Kansas:Ex-soldier deals with post military problems

Ex-soldier deals with post military problems
by Mike Belt

Wednesday, 20 August 2008

The Army was going to be a second career for Gary Connellis.

Born and raised in Brooklyn, N.Y., he followed his father’s footsteps and joined the New York City Police Department. He spent 17 years there.

Connellis, 39, who now lives in Leavenworth, lost some friends in the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center. Despite his desire to join the Army immediately, his wife was about to have a baby. He waited until his daughter was 5 before enlisting.

“It took a lot of running and getting back into shape,” Connellis said.

His Army career turned out to be a short one though, the aftermath of which he will be dealing with the rest of his life.

While on special assignment in 2006, Connellis was wounded by a roadside bomb. He can’t say what that assignment was or where he was, but he does say he was not in Iraq or Afghanistan.

He joined the Army in 2005. He was honorably discharged with disabilities in July 2007. He has a long list of injuries — physical and mental — stemming from that explosion. After filing for disability payments from the U.S. Deptartment of Veterans Affairs, Connellis was determined to be suffering a 30 percent disability: The lower the percentage the lower his disability payments.

Since he initially filed some of his claims Connellis found information in his Army medical records that he didn’t know about and which were not passed on to the VA. That includes one record showing he had a herniated disk in his lower back. The Army never treated him for that, despite frequent trips to Army doctors about the back pain, he said. He also found out he has asthma, something else the Army never told him about or treated him for, he said.

Connellis has appealed and is seeking a 100 percent disability declaration from the VA. The appeals were filed months ago and he is still awaiting a ruling.

We want to know about people in the military from the Douglas County area. Where are they deployed? When will they be coming back? What are their experiences? If you are currently in the military from this area and want to communicate with us, that’s fine, too. Please send me an e-mail.

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