Thomas Lipscomb wrong on PTSD attitude

He is so wrong on this. Let me count the ways.

Leave the Purple Heart Alone
Thomas Lipscomb May 27, 2008

Since the 1960s the combination of the antiwar and non-military serving sectors of academia, the media, the leaders of various peace causes, the "allergic to combat" upper income sector of society and the shrinkocracy have made various cases with various levels of proof that not only was the old Mothers for Peace poster correct that "war not healthy for children and other living things," but that it causes far more casualties than are normally counted.

1-One word, Afghanistan. Proof of this is Bush's approval rating when he decided to invade Afghanistan in retaliation to the attacks of 9-11. His approval rate was near 90%. This removes any notion that "antiwar and non-military serving sectors of academia, the media, the leaders of various peace causes, the "allergic to combat" upper income sector of society and the shrinkocracy" but apparently he has also forgotten another event called the Gulf War. This also found favor with the American people so much so that Bush the 43rd thought Bush the 41st, should have ran his re-election campaign on the "political capital" he gained by it. People can claim whatever they want but what they cannot do is remove history.

Veterans have always found war downright hazardous to their health. But now their own lobbying groups such as the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, and Vietnam Veterans of America, and employees of the Veterans Administration itself have decided to facilitate a blizzard of dubious veterans' benefit claims worse than the wildest dreams of any welfare queen.

2-Welfare queen? Ok and how does one accomplish this? This argument has so many holes in it. Welfare is for people in need regardless of what they earned. The VA compensation however, is dependant upon what is earned. The very fact they have to prove they were wounded in service to this nation blows any notion of "welfare" out the door. The key word here is wounded. In the private sector, there is a thing called workman's compensation and social security disability insurance that is paid should a worker become injured and unable to work due to their employment. This argument may play well with the ambivalent crowd of "screw you I got mine" but it appalls the rest of us who have been paying attention and do in fact value the lives of the men and women serving this nation now and in all the years prior.

The financial "benefit" has been provided all along. The Purple Heart has nothing to do with the fact the VA and the DOD not only acknowledge PTSD, but they have invested hundreds of millions of our tax dollars in addressing it since the 80's. Sure, they are lacking in what needs to be done but if it was not such a huge real problem, they would be sinking the funds into defense instead of the needs of the veterans created by defending the nation.

Now the anti-military groups and some veterans' lobbyists appear to be combining forces in asking that the honored Purple Heart for those physically wounded in combat be awarded for mental conditions based upon some highly dubious criteria. And this proposal is actually receiving serious consideration by the Bush Department of Defense.

3- The "anti-military" groups in his mind would include all the groups established to take care of the veterans needs. If they were anti-military, this would include veterans. There would be no veterans if they did not serve in the military. How can these groups be anti-military if they are fighting for the members who made up the military in the first place?

Claims of injuries from PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder are being used to grossly inflate the casualty rate and establish a whole new class of dubious "victims" out of veterans who served their country and are now being induced to serve themselves by both those who hate the American military while, of course, ritually praising their "service," and veteran lobbyist groups who claim to speak "for veterans" while increasing their ability to sell veterans on the benefits they get by paying for membership.

4-To "grossly inflate the casualty rate" would require the fact the media would be adding in the deaths associated with service. When a soldier dies in country (the place they are risking their lives in) they are counted no matter how that death occurred. Natural causes, accidents, suicides while deployed are counted in the death count. Yet when they die back in this country (the country they were risking their lives in service of) this is where the line is drawn. Sometimes if they die as a result of their acknowledged physical wounds, they do get included in the total death count, but there are many who do not ever get added to it. The deaths connected with the wound of PTSD do not get added to the count. We need to look at the word trauma itself. Many who argue against awarding the Purple Heart are simply unaware of what trauma is. It comes from the Greeks and means wound. When they named PTSD what they did, they knew what they were doing.

In doing so, they have helped veterans and in some cases people who simply claimed to be veterans make hundreds of thousands of PTSD injury claims in what military records fraud expert B.G. Burkett calls "by far the largest collection of military disability fraud cases in the history of the United States, all alleging PTSD."

5- "Claim to be veterans" again is a fraudulent statement. They must prove they are veterans first. Records from the DOD are required before any claim can be begun. Evidence has to be presented. You cannot walk into a DAV office and sit there and claim to be a veteran without any documentation to back it up. Are there frauds who manage to pull off fake documents that even experts believe? Absolutely but they are a tiny fraction of the vast population of real veterans needing help.

If you go here http://www.va.gov/oig/52/reports/2001/99-00054-1.pdf you will find that the "fraud" cases reported here do not involve fake claims, but claims where income has not been reported as required. A veteran's pay (percentage of disability) allows veterans to work depending upon the percentage of the claim awarded. A veteran with 100% disability is paid because they are deemed to be unemployable. In other words, they are not supposed to be able to work at all. A lower rate would be calculated on the fact they can work but have been limited to how much they can work. These are not fraudulent claims but fraudulent financial compensation instead.

If you go here http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m1571/is_20_15/ai_54775001/pg_2 you will find a report on workman's comp claims from federal employees, in other words, people who work for the VA and not veterans with disability claims.

It turns out that it's only 2.5% that are potentially fraudulent.

It also raises the specter that some veterans might be engaging in fraud, stating that 2.5 percent of cases where veterans were getting some money for PTSD were "potentially fraudulent." "We noted an abundance of Web sites providing advice to veterans filing PTSD claims or offering ways to compile less than truthful evidence to obtain approval," the report reads. It notes that one Web site sells a fake Purple Heart for $19.95.

http://obama.senate.gov/news/050810-sticker_shock_over_shell_shock/index.php


For six years, the VA would not approve my husband's claim. They did not doubt PTSD, but they did question his Bronze Star award. The social security number on his award was typed in wrong. When he pointed this out, while still in Vietnam, they said they would correct it. They did not fix the record all the way through. It took a general to review all the documents to have it corrected all the way. His claim was approved soon afterward. This is where the "potentially fraudulent" claim can come in. His claim was truthful but he had to prove it, then his claim was honored.

PTSD is a real condition and many do suffer from it, but it is a lot easier to fake than it is to diagnose, and with the sloppy standards currently in effect, it is inevitable that the system is constantly abused.

6-Again, take a look at the 2.5%. There are some who do try to fake a claim but there are far more who never file a claim at all because of all that comes with having the claim approved. The attitude of people in this country, from employers to co-workers is still appalling. You don't have to search very hard to find reports of people thinking PTSD is funny. They will go to great lengths to obtain entertainment from a PTSD veteran by trying to set them off. Then there is the attitude of the military itself telling the troops that it could harm their careers and yes, that is still going on. The other factor is the future. Try to apply for a life insurance policy with PTSD diagnosed. Try to get health care with it. When it comes to getting a job because you have less than 100% VA disability, you'll have a very hard time finding one.

Seventy per cent of the disability claims presented to the Veterans Administration come through what is called "a membership representative," who often works for one of the veteran's lobbyist organizations and helps applicants with the difficult paperwork. One of the recent candidates for president of the Vietnam Veterans of America had to disqualify himself when it was revealed that he had admitted drawing up phony claims for disabilities by VVA members to the Veterans' Administration.

7-The service organizations would not have to help with claims if the claim process was easier to understand and there was not such a huge backlog of claims. The help is needed especially with PTSD claims because the veteran is under a disability when they cannot advocate for themselves, have limited thinking, decision making ability and short term memory loss. Most of the veterans filing claims are on their own when it comes to having a family member fighting for them. This is why there are so many service organizations filing claims on behalf of veterans.

The other part about the VVA, I couldn't find anything on considering the name of the person was not even provided.

Since a 100 percent disability payment for PTSD can be worth more than $30,000 a year for life, it is not surprising that a high percentage of veterans working for the VA also receive payments for PTSD themselves. It also makes the grantee eligible for a 50 percent disability payment under Social Security. Together they total over $40,000 a year, tax free and inflation-indexed.

8-For the real facts go here and see what they get

http://www.military.com/benefits/veteran-benefits/va-compensation-tables

Even with this, think about how much money the veteran in fact loses. Take a veteran who makes a good living while they can work. $30,000 is a drop in the bucket for a lot of them. The VA does not provide overtime and does not provide bonuses. This is also given up when a veteran can no longer work. The key here is unable to work. They are unable to provide themselves with income to live. Most of them would prefer to work since they can make more money being able to work but their condition eliminates this.

9-Another thing is that while this rant is supposed to be about the Purple Heart being issued for PTSD, this "author" has taken it upon himself to attack every veteran with a claim into the VA for compensation. He is not separating any figures out for what he would acknowledge as a "worthy" claim and compensation. This makes his whole argument an attack against all disabled veterans.

Burkett, a veteran himself, has been hired as an expert to the Marine Corps and the FBI, and testified on cases of phony assertions of rank, military service and medals awarded in numerous legal cases. His book Stolen Valor led to the recent passage of the Stolen Valor Act of 2006. The Act established Federal penalties for attempts to pass off fraudulent claims for medals or military service.

10-What does this have to do with PTSD and the Purple Heart? Are there jerks in this country who are trying to find some gain in pretending to be heroes? Yes. I'm glad people are going after the frauds who have been in the media reports but most of the ones they caught were not getting VA disability. They were just getting people to suck up to them.

Newspapers have carried stories for years about Burkett's work in helping unmask pretenders to military rank and honors who had been showing up on 4th of July reviewing stands and public ceremonies for years in full dress uniforms, with ranks and decorations they had invented rather than earned.

In an attempt to try to get a handle on the flood of PTSD disability claims overwhelming the Veteran's Administration, its Inspector General department briefed Burkett about a pilot study the VA had made of 2100 random PTSD cases that had been extracted out of the 287,000 cases they were considering at the time.

11-And this proves what? "Considering" "Pilot study" What does this prove?

Of that sample group, for example, more than 28 percent had no medical trauma event of any kind in their records. And the rate of successful PTSD claims processed through the VA system was far higher in some parts of the country. Some areas approved 60 percent of claims with no trauma record while only 10% were granted in others. The VA seemed on the edge of uncovering the most massive fraud in its history and one in which it bore at least part of the blame. As the second largest agency in the Federal government with almost 300,000 employees it was at least possible for it to do a solid evaluation.

12-Again when the cliam is proven the evidence has to be there. No trauma means it is not PTSD. PTSD is after trauma. They have to prove the trauma. Until a claim is approved, they fall into "not proven" and the claim is denied. We could also address the fact that there were over 22,000 troops discharged under a false "personality disorder" diagnoses when in fact the evidence pointed to PTSD, but then that would blow his argument yet again. This is not even addressing the fact that when a claim is turne down, a lot of veterans walk away and give up because they don't have the fight in them to fight the government.

But as soon as word of the VA's intention of a broad review of hundreds of thousands of PTSD claims costing potentially billions of dollars got out, Congressional members like Barack Obama and Lane Evans proposed legislation to block any review of possible fraud as an attack upon the rights of veterans. Not surprisingly, no review has taken place. In the meantime the paperwork on PTSD disability claims has gotten so huge at the VA and the expense of reviewing each claim is so high, that the VA is considering routinely granting disability payments before finally approving claims.

13-72,000 became "hundreds of thousands" in his mind.

In August, the VA announced it would be reviewing 72,000 PTSD awards granted between 1999 and 2004. This amounts to about one-third of all PTSD claims. The majority of the awards went to Vietnam veterans who have battled the VA, many for ten years or longer, to receive compensation for PTSD. The awards to be reviewed will be ones where full disability (100%) for PTSD was granted. Veterans? groups stand united in opposition to the review.

http://www.vawatchdog.org/milcom/veteransbenefitsarenotsafe.htm

There has been enough medal inflation in the American military over the past half century. From the medals "package" that started being handed out like Red Cross donuts in the Vietnam War to the rows of ticket-punching "I was there" ribbons that clutter the chest of an 18 1/2-year-old who had some involvement in the current conflict in the Middle East, it is hard enough to separate those that mean something from the rest.

14-Ok, he just insulted Vietnam veterans who earned their medals. Why do they do this? Why do they attack all veterans trying to prove a point?

Gaming the military awards system for medals has always been a problem. The fictional Victorian Sir Harry Flashman was constantly able to get medals for bravery during his worst acts of cowardice. And the real Swift boat naval officer John Kerry managed to somehow get the three Purple Hearts it took him to get out of any further service in Viet Nam in just four months, without losing a single day on duty.

15-When all else fails, attack John Kerry.

But the idea of seriously considering awarding the Purple Heart for an as yet difficult to establish PTSD condition that is the focus of an immense fraud being concealed from the public, whose taxes have to pay for it, by both the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal Government, is a cynical obscenity.

16-This is it. This is the problem with PTSD and he just admitted it. "Difficult to establish PTSD condition" because of all the things that go along with this. The fraud is not that these wounded veterans are seeking what they already earned in service to this nation. The fraud is when you have lip service being paid to the suffering of our veterans with cameras rolling and then they turn around and say PTSD is not worth addressing. Peake tried to say it was like a football injury and that attitude is what they hold behind closed doors. Read some of the things they've said and you'll know what I mean. Most of them are on this blog.

Let's do the best we can to support the Military Order of the Purple Heart, made up of those to whom it has actually been awarded, in keeping the one medal established by the nation's first commander in chief and first President, George Washington, for what it is. It is one of the few awards that has maintained its value during all the medal inflation of the past 70 years since it was re-established by Douglas MacArthur.

17-They used to shoot PTSD soldiers for being cowards. That was when they had an excuse from lack of knowledge. Just like when they used to bleed patients to death to "cure them" and amputate limbs because they didn't know what else to do. The death rate of severely wounded has dropped because now the medical advancements have saved lives. If he wants to go back in time to a place where we did a lot of stupid things then he needs to consider all the ramifications in doing so. Again PTSD means wound! It is acknowledged in police departments, fire departments, emergency responders and all other walks of life as a human wound. How can it be that so many in this country still fail to acknowledge this fact?

It should not be allowed to fall the victim of the military's self-interested "friends" and long-standing enemies. We don't need another worthless example of the inability of our society to tell a proud citation for what novelist Stephen Crane called "the red badge of courage" from the bloodless transmittal sheet for yet another questionable disability claim.

18-This lost any sense of seriousness of this rant. Why on earth would "enemies" of the military give a crap for anyone in the military or any veteran who served in the military? What point was he trying to make here and failed so miserably in doing so?

(Journalist Thomas Lipscomb served as an officer in the Army from 1961 to 1964. He was chairman of the Vietnam Veterans' Leadership employment program in New York. This article originally appeared at Real Clear Politics.)

Sound Off...What do you think? Join the discussion.


Copyright 2008 Thomas Lipscomb. All opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily reflect those of Military.com.
http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,168565,00.html

I've heard all the nonsense about this before but when they try to toss in everything with their usual talking points, it blows their argument right out the door. The fact there are fraudulent claims is real, but tiny and those claims are not all about PTSD. This list goes on and so does the type of rant we just read.

I don't know who this person is and I do not care to learn who he is but the blessing is that people like him are dwindling in numbers. More and more people in this country and all over the world are awakening to this century and advancements in technology. The dark ages are drawing to a close and soon we will stop fighting over what we already know so we can begin to address what needs to be done and do it. Fighting over the existence of a problem does nothing to fix a problem.

It comes down to this. The men and women who serve in the military are doing their jobs. They are doing what they were trained to do and what we are lucky to have them willing to do. When will we be willing to acknowledge this? Civilian employees have an easier time collecting for injuries on their jobs. We make those who fight for this country turn around and fight the country to have their wounds taken care of and their families provided for. Post means "after, Traumatic means "after trauma" and trauma means "wound" but people like him can't get that into their own brains and will make all kinds of lame attempts to dismiss the suffering of our troops and our veterans. Why do they do it? What do they hope to gain by attacking veterans? Why do they hide behind them instead of standing beside them?

This is what Washington had to say

"The willingness with which our young people are likely to serve in any war, no matter how justified, shall be directly proportional to how they perceive veterans of early wars were treated and appreciated by our nation."

- George Washington

So why is it that people fight against doing the right thing for the sake of those who serve?