Veterans Service Officer thinks Vietnam Vets will cheat on PTSD claims?

During the Vietnam War, it was not so much what an MOS was, just like now, because depending on where you were and when you were there, you could have been a cook and exposed to combat trauma. Clerks with duties that only lasted a couple of hours a day, went back to their hooch, picked up their helmet and weapons, then went on patrol. Members of the "band" pulled bunker guard duty and when the base was attacked or mortared, they all fought back.

There were Marines in the last battle of the Vietnam War who died while trying to rescue the crew of the Mayaquez.

The Mayaguez incident involving the Khmer Rouge government in Cambodia on May 12–15, 1975, marked the last official battle of the United States (U.S.) involvement in the Vietnam War. The names of the Americans killed are the last names on the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, as well as those of three Marines who were left behind on the island of Koh Tang after the battle and who were subsequently executed by the Khmer Rouge while in captivity. The merchant ship's crew, whose seizure at sea had prompted the U.S. attack, had been released in good health, unknown to the U.S. Marines or the U.S. command of the operation, before the Marines attacked. It was the only known engagement between U.S. ground forces and the Khmer Rouge.

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayaguez_incident

The problem is, for the Marines and all others involved with this, they have been accused of not being real Vietnam Veterans. Claims have been turned down because of when it happened and how little some people know about the Vietnam War. Yet for others, the Vietnam Vets are once again a target. It doesn't matter how many years they have waited for the support to get help, the programs to be there, the staff to be there or any sign of hope enough to even try again, because to some, Vietnam veterans are nothing to be proud of. Reading this it makes me ill to think that once again they would be the target of people who assume the worst about these men and women. They can understand Iraq and Afghanistan, how there are no safe zones and assume only the best of them but when it comes to the Vietnam veterans, they will be "coming out of the woodwork" to make false claims. Did it ever dawn on these people that had it not been for Vietnam Vets fighting to have PTSD treated there would be nothing ready for these new veterans?

Female Vietnam vets have been turned down even if they were in Vietnam!

Vets cheer change on PTSD claims

STEVEN VERBURG 608-252-6118 sverburg@madison.com
July 19, 2010
Even after a Madison Veterans Hospital doctor diagnosed Army veteran Stephen Jackson with post-traumatic stress disorder, the Veterans Administration refused to grant him disability compensation.

“This is the problem, that they don’t see a person who wasn’t directly in combat as being exposed to an event that would have caused PTSD,” said Jackson, who served in Vietnam from 1972 to 1973, and saw a friend shot to death, smelled decomposing corpses and faced the constant danger of being robbed while transporting money as a courier. “I have to prove the exact incident that caused the PTSD to make it service connected — that’s not always possible.”

Jackson, 61, of Oregon, has been frustrated for four years by VA rejections of his claim. He is one of thousands now seeing a ray of hope in changes announced last week to make it easier for military veterans suffering from PTSD to obtain monthly benefit checks.

Veterans advocates praised the rule change, which went into effect Tuesday, but added they expect it will lead to more attempts to make fraudulent claims.

Greatest effect on recent vets
Dane County Veterans Service Officer Michael Jackson said he expects claims from Vietnam-era and earlier veterans “will be coming out of the woodwork, grasping at straws,” and unrealistic claims will be denied.

The rule change will have its greatest effect on Iraq and Afghanistan veterans because so many non-combat personnel encounter roadside bombs, and because there are few places not in danger of mortar attacks or suicide bombs.

Even Wisconsin National Guard troops performing administrative jobs in Baghdad’s Green Zone were within range of mortar rounds that insurgents occasionally lobbed in blindly, said Bob Evans, the state Guard’s director of psychological health.

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Vets cheer change on PTSD claims