Just to be sure ppl here have a thorough understanding of this stuff . . . no veteran gets disability benefits without jumping through hoops.
A problem must have a current diagnosis.
There must be evidence from their service years of them reporting the problem to a base medical officer. (there is recent expansion of this, if a vet was stationed at a location with known chemical issues, there is a presumptive connection to military service for some very specific illnesses diagnosed, and most of these are cancer so . . .).
And the current diagnosis must connect to military service. A veteran to gets into a car accident 20 years after service and has some long term issues from it does not qualify for VA benefits for that injury.
The VA doesn’t just hand out money. Very extensive evaluation takes place. And continues to take place. About every 3 years a story emerges of some guy drawing 60% benefits because he destroyed his knee doing parachute training, but is seen playing basketball (and reported to the VA (usually by an ex wife)). That guy is screwed for life. He’ll lose 60% and be billed to reimburse whatever he already collected.
The VA does extensive reviews of applicants. The big money is 100% Permanent. It pays him about $50K/yr tax free because he cannot work. But if he ever gets a job, they will take it away and they will know from his 1099. The VA gets tax info each year. At the same time, the VA is trying to be fair and get guys the benefits they earned.
100% guys are a fairly small percentage of all vets who got injured on active duty and applied for benefits.
The most common disability is tinnitus and eventually that will extend to hearing loss. Veterans are around jet noise or artillery or anything making serious noise for years. Hearing protection is mandated now, but wasn’t in the past, and it often isn’t used because conversation on the flight line is necessary. So yes, this is the most common disability, and it’s only 10%. That’s about $160/month. That’s it. It screws up sleep some and causes you to stand up a few times a week to go looking for why your fridge is making that sound (that it is not making). It takes some time from your life, but it would not cause any problems flying an airplane.
And it is precisely the sort of thing a pilot would just ignore when filling out the FAA form and say no physical problems and not realize that wasn’t strictly true.
I waited for over 50 years to make a claim for my ruined hearing. Sent me to a contractor to test, and a few months later got 50% . Shocked me, as I had ignored people telling me to make the claim for decades.
Tinnitius progressed to serious hearing loss at this point in life.
Knew i had it when I tried for the LA Fire Dept and passed everything but the physical for hearing loss. Did not even think it was all that bad to even notice.
“A problem must have a current diagnosis.”
Piece of cake to get. In fact, to get a federal job pretty much REQUIRES a disability in order to score high enough to qualify.
The two most common disabilities are “I can’t sleep” and “I have social anxiety”.
Thanks for all of the info, but I worked on Air Force flightlines 50 years ago, and hearing protection was definitely mandated then.
I'm mostly deaf now even though I always, always, always wore hearing protection. I've thought about trying to claim a disability, but I didn't notice anything while I was still in the AF. Maybe I should apply even though I might be turned down. (The VA does provide me high quality hearing aids at no cost to me.)