Daniel_Red

Hello, I appreciate all the valuable information in here and would like to share my journey hoping for some advice along the way. I am looking for information that would be useful for a claim I am submitting for a non combat stressor for PTSD. I was active duty in the Marine Corps from 2002-2006, my first duty station after boot camp and infantry training was at the Marine Barracks in Washington, DC. In 2004 myself and a few others were trained to retrieve the transfer cases of fallen service members from Dover, DE. While removing the transfer cases we would place them in trucks and after the last service member was removed we would escort the truck to the mortuary on base to remove bag from transfer case. From 2004-2005 I made countless trips to Dover and had seen my share of bodies inside the mortuary that stick with me to this day. We were never awarded any type of after action de-brief or outlet to speak of what we were doing. It was just like any other situation were we were told to show zero emotion which was considered "good bearing". Those images and the experience stick with me to this day. I self medicated for the longest time, had reoccurring nightmares of images, had terrible sleep, isolated myself from family and friends and had work suffer. A close family member sent me an article stating that from 2004-2009 parts of service members were not properly matched up with the body and sent to a landfill in Virginia. This pushed me over emotionally because the whole point of us being in Dover was to do a dignified transfer and send the body home with honor to the family. I finally sought out medical treatment in 2016 and was diagnosed with PTSD, depression and anxiety from a private psychiatrist and I am in counseling through the VA with a Mental Health professional psychologist. Being that this is a non-combat stressor, I have written my stressor statement that goes into great detail and have 2 buddy statements from fellow Marines I was with. I do not have any orders or mortuary affairs MOS putting me at Dover because there were none to give. We received word for our Dover detail in morning formation. My question is-will these buddy statements suffice when submitting my claim? I have also been diagnosed with central and mixed sleep apnea and would like to know if I can file a claim secondary to the PTSD. I have DBQ's for both PTSD and Sleep apnea filled out by medical doctors. Any advice from you is greatly appreciated! Thank you for taking time to read. Daniel_Red