For reasons most of you know, I have been spending a lot of time reading the U.S. News and world Report. The Latest article that caught my eye kept me awake last night. The cover story Cheating Our Vets talked about the big discrepancies the Military Medical Evaluation Boards (MEB) and the Veterans Affairs Medical Boards come to when dealing with giving wounded and unfit soldiers disability classification. It pointed out several instances where the MEB gave a Soldier a 10% disability rating, but the VA gave the same Soldier a 90% disability rating. In one instances the MEB issued a 0% disability and the VA gave 100%.For those of you who don't know these ratings are a huge deal. When a Soldier is hurt and can no longer preform his duties as a Soldier, the military issues them a disability classification. The goal for most Soldiers is at least 30%. At 30% you get medical retirement benefits that include a monthly allowance, health insurance, life insurance, and many more benefits. If they are classified under 30% they are given a one time payment that depends on the severity of the illness and the length of service. Then they are sent on to the VA in hopes of getting a little more help.
After reading this article I have given up any hope on receiving anything but a kick in the ass and a thanks for your time from the MEB board. Since I didn't loose a limb and am not horrible disfigured I can guarantee I wont receive anything above 20%. I have found that most, if not all of those getting a rating above 30% have lost a limb of some kind. With me only losing my colon and a little bit of memory it doesn't look good.
I don't want you to think I am trying to swindle money from our government. That is definitely not the case. It just pisses me off that I wouldn't be in this situation if the army wouldn't have screwed up in the first place. Instead of putting in an MEB packet I would be putting in a Sergeant First Class promotion packet.
So what can you do? For me, nothing? But the next you talk to your senator you might want to mention the fact it is a disgrace the way we are treating our wounded Soldiers. Really I don't need any help, me and Jenn will be fine. Really the only thing I would like, is for them to apologize for misdiagnosing me. But an apology is one thing the army doesn't do.
It really makes me angry to think about all those Soldiers I saw and helped at Landstuhl not getting what they deserve!
2 comments:
It’s my opinion that if you serve our country there is an obligation as a human being that you will be taken of, especially when shiz out of your control effects you. But I have also seen soldiers cheat the system, When I was in Afghan I had a soldier fake a back injury. This guy was one lazy S.O.B. he now gets 90% disability. If were up to me that MF would be in jail for fraud.
Given the current sensitivity to soldier care, now would be the time press for what ever outcome you are most interested in.
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