National Veterans Foundation

Today (1/22/08) a bill was introduced in Washington by Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchins of Texas that would forgive the debt owed to the VA by soldiers who have lost their lives in combat. Well, someone should have thought of this a long time ago. I am surprised that a bill like this ever existed in the first place.

In February of this year, Murphy was sentenced to 90 days for refusing to use his combat related VA disability compensation and Social Security Disability money to pay court ordered alimony. Circuit Court Judge, James M. Batzer sentenced Murphy to 90 days in the Manistee County Jail on contempt of court charges. Murphy was lead away from the court house in handcuffs like a common criminal.

In the past I have written about the dis-service given to veterans by the VA while our elected officials sit back and do nothing, or even worse they do something, like deactivating a Minnesota National Guard unit one day before the required time needed for them to receive education benefits.

Here is another example of the callous treatment veterans face everyday all over the country, and how elected officials who claim to be on their side disgrace and mockingly treat us as expendables.

The other day the NVF received a call from Senior Master Sgt. Noel Sepulveda, an Air Force veteran and hero at the Pentagon terrorist attack site. He called to ask if there was anything the NVF could do to help him get his VA claim expedited and possibly help him get a clerical error on his pension paperwork corrected. The NVF takes hundreds of calls a month like this, so we asked the typical questions. At the time we had not heard of SMSGT Sepulveda, and I could tell in his voice it was difficult for this humble man to tell us his story. By the end of the call we could not believe what we were hearing. Even though we hear stories similar to this all day, the extent of the disrespect given to this hero made our jaws drop.

Wounded Vets also Suffer Financial Woes
By JEFF DONN and KIMBERLY HEFLING, Associated Press writers
Sep. 29, 2007 - 2:18 PM

TEMECULA, Calif. - He was one of America's first defenders on Sept. 11, 2001, a Marine who pulled burned bodies from the ruins of the Pentagon. He saw more horrors in Kuwait and Iraq.

Today, he can't keep a job, pay his bills, or chase thoughts of suicide from his tortured brain. In a few weeks, he may lose his house, too.

Read the whole story ...

Well, after reading this story I thought “Wow, this guy is making $4,330 a month for disability (the average annual payment for a totally disabled veteran is around $44k a year), that’s way more than I make”. As I thought that I thanked God that – I do not suffer from PTSD, I was not one of the first responders that sifted through the rubble searching for bodies at Ground Zero, I do not have flashbacks, I did not see the horrors of war, I was not deployed to Kuwait or Iraq.

If you read the rest of the article you will see that the government has severely underestimated the cost of caring for veterans.

Lawyers, Veterans advocates and service members are saying that the Army is deliberately shortchanging Troops on their disability and retirement ratings. I find that they are not only shortchanging them but out-right abusing them by forcing Soldiers to prove they have Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD), and demanding physical evidence for Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).

Steve Engle, head legal counsel for Soldiers at Ft. Lewis, WA, said that in one case a Soldier who had watched his buddy die in Iraq, and now suffers from PTSD, was told that he needed to get documentation from the famliy that his friend had died. Then, this Soldier was told he had to prove he witnessed the death. Not only are dispicable acts like this going on but Engle says some of his collegues have a name for the TBI test, they call it the Wal-Mart greeter test. They say if you can be a greeter at a discount store, then you don´t qualify for more than 10% compensation.

I first posted this topic more out of disbelief for the way soldiers are being cheated out of their benefits by the VA, and mislead by the military when exiting active duty. I thought it was the Department of Defense deciding to redefine the term "Veteran" so that they would not have to be held accountable for all the men and women coming home with serious injuries and mental disorders (this is another topic). The more I read the more I find out that the term “Military Veteran” has never really been definitively defined by our government for the purposes of determining benefits for active military service.