Stressor Help

[Fire Courage]

I need a little help. I don't know if any of these are stressors or if the VA will consider them stressors!

Stressor 1. When I was in the Navy during Operation Desert Storm, I saw dead Iraqi soldiers floating by our ship. One of them was even decapitated. 18 years later I can still visualize those images and it makes me nervous. I don't know how I can prove that I saw this though.

Stressor 2. During the war, the USS Tripoli and the USS Princeton were both struck by mines. Our ship was operating in the same area when those ships were damaged. During that same time, our ship also located and destroyed 3 mines by attaching 10 lbs of C-4 to them. I have the mines being detonated by our ship on tape. We operated out of Mine field 5 for 12 consecutive days. It was terrifying!

Stressor 3. Don't know if my skin disorder can be considered. I'm service connected for it. Its a full body skin rash. I only wear long sleeves and long pants. I no longer go swimming with my family because of how much attention and questions the rash bring. I'm very conscious of it and it bothers me a lot when others notice it. Some people even think I'm contagious.

Could either of these be considered a stressor?

Thanks

[Fire Courage]

Okay, the Aegis class was one of the newer class cruisers at that time. I was on a Belknap class cruiser. The USS Horne (CG-30), a guided missile cruiser. It has since been decommissioned. I remember the body removal detail, but I wasn't a part of it. Thankfully so! I used to have pictures of the dead bodies floating, but my ex-wife destroyed all my stuff when we divorced :D . I located one buddy about a year ago who worked topside of the ship with me and also saw the bodies, but lost contact with him. I haven't been able to find him anymore.

What ship was your buddy on? We were probably in the same battle group.

What ship,were you on? I know someone who was on the ages cruiser that was 1st there and he told me about all the bodies floating in the sea, and how the sailors gave niknames to the remains as they removed them...ie,woody(torso), clubby(no legs) etc he was upset over this but believed that by the guys depersonalizing them it made it somewhat tolerable. It was terrible. I saw pics of the mines and the underwater crews doing something to them so they would not detonate or whatever they did to prevent the explosion...you could clearly see their faces/mines even see their eye color through the masks. See you received a combat ribbon from your service over there. That proves a stressor...

Sounds like it could be a bigger stressor related especially if you could find any of your buddy's from back then If so, and they write a buddy letter it could help. Good luck.

[Commander Bob]

Thanks all. I'm at work today, but my son just called and said I have a large brown looking envelope from the VA.

I wonder what they are saying :D

What was in the large brown looking envelope from the VA???

[Fire Courage]

What was in the large brown looking envelope from the VA???

Oh yeah, I forgot to post on the brown looking envelope :D . Vync commented on it, and I intended to reply but forgot. They wanted to know if I had any additional information before deciding my claim for an increase on my knee. It included a VCAA notice as well. I just checked for them to decide as soon as possible, signed and returned it.

All the information they need is in my VAMC records. I just included a letter of the dates I was in orthopedics, the pain meds I'm taking, and that I am using a knee brace and cane issued by the VAMC.

Since the Regional office is less than 5 minutes away, I always hand deliver paperwork. I'll keep you posted on their decision.

[shamrock]

Just wondering why the ship would remove the dead bodies from the water instead of just going on by them. Who did they give them too. Where would they store that many bodies on the ship and for a long time. They would already be decomposeing and full of germs. The enemy could say the ship killed them and was trying to hide the bodies. I see no benefit for the commander to bring them on board and store them. Just wondering.