PTSD veteran says "My life is a nightmare, I was treated better in Iraq than here"

Disability payments held up for some Iraq vets
Jordan Green
News editor

“The VA told me: ‘Hey, you’re screwed up because of the war,’” retired Army Sgt. Quentin Richardson says. “I didn’t come up with that. It should be automatic. I don’t think there should be any debate about whether or not you should receive the benefits. I didn’t debate serving.” (photo by Daniel Bayer)

Quentin Richardson saved the US government $750,000 when he implemented a tracking system to eliminate inefficiencies in the distribution of supplies to detainees at Camp Bucca in southern Iraq. While there, he sacrificed a piece of his sanity when he helped quell a riot of detainees recently relocated from Abu Ghraib, and afterwards carried some of their bodies to the morgue.

In return, the US Department of Veterans Affairs at first insisted that the former National Guard Army sergeant return $17,000 in separation pay received from earlier military service in the Marine Corps before he received disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder.

"My life is a nightmare," said the 45-year-old Greensboro veteran, who has not been able to find employment since he returned from Iraq in October 2005. "I was treated better in Iraq than here. I start my day by going to the cabinet to get medication, and I've never been on antidepressants before."

Richardson reenlisted with the National Guard in November 2001, almost a decade after receiving an honorable discharge following the fulfillment of his commitment to the Marine Corps. He deployed as a detainee supply sergeant with the 105th Military Police Battalion in October 2004 to Camp Bucca at Umm Qasr, a port city near the border of Kuwait.

"I decided after 9-11 that I should serve," Richardson said. "I honestly would not have done that if I knew I would have to repay that separation pay, if I knew the battle that I would have to fight with the VA. I left one battleground to return to another."

National advocates say they are seeing a rising number of cases involving Iraq war veterans who incur PTSD and other disabilities after reenlisting, only to find they are unable to receive immediate benefits until they return separation pay.
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