Posted on Dec 27, 2017
Should Veterans feel bad about being awarded and receiving VA disability compensation for non-combat related injuries?
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Disability
Compensation
Combat
Disabled Veterans
Injuries
Posted 5 y ago
Responses: 704
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No way should anyone feel badly about getting disability. First the award is for service related, not combat related, injuries and second the percent of service members who have actually served in combat is relatively small when compared to the overall total of service members served by the VA. I could certainly go along with some percentage increase in compensation if injury is combat related, but if someone receives injuries that qualify him/her for disability while serving our country they deserve every bit of it and should never feel ashamed because of it.
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SSgt Milo Ratbottom
I was exposed to a known carcinogen. As a result, I had to have my prostate removed. I have zero regrets about filing a claim. Cancer surgery changes your entire life.
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SSG Elmer Price
I have degenerative bone disease, skin rashes, heart Failure. Had 2 by passes the 3rd one the widow maker, was already dead so didn't do. Also, total right hip replaced, due to a Bradely rolling over. COPD, Right elbow fixed. I gave them 42 years, was trying for 50 but was told, I had to get out as I was 100% disabled. Boy, I miss the Army so much, and life goes on!!!
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SPC Jimmy Hall
No Veteran who served honorably should feel shame for receiving benefits... We may not have been wounded in combat and had limbs amputated, we were there. And if we were ordered to go, we would have went..; wherever we were ordered to go.
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CPL Galen Beesley
I will agree with that no one should feel ashamed for VA disability. Not only are my knees having more problems at age 50 from numerous knee injuries, but I also have carpal tunnel in both wrists from operating heavy equipment as an engineer. I also have one shoulder that I injured on duty and then spent fifteen months deployed to Afghanistan. I found out later when on the med board I should have been in the states having surgery not deployed. Our BN PA refused to give me the MRI that would have shown that and instead declared me fit for duty. I have been exposed to the burn pits breathed coal dust in Iraq and have had multiple concussions from bouncing around and explosions. I took a medical retirement when offered and have no regrets about it.
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I have noted an increasing amount of these kinds of questions since 9/11. Prior to that, at least in my time as an adult, there was no concern as long as the injury fit the definition of "Service-Connected." But since the War on Terror began, we have a whole generation of young servicemembers who don't remember the "Peacetime" Military. Many veterans who currently claim compensation are from that time of service known as The Cold War and have injuries accrued due to their service. Even the safest professions in the military carry a level of danger above that of a civilian career. People get hurt in "safe" environments. It only stands to reason that when you add guns, explosives and other military training to this that more (and more substantial) injuries will occur. Since the military does not have Workers Compensation, the VA's compensation is what's left. That's kinda what it's there for.
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CPL Randall Lee Bowman
SFC Mario Rodriquez - I worked on the Burn Pits while serving on the DMZ in Korea back in 1988, so we had them too! Now I have out of control Diabetes!
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MSG Robert Ford
Sandy Linden - D Johnson or S Linden, how do you know that many people are getting disability and never deployed? Where are you get your facts and information from. If you have ever applied for VA benefits there is a lengthy process. If they got disability then they earned it. PTSD is a trauma disease. You can get that from being rubbed and shot... at being in a bad accident... nothing to do with being deployed.
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MAJ Jack Horn, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, CCTP, CCTP-II, CCFP, CDBT
Speaking as a board-certified PTSD therapist, PTSD is not a “combat” disorder. It is a situational disorder. I work with veterans as well as law enforcement, medical staff, firefighters, and others with legitimate PTSD who never stepped foot into a combat zone. Police officers who have cumulative PTSD from working horrific accidents or having had near miss death experiences; children caught in a hurricane who had the house collapsed on them and had to be dug out days later; women who were serially raped; adolescents who were in a horrific accident and left hanging upside down in their vehicle for hours with their passengers having broken necks and other bloody injuries next to them. Yes, combat trauma frequently leads to PTSD, but it doesn’t have ownership of the issue.
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CPL Christopher Thomas
MAJ Jack Horn, LPC, NCC, CCMHC, CCTP, CCTP-II, CCFP, CDBT - Very true. People don't understand that PTSD is not just combat-related. I think it makes it that much harder for veterans to recognize their own symptoms when people keep labeling it as a combat related symptom.
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Not at all. If the injury is service-connected, it's a legitimate disability.
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Sgt James D.
when I got out of the marines in 78 I went to the va like I was told by my CO I was sitting in a 10x10 room with one door and no windows a Vietnamese Dr came into the room and blocked the door! that did not go well! I did not go back again till I got out of the marines again in 1990! then it took me 15 years before I got my 100% they did that to a lot of Vietnam vets!
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PO3 Michael MacKay
SFC Howard Holmes - Contact DAV and American Legion so they can help you with an appeal.
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SFC Howard Holmes
Sandy Linden - Sandy, yet there are kids who don't even complete boot camp/basic training, the claim to be alcoholics because they can't deal with the depression from failing to complete training and they get 100% - it is amazing what I've seen.
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SFC Howard Holmes
PO3 Michael MacKay - I submitted an appeal two times, through the state VA. My ankle was sprained so badly it was in a cast for six weeks. No that I'm older and it's bothering me. they don't acknowledge it, again, with whatever the DA/DD form issued by the Madigan Army Medical Center. Thank you for your input and help though, your thoughts are greatly appreciated.
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