Eliminate Concurrent Receipt of Retirement Pay and Disability Compensation for Disabled Veterans

We discussed this back in December. No matter what some bean counting SOB, even with good intent, says, it is NOT concurrent receipt in the first place. It is TWO separate payment systems from TWO separate branches of government for TWO separate reasons. IF the two were really linked in cause, one would have to receive retired pay to rate any VA disability at all. It's like saying your civilian retirement from anywhere gets deducted by the amount of your social security payment once you hit 65. Get rid of that misleading term - concurrent receipt - and the whole issue disappears.

CWO3 (Join to see) GySgt John Olson COL Mikel J. Burroughs Col Dona Marie Iversen COL Charles Williams Lt Col Jim Coe LTC John Shaw Col (Join to see)
Maj Rev. Fr. Samuel WATERS - Traditional RC Priest LTC Trent Klug CPT (Join to see) CSM William DeWolf
1stSgt Eugene Harless SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc"
Thomas 1stSgt Ron Gallegos SFC George Smith
GySgt Melissa Gravila SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
SFC (Join to see)
CPT Jack Durish

We discussed this back in December. No matter what some bean counting SOB, even with good intent, says, it is NOT concurrent receipt in the first place. It is TWO separate payment systems from TWO separate branches of government for TWO separate reasons. IF the two were really linked in cause, one would have to receive retired pay to rate any VA disability at all. It's like saying your civilian retirement from anywhere gets deducted by the amount of your social security payment once you hit 65. Get rid of that misleading term - concurrent receipt - and the whole issue disappears.

CWO3 (Join to see) GySgt John Olson COL Mikel J. Burroughs Col Dona Marie Iversen COL Charles Williams Lt Col Jim Coe LTC John Shaw Col (Join to see)
Maj Rev. Fr. Samuel WATERS - Traditional RC Priest LTC Trent Klug CPT (Join to see) CSM William DeWolf
1stSgt Eugene Harless SMSgt Minister Gerald A. "Doc"
Thomas 1stSgt Ron Gallegos SFC George Smith
GySgt Melissa Gravila SFC Joe S. Davis Jr., MSM, DSL
SFC (Join to see)
CPT Jack Durish

To answer your question on the eliminating Concurrent Receipt of Military Retirement Pay and the Department of Veterans Affairs Service-Connected Disability Compensation for Disabled Veterans due to their Services, I have one thought only. So bear with me. I really didn't know anything about my Veterans Benefits until I was told by a retired Gunny that used to work for me while in the Marine Corps. This is 1994, and I called the local VA Regional Office and made an appointment with them. Now back to your question because it was mine in 1994 that I had asked this question. MSgt. George Cater is correct in saying that they are two different Departments, i.e. Deparment of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs. So two Different funding process. This is a correct statement. The other misnomer is that they're one in the same. No they're not the same. For example, we who are retired from the Department of Defense, Military Departments are compensated for our services to our Country on the longevity of our services for injuries, diseases, disabilities due to our services to our Country. The Department of the Veterans Affairs is the primary responsible Government Agency to take care of our Veterans, their widows, children, and orphans because of Wars, Conflicts and death of any Services members. Over One Hundred Years ago one of our President who was a fighting General said why are we giving our military men a pension when they served for our Country. Well Andrew Jackson started this fiasco and now our Government is trying to make amends with it's promises to our Veterans and their dependents. It was explained to me by a very professional person who was my first boss after service, who was an attorney with 40 plus years of services in the Marine Corps and in federal government who stated to me, look Jim, think of it this way. If you were a regular Joe not in the military services at all, then at work you were injured on the job, who would pay for your Heath Care, who would compensate you and your family if you were missing work. Your employer, you file for Workers Compensation Benefits. Well our Department of Veterans Affairs is our ticket to filing for Workers Compensation due to the unique nature of our duties, but our government calls this Service-Connected Disability Compensation. As for us who are retired from the military and did have injuries, diseases or death, we can file to our government agencies, ( The Department of Veterans Affairs). Side note. How many of you know what the age limit that the VA use to qualify you as a Disabled Veteran? If you can get this right, then we need to talk.
Semper Fidelis,
James