Soldiers first injured, then destitute

Every time I read this story, I remember when it was us facing waiting for a claim to be honored.

June 18th, 2008 4:41 pm
Soldiers first injured, then destitute


Wounded soldiers can face financial ruin while waiting for disability pay

By Michelle Roberts / Associated Press

SAN ANTONIO — His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to this for Isaac Stevens: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.

Stevens' descent from Army private first-class, 3rd Infantry Division, 11 Bravo Company, began in 2005 -- not in battle, since he was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Ga. He suffered a head injury and spinal damage.

The injury alone didn't put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it was military bureaucracy -- specifically, the way injured soldiers are discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their full disability payments begin to flow.

"When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, 'OK, you're on your own,'" said Stevens, who was discharged in November and was in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San Antonio apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers were discharged in the past two fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans' advocates and others say thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

"The anecdotal evidence is depressing," said Rep. John Hall, D-N.Y., who heads a subcommittee on veterans disability benefits. "These veterans are getting medical care, but their family is going through this huge readjustment at the same time they're dealing with financial difficulties."
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It was not Iraq or Afghanistan or the Gulf War that made my family suffer. It was Vietnam. Back then no one was reporting on PTSD and no one was talking about it. Newspaper reporters didn't want to hear our stories or our suffering. Service organizations were trying to help but even they were shocked to learn the VA could take a tax refund for the treatment diagnosed PTSD veterans were getting simply because their claims were not approved yet. It was a time when the Congress had passed a rule that allowed the VA to charge for "non-service" connected treatment even though that rule also lumped claims being processed for what doctors had already determined was connected to Vietnam. In the eyes of the VA a claim denied was a wound not covered.

We went through hell. Between seeing my marriage and my life fall apart, my husband's slide into oblivion, bill collectors calling and trying to explain what was happening to my family so that I could borrow money to keep a roof over our heads, fight his employer to make sure he still had a job, the stress nearly finished us off. Consider that I knew what PTSD was back then and was even doing outreach work with other Vietnam Veterans. What if I had to live with all of this and not even know why this was all happening? This is what the new generation is going through. Not only are they faced with everything we went through, they don't even know why. Can you manage to see how so many end up not only homeless but also see their marriages fall apart? Do you think that this is living up to our end of the deal when they get wounded in service to this nation? Do you think this is how a grateful nation should treat the wounded? Hell no! I just wish that anyone who thinks this is ok would bother to think of what their life would be like if they were the one it was being done to. Jesus even said something about this as well as the Ten Commandments! Would it bother you enough to do something about it? Then why don't you?

When the claims are tied up there is no income. Think about that when you hear about the time it takes to process a claim.