Veterans, advocates say Army shortchanges on disabilities

[babylonsister]

Another Stars and Stripes article; I'm glad they're printing these!

http://stripes.com/article.asp?section=104&article=47552

Veterans, advocates say Army shortchanges on disabilities
By Nancy Montgomery, Stars and Stripes
European edition, Sunday, July 22, 2007

So far this fiscal year, 328 U.S. Army Europe soldiers have had their aches, pains and disabilities reviewed by officials to see whether they’re physically unfit for duty and, if so, what sort of compensation the Army owes them.

“It’s very common. Old age, you fall off a truck, residual effects from two or three deployments …,” said Maj. Ellen Daly, the Europe Regional Medical Command’s chief of patient administration. “If you can’t run, if you can’t do sit-ups, if you have a painful neck and can’t wear your Kevlar, you can’t be a combat soldier.”

This fiscal year’s numbers are on track with the total of soldiers whose cases went to a Physical Evaluation Board, or PEB, in Washington, D.C., from USAREUR in the last fiscal year — 560 — even though the number of soldiers in the command has dropped. That’s because of deployments and the increased operations tempo, Daly said, resulting in more injuries.

Nationally, about 14,000 such cases are handled annually, according to the Army’s Human Resources Command, with fewer than 15 percent of them combat-related.

For many soldiers, being medically discharged isn’t what they had planned, and their compensation isn’t what they believe they deserve.

Soldiers and veterans’ advocates have charged that the Army is “deliberately shortchanging troops on their disability retirement ratings to hold down costs,” according to a February story in the Army Times.

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[ThomCat]

1. The military is sacrificing our young people,

using them, breaking them, and then throwing them away with peanuts as their reward. :grr:

When Anyone becomes disabled in the military there should be a presumption that it was caused by their activities in the military (unless proven otherwise) and they should be compensated based on an ACCURATE assessment of how that disability will limit their lifestyle, earning potential AND enjoyment of life for the rest of their life.