Red tape trauma: 851,000 war veterans await benefits

Red tape trauma: 851,000 war veterans await benefits
Gregg Zoroya
USA TODAY
June 12, 2013

Mickey D'heron is one of hundreds of thousands of veterans waiting for disability claims to be addressed by the Department of Veterans Affairs, an unfortunate legacy for those who served in uniform.

STORY HIGHLIGHTS
851,000 veterans await VA ruling on their disability claims
VA says it is making some progress in trimming what has been a growing backlog
Members of Congress have sent letters to Obama asking for change

NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J. — Michael "Mickey" Flynn D'heron waits for the VA on his backyard patio.

Between his small brick home and the sound wall that barely cuts traffic noise on busy Memorial Parkway, he bides his time, drinking Miller Light and smoking Pall Malls. He's waiting for the Department of Veterans Affairs to compensate him for the demons he brought home from Iraq.

"I'll tell you the truth. I never believed in mental illness," says D'heron, a city firefighter and former Army reservist. "Never. I always thought that you suck it up; deal with it. And then this."

D'heron, 32, served from 2008 to 2009 as a military police officer in two of Iraq's most violent cities during heavy combat after a surge of 20,000 American troops into the country in 2007. Now he spends nights outside on his patio, wrapped in a heavy blanket, hunkered down in an office swivel chair, isolated from his wife, Jennifer, his newborn son, Liam, and a stepdaughter, Kayla, 7, who puzzles over dad's "Army sickness."

"It's like he's not even part of the family most of the time," Jennifer says.
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