-Caveat Lector-
Begin forwarded message:
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Date: February 20, 2007 1:30:14 PM PST
To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Cc: [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED], [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: (2) "Support Our Troops" ?
February 19, 2007
Another Walter Reed horror story, from the Army Times
by John in DC · 2/19/2007 10:18:00 AM ET
http://americablog.blogspot.com/2007/02/another-walter-reed-horror-
story-from.html
This is a national disgrace. From the Army Times
http://www.armytimes.com/news/2007/02/tnsmedboards070217/
A pale scar creates a deep furrow connecting [Pvt. Robert Van
Antwerp] Van Antwerp’s eyebrows. Doctors replaced bone with
titanium after he fractured his skull. Bare-chested as he trimmed,
Van Antwerp has a deep, laddered line from beneath his sternum to
at least the top of his sweatpants. A blast ruptured his spleen and
ripped out his colon. Pushing up his left pant leg as he told his
battle story, Van Antwerp showed where three ligaments tore away
from his knee, and then pointed out the scar from his broken tibia.
Above his heart, the ranks and last names of two dead friends are
etched in ink. But he calls a friend to ask their first names.
Short-term memory loss arrived for Van Antwerp in the same
[suicide] attack that killed his buddies....
Yet when it was time for the Army to take care of him, one of its
wounded warriors, Van Antwerp gave up before he even began. Rather
than fight for a higher disability rating, he quietly signed for 20
percent — and no medical benefits — saying he knew he couldn’t do
better. He inherited his father’s stubbornness, he said, and
refused to ask anyone to pull strings based on his dad’s rank. Then
his first medical board counselor, the person who would help him
make his way through the medical evaluation board system, left. The
second, he said, “wasn’t on the ball.”
“The Army is trying to give you the lowest amount of money
possible,” he said....
And the Veterans Administration is backlogged 400,000 cases.
Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had
a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006,
according to VA.
Then there's the soldier with the brain tumor who the military
screwed.
In August 2004, as Spc. Karl Unbehagan, 29, reported to his new
unit at Fort Benning, Ga., he developed intense migraine headaches.
Doctors told the infantry soldier he was not used to the humid
weather. A couple of months later, they ran a CAT scan.
“I had a tumor in the third ventricle of my brain,” Unbehagan
explained, pointing to the shunt that runs from the scar on his
head down to his stomach to relieve the pressure in his brain.
“They realized it had nothing to do with the weather.”
The physical evaluation board rated him at zero percent, saying the
tumor was a pre-existing condition. Unbehagan has been in the Army
for four years, and his doctors found no proof the tumor existed
before he joined, he said.
In order to appreciate what this means, read what the board does.
A soldier goes before a physical evaluation board if a medical
evaluation board — a team of doctors — determines he is not able to
do his job because of his injury. The physical evaluation board
then determines again if the soldier should stay in the military
and, if not, how much the Defense Department will compensate the
soldier. If the soldier receives a disability rating of 30 percent
or higher, he gets a disability retirement check based on years of
service, rank and the rating percentage. He and his family will
also receive medical benefits for life. If the rating is lower than
30 percent, he gets a one-time severance payment.
So basically, we have our soldiers dealing with the equivalent of
State Farm -- people whose job it is to screw you out of any
possible benefit you might get.
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