Veterans, PTSD and US Government Abandonment

Townhall.com ^ | November 27, 2014 | Chuck Norris

[Alberta's Child]

I’m baffled by the sentiments expressed in some of these articles. If the U.S. government didn’t give a sh!t about these military personnel when they were sent overseas, why would anyone expect the same government to give a sh!t about them when they came home?

[yldstrk]

Veterans should be getting deluxe care not the miserable share that is theirs.

[Kaslin]

Indeed they should, but instead it’s thank you for your service, now go away and don’t bother us.

[demshateGod]

This is happening because the people running the government are godless. Therefore, they want this to happen.

[Wolfie]

We’re asking fewer soldiers to do more...more deployments, more time in combat zones...more, more, more. Perpetual war is the new paradigm...we simply need mandatory military service to spread the load.

[Iron Munro]

[defconw]

Let me preface my remarks with I understand what today's veterans are saying and Obama not getting that kid out of Mexico is inexcusable.

Having said that, let me say this! This has been going on since there was a freaking VA. My husband is a combat, bronze star awarded real live freaking Vietnam Veteran and we are still fighting for benefits for him!

I am sorry that these guys are having a rough go. But try thinking about guys that came back here and not only were they not thanked, they were spit on and disregarded. People like John F'ning Kerry make we want to go ballistic. Sorry if anyone is offended but for the love of God! Why are today's vets anymore special then the others?

I just got a denial letter on our appeal. My husband served 1968-1969. Army, Air Cav.

[oh8eleven]

Combat veteran Kryn Miner, 44, served 11 deployments in seven years. He suffered from post-traumatic stress disorder ...
The problem is that we have allowed veterans to claim PTSD who suffer from little more than a hangnail and other insignificant discomforts.
Then we throw guys with real problems, like Miner, into the same pot and they end up getting lost. He's just another "victim."
The VA was never designed to handle medical problems for vets with non-service connected injuries or hurt feelings.
For the vast, and still increasing, number of vets who still feel bad (i.e., "PTSD") because their drill instructor yelled at them in 1972, the only help they should get is a stern - get over it!

[defconw]

Agreed, you will not believe how many guys are going in there and crying and getting 100% disability.

My husband married me 7 years ago. Prior to that for years he bounced from place to place and job to job, no one ever lived with him long. Why? He would not complain if he had a nail sticking out of his head. He had nightmares every night for years. I won't go into the whole thing, but I will say that I got him the help and he is much better, but it burns me up that these posers in many cases are getting 100%.

To me it's not the money. The Army sent him back damaged, they should have fixed him. Course had they fixed him, he would not have been available to meet me most likely. But I know some of this 100% is BS, from an inside source.

[oh8eleven]

But I know some of this 100% is BS, from an inside source.
I've known it's BS for decades. A former fellow Marine I worked with was an engineer (not a grunt) and brought home an NVA helmet he found in 1969.
Twenty years later he's at the VA whining he can't stop thinking about the guy who wore it. Oooooh, woe is me, PTSD, where's my money?

Two weeks ago I had lunch with a guy I went to HS with. He was Air Farce at Cam Rahn Bay ... i.e., in the rear with the gear.
During lunch he announces he's going to the VA because when TET Offensive broke out (45 years ago!), they made him put on a helmet and gave him a rifle, just in case.
His complaint? He was AF and never trained to fight and now he has nightmares. Oooooh, woe is me, PTSD, where's my money?

[defconw]

OMG! I think they should not be able to claim PTSD unless they were actually in combat. Period. I don't even care about the money it's the freaking principle. My guy had his life crushed by these miserable bastards in the VA.

To this day their solution is take a pill. I hate these bastards and wish my husband would just go to a private doc, but he won't so that's that.

[Cyclone59]

There is no excuse for the way that our elitist govt has treated our vets. If they don’t want to treat our vets with the utmost respect, then don’t send them into harms way to do your dirty work. Typical RATS - they sent them into hostile situations,then spit on them (figuratively and literally). If they don’t want to take care of them keep them here and watch the rest of the world implode within itself. I wonder how long it would take?

[defconw]

Well exactly, the same idiots who spat on the guys back then are the idiots in charge now, with the exception of King Barack who was a child then, but look who he hung around with. A bunch of 60’s radicals.

[Rodamala]

I stand with President Bush on the issue of “PTSD”... Dubya insists upon dropping the word “Disorder” from the phrase, and insists that people start recognizing it as a condition that is actually an injury.

“Disorder” brings a stigma, like there is something “wrong” with the sufferer... when perhaps the problem is that someone is expecting to be able to bear the sudden change from being effectively abandoned in a hostile, dangerous environment to one at home... of no expectations, ambivalence, and casual disconnectedness.

It sucks coming home from war, and not having anyone to relate to.

[dfwgator]

They need to get back to calling it “Shellshock.”

[redcatcherb412]

The VA for some reason seems to be graded on how many varied diagnoses they can accomplish for PTSD.
I have always had a disability rating for multiple shell fragment and bullet wounds. As I aged the injuries kept degrading my health and in my 50’s I went to the VA to be re-evaluated for the 70% rating I held since discharge in 1970. The re-evaluation ended up rerating the 70% to (by their fuzzy math) up to 140% disabled. By this time I needed a prosthetic to be able to walk so I welcomed the rating increase as I couldn’t work anymore. Part of my re-eval was to go thru the Agent Orange study as I served in, and my infantry unit patrolled in a heavily defoilated area. A part of the Agent Orange study was a 1 hour psych eval. As a result of seeing the psych for 1 hour having never seen a VA shrink ever before resulted in a 50% rating increase to 190% for a PTSD diagnosis which made no difference to my benefits but allowed them to add another PTSD diagnosis to their chart. I never got any attention to any health compaint for actual Agent Orange related conditions (at 64 I have chloracne around my eye sockets since 1968), But lo and behold have a PTSD rating I didn’t ask for and didn’t agree with. I firmly believe they have some sort of quota to meet with non specific injury ratings.

[Mariner]

America has a long history of abandoning its vets. This is not new.

[defconw]

Exactly! It's a condition. Much of it is anxiety. It's like a feeling of impending doom and being hyper-vigilent. When people are extremely anxious it's very hard to concentrate and that leads to frustration which leads to self medicating for so very many of them.

[dfwgator]

I didn’t agree with a lot George Carlin said, but if I were there for this, I would have given him a standing ovation.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hSp8IyaKCs0