Wounded and Waiting (gut wrenching stories from the Navy Times) [View All]

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The rat-bastard Republics that have propped themselves up on the backs of our military, while at the same times cutting benefits and telling some troops that they "need to pull themselves up by their bootstraps", ought to get the shit kicked out of them.

You see...it's not just the dead, or the wounded, or the troops living in squalor outside Walter Reed. No! There's a whole bunch more that are mired in the Medical Board Process to determine disability ratings and compensation. Some for well over a year. Why might you ask does it take over a year for a Medical Board to recommend a disability rating to a vet who had his legs blown off in Iraq? Well, I'm no expert, but it could be because Medical Boards were cut from 6 board across 5 state with 260 staff members, to 3 boards and 60 staff members.

The rotten SOB's in the Republic Party can always find a few billion laying around to cut Dick "fuckin" Cheney's tax liability, but they can never find the funds to take care of our war wounded. "Rat bastards" is too good a word for these people. It's almost an insult to rats born out of wedlock. (Bolding is mine)

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2007/02/tnsmedboards070217/

In Bayji, Iraq, a suicide bomber drove a vehicle beside the truck Van Antwerp drove for the 101st Airborne Division and set off an improvised explosive device, killing Pfc. Alex Gaunky and Spc. Vernon Widner on Nov. 17, 2005. Van Antwerp said he believes in one of the Army’s oft-repeated mottoes: “No soldier left behind.” He will always carry his friends with him.

Yet when it was time for the Army to take care of him, one of its wounded warriors, Van Antwerp gave up before he even began. Rather than fight for a higher disability rating, he quietly signed for 20 percent — and no medical benefits — saying he knew he couldn’t do better. He inherited his father’s stubbornness, he said, and refused to ask anyone to pull strings based on his dad’s rank. Then his first medical board counselor, the person who would help him make his way through the medical evaluation board system, left. The second, he said, “wasn’t on the ball.”

“The Army is trying to give you the lowest amount of money possible,” he said. “A lot of people are appealing, but I’ll be going to . I want to go home.”

<snip>

In 2001, 10 percent of soldiers going through the medical retirement process received permanent disability benefits. In 2005, with two wars raging, that percentage dropped to 3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Reservists dropped from 16 percent to 5 percent.

<snip>

He had twisted his spine. Now the soft-spoken soldier cannot sit or stand for too long, or lift anything over 10 pounds, which limits his work as a supply clerk. He has spent two years at Walter Reed going through rehabilitation and waiting for his discharge, which means he hasn’t lived with his wife of 10 years for more than three years. “She’s been talking about a divorce,” he said. “I just signed so I could go home and be with my family.”

He said his physical evaluation board counselor was another private first class. “She didn’t know what she was doing,” he said. “Sometimes I had to tell her what was going on.” The Army awarded him 20 percent disability — no medical retirement for his war injuries, and no insurance for his family.

....there's much more than I can stomach at the link. This is a fucking disgrace!