When you care enough to send the best, remember that

When you care enough to send the best, remember that.

by
Chaplain Kathie

Deciding to send men and women into combat, especially in someone else's country, means that doing something about something requires we send the best trained and equipped military in the world. They are the best. We cheer them, honor them and most of us claim to support them but when it comes time for them to return home, we don't seem to remember they were the best and gave us the best they had. We let them languish in a flood of paperwork and in long lines. We let them have to fight the government to have their claims approved.

Some in this country want to suggest that anyone claiming PTSD is a fraud yet no matter how much evidence to prove otherwise, they cannot even manage to understand that they were regarded as the best and not the kind of person to be wanting a free ride off anyone. They risked their lives for others, but some forget that. They stepped up and went where we sent them while the rest of us were able to stay home and complain about how much it was costing or how long it was taking. The time for those thoughts was before they were sent. The time to honor them is always and the time to value them is more when they come home.

PTSD Claims: Making the Process Easier for Our Veterans

By Tammy Duckworth
We often hear the cliché, “the fog of war”—a simplified expression used to describe the chaos and confusion so often found in a combat zone. It’s something all combat Veterans understand.

Whether you’re running toward a hardened shelter during a mortar attack or gripping the wheel as your truck races through an area known for ambushes, combat is not a place where troops often stop to document the details. Those details may be forever burned into our minds, but we often don’t come away with hard copy proof of what occurred.

Unfortunately, for years now, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has required Veterans filing disability claims for Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) to do just that—to document in detail what caused them to become symptomatic. We call it a “stressor.” Our rules have been even more stringent for Veterans who didn’t serve in a combat branch of the military—like the infantry, artillery, or armor.

Essentially, if a former military intelligence soldier is continually late for work because he can’t sleep at night, we ask him to provide photos or a written radio log proving he was rocketed when he says he was. If he can’t, we might deny the claim. If a former medic shows signs of depression and blames it on having watched people bleed to death, we ask her to get a written statement from her former boss. Again, if she can’t, we may not award her benefits. But starting today, we’re making this process.
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Making the Process Easier for Our Veterans

There are some people in this country who reduce everything down to a Democrat or Republican but this is about the right thing, knowing it, believing it and proving it. There are Democrats and Republicans and Independents risking their lives everyday to defend this country. Bullets, bombs and traumas do not ask for a voter registration card. They do not know blue state from red state from island. All that war offers includes men and women serving side by side with people they disagree with politically but agree with their lives.

They have been told they had a "preexisting condition" and diagnosed with "personality disorder" even though they were able to pass every mental health screen and had no history of mental illness before being deployed. They have been discharged for using alcohol and drugs when they were trying to kill off the pain PTSD caused. They have been told by the DOD and the VA they were not believable when they filed claims because they couldn't remember if it was the first, second or third IED that was the one too many times their life was on the line. They were told that when they didn't know if it was the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th or 5th deployment that was the one that did it. Vietnam Veterans will be able to file claims without having to remember every detail from 40 years ago. Now they have a chance to be really honored they way they were treated when they were sent into combat. Remembered as being not your average citizen but the best we had to send.