ptsd Discharge Review

[john999]

I wrote and mailed a brief supporting my quest for a change in the reason for discharge to a medical discharge for a service connected condition. I wrote a summery of the how I came to suffer from an extreme form of anxiety disorder and how the Army treated my incapcity as a discipline problem. When I write it all down I can see how I was rail roaded. In late 1971 the Army was trying to shed troops as Vietnamization was happening. The easiest way to get rid of a soldier with an emotional/mental disorder was to toss them out as unsuitable even if they only had 6 months left to serve, rather than pay them based on a disability. Writing it all out it seems like I was living in another world like Mars, and when I got out it was not much better for years. It is all probably an exercise in futility but an injustice was done to me. I imagine thousands of troops suffering from PTSD got the same tar and feathers job as I did but many got BCD or Undesirable discharges for long AWOLS or drug abuse. I remember telling my CO that I just could not hack it anymore and him exploding and recommending me for a special court martial for disobeying a direct order to do my job. I was suffering pain attacks at the time and also becoming disoriented. How do you do a job when you get lost going to chow? Every time I turned around I was getting an article 15 and then it was the special court martial recommendation. I knew I had to get out so I signed the administrative discharge so I could get help since I thought I was losing my mind which is common to those with panic disorder.

I bet what happened to me is going on right now with soldiers coming back from Iraq and Afghanistan. I did not even get a discharge physical or exam. Just a ride to the gate. My Army Lawyer did not lift a finger to help me besides getting me to sign the AR635-212 argreement in lieu of standing for the trial. Of course, at the trial I would have been skinned alive. I can imagine those lifers(my peers) recommending I be thrown in jail for six months. I think my lawyer looked at my file for maybe 10 mintues just long enough to read the charges.

[Josephine]

John999,

As you know, my knowledge of the Va. is very limited. My Gaf is a tad higher than I was given.

You are an inspiration to this site and I wish to thank you for all of your time and knowledge that you have spent with my claim.

Yes, I am sure that there are many out there being railroaded, and when you write it down

the pieces of the puzzle fall right into place.

Then you see the light!

Have a Wonderful New Year and Much Success with your Change in Discharge.

Thanks bunches!

Josephine

Edited January 1, 2007 by Josephine

[Guest jangrin]

John,

I feel really badly for you. I am sorry that this happened to you. It ssems when people really need the help the most, there is always someone to step on them. Your situation sounds very similar to my husbands. He spent two tours in Vietnam, when he came home he was treated pretty badly, I don't want to go into it here, but I will say he spend the last 30 days of his duty restricted to barricks and busted in rank by his company commander threatening a court marshall.

My husband did recieve an honorable discharge but only by the grace of God. He still has emotional scars from his service in Vietnam but also from the way he was treated once back in the states. He never recieved a discharge exam either. After all that time and being in RVN my husband said he was lucky he got out of the Army as a PFC. Vietnam vets certainly have received their share of BS and then some from our citizens as well as the military.

John I hope you get the change in discharge you certainly deserve better from your country.

Jangrin

[vaf]

I might have told this story before, so those of you who've already heard it, please excuse me...

My husband, a Vietnam vet who was career military, put his regular retirement papers in a short time before he became ill with a brain tumor, a disqualifying event for an air traffic controller, since he had a seizure. This was a situation that begged for the Feres Doctrine to be repealed, since it involved military medical malpractice, but that's a discussion for another day. Anyway, the MEB/PEB folks at Lackland AFB tried to persuade me to in turn persuade my husband to continue on with his regular retirement request, after we tried to get it stopped and replaced by a medical retirement. They told me it didn't make any difference what type of retirement it was, and he'd be better off if we just let the VA take care of things. When we both refused to agree to this, our requests to get the status of the retirement changed were then all ignored, and I couldn't get any of my subsequent calls returned.

One month before my husband's enlistment timed out, I contacted our U.S. Congressman, who got the process stopped. The MEB/PEB folks told him I never contacted them, after which time I faxed copies of my phone bill to the Congressman's office, plus certified mail receipts, that proved they were lying to him. Without his involvement, my husband would have been drop kicked out of the USAF and to the curb without a second thought.

I am SO glad we didn't listen to them, when they tried to make it sound like they had my husband's best interests at heart, when all they really cared about was their own convenience.

[john999]

They pick on a service member when they are at their lowest and then try and kick them out so they can save the government some money. I got my discharge upgraded to a regular honorable, but it still bothers me to this day the way they treated me. They were in such a hurry to get me down the road with just the clothes on my back. I am one of thousands it happened to in those days and these days I am sure. It takes about 10 months to get your discharge reviewed if it is an old case like mine. After 15 years you have to use Correction of Records Board to get it reviewed or changed. It does not go to the regular discharge review board. It is actually pretty easy to get a general discharge upgraded to Honorable but if their is money involved you know it will be hard so I expect little but I like to throw the dice. Sometimes you get information and clues when you get denied. There is usually some appeal for everything. This is 35 years ago so I don't really stay up night thinking abou it.

[Stretch]

I agree with everything that has been said here.

The miltary cycle, which varies in each branch, is just a big machine that keeps on grinding.

In the Navy, the cycle was about 12 months. A cruise was about 9 months and retraining a replacement was about 4 months (VA-122). Good conduct medal was at four years. If you could not make another cruise, then you were discharged at the government convenience, with a reduction of authorized strength (three or four months early).

This reduction, at government convienence, would disallow the time frame on the good conduct medal with those discharged. The thinking, of DoD, was that latter-on they could say, that you did not get a good conduct medal after 1 tour.

The big mistake is, back then, there was a program called 120 day delay that many of us signed up for. Our actual enlistment was four months prior to active duty. Even with the four month early out, our enlistment was actually 4 years, allowing the good conduct medal. Mine tour was 4 years and three weeks.

I requested the GC medal 6 months ago. We will see how it goes.

The bean-counters have had many wars to train their policies and rules on, with unsuspecting wounded warriors, and this without responsibility (Feres). The bean-counters and Hawks, are within the DoD, not the VA. DoD owns the VA. It is my guess that this was set-up before any of us were born.

[Pete53]

A few years ago a young Staff Sgt who had served in Afganistan came down with a brain disease probably contracted overseas. The Army treated him and his family like dirt and even had the nerve to court martial the soldier as he lay on his death bed.

Finally his family prevailed after the Army would not pay his family nor him and always claimed that they were going by procedure. The soldier died and his family buried him.