"Bad Paper" discharges left 100,000 veterans on their own

What did they expect? Did they really expect the military was serious about addressing PTSD and suicides? Seriously? Did they expect their service to be honored and their wounds taken care of? After all, kicked out of the military means the DOD no longer has to count them on anything and the VA doesn't have to count them so they can just slip away and suffer for as long as they live.

Remember these veterans the next time you hear military brass talk about the drop in suicides.

Other-Than-Honorable Discharge Burdens Like A Scarlet Letter
NPR
Quil Lawrence
December 9, 2013

Credit Marisa Penaloza / NPR
Brandon Bailey worked as a flight nurse evacuating wounded troops from Iraq and Afghanistan. After a blow to the head and being diagnosed with a TBI and PTSD, he was court-martialed for theft and drug use, sentenced to three months in prison and dismissed from the Air Force.

Eric Highfill spent five years in the Navy, fixing airplanes for special operations forces. His discharge papers show an Iraq campaign medal and an Afghanistan campaign medal, a good-conduct medal, and that he's a marksman with a pistol and sharpshooter with a rifle.

None of that matters, because at the bottom of the page it reads "Discharged: under other than honorable conditions."

Highfill, a 27-year-old Michigan native, says he got addicted to the painkillers he was taking for a knee injury. In the Navy's eyes, Highfill screwed up. He got a DUI, among other things, and so it kicked him out. And that means when he went to a Department of Veterans Affairs medical center, it did the same.

"I went down to the Battle Creek [Mich.] VA and I spoke with the receptionist. She looked at my discharge and said, 'Well, you have a bad discharge. ... Congress does not recognize you as a veteran.' And they turned me away," Highfill says.

Highfill and more than 100,000 other troops left the armed services with "bad paper" over the past decade of war.

Many went to war, saw combat, even earned medals before they broke the rules of military discipline or in some cases committed serious crimes. The bad discharge means no VA assistance, no disability compensation, no GI Bill, and it's a red flag on any job application. Most veterans service organizations don't welcome bad paper vets, and even many private sector jobs programs for vets accept honorable discharge only.

"They want nothing to do with you," Highfill says. "They won't give you a job, they won't take care of you, they don't want to help you out. The jobs I get are usually hard, hard-labor jobs."

The VA confirmed Highfill's visit and said he was offered information on how to appeal his status. The VA can do its own independent evaluation of a veteran's character of service before rejecting or accepting a vet with a bad discharge. Highfill's story is consistent with dozens of other veterans who spoke to NPR.
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