Thank you that is my point.If I get hyped up about this it is for that fact.A gripe over returning vets when we are handing out billions to people who never went into harms way.
Simple fact this stuff is 10000% easier to square away on discharge than it is to do 10 years later, let alone 30 years later when it might be having a huge impact on your life. If that means claiming for every little twinge and niggle, so be it, better than doing it tough decades later when your memory of events is shot, when you can't chase people you served with for evidence and while you still have the system there to chase stuff up for you.
A lot of the conflict comes from service members who have been in the "****" complainning about those who didn't do anything anywhere near as bad claiming dissability. I do the same. If somebody that sat at Camp Dwyer for 7 months claims PTSD or any physical injury I'm going to laugh, because those people don't see even a 1% of what somebody in Marjah, Sanging, Musa Qela, etc have seen. For example one of my guys was working on a ISAF casualty (ANA got hit with machinegun fire) a few weeks ago, and the person died while he worked on him. This kid is a good Marine and I'm sure hes not going to claim PTSD once he gets out. But somebody who sat behind a desk or worked in a shop in one of the big bases in the desert is going to claim PTSD because they weren't at home for 7 months and saw a vehicle roll over or something along the lines might go ahead and claim, then yea it pisses people off.
Is part of the if you're not a grunt you ain't **** mentality. I'm sure the other 03s out here would agree. Yes a lot of people abuse the system. But i can vouch, any infantryman nowadays is humping so much weight on their backs that their bodies won't be the same.
And yet the bean counter at Dwyer, or a joystick jokey at Bagram AB might really be traumatized by the fear of having to run to a secure location when there is a mortar alert, while the grunt down to FOB Hellhole who've been in the sh!ttiest sh!t, killed people, got shot at, or even saw people he cared about been blown up might be perfectly fine.Originally Posted by iluvatar
Doesn't mean the guy that was never in real danger is faking. His suffering is as real as anyone else, it's really hard to accept it for people that have been in real danger and are fine, for obvious reasons.
(In fact it's even worse than that, the guy on the front line that can fight back is actually less likely to be traumatized than the poor sod working in a concrete building that has to run to it's shelter every other day).
People are not equal in front of stress and react differently.
The VA should only treat people equally depending where they where affected or how many time they had to put their life at risk?
Last time I checked the VA was a medical institution if a doc says that yeah they're suffering from something service related shouldn't they be trusted? Aren't they the guys that, quite literally sometimes, patch people up and therefore see the worse of the casualties, and perfectly knows what disabled means?
Or are they all heart-bleeding tree-hugging commies giving happily benefits to the first guy that shows up?
I was a US Army medic. I never served a combat deployment. But two years ago, while clearing out from Devens barracks before AT, I fell down the stairs and landed with both knees bent on a concrete floor. At the time of the fall, I was carrying two full A-bags. For the rest of that summer, I had difficulty walking. Keeping up at my civilian job was torture. I pushed on through it anyway and got into the VA for the injury. I did not press for any sort of disability then and I am extremely reluctant to do so now despite my provider's encouraging it, for the same reasons that have been given previously.
I am not a combat veteran. I have no combat injuries. I can still walk and do my job without a great amount of pain or difficulty. As my provider says, my injury occurred on the Army's time and I won't lose anything by submitting a packet anyway, even if it doesn't get me a disability rating. But I find the prospect of doing so disgraceful, because I "never went anywhere and didn't do anything".
The funny thing is, if the same thing were to happen to somebody I'd taken care of, I would most likely tell them to put the paperwork in and not to worry about it.
If you are a vet, it's much easier to get in the system now, get checked out and get any problems documented now, even if they aren't debilitating, than waiting until you're 40, it's worse, and you have nothing to back it up. At the least you can get checked out. And on the mental side, it never hurts to talk to someone. Of course routine check-ups and talking to a counselor at the Vet Center both count as services, so I guess that would piss off the writer of the article. Any case, as a vet, you have benefits you're entitled to even without claiming disability. Do the research, call the VA or your local VFW or American Legion.
It's not about who saw the most poopy.
And if you're not a vet, shut up.
I have been told I have some issues. My right hand is damaged with numbness and occasionally it shakes like I am wired on coffee for no reason. I was told to have it looked at but fvck it. I am not going to sit around some hospital b!tching when there are others worse than me. I guess I am old school. I still can shoot well and pass my PT test so carry on is what I say.
Just one man's opinion of his condition.
Sherm...
I was adivsed on my first VA visit to put in for a 30% PTSD claim based soley on the counselor saying it was free money. I had then and Now, No symptoms and was offended as I believe it takes funds away for treating those who really d suffere from PTSD. I knew several SPC's who all they talked about the last couple f weeks in country was how to maximise a VA claim and the best way to get a PTSD claim. Made me sick. One kid would jump into a crouch and reach for a non existant handgun (he never was issued) for any loud bang and blamed it on a VBIED attack that happened while he was in NY on R&R Leave.
I hear you on the attitude of "just take it". It seemed the only thing ACAP was interested in teaching was how to put a claim in. How 'bout telling me what kind of job to look for or what to study? Yes the attitude is there. But I think if it gets guys in the door, it's more positive than negative. And the reality is that rather than taking money from guys with no legs or severe mental injuries, having more vets enrolled probably helps the VA get the money it needs. Ask some old vet about what the VA hospitals were like in the '70s and '80s.
But the gimme attitude is definitely there. I think I was the only combat vet at my community college who wasn't on at least partial disability (nothing wrong with me). Kind of weird when I met guy who wanted to be a cop going to school on Voc-Rehab for PTSD. Maybe we have come further as a society than I thought, but I'm not sure I'd want to apply for a law enforcement job with a documented history of mental illness. But what do I know? Not my field.
People can get PTSD from all sorts of things unrelated to combat or deployment. ****** assault, a car accident, seeing someone get run over by a bus, etc.
Speaking as a former 0311, that's a pretty immature attitude. I hope you'll outgrow it - I'm glad I did.
Again, the VA is for all vets, not just combat veterans, and it addresses all potential service related disabilities, not just injuries sustained in combat. I'm surprised at how many people who are posting here don't seem to understand this.
A lot of this is, I think, the result of the VA having to eat vast buckets of sh*t about 5 years ago. There was endless criticism of how vets were being neglected, the system was massively overburdened and labyrinthine, and it was near impossible for veterans to receive the assistance they needed. It sounds like the system has gotten turned around. Back then, all the bitching would have been something like "I went to Iraq for fifteen months, blah blah blah, and I come home, and no one cares." Now, a bunch of y'all are getting pissed not about lack of assistance for yourselves, but what other people are claiming? I still don't know why you care. People have been liars since Cain killed Abel. Stop worrying so much about other people.
Can we just all agree that the correct spelling of the term is "pogue" please?
Because POGs were a kids game not a REMF.
Which is not to be confused with the band minus an F....
It's been 10 years of war and many guys got deployed over and over. Fifty percent claims it's just an indicator that perhaps things are not that great. Guess what, 20 years ago the system was the same, we did have a few guys claiming disability for various injuries, maybe a few milked the system, mostly legit stuff.
2X................ The VA paper stuffers where the worse in the 70's. Health care people were then and now pretty top notch.
There is always someone who had it worse and someone who had it better. That is the way it is. As James stated:
"Stop worrying so much about other people."
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