Soldiers risk ruin while awaiting benefit checks

[Contrary1]

Just disgusting how our troops are "supported". Make sure y'all wear your made in China flag pins, though. :(

"SAN ANTONIO - His lifelong dream of becoming a soldier had, in the end, come to this for Isaac Stevens: 28, penniless, in a wheelchair, fending off the sexual advances of another man in a homeless shelter.

Stevens' descent from Army private first-class, 3rd Infantry Division, 11 Bravo Company, began in 2005 — not in battle, since he was never sent off to Iraq or Afghanistan, but with a headfirst fall over a wall on the obstacle course at Fort Benning, Georgia. He suffered a head injury and spinal damage.

The injury alone didn't put him in a homeless shelter. Instead, it was military bureaucracy — specifically, the way injured soldiers are discharged on just a fraction of their salary and then forced to wait six to nine months, and sometimes even more than a year, before their full disability payments begin to flow.

"When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, `OK, you're on your own,'" said Stevens, who was discharged in November and was in a shelter by February. He has since moved into a temporary San Antonio apartment with help from Operation Homefront, a nonprofit organization..."

More than enough: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25194600/

[Sunnyshine]

1. I don't even know what to say. Soldiers deserve long term care. Not temporary hand outs.

Operation Homefront Advisory Board

The Honorable Mark Pryor (D-AR)
U.S. Senator, Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Tim Johnson (D-SD)
U.S. Senator, Member of the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee

The Honorable Saxby Chambliss (R-GA)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the Senate Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Mel Martinez (R-FL)
U.S. Senator, Member of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee

The Honorable Susan Davis (D-CA)
U.S. Congresswoman, House Armed Services Committee, Former Navy Spouse

The Honorable Jim Marshall (D-GA)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the House Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Mike McIntyre (D-NC)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the House Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Duncan Hunter (R-CA)
U.S. Congressman, Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee Army Veteran

The Honorable Jack Kingston (R-GA)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the Defense Subcommittee

The Honorable Joe Wilson (R-SC)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the House Armed Services and Foreign Affairs Committees

The Honorable Jeff Miller (R-FL)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the House Armed Services Committee

The Honorable Richard Burr (R-NC)
U.S. Congressman, Member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee

The Honorable Terry Everett (R-AL)
U.S. Congressman, Ranking member of the House Armed Services subcommittee on Strategic Forces

Representative Randy Neugebauer (R-TX)
U.S. Congressman, House Financial Services Committee

Jack Jacobs, US Army (Ret.)
Medal of Honor Recipient

Major General Randall West, USMC (Ret.)
CEO, Robison International

The Rev. Stephanie Caldwell
Ordained minister and Army spouse

Bernard Rostker, MA, PhD
RAND Senior Fellow, Former Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness

Dale Dye
Marine Corps Veteran, Actor, Radio Personality

Pat Ford
CEO, Burson-Marsteller USA

Diane Tomb
Tomb & Associates

[Contrary1]

2. Kicking my own post. n/t