’s free, and it’s private. No account just to look around. We don’t sell your data, and we don’t track you the way most sites do. We’re independent — not a big claims company taking a cut of your back pay, and not affiliated with the Department of Veterans Affairs.
The app won’t file for you, and it won’t promise you a rating. What it does is give you the map I had to draw for myself: your conditions and the real rating criteria, the presumptives your service may have earned, the peer-reviewed research behind your conditions, every-state benefits, and a clear path to file ready. The goal is simple — that you walk in better prepared than I was.
If something’s missing, tell me
If this helps even one veteran walk into their claim more prepared than I was, it did its job. Download it, put it to work — and if there’s something missing or something we can do better, reach out. I’m listening.