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| Combat Veterans Stand First In Line! | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 5 2007, 12:14 AM (256 Views) | |
| Sunshine | Feb 5 2007, 12:14 AM Post #1 |
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Ruler of the Mountain
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THE COMBAT WOUNDED STAND FIRST IN LINE’! Welcome to the lie of the century. The Veterans Administration has to be the most wrong-headed organization ever conceived. On one hand you have administrators catering to the latest whim which catches the media and Congress’s eyes and on the other flat brutalizing the uncomplaining true hero of our nation, the combat wounded vet. I have brother’s-in- arms who have no right, medically speaking, to even be alive. They, like my friend from Special Forces were terribly wounded. He like a lot of us ignored the pain and had a full military career. He was given thirty percent though most of the nerves had been removed from much of his upper torso and arm to allow him to live with bearable pain. His other option offered by Army doctors: AMPUTATION. I have other friends whose very claim to being a disabled vet is dicey to say the least. They fear any special program, like EX-POW physicals, as their claim to great combat wounds, so readily accepted by VA, might be brought into question. They need not worry, the VA is too busy going after George and heroes like him to save money. Then we have the punishment factor and this is the cruelest cut of all. My survey of veterans is hardly scientific but one thing is becoming painfully obvious to some: ‘Complain or ask for retroactive compensation based on clear errors in your initial evaluation and you will be punished.’ This is not as advertised an attempt to get the low-life pretenders out of the system and punished. No this appears to be a darker form of arrogance. The pretenders will remain in the system and they will flourish, as VA administrators go after the true combat wounded for simply asking for justice. As has been found in some of our major veteran’s organizations one must wonder if it is not the pretenders who are running the entire show. How does a system designed to serve veterans, become a system determined to deny benefits to the most deserving? It is not some dark plan but with perceived pretenders in charge, simple ignorant arrogance. How arrogant are they? My friend George, with two sons in grade school has been punished by having his benefits cut from 100% to 80% and all the loss of benefits that entails. I recall how the VA insisted on calling my multiple fractures of the lumbar spine, with retained shrapnel, LUMBAGO and realize we have those in charge that would not know a real battlefield injury if it kissed them on the mouth. If we all recall it was the real combat guys who were hurt the most by giving former spouses part of military retirees pay for ‘their service at home.’ After all, who went and spent multiple tours in combat while many of these now compensated wives went on patrol to the nearest bar? The real combat soldiers are who went and stayed. Who is being hurt most by the latest VA ‘revenge for complaining’ tactic? The same uncomplaining group of brutally wounded combat veterans. Now they have truly crossed the line. I ask all true combat veterans to join men like George in not only ousting the pretenders but in ousting those within Congress and the VA who act like they care. For these are truly the biggest PRETENDERS of them all. It is time to clean house. Major Mark A. Smith, United States Army, Retired (Thirty eight wounds, Battle of Loc Ninh, April 1972) |
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