meb peb or medically retired

[mrmark1999]

i can scan in the docs if it nessary 

 

[TALON II FE]

OK, that makes sense, I thought they gave you 20% attached to MEB?  Even if it showed up later, I think this would scud you.  I am realizing I may still not be able to give you a complete answer based on pieces I still don't know, but I'll try and we can go from there if we need to.  I hope I don't come across 'preachy', if I do, well, don't take it that way, please.  Also, keep in mind, some Reserve and Guard processes are a little different as well, and I am not knowledgeable in Guard/Reserve specific issues. 

  Firstly, the MEB/PEB screw over, bc that is what it almost always becomes.  You have limited ability to dispute because it is 'internal military stuff', like the fact you cannot sue a Military Doc for malpractice.  Once you 'accepted' your discharge, you essentially concurred with whatever decisions they made which you were not privy to, I BELIEVE.  I am sure you probably feel a little betrayed (Spoiler alert: you probably were).  How were you supposed to know, right?  Well, you were let down and betrayed by your chain-of-command.  It is your job to know and perform at the appropriate level within your MOS/AFSC, etc.  I am pretty sure you were not a DAWG/MEB/PEB/ Federal Compensation Regulation specialist, right?  Right!  SO, who SHOULD have been looking out for you? It's simple: your supervisor, his supervisor, your 1st Sgt and your CC, eventually his boss as well, etc.  Your Chain.  They let you down, and I am sorry...just not as sorry as they are for failing to fulfill their obligations to you!

The MEB 'results' can be questioned, BUT only during the process, to my knowledge, and it rarely has any affect on the outcome.  Did they assign counsel?  I believe that they must offer counsel, at a minimum.  All of my guys, my troops my peers, etc., I ALWAYS recommended they spend a little money on a private attorney (most didn't and 'paid' for it by separations instead of retirement.  One of my troops injured his back in Iraq.  A couple years later, he is walking into the Education Center to sign up for a class, slips on a wet curb and breaks his back.  They gave him 10% and severance and then told him he would 'most likely' have to wait 2 years for an appeal.  We were overseas.  He was married 2 months before this happened and they would not allow his wife to come over because he was on a Med Hold.  THEY WERE INTENTIONALLY WORKING THE SYSTEM TO MAKE HIM GIVE UP...and it worked.

Sounds crazy that you would need or want to pay a private attorney, right?  Well, here is why:  THESE GUYS ALL GOLF TOGETHER!  They are buddies, usually. The retired ones offer cash-based services to personnel in the process.  YOU WANT THAT GUY!  Otherwise, you get a pimple-faced O-2 or O-3 who, hopefully, got his uniform on right.  Who will represent the US DOD?  NOT A young guy fresh from ROTC!  Usually, it is his boss...no shit!  Who wins that one?

How is this a fair and balanced system?  It's not.  That is why they use it as a Force Shaping Tool.  They can move the thresholds around and get the metrics they want to help maintain projected end strength numbers as directed by Congress.  Just like they do with PT tests.  Too many troops, need to reduce the numbers?  No need to plan ahead or honor contracts, you just change the requirements and make it more difficult until you roll out enough people to get to where you want. Shady, right?  It sure is!...but it gets worse.

You understand that you cannot be medically retired with less than 30% rating.  Well, even that gets skewed until you get screwed.  I will use some of my personal history to demonstrate a few things then I am going to stop before I 'break the internet'.  around the middle of my career, maybe 10-12 years in, I was exposed to vaporized hydraulic fluid, I breathed it while evacuating PAX off our aircraft out in Al Sahra, W Iraq.  By the time we worked our issue, got some parts brought to us, I installed them and we trucked back to Ali Al Salem where we were flying out of at that time.  By the time we were landing there, myself and one of my loadmasters could barely land without rupturing our eardrums, quite literally.  There's more, but probably not relevant.  Within a year, my sinuses were FILLED with polyps.  I had to take heavy doses of the steroid prednisone for months to get them shrunk down enough for him to even get in there to plan surgery.  The AF was 'recommending' that I go to an MEB.  Why recommend and 'offer' me 40% without proceedings?  It was 2006, that's why, and they needed us then.  I took the surgery, a medical altitude chamber flight, and a waiver with a golden ticket to SOF waiting for me after 'just one more Rotation'.

Fast forward to around 2010-2011, and I am falling apart. Lots of health issues, many long term and chronic but most nowhere on the books bc I was an aviator and I could not risk losing my flight status and screwing my community.  We all did this, the ones who don't tend to get drummed out of the community.  They start trying to MEB me.  No problem, right?  They already offered me 40% (30% or 50% now, reg was rewritten) so I will get retired.  NOT SO FAST!  I was on a waiver, so it doesn't count.  I had a lot of issues, that's why I was lowballed and still easily hit 100% scheduler.  How about all of that?  Well, here is another little loophole they use to rip us off:  They only issues they look at and rate are those that specifically make you 'unfit for duty'.  In my case, it was the residuals of the removal of a very rare vascular tumor from my wrist which took them 2 years to diagnose and cost me my flying career in the end.  A rare vascular tumor sounds serious, right?  I still have an arm, wear a brace most days, so 20%.  Not enough to retire.  They tried to separate me with a severance package at 17-18 years of service.  Without going into more detail that doesn't pertain to your issues, I told them to take a flying leap onto a broom handle, rolled out the "Big Dogs" in my Chain and the AFSOC SG and made them retrain me while I continued to seek medical treatment. I retired with over 20 in 2014.

Hopefully, this helps.

[justrluk]

Some time ago, when the military got nailed for low-balling MEB percentages to save on medical retirements, I was offered a chance to submit a package to upgrade my exit from service. My MEB percentage was raised from 20 - 30% and I was placed on the permanent medical retirement list. If I were you, I would see if the option still exists to challenge your military disability percentage. Go here:

http://www.pebforum.com/site/forums/medical-evaluation-board.42/

and see if the option still exists. I had mine upgraded back to 2004, however I see no income from it due to the VA percentage and offset. I did not qualify for CRSC or CRDP.

[mrmark1999]

Wow a lot to take in 

I was never given any council or help of any kind  I was put on NPQ status  while the peb board was working  I never found out any thing till I received my Honorable discharge in the mail nothing no PEB findings nothing I had to request my medical file to even find out what the found out any info I was on NPQ status for over 2 years   this has been years and is still friggin agervating 

[justrluk]

Contact the service secretary office and raise a fuss. You should have been copied on all actions, and had a chance to appeal the decision while you were in service. If you disagreed with the findings or percentage (like the VA), there is an appeal process = due process.

[TALON II FE]

1 hour ago, justrluk said:

Contact the service secretary office and raise a fuss. You should have been copied on all actions, and had a chance to appeal the decision while you were in service. If you disagreed with the findings or percentage (like the VA), there is an appeal process = due process.

TAKE THIS ADVICE!!!  Start checking in the back of Army/Air Force/Navy Times for attorneys. Hire one from there or somewhere else who has specific knowledge of military law, because you will need one to try and ensure the playing field is level.  Think about contacting your elected officials in Congress and the Senate.  Get supporting letters from anyone that you believe may be able to support your claims.  They will probably say they followed the protocols, but you would have been required to sign documents and you can refute that, since you did not have, nor were you offered, counsel. That's IF you even signed anything.  If you don't think you did, keep in mind, they may have been slipped in with a whole stack of paperwork (ever buy a car at a dealership?  Like that).  But, regardless, you should have had counsel.

*ALL other Guard or Reserve Brothers, please look away now (I don't want to get beat up, lol)*

Please realize, depending on the complexity of your job or mission, that the level of competency and knowledge may fluctuate from base to base, unit to unit, etc.  This is why we PCS, even though many would rather stay put.  It brings fresh ideas, transfer of corporate knowledge, and the development of "Best Practices" and their institution as SOP.  BUT, no PCS for Guard/Reserve, not really.  So things stagnate and some units ARE better than others (sorry PC America!).  The reason I am pointing this out is because you MAY NOT have been afforded the Rights inferred by your Enlistment or Commission, without even the knowledge of the ones who may have screwed you.  They simply may not have known they were doing anything wrong because that's how they always did it.  They didn't apply new Directives, did not receive notification of a Policy change, etc. and, because of reduced crosstalk and a 'much smaller world', there was no one well-versed in the day-to-day operations from personal experience to even point out the discrepancies.

Hope this helps and Good Luck!