Oklahoma City vets’ claims being rejected

None of this is new, it is just worse than it was. My husband's claim took six years to have approved and a friend of his saw his claim rejected for 19 years. While some will say the claim was finally granted, what it takes to get from admitting they need help, especially with PTSD claims, to getting them is more hell than anyone would ever put up with in civilian life, but the veterans are all expected to just deal with the system and wait. Wait for money when they can't work because they were wounded in service? This isn't right and never has been right, never will be right making them wait for what they need from us.

Oklahoma City vets’ claims being rejected
Many armed forces veterans in Oklahoma are having trouble receiving disability payments

BY ANN KELLEY The Oklahoman
Published: January 10, 2010

Four times Gary Endsley has applied for disability compensation for health problems he thinks are related to exposure to Agent Orange in Vietnam. Each time Endsley has been turned down by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

With each rejection letter he’s flooded with more disappointment and frustration, and feels that he’s "being called a liar” about his military record, he said.

"I’m beginning to feel like I had been better off going to Canada and skipping the war,” said Endsley, 65, of Oklahoma City.

Endsley is one of many armed forces veterans living in Oklahoma and wrangling with Veterans Affairs over disability compensation.

Nationally, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs processed more than 1.1 million claims in 2009, including 25,396 for Oklahoma, said Jessica Jacobson, spokeswoman for the agency’s regional office in Dallas.

The Oklahoman requested the number of Oklahoma veterans denied disability compensation for 2009, but Jacobson Friday said those numbers were not available.

She said the caseload has increased 50 percent since 2000, with Afghanistan and Iraq military servicemen and women returning home and the aging population of other war veterans, as well as the initiation of new U.S. Department of Defense benefits and recent court rulings.

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