Army Lowballing

[Berta]

http://vawatchdog.org/07/nf07/nfAPR07/nf042407-1.htm

In part:

"Critics say the Army rates its injured soldiers at a lower level of disability compared with the other armed services and the VA so it can save on the costs of disability payments."

[john999]

You should deal with the Army boards for discharge reviews or correction of records. You talk about facing a stacked deck with a bunch of lifers denying 95% of all appeals. Without a lawyer you cannot get to first base and even with a lawyer you lose 95% of the time if you are asking for money in the form of a pension benefit. I thing the disability boards are just meat grinders set up to minimize compensation. They are designed to low ball the disabled soldiers. Much worse than even the VA. Supporting the troops....what a sham and a shame.

[huskerfanfl]

I am not saying that the army is not lowballing soldiers, but I would feel better about this story if the people testifying would quantify what the gap is, and if they did quantify, I would like to know the numbers.

[Testvet]

the only numbers I have seen are less than 4% of all medical discharges result in awards of 30% or higher, most are givin lumps sums of 10% or 20% and some receiving 0% for the Army, the Air Force and Navy are both giving theor members about 25% higher than 30% awards but they have fewer members getting medical discharges, the Army and Marine Corp both have to medically far more people than the other services for obvious reasons.

[huskerfanfl]

That is a significant difference (of course any difference needs to be explained). It would not surprise me a bit that they try to keep it beneath the 30% threshold

[sixthscents]

Well, I can speak to only my experience and what I personally have seen, but I used to go to the holding company at Ft Knox regularly, and talk to the soldiers their about the VA. It was in the evenings, and not mandatory, but I did it after the "obligatory" session by the VA rep. I can speak to what I saw there, and have seen in all the cases I have handled since...

The numbers for the Army is way less than 5%... again this is based upon my own observation, but I'd say closer to 2-3% of all injured and unfit soldiers get a reritrement, the rest get severanced. The appeals process is a joke. I watched a Captain, file his appeal, go before the board, the board reccomended that he be awarded 30%, and it went to Washington... and guess what, it was denied. The appeals board that you can present yourself is NOT an appoving authority, just a reccomending one...

Again and again I have watched deserving soldiers denied their just retirement benefits, simply because the Army only rates ONE illness, of many it can pick and choose which one it wants to rate as disabling... Its not like the VA which looks at all the injuries... they look only at one, and rate only one...

Now the brunt of my experience has been with the Army so I cant really speak for the other services, but... it's a sleezy, lowballing, INTENTIONAL process in the Army... thats what I saw anyway.....

[sixthscents]

I'm sorry but I just wanted to make sure that you all know just how DISGUSTED I am with the US Army for the way they treat their broken soldiers. From the first profile, to the PEB they stick you with every crud job, and then say you are "riding your profile".... From what I hear and see, it hasn't changed a bit. If you get broken, all of a sudden you are a sorry bag of fecal material... You can go from being a super soldier to a dirt-ball in a matter of days. I watched it happen, and the Army INSTILLS that type of attitude from the top down. Much to my shame, I have to admit I was as guilty as all the others, following the unspoken rule of "suck it up and drive on"....

I often reflect back to some of the things I did... to the sorry soldiers who were out riding a profile, and... I am ashamed. Yet, I only bought into a mentality that was present and almost forced into you from day one. A "broken" soldier was good for a whole bunch of really cruddy jobs, that had to be done anyway, so why not use the sorry so and so ?.... And I bought into it....

I have MANY things about my service and my Army for which I am proud... but, this is not one of them. I can only say, I didn't know... until I was the broken soldier, I just didn't realize.... I wish, that I could apologize to those soldiers, now that I do KNOW... I really wish I could.

(sigh)... OK, I'll get off my stump now, but... this is one thing about my Army that makes me ashamed, and ashamed of myself and my own actions... and I still can only say, I did not know.

Edited April 25, 2007 by sixthscents