Military service
Military service
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How did the military do you wrong?
On 20 JUN 1969 I was wounded and remained in a coma for a month. After my coma, I was still pretty screwed up, mentally and physically. I was in a wheelchair at first, but only one of my arms worked so all I could do was turn in a tight little circle. I felt like they were doing that to me as some sort of torture because sending me to clean a grease-trap was out of the question. With time I started using my IV stand as a walker when no one was looking. Eventually I could walk unaided around the hospital. I ran into some SF buddies of mine, also recovering from their wounds. One mentioned what I call sympathy promotions for those of us seriously wounded. So I went over to personnel to ask about it. It was 25 SEPT 69. The clerk told me to come back after lunch and he’d check my records. When I got back he already had my orders for E-5 printed out for me. I was ecstatic -- that is until I started to walk away. The clerk said, “You could have had this promotion a few months back.”
I turned around and said, "I beg your pardon.” He held up a letter from my unit, dated 2 JUL 1969 recommending that I be promoted. I asked, "If you already had this letter, why didn’t you just promote me?”
He said, "As a patient, you have to ask for a promotion.”
I was livid. I’m sure he was in compliance with regulations, but it just galled me that the Army wouldn’t look after my best interest while I was in a coma and/or otherwise incapacitated.
So what was your worst screwing by the military?
On 20 JUN 1969 I was wounded and remained in a coma for a month. After my coma, I was still pretty screwed up, mentally and physically. I was in a wheelchair at first, but only one of my arms worked so all I could do was turn in a tight little circle. I felt like they were doing that to me as some sort of torture because sending me to clean a grease-trap was out of the question. With time I started using my IV stand as a walker when no one was looking. Eventually I could walk unaided around the hospital. I ran into some SF buddies of mine, also recovering from their wounds. One mentioned what I call sympathy promotions for those of us seriously wounded. So I went over to personnel to ask about it. It was 25 SEPT 69. The clerk told me to come back after lunch and he’d check my records. When I got back he already had my orders for E-5 printed out for me. I was ecstatic -- that is until I started to walk away. The clerk said, “You could have had this promotion a few months back.”
I turned around and said, "I beg your pardon.” He held up a letter from my unit, dated 2 JUL 1969 recommending that I be promoted. I asked, "If you already had this letter, why didn’t you just promote me?”
He said, "As a patient, you have to ask for a promotion.”
I was livid. I’m sure he was in compliance with regulations, but it just galled me that the Army wouldn’t look after my best interest while I was in a coma and/or otherwise incapacitated.
So what was your worst screwing by the military?
Vietnam War
Military Career
Promotions
Military service
Ethics
Edited 4 y ago
Posted 4 y ago
Responses: 23
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Long story short, they dumped a majority of my brothers remains in a landfill in New Jersey after he was killed in Iraq. Then denied responsibility. They mislabeled his headstone in Arlington, sent insensitive “condolence” letters to my parents and his widow and many other mishandling regarding my brother’s death.
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SFC (Join to see)
GySgt Thomas Vick we tried, it contributed to a congressional inquiry. Dover’s response was that they were following SOP so the DOD says although the policy was terrible, no violation of procedure occurred so they will not do anything about it. Since then the pathologists who oversaw the autopsies have been removed from their positions and the SOP’s have been rewritten to avoid recurrences.
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CWO3 (Join to see)
CMSgt Virgil Horsley - They caught at least one crematory in the South that was dumping ashes in a pond, and giving cement dust to survivors. I can't fathom that, bottom line or not. Sad to hear about this for any Vet.
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SFC (Join to see)
CMSgt Virgil Horsley yes, they did fix the headstone and this all occurred in 2007. My brother wasn’t the only Soldier this happened to. I think similar instances occurred between 2005 and 2011 and only around 200-500 or so Soldiers were treated this way.
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Col John Madison
Couldn't help but be reminded of the fiasco going on over at Arlington National Cemetery. They occasionally find another coffin in a spot they've recently opened for a burial, most often due to the records being FUBAR. There were many many incorrect headstone placements, grave border errors, and just plain incompetence. Don't mean to slight anyone, but Arlington has tried to "bury its mistakes" in graves mis-registration.
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Being passed over for promotion when I had all the points and a great EER.
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LTC (Join to see)
When I was an E4, I had a Company CO flag me for PT failure and not tell me about it to keep me off the promotion list because I had more points than the guy he wanted to promote. I didn't find out about it until a couple of years later when I was going through my 201 file and saw the paperwork.
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Hurt my shoulder while on deployment. For 18 months the army told me it was just tendonitis and gave me motrin. When I finally got home and went to an orthopedic surgeon, I had a torn rotator cuff. Because it had gone untreated for so long I had formed bone spurs that wore a grove in the bottom of my collar bone. Wound up having 3 surgeries. They had to cut 2" off the end of my collar bone and my shoulder is held together with screws. Permanent numbness in 3 fingers of that hand, limited range of motion (ie I now throw like a girl), constant stiffness and pain. And all because the army didn't want to give me an MRI for the 18 months I was deployed. It would have been an easy fix at the time and I could have recovered 100% but now I have a permanent disability. I'm waiting for the final screwing now when the VA tries to tell me it's not service related....
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SPC Richard Zacke
LTC (Join to see) After rolling a D-7 Bulldozier down a steep incline...about 6 rolls and I was tossed from hydraulic tank to controll levers. I came to at the hospital after being medivaced out of the woods where we where digging tank trapps. The Major that was working on me was more concerened with the deep bruises on both hips, they where purplish red and about the size of vollyballs. I told the Major that I had extreme pain going down both legs. He told me that was because I pulled my hamstrings. I told him that I played football in HS and this did not feel like hamstrings. After nearly 4 months he called in a nuerologist who did a simple x-ray and said that I had broke my back and since so much time has gone by they needed to rebreak and staighten my lumbar out.
Well the Army had enough of me and even though I had just re-enlisted they forced me out. I drove through the main gate for the last time on Aug, 27, 1981 with a wife and new born son. Sept. 30, 1981 I had my first of 8 Lumbar surgeries. They had to do a cervical surgery and my surgeon was saying that I needed 4 levels fused but the VA with all their great wisdom said 2 only. That was last year and now I'm scheduled four the other two levels on April 10, 2020 nearly one year apart! I could go on and on about all the surgeries but I'm cutting it off right now, it's to damn depressing and when I rolled that D-7 I got a medium grade TBI which comes with headaches FREE OF CHARGE!!! Thanks for listening or reading all this rambling. God bless all of you brothers and sisters.
Well the Army had enough of me and even though I had just re-enlisted they forced me out. I drove through the main gate for the last time on Aug, 27, 1981 with a wife and new born son. Sept. 30, 1981 I had my first of 8 Lumbar surgeries. They had to do a cervical surgery and my surgeon was saying that I needed 4 levels fused but the VA with all their great wisdom said 2 only. That was last year and now I'm scheduled four the other two levels on April 10, 2020 nearly one year apart! I could go on and on about all the surgeries but I'm cutting it off right now, it's to damn depressing and when I rolled that D-7 I got a medium grade TBI which comes with headaches FREE OF CHARGE!!! Thanks for listening or reading all this rambling. God bless all of you brothers and sisters.
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