Veterans waiting years for appeals nothing new

There is so much being reported now but those reporting the stories failed to review some basic facts. For a start, this isn't anything new. It keeps happening simply because we end up looking the other way.

Utahn waits for veteran disability claim for years
KSL Utah
By Peter Rosen
November 1st, 2013

SALT LAKE CITY — The Department of Veterans Affairs set a goal of getting rid of a backlog of disability claims older than four months. At the moment, that backlog represented more than 400,000 veterans, but Iraq War vet, Curtis Thayer, is not one of them and he's been waiting for a decision on claims for years.

In 2010, Thayer of St. George, filed claims for injuries for PTSD, hearing, back, hand and other injuries and received a relatively quick ruling. He appealed a low rating for his back. The claim for his hand injuries was denied and he appealed that as well.

Thayer said he has been waiting on the appeals for three years and expects to wait another year and a half.

There are a 250,000 appeals similar to Thayer's, and they are not considered part of the backlog of claims the VA is currently battling. Veterans who go through the entire appeals process currently wait an average of four and a half years.

Thayer admitted part of his problem is that he didn't seek help when he was first hurt. He said he has repetitive strain injuries left over from his job as a Harrier jet mechanic. At the time he noticed the pain and numbness, but he said he didn't get medical treatment.

"Because I didn't think I needed it," Thayer said. "I've always been a strong-willed person. I'll fix everything myself. I can manage my life on my own."
read more here

The fact is this was worse in 2009 with so many claims tied up that even a lawsuit filed by Veterans for Common Sense couldn't get justice for our veterans. It was bad in the early part of two wars being fought producing more disabled veterans. Bad in the early 90's when Gulf War veterans came home and had to wait and it was bad as the veterans of Vietnam came home and waited.

The ugly truth is, unless the press reminds us, we forget how bad it was and thus guarantee it happening all over again.

UDPATE

Here's something that will remind you about what has been going on.

OCTOBER 19, 2007
VA Service Reps less now than in 2003?
Between 600,000 and 800,000 claims (depending on who you believe) are trapped in a huge backlog of cases and there are less Service Reps now than before the invasion of Iraq?

Four years after the invasion of Iraq and they have less to deal with the wounded they claim are so important to them?

Six years after the invasion of Afghanistan and that occupation now producing more wounded along with more dead, and they didn't increase service reps?

Suicide rates on the rise every year and they have less service reps?

Families falling apart and they have less service reps?

Veterans come back from combat wounded, unable to work, ending up homeless and they have less service reps?

WTF are they out of their minds?

Veterans groups maintain that the backlog amounts to official negligence. Since the launch of the Iraq war more than four years ago, the number of people charged with reviewing and approving veterans' disability claims has actually dropped. According to the American Federation of Government Employees, the VA employed 1,392 Veterans Service Representatives in June 2007 compared to 1,516 in January 2003.

Read this story and then remind yourself of what is really going on. Why are they being allowed to torture our wounded veterans?

POLITICS-US: Homeless Vets Play the Waiting Game
By Aaron Glantz
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct 19 (IPS)

U.S. Army Specialist James Eggemeyer injured himself before he even set foot in Iraq, jumping out of a C-130 gunship during training at Fort Bragg, North Carolina.

"I jumped out and the jumpmaster who was holding that line that was wrapped around my arm had to cut the line because I was pretty much being dragged behind the airplane," the 25-year-old Florida native told IPS as he drove a donated truck through the streets of his hometown of Port Saint Lucie, a two-hour drive north of Miami, Florida.

"I hit the side of the plane with my Kevlar," he added. "My parachute was twisted up like a cigarette roll and I hit real hard and my ankle and my knee and my back and my shoulder (got hurt). I tore my rotator cuff. I feel like a 50-year-old man."

After the incident, military doctors prescribed Eggemeyer painkillers: the opiate Vocodin, the anti-depressant Percoset, and the steroid hydrocortisone.

Then, in April 2003, they sent him to Iraq. For the next year, he drove a Humvee, running supply convoys to U.S. soldiers stationed all around the country.

His experience in Iraq was rough. His convoys were attacked twice. His worst day occurred early on, when the military truck in front of his Humvee hit a civilian vehicle. Eggemeyer says he slammed on the brakes to avoid adding his vehicle to the pile-up. Then he got out and loaded an entire family of dead Iraqis onto a U.S. helicopter, including a little girl.

After that, Eggemeyer says his condition worsened. The longer he stayed in Iraq, the worse his body felt. He also started to take more of the opiates and the steroids the military had given him. The more he took them, the more he needed to dull the pain.

But violence wasn't the only thing Eggemeyer had to deal with while deployed overseas. While Eggemeyer was in Iraq, he filed for divorce. His mother had called to tell him his wife was cheating on him with a man in a local hotel. Then Eggemeyer checked his bank account and found 7,000 dollars was missing.

So for the duration of Eggemeyer's time in Iraq, James's parents took custody of his son, Justin, who had been born just two months before his deployment.

Returning to Fort Bragg in April 2004, James was quickly discharged from the military. His experience in Iraq had changed his disposition. He started fighting with his captain, and was given "dishonourable discharge under honourable conditions", which allowed him to use services from Veterans Administration but denied him access to college tuition assistance or vocational training.