Lottery

[Moe]

I will be stoned for what I am about to say but I have never won a popularity contest.

It leaves a bad taste in my mouth when people act like they have won the lottery when granted a disability award. This is evident at all vet forums not just here. I know it is a long and torturous process from personal experience and everyone should feel relief and joy at finally getting the "Envelope." But when folks say "now I can go buy this and that toy" it doesn't sound right. Almost like they beat the system out of something...

I am rated 70% and feel like it is simply compensation for the loss of physical ability to perform meaningful employment. It defrays the cost of having things done that I can no longer do myself. I will not seek IU because in my case 70% is adequate compensation. This not meant to suggest that others do or feel the same, I encourage everyone that feels he/she deserves IU to pursue it. I will even assist if I can.

Guess being retired military gives me a different slant.

Also, I am not painting with a broad brush. Not all, not even most fit the description I have drawn. But when I see it I get a bad feeling..

This is just MHO and I probably will regret saying it, but had to get it off my chest..

[robert51]

I try to look at it as a forced savings you weren't sure you would get back, and like most when i got my retro i paid bills and caught up with things that needed replacement .

[john999]

I think the feelings of guilt for getting compensation is fostered by the VA and our own society. This is part of the mind%$#@ disabled people are subjected to for being so inconsiderate as to keep on breathing once they can no longer work.

The citizens of the USA send young men into dangerous conditions and then when they get hurt those very same people want us to feel guilty for being compensated for our loss. How much is a leg worth? How can you put a price tag on pain and suffering? Vets get very little for their sacrifice.

[LarryJ]

Well, I was going to stay out of this. Then I got to thinking. It went something like this:

My remand to the AMC states that I have an injury at this time. This injury has a "nexus" to an injury that was received in the service and that is documented throughout it's course of treatment at Balboa Navy Hospital, and is an injury that I was discharged from the USMC because of. The RO, The BVA, The AMC, every darn one of them have all this information and they admit to having it, yet this is what the remand says:

The Board finds that a medical opinion is necessary to make a

decision on the claim. See 38 U.S.C.A. § 5103A(d)(2) (West

2002); 38 C.F.R. § 3.159©(4)(i) (2005). Specifically, the

veteran has a current left ankle disability, there is

evidence establishing an event in service involving the left

ankle, an indication that the disability may be associated

with the veteran's service, but insufficient competent

medical evidence on file for the Secretary to make a decision

on the claim. Id.; see also McLendon v. Nicholson, No. 04-

0185 (U.S. Vet. App. June 5, 2006).

So, after THREE years. THREE years! And all the facts pointing to what you would think would be a positive conclusion.................Me and my family..we still wait.

This incident happened FORTY years ago, and I swore then that I would just go on with my life. This was Vietnam-era. We were losing boys on a daily basis. I volunteered to be one of those boys, but my life was spared. I figured that I had done my part, the Marines had done their part, and I'd find something else to fill the rest of my life with. Guilt? Yeah, I've suffered with "survivor's guilt" for 40 years. I've also suffered what can only be described as agony, as every step I take is "bone on bone", grinding away at what is left of my ankle. I can't stand up, I can't walk, I can't sleep................................I can't work.

Won The Lottery?

Nope, I ain't WON nuttin, honey!

[dougbo1943]

I have been in pain since 1978 due to sc injury. I have just now started to get and increase in my comp. Yes I am retired from service and they take the comp from my retirement check. When I do get my increase in comp I have earned every painful penny of it. It may feel like a lottery but it is my painful earned $$$$

Gunny

[larryjones24]

Like most, I was going stay out of this.

I treat my award letter, as the result of a long hard fight, with my gov. At the end of the month, I'm always scared, that somehow or someway, the money will not find it's way into my account. I've had this feeling. ever since the begining, Feb 2002. I now have the income, to put a roof over my families head, and a car that I can count on. I'm more aware than most, how fast, that can all change. I to went from a good gov.job, to living on the streets in a manner of months. The type of PTSD, that I have, long history of getting to the top of whatever and then shooting myself, starting over, and then doing it again.

The only long time sucess, that I've had is a loving wife ( almost 40 yrs) and a family that keeps me jumping.

I'll take the family over the money anytime. My fear, is that they have paid they're dues. I want to live long enough so that they get dues ticket paid in full too.

Larry Jones, 100 SC PTSD, still a little nuts, I hope

[Pete53]

When I filed my claim for VA Disability in 1991 I had been diagnosed with Panic Disorder and Major Depression. I was not able to work either. I was drafted in 1968 and more than once I was told that if my service injured me Uncle Sam would make it right.

I don't consider Service Connection a Lottery its a benefit paid to men and woman who were underpaid by the Government. I was awarded Social Security the same year. It took me 5 and 1/2 years to get 100% Service Connected.

It is also a very hard benefit to collect. I take my hat off to all Veterans who are Service Connected.