Posted on Mar 30, 2016
Report Finds Sharp Increase in Veterans Denied V.A. Benefits
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RP Members if misconduct or a discharge is related to PTSD or TBI shouldn't these veterans be entitled to benifits or do we just forget about them? Would like your opinions?
Joshua Bunn was a rifleman in one of the bloodiest valleys in Afghanistan, where his infantry unit killed hundreds of enemy fighters and lost more comrades than any other battalion in the Marine Corps in 2009.
“We were so far out in Taliban country we rarely got resupply,” Mr. Bunn, 27, said in an interview from his apartment in Jonesboro, Ark. “We just got rockets and small-arms fire every day.”
After deployment, Mr. Bunn, suicidal and haunted by nightmares, went absent without leave. The Marine Corps charged him with misconduct and gave him an other-than-honorable discharge.
As a consequence, the Department of Veterans Affairs does not technically consider Mr. Bunn a veteran and has denied him permanent heath care, disability pay and job training intended to ease his return to civilian life. According to a new report, he is one of a growing number of veterans ruled ineligible for benefits because of less-than-honorable discharges.
Former members of the military like Mr. Bunn are being refused benefits at the highest rate since the system was created at the end of World War II, the report said. More than 125,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have what are known as “bad paper” discharges that preclude them from receiving care, said the report, released Wednesday by the veterans advocacy group Swords to Plowshares.
Joshua Bunn was a rifleman in one of the bloodiest valleys in Afghanistan, where his infantry unit killed hundreds of enemy fighters and lost more comrades than any other battalion in the Marine Corps in 2009.
“We were so far out in Taliban country we rarely got resupply,” Mr. Bunn, 27, said in an interview from his apartment in Jonesboro, Ark. “We just got rockets and small-arms fire every day.”
After deployment, Mr. Bunn, suicidal and haunted by nightmares, went absent without leave. The Marine Corps charged him with misconduct and gave him an other-than-honorable discharge.
As a consequence, the Department of Veterans Affairs does not technically consider Mr. Bunn a veteran and has denied him permanent heath care, disability pay and job training intended to ease his return to civilian life. According to a new report, he is one of a growing number of veterans ruled ineligible for benefits because of less-than-honorable discharges.
Former members of the military like Mr. Bunn are being refused benefits at the highest rate since the system was created at the end of World War II, the report said. More than 125,000 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans have what are known as “bad paper” discharges that preclude them from receiving care, said the report, released Wednesday by the veterans advocacy group Swords to Plowshares.
Report Finds Sharp Increase in Veterans Denied V.A. Benefits
Posted from nytimes.com
Swords to Plowshares
Discharge
Misconduct
What Would You Do
Benefits
Edited >1 y ago
Posted >1 y ago
Responses: 13
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Let's take "benefits" out of the equation.
I look at it like a "You broke it, you bought" concept. "If" something happened in the service (like TBI/PTS) then WE (the American People) pay for that. That's what the VA is for. Ignore everything else. The VA is there to take care of "broken vets" and "bury the fallen." I don't give a $^&*&% about the rest of it. I really don't.
If the VA can make sure that 100% of Veterans get appropriate honors (I think they do a decent job at this) and get "coverage" for Service Related Issues, I would stop my complaining about the VA today. I would never say another bad word about them.
I don't care what kind of "bad paper" they had. Writing that blank check counts for something. It might not be a lot, but making sure that anything WE did to them is taken care of, and they have a grave marker should is "reasonable" I believe.
To the best of my knowledge, we are "supposed to" do that now. We are also "attempting" to correct the issues with PTS related "bad paper" which created discharges of Political Expedience (kicking folks out rather than dealing with the issues). However the Services like the VA are Bureaucracies (broken record, Aaron....) and the machine spits out cogs that make it run less than smoothly.
I look at it like a "You broke it, you bought" concept. "If" something happened in the service (like TBI/PTS) then WE (the American People) pay for that. That's what the VA is for. Ignore everything else. The VA is there to take care of "broken vets" and "bury the fallen." I don't give a $^&*&% about the rest of it. I really don't.
If the VA can make sure that 100% of Veterans get appropriate honors (I think they do a decent job at this) and get "coverage" for Service Related Issues, I would stop my complaining about the VA today. I would never say another bad word about them.
I don't care what kind of "bad paper" they had. Writing that blank check counts for something. It might not be a lot, but making sure that anything WE did to them is taken care of, and they have a grave marker should is "reasonable" I believe.
To the best of my knowledge, we are "supposed to" do that now. We are also "attempting" to correct the issues with PTS related "bad paper" which created discharges of Political Expedience (kicking folks out rather than dealing with the issues). However the Services like the VA are Bureaucracies (broken record, Aaron....) and the machine spits out cogs that make it run less than smoothly.
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PO3 Steven Sherrill
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS - Incidentally, thanks for that link, I just followed on Twitter. He has another good explanation if you go to the home page on his site.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
PO3 Steven Sherrill - The PEOPLE are great. Agree 100% with your assessment. The Machine needs to be put to pasture, or heavily modified. I have "ideas" regarding that, but I doubt I would survive the Senate Confirmation hearing. I'd be called a "flaming liberal" by half of them, and some other dirty name by the other half.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
MAJ Ken Landgren - Absolutely. It's going to require changes in Law to "Adjust" things. I'm cautious about the word "fix."
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I concur with is report COL Mikel J. Burroughs. The VBA has denied my benefits based on their incompetence a couple times. Most recently they failed to follow-up with the doctor who performed my evaluation until I pointed out their error months ago. To date nothing has happened since they sent a form letter denying my claim offhand. the irony is this was a claim for individual Unemployability submitted by the Patient Advocate who reviewed my medical records
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LTC Stephen F.
Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS - to be honest I think that VBA side of the VA has demonstrated incompetence too many times. I recognize their are good and competent folks working there but they seem to be in short supply.
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Sgt Aaron Kennedy, MS
LTC Stephen F. - I never speak bad of the People. I have never personally encountered a bad person over at the VA. But the "machine" is enough to want me to drive a spoon into my good eye.
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SSG Robert White
Most people don't know how to do a C&P exam. When your in the Military, you present yourself as healthy as possible during a physical, but the VA wants to know how messed up you are. If you want to learn more, contact me and I'll send you my phone number. There is a lot a person needs to know that can't be explained here!
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That's bull****. Yes he was wrong for being AWOL but he had a serious reason. Did his chain of command ever take the time to see why he did that, were they not paying attention to his behavior when he returned. ( I.e. Going from a good soldier to a lest than satisfactory one ). Yes I know the rules when it comes to discharge papers but the amount of mental damage going on in our service men and women to day is different in someway than WWII. Don't get me wrong the human body is not meant to go they wars and not come out damaged in some kind of way. They should of have him see a psychiatrist when he came back from being AWOL. The military in itself beginning at the unit level I think when they come back from deployments should have everyone mentality check out.
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SFC William Adamek
SSG Bell makes the best point here. We are all slamming the VA here but instead we should be slamming our own military leadership. But instead, many of our units leaders take the quickest and easiest way out for them and not their troops. Fix the internal problem and the external one will mostly go away. (attempt to fix those already harmed in the meantime)
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