Tampa Tribune gets VA to honor claim of disabled Green Beret

Veterans wage years-long fight with VA for benefits
By HOWARD ALTMAN
The Tampa Tribune
Published: March 17, 2013
TAMPA

As a Green Beret, Scott Neil was one of the first U.S. troops in Afghanistan after 9/11. For years, he fought insurgents there and in Iraq, suffering injuries to his brain and spine along the way.

In July 2010, his service to the nation was ending, but a new battle began.

This one was with the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Almost 1,000 days ago, he began the process with the VA to receive benefits for his traumatic brain injury, post-traumatic stress disorder, chronic neck and back pain and hearing loss. It was part of a joint review with the Army, which was trying to determine if Neil was still fit to serve.

The St. Petersburg Veterans Affairs Regional Office picked up the case more than a year ago, in January 2012, but it took until last week, after a phone call from the Tribune, to get a disability compensation rating, a formula that determines the amount of benefits a veteran can receive.

Neil is not the only veteran who's had to wait months or even years for a ruling by the St. Petersburg regional office, the nation's busiest compensation processing division. More than 50,000 claims are pending there, with nearly 35,000 outstanding for more than 125 days, which is considered by the VA to be backlogged.

Neil said he was happy after learning from the Tribune that he was awarded service-connected compensation at a combined rate of 90 percent. He's frustrated, though, that it took, by his count, almost 1,000 days.

"That is almost the same amount of time I had in combat," he said.
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