Posted on 02/12/2013 8:40:31 AM PST by ExxonPatrolUs
So: did the Navy SEAL who allegedly killed Osama bin Laden get – in the provocative word on the cover of the March issue of Esquire magazine –“screwed” by the U.S. government?
Monday’s story released by Esquire into the unnamed –and now former – SEAL who claims to have killed bin Laden has been kicking up a lot of dust over his claim that the government has tossed him overboard, just as the U.S. military did with bin Laden’s body.
Bin Laden’s body went into the Indian Ocean, from the deck of the carrier USS Carl Vinson. “The Shooter,” as author Phil Bronstein refers to the man who claims to have killed bin Laden, is still alive, but also met an unhappy ending, at least as far as his 16 years of naval service is concerned:
…the Shooter will discover soon enough that when he leaves after sixteen years in the Navy, his body filled with scar tissue, arthritis, tendonitis, eye damage, and blown disks, here is what he gets from his employer and a grateful nation:
Nothing. No pension, no health care, and no protection for himself or his family.
(Excerpt) Read more at nation.time.com ...
That happens when your last duty station was overseas ~ back in the world you get more information I am sure.
More recently we've had people who've gotten injured and really could care less what the briefing officers said about VA bennies ~ and, then too, some of what they were told isn't as real as it ought to be. We've had some laws changed over the years. When I returned to my old job with the government I discovered that the law didn't really deal with return to a government job. First of all you lost seniority over the time of your absence. Secondly there wasn't even an appeal process in place to appeal to the Civil Service Commission over such matters. So, after a 5 year fight I finally got CSC to agree that I had a right to appeal to them. That didn't win though ~ I had to wait until the new Appeals Review Board was set up under Ronald Reagan. THAT WON. Democrat regimes simply don't believe in letting veterans win ~ and that is a fact at all times in our history.
I agree. At least one of these SEALS has run the mouth about that OP. When one runs his mouth about any TS OP, he may well face an admin discharge as per the suitabilty evaluation board. Even two DUI’s would get him bounced. There is more to this story then reported. The man has VA medical care coming plus any service connected disability will be paid for.
From your timeline, I assume you got out in the Viet Nam era...
Things are very different today. Outprocessing takes around 2 weeks, and alot of information is thrown at you. There is no way this guy was just given a handshake and sent on his way.
I understand that all the benefits could be confusing (and he should get benefits - 5 years VA, commissary for 6 months, and disability for life if he’s really as disabled as the article portrays). But, I assume a SEAL with 16 years in is resourceful enough to find the VA, etc.
Something about the story just doesn’t ring true.
Like I said in an earlier thread this morning, this guy seems to never have heard of the Department of Veterans Affairs and its Veterans Health Administration.
I think all of SEAL Team Six were screwed as soon as O outed them. The One put targets on their heads and made it less likely that any would make it to the golden 20 year mark.
I think we treat our long term vets like crap and should be ashamed of ourselves. When illegals get better treatment than our heroes something is grossly wrong
The SEAL community is very small with a lot of autonomy as far as assignment of personnel. They all know each other and while WE may not know who he is you can bet THEY all know. That said, if he really was burned out and 3 years from retirement and given who he is and what he did, I find it nearly impossible to believe they could not find some twilight tour to let him finish. More likely in the middle of a breakup with young kids he made a rash decision that doesn’t seem so smart in retrospect. Contrary to the article he is eligible for 5 years of healthcare but dependents are not. All of this is part of the transition assitance program (TAP). When I retired it was mandatory. No one can force him to pay attention. Roughly 35 years old is more than enough to accept responsibility for your actions.
The article does not state clearly if he left by choice or was forced out due to injury (as was my brother-in-law after sixteen years in the army). The answer would affect my reaction to the situation.
All the FR WHINERS should note this.
Just because the supposition of the article might be a CONVENIENT one, that doesn’t make it fact.
MOST posters on this thread have rejected this claim, even though one might ‘like’ it to be true.
That is the difference between Liberals and Conservatives.
Why should he get extra benefits for killing Bin Laden, if he did? It’s not like he tracked him down and challenged him to single combat in the Thunderdome to decide the war. He was just doing his job and was in the right place at the right time.
“World War II only lasted 6 years”
It also killed hundreds of thousands of Americans, if we’re counting things.
“the gov’t at this time does not have any way to reward extra”
What, they never bump people up a few notches and appoint them to be Grand High Poobah of a resort in the Virgin islands where they can sleep all day, then retire on double their salary? Or couldn’t he be a “consultant” of some sort and be paid millions of dollars after retirement for doing nothing in particular? Or is the armed forces unique in the anals of gubmint?
Not that he or anyone deserves it. But with the money they spend if they really have no way to reward whomsoever they choose they’re not trying hard enough.
I may have reading difficulties due to attending public schools a long time ago. When I first read the story on this guy, I took his claim about health insurance woes to be regarding his family. He served his last day, and on that last day, his family lost their health insurance. Do Veterans not have the option of continuing Tricare at their own expense after separation?
The key to everything I read yesterday is the man’s children.
i find it hard to believe that anyone stupid enough to invite the wrath of the entire muslim world by claiming to kill obl is smart enough to be a seal.
This should also serve as a waring to everyone in the service. You may love your job and even be among the best of the best. But if the only thing you can put on a resume after 16 years is “killed people 1997-2013” you probably shoiuld have been planning for a secod career a lot sooner. Not many adds in the help wanted for that particular skill.
BTW, when I got out there really was no one in the US government ~ not at the agencies, not at the Pentagon, nor anyone in any of the veterans organizations who could even guess if a guy returning to a federal government job was covered under the same law regulating private sector returns.
The antiwar crowd were then running DC and they absolutely did not like vets, so somebody had to fight them and I did. I still hate each and every one of those little pieces of scum. Some of them were Republicans ~ they deserve worse.
Got an immense education in veterans laws as they relate to federal government employees in the interim ~ made me so dangerous that the only manual and/or handbook in the USPS I wasn't allowed the write or rewrite was the EMPLOYEE AND LABOR RELATIONS MANUAL!
You win a civil service decision personnel people despise you; win two and they fear you forever.
Then, when Senator Alexander's buddy Marvin Runyon misran a RIF in USPS all I had to do was send a lawyer a fax of one of my decisions. MSPB had no choice but to crush USPS under it's little footsies and DO STUFF!
BTW, I was more or less worked around by the agency so I didn't have a grievance ~ but I had the precedent.
Yes, government personnel A--holes are as bad and evil as they seem.
That's because there's this attitude that even when it comes to inventions you did it only because you were in the right place at the right time, and that if someone else were there he'd have done the invention too.
It's like Obama's attitude that 'you didn't do that' ~
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