This is akin to the airline reps asking "Did anyone place something in your baggage without you knowing?"  Duh!  I'm sure every disturbed person who shot someone ensured they notified someone beforehand they were mentally ill.  Even when they did, the authorities did  nothing.

We fear more a maniac with a gun than one driving a 2-ton vehicle.

Mike,
 I know a few VN vets and one WW 2 vet and as a group they can best be described as surly when messed with. Myself am a VN vet. I think to a man your form would be wadded up and handed back without a mark on it. I visit 2 different Va hospitals, the one in bolshevik territory (Pittsburgh) treats us like meat and the other in Erie coddle us. Have in 2 weeks a procedure I can not pronunce or spell and now I'll be looking for this questionnaire.
Andy

After you fill out the questionnaire, maybe they'll give you some drugs to help you mellow out.  Or maybe turn you into a cabbage.  You won't even know what happens next.

Read or heard somewhere that there are more copies of the Bible in circulation than any other book. "The Rise & Fall of the Third Reich" is said to be #2.  The origins of the idea are probably not found in the Bible.  Re-reading #2 is apt to start some thought processes in motion.

Fortunately I have great medical coverage from my retirement, and have never had to use my VA benefits for medical. I'd refuse to fill out the questionaire myself, or lie on all of it.

I am in complete harmony with the prevailing opinions on this topic. Like everyone here, I knew a country that no longer exists. However. I visit the VA hospital in Bonham, Texas twice a year for checkups and get meds through them and have participated in the agent orange study.
I haven't yet been asked those questions but if I am asked I'll give the answers that have been suggested here. Most of the staff there usually say "Thank you for your service." I think we need to remember that there are many men and women who have to depend on VA services; I don't feel that they are receiving a handout. Whether you sludged through the Mekong or were a clerk typist in Ft. Carson, you have the right to VA services and shouldn't back up to claim them. Remember also that we all have paid (literally with taxes) for these benefits. 
This is all meant in the most friendly and patriotic sense.
Lynn

I'm not a vet,  one of the few real regrets in my life is that is was passed over in the draft and I didn't have the brains to volunteer.  That said;  I have been very closely involved in helping both my late father and my late father-in-law work with the VA.  Both were WW2 veterans, both had differing levels of service with the VA and vastly different experiences.

  It seems that there is as in any medical service experience a wide range of service providers and their level of personal care and concern and a big difference in the "patient relations attitude" from specific institution to institution.

It appears to me that the current situation with the huge influx of oil and terror war damaged veterans has focussed a public spotlight on the VA.  It has been good in some ways, budgets are increased and a lot of neglect and abuse is being uncovered and corrected; but I also get the impression that the over-50 veterans are getting pushed into the corners.

I suspect that the afore-mentioned questions are simply a typical ham-handed bureaucratic response to the unusually high rate of suicide among recently retuning vets that is being complexicated by the "mommy-knows-best" attitude of some health-care providers and the empire-building aims of the Homeland Security Agency.   

I'd really like someone who visits the VA to find out IF that "turn the data over to the HSA" is an ACTUAL VA policy or just an individual opinion.  I rather suspect its the latter---at least I sure hope so..

PLEASE DO! I just helped my cousin--also a '70's SE Asian adventure vet--with a health crisis. He had developed pneumonia following a minor surgery at his hometown hospital. He was going down fast. His oldest son suggested he get transferred to the VA in Portland. They saved his life. He had gone septic. Everyone involved in his care was terrific. Caring and efficient. He went home 8 days later. Never paid a cent. I called him last night, and neither of us can remember him being asked about firearms ownership--and believe me, he'd have noticed!

All it takes these days is for one story to go unchecked and a lot of folks avoid using a service they have coming. I sure hope this turns out to be one of those internet rumors. Thanks for looking into this. Think I'll ask some questions too. I've got a couple of good Reps who look out for vets.