Congress To Hold Hearings On Nation Investigation Into Discharges Of Veterans

[pacmanx1]

Congress to Hold Hearings on Nation Investigation into Discharges of Veterans

Nation in the News

September 13, 2010

The House Veterans Affairs Committee will hold hearings Wednesday morning into the impact of "personality disorder discharges," and allegations raised in The Nation in April that the Department of Defense is cheating veterans of health benefits through faulty "personality disorder" diagnoses. The Committee, chaired by Rep. Bob Filner (D-CA) will call both reporter Joshua Kors and the subject of his investigation, former Army Sgt. Chuck Luther, as witnesses.

Information about the hearing is here. You can read Joshua Kors's "Disposable Soldiers" here. For media inquiries, contact ben [at] thenation [dot] com. In "Disposable Soldiers," Kors provides an overview of the investigation and the issue at stake:

For three years The Nation has been reporting on military doctors' fraudulent use of personality disorder to discharge wounded soldiers [see Kors, "How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits," April 9, 2007]. PD is a severe mental illness that emerges during childhood and is listed in military regulations as a pre-existing condition, not a result of combat. Thus those who are discharged with PD are denied a lifetime of disability benefits, which the military is required to provide to soldiers wounded during service. Soldiers discharged with PD are also denied long-term medical care. And they have to give back a slice of their re-enlistment bonus. That amount is often larger than the soldier's final paycheck. As a result, on the day of their discharge, many injured vets learn that they owe the Army several thousand dollars.

According to figures from the Pentagon and a Harvard University study, the military is saving billions by discharging soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan with personality disorder.

[john999]

The military discharged thousands during and after Vietnam as PD's. Now over 40 years later they do the same thing. If a soldier comes back from a combat zone PTSD should be ruled out first. It is just about the money. Nothing else. The military dumps the mentall ill on the VA and then the vet must fight for years to overcome the PD DX. It is just a tactic to avoid liability. Military psychiatry is a joke. Most could not make it as real doctors except maybe at the VA.

[acesup]

This topic opened up an old wound with me, now the pus is gonna come on out, so grab a barf bucket. (Sorry if this is long and boring, but I have to spit it out now, just click on 'back' to leave!)

There's no telling how many thousands of GI's with real serious problems got discharged with this phony one-size-fits-all diagnosis from some loser that barely got his degree (which seems to take in more than a few of miltary and VA medical and mental health 'professionals', IMHO.) Didn't make a damn whether it was combat related or just for general principles, they handed out as many of those bogus diagnoses as they did APAP pills.

Let me give you a good example of how the USAF treated a young airman back in the early 70s:

The airman was somewhat naive but pretty sharp, had well above-average all-around entry exam scores, was fairly self-motivated, wanted to be in the Air Force. Then, within a couple of years:

-His estranged mother and her husband tell him that his father, who he lived with since a young age, has gone missing, and , they figured him to probably be dead.

-While on leave after basic training and trying to make sense of it all, this kid also learns that his step-dad is physically abusing 2 younger (pre-teen) siblings, and possibly even sexually molesting the 12 year old girl.

-In tech school, where he's making the best grades in the group of about 30 trainees, the instructor accuses him one day of being asleep in class, gets highly pissed when he insists he was awake, and instructor regularly tries to give him a load of crap for balance of training

-At end of tech school, airman goes back home, father still missing, abuse of siblings by step-dad still occurring, airman tries everywhere to find father but to no avail

-Airman is a day AWOL to new duty assignment, has started to drink too much, feels terrible about everything, gets Article 15 and punishment for AWOL while rest of squadron goes overseas.

-Airman still can't find anyone that has seen his father, gets desperate phone calls from other sister regarding treatment of younger kids

- While doing punishment of stripping/waxing office floors, a clerk brings airman a couple of six packs of beer

-Airman gets drunk, packs up, goes looking for father, tries to protect siblings because step-dad is afraid of him

-Airman gets picked up by police, turned over to USAF, sent back to base, thrown in jail, tried & sentenced to 6 months including retraining group. Oh, did I mention he was sent to a psychologist on the base who really was of no help, just evaluated him as a little depressed and needing to find a friend?

-While in retraining, airman's back injured while moving steel desks down stairs. Entire spine seems to be hurt, of course X-rays are negative, given Tylenol and told to shrug it off then and on all later visits to sick call.

-Sentence reduced after a couple of months because of serious effort to become a better person and airman

-After successful retraining, airman treated like a leper at new assignment, but tries anyhow, although drinking again. Father still missing, 1 year now. Siblings being abused again. Back is a wreck, and everyone acts like airman is a malingerer.

-Airman's locker, drawers, bed, belongings ransacked by overzealous sergeant for no good reason one day while airman at work, airman goes to squadron commander to get back some improperly taken personal belongings. (Sergeant and airman had a history because airman bought a car from a fellow airman that sergeant had wanted to buy, but attempted to basically browbeat the kid into practically giving it to him)

-Airman goes to psychologist on base, who gives him a bunch of tests, Rorshach, MMPI, you name it, then says he's a little depressed and needs to find a friend.

-Airman summoned to Squadron HQ; Commander asks airman not to go to Inspector General regarding out-of-control sergeant, explains how he'll lose any chance at future cmmand jobs if he has this against him, because there have already been a couple of strikes against him

-Asks airman if he arranged an Honorable Discharge so he could go home for 'hardship', try to find his Dad, try to protect his siblings, would that be a good enough deal to keep airman from escalating complaint; airman agrees...

Then, 3 weeks later, I suddenly get called to HQ, sent to dispensary, they do physical and dental exams, send me to an office where some guy starts handing me paperwork and travel pay voucher and such, and I'm even offered a ride to the airport.

Yes, you probably had already guessed it was me.

The discharge was honorable, that much was true. Or, at least, "Under Honorable Conditions". The spin code, though, was for something like 'failure to adapt', and there was another code in the paperwork that I didn't come to understand until much later. It stood for "Personality Disorder N.O.S.".

Just a few years ago I found out who put that label on me; a Lt. Colonel base psychiatrist who I never, to the very best of my knowledge, ever laid eyes on, and definitely never visited. He had written about four paragraphs explaining how he examined me, wrote in a couple of statements he had conjured up to fit, and signed and stamped it off. Funny thing, you'd think a big shot officer psychiatrist would be able to diagnose something, but this charlatan could only come up with "Personality Disorder N.O.S.".

For me, "N.O.S" has recently come to mean "Now I See"!

Oh, the rest of the story. I never was one to stay down or give up. I found my father 19 years later. Long story, I won't get into that. My younger abused sister got out and got married at 14 to escape the no-good step-dad. My abused young brother put up with a lot more beatings until he was reduced to a self-doubting, self-loathing neurotic, which he still is today at 50 years old. My back actually was wrecked, and I proved part of it a long time ago, still fighting for the rest. The discharge never once affected my career after service. And I straightened out, learned a trade, got on with a major corporation, stopped drinking, and became a mid-level manager until my back got so bad I retired.

Now, I don't spend much time fretting over that. And I really don't intend this autobiography to plead for your sympathy. I do pretty well for myself, thank you, and I think largely because my experiences in my younger life caused me to focus on what I wanted from life, and how I could achieve my goals.

But it PISSES ME OFF TOTALLY that this country would allow a system that, for countless years, has chewed up and crapped out the futures of so many young (and sometimes not so young) members of the military who just needed some actual assistance.

Sadly, I'm afraid Congress is only doing this because a) it's election time and b) they occasionally like to fool citizens or veterans or whomever into believing that they actually give a rat's behind about anything besides themselves and their personal fortunes. "Hey, vets, look at what we're doing, now re-elect us again, suckers!"

[john999]

If you have a depression DX in your military records you should file for compensation if you still suffer from depression. The best way to get back at them is to get into the VA's pocket. The VA was the dumping ground for all the guys suffering mental or emotional problems from military service.

[deltaj]

I agree with you that the system sucks. My husband had 3 hospitalizations in Army and one in Navy for a condition Army doctors determined was incurred in the line of duty. On his claim for comp he listed one hospitalization and got the dates wrong. U.S. Army determined that the disability was incurred in the line of duty. V.A. doctor looked at his Army records and wrote "Prognosis is guarded." Two days later the Navy records showing another hospitalization were received by V.A. The Navy had determined this veteran had no disabilities incurred or aggravated by military service. V.A. examiner in first exam gave him 10% and stated in the first exam, "Early reexamination is indicated because of anticipated improvement." Thirty years later V.A. received additional Navy service medical records. I've tried to raise the issue of these additional service records to BVA and they ignore it. I think the whole system is crooked.