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8 Responses
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Be respectful of others and their opinions. Inflammatory remarks and inane leftist drivel will be deleted. It ain’t about free speech, remember you’re in a private domain. My website, my prerogative.
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I don’t know, I can only speak for my own experiences. I was in the Regular Army from ‘67 to ‘72. I was in the Guard in Buffalo from ‘84 to ‘94 and was never refused anything for anything by the Buffalo VA and since I’ve been back in Philadelphia since ‘03 same here. The lamenectomy they did in ‘82 and then was done over in ‘04 with state of the art surgery was for a non-service connected problem. They took out C6, replaced it with titanium and screwed C4, 5 and 6 to the titanium and I’m good to go. I have a disc problem between the last L vertabrae and first S vertabrae and it was pinching the nerve so bad I couldn’t stand and had to take an ambulance from where I live to the nearest hospital and they paid the bill even though where I went was not the VA. There have also been some “issues” from ‘82 to ‘03, never turned away. I see Iraqi vets all over the Philadelphia VA. I have a 100% service connected disability that was awarded in Nov ‘04. I’m missing half my teeth, they even gave me my “two front teeth”. Maybe they’re spending it all on me and don’t have any left over for anyone else.
January 6th, 2008 at 12:19 pmHey John,
That’s the crazy thing about the VA. The inconsistencies in treatment, care, comp/pen. I know a guy that has had a great experience like yourself and then 4 other people can’t even get a rating for PTSD.
January 6th, 2008 at 1:18 pmMatt, PTSD is a little tricky. In the late 90s they kind of streamlined the procedure by fast tracking those that had a medal for valor and a CIB. In ‘68 I was awarded a BSM w/V and since I was an 11B and ‘68 for me was a year working as an 11B and over the years from ‘81 to ‘97 it was discovered that there were a number of triggers that lessened the quality of life for me. Also in the background of it all there was this pre-existing condition. It was determined in ‘03 that I was a hypo-manic. Hypo-mania can mask problems because hypo-manics never have a bad day, at least they’d never admit it. (Hypo-mania joke). Triggers from the PTSD problems tend to not show themselves until the anniversary date of the traumatic event. Triggers can best be described as flash backs without the sight and sound. Over the years one feels as though they’re loosing their mind. If I had gone into a full blown flashback it would have been easier to get a fix on “what ails you”. During those times of the year, since the VA keeps meticulous records, they were able to match this surge of feelings to events of the past and it would always feel as a bit of relief because I was able to connect the dots of today with the past event. Once the connection is made you, or at least I felt better able to deal with it. Takes a bit of work because those in the combat side of the house usually have a number of events so are more likely to have a number of anniversary date events. You become a calender watcher so you’re better able to keep in mind when something is coming up. It turns into predictable behavior. It’s like not being to see the forest for the trees when you’re in the middle of them unprepared. For example. Growing up we always had dogs as the family pet and when I got out of the Army I had as many as three dogs as pets. It wasn’t until the late ’70s I began having problems with dogs. It wasn’t uncovered until the middle 90s. I had this on going problem with dogs barking and it seemed no matter where I lived there was always someone that had a dog that never shut up. Now, a barking dog is not anything anyone wants to listen to to begin with. But, my reaction was a bit overboard. I would go into these rages whenever a dog would bark. Now, I don’t mean a dog would go basrk, bark and I would automatically go berserk. And what made it worse was that while all this is going on I still think dogs are great. It was never that I wanted to kill the dog, I wanted to kill the owner. I would do crazy things like stand out in front of the person’s house and yell at the top of my lungs, “shut the fucking dog up”, over and over. Now, this gets the dog going even more and almost did have me get into physical confrontations with the owner just as the police would arrive because some neighbor would call them to say some human is yelling at the dog. One place I lived I’d throw beer bottles at his house. Another I’d throw rocks at the house. Another I’d go into the back yard and let the dog out of the yard. One time after putting up with it for nine months I poisoned the dog. I had to get up at five to go to work and these bastards would leave the dog out in the yard all night. And, all the while I’m embarrassed as hell I’m acting this way and I don’t know why. I’m a bit over the top. I finally figured it out this one quiet Sunday morning I didn’t have to go to work and the dog across the street went off. I had already been around and around with the owner. but, this one morning in ‘97 I bolted out of bed and was going to go kill the dog. I put my pants on and sat back down on the bed to put my shoes on and as leaned over to tie my shoe I all of a sudden saw this, what I can best describe a silent black and white movie I could see through. I sat back up and said, “what the fuck was that?” So, I’m still in a rage and leaned over again and saw it again. So, I said, “you’re on a mission to kill the dog, if it happens again, stick with it and see what the hell it is”. I leaned over a third time and there was that black and white movie and I stuck with it. Guess, what it was. I saw us on night patrol in our night positions. At night we’d break off from the company to do some listening posts and maybe spring some ambushes. Now, Vietnamese have dogs as pets as we do. You’d get a handle on what was going on by listening to the barking dogs. You could tell where Charlie was by following the sound of the barking dogs. Kind of like an audio picture of the area. Now, dogs were very useful in Vietnam, barking getting closer. they’re coming this way. I much preferred when the barking was going the other way. Muzzle flashes and there goes your night vision. Fast forward to the States and something that was very useful in Vietnam became a cause for great alarm. The enemy’s coming and no one’s responding but me, in fact they’re sleeping right through it. (dramatic effect) Now, it didn’t mean that all of a sudden I love the sound of barking dogs, but I have a better understanding of why I over reacted as I did. Looking back at it it sounds funny but, not at the time it was going on. There’s a few others that were worked through, which I did in my spare time. I had to go to work.
About one-twelfth of those assigned to a theatre of operations are involved in the daily slog, shall we say. Of that one-twelfth it’s divided up into thirds. One-third, totally uneffected, one-third moderately effected and things will work themselves out and one-third might need assistance. I like to think of myself as one that straddles moderately and needing assistance.
Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have to get back to the television.
January 6th, 2008 at 7:13 pmAlot of the problem stems from the way the bureaucracy is set up to treat active duty and guardsmen. If you come out after a 4 year active duty contract the bureaucracy will recognize you, if you come out of the guard, i think there are a lot of hurdles you have to jump in order to get the same treatment.
January 6th, 2008 at 8:25 pmIm a vet of afghan and iraq saw combat in both. Got out went to the VA for my claims they said sure then they put yah on a 3 month waiting list and if yah miss it they put yah on for another 3 months waiting list. Was never denied just takes a long time for them to get to yah.
January 7th, 2008 at 2:45 amSchlitz, good you mentioned that. That’s where a lot loose patience. But, once you’re on the rolls everything runs pretty smoothly.
January 7th, 2008 at 5:12 amThere is a fine line between having patience and having to wait months to get treatment. The point is this system blows and it needs to change. I could go to a free hospital and wait 12 hours and end up getting the same treatment. Why in the hell are Vets having to wait months to get seen? I’m all about hurry up and wait but that goes out the window when I’ve got shit wrong with me and it’s affecting my life.
Comp & Pen, this is another issue that is way behind the times. However, that is another argument. The documentary covers it all.
John - pop a paragraph in there every now and then, you seriously made me feel like some old fart when I put a piece of paper up on my screen!
January 7th, 2008 at 5:44 amMatt, “pop a paragraph”. I start off with the intention of making a short comment, but one thing leads to another. Hypo-mania is like attention deficit, afraid of loosing my train of thought. That’s where the military and driving the cab were right down my alley, forces one to focus. Now, I’m left to my own devices, minus vices.
January 7th, 2008 at 7:57 am