Ten years of war and steady supply of soldiers we did supply, us ready, willing and able Americans.
The recruiters met their quotas, the boys and girls signed up with zest, and cashed their inducement checks to feed the family. They put themselves in harms way with all of their developmental quirks they could still shoot straight and kill without prejudice. Many have medals and ribbons for a job well done. And now we inform them that at one time in their life they may not have been perfect human beings and were not shiny enough to join the ranks of the true disabled, the Senators sons. If this isn’t all being driven by closet actuarials and bean counters than my mother did not birth me. Shame on you, whoever you Deciders are and wherever you are. This is what is called your,”Death Panels.” The death of the souls of warriors. And the DOD is wondering why the rise in suicides? A mirror is the answer.
After a year serving in Iraq as a reconnaissance scout for the Army’s 1st Cavalry Division, Sgt. Chuck Luther was sent home in 2007 with a diagnosis of personality disorder and discharged.
He had been under almost constant attack and survived frequent blasts from roadside bombs and mortars.
“We lived out there with the bad guys,” Luther said Wednesday.
Despite his service, he did not qualify for benefits because the military considers personality disorder a pre-existing condition. Luther, 36 at the time, married and the father of three, was left with no income, no health insurance and a debilitating mental health condition.
Vietnam Veterans of America and its local chapter in Hartford filed a federal Freedom of Information lawsuit Wednesday seeking information from the Department of Defense on why about 26,000 service members have been classified as having personality disorder and discharged since 2001.
The veterans groups, represented by a Yale University law school legal clinic, are concerned that many of those discharged may have post-traumatic stress disorder and therefore be eligible for benefits.
Luther eventually received a diagnosis of post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury from a veterans hospital, although the Army still refuses to accept it, sticking with their original diagnosis.
Thomas Berger, executive director of VVA’s Veterans Health Council, said the military has “misused and misapplied” the personality disorder diagnosis in an effort to save money. The health care and disability compensation costs for the 26,000 discharged veterans would be about $12.5 billion, he said.
“It’s outrageous,” said Berger, a Vietnam veteran. “It’s reminiscent of what they did to my generation with Agent Orange and PTSD.”
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in New Haven, seeks information that advocates say is necessary to determine the scope of the problem, according to the Veterans Legal Services Clinic of the Jerome N. Frank Legal Services Organization at Yale.
Advocates point to a dramatic drop in personality disorder discharges after 2007, when Congressional investigators said the diagnosis was being misused to reduce health care and disability compensation costs. About 22,600 service members were discharged with personality disorder from 2001 to 2007, but fewer than 4,000 have been discharged with the diagnosis since then, according Congressional testimony and advocacy groups.
Melissa Ader, a law student intern at Yale involved in the case, said the drop shows many of the earlier diagnoses were inaccurate.
“If DoD truly believes that all personality disorder discharges were lawful, why does it refuse to provide records responsive to VVA’s Freedom of Information Act request?” Ader said in a statement. “We hope that this lawsuit will allow the public to assess for itself whether DoD has treated veterans unjustly.”
Personality disorder begins in adolescence or early adulthood and can have symptoms similar to PTSD, Berger said. While discharges for personality disorder have decreased since 2007, more service members are being discharged for adjustment or readjustment disorder, making them ineligible for benefits as well, Berger said.
If their lawsuit is successful, advocates hope they will get the kind of information that will help them persuade Congress to impose stricter guidelines on the military and review previous discharges.
Luther, who lives with his family in Killeen, Texas, just outside Fort Hood, said the Veterans Administration has determined that he is 90 percent disabled. He has a hard time holding job and spends much of his time trying to help other veterans through an organization he founded called Disposable Warriors.
“That’s what we are,” he said.
For more information on the lawsuit, go to http://www.vva.org/ppd.html.