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March 28, 2007 
If I hear one more politician tell me how much they care for and support our veterans, I’m going to hurl.
While spending nearly six months in Balboa Naval Hospital in the early 1990’s, they brought me in a “roomie”. He was about 19; a young Airborne Private who was on a night training jump. His parachute did deploy, but he thinks someone else’s chute underneath him stole his air. He fell pretty hard from about three thousand feet. They brought him in late at night and after determining there was no paralysis or other serious injury, decided to transfer him the next day. But it was late, he was hungry and the galley was closed. The nurse told him he’d have to wait until breakfast to eat.
Absolutely fuming, I shot her a death glance and I then took it upon myself to walk -IV pole trailing- to the base McDonald’s to buy that kid a cheeseburger and a Coke®. I came to the cold realization that this country will never do enough to repay it’s veterans; that we’d have to take care of ourselves. He left the next day. I never saw him again. We shook hands as he was wheeled out and that was it. I never caught more than his last name - now long forgotten. It didn’t matter. I knew if we ever crossed paths again, that he was good for it.
US Army Specialist Billy Wilson is another such veteran.
Billy served in the Army and was deployed during the 1st Gulf War. He is 100% disabled and rated as unemployable as a result of a serious back injury. He is fighting to call attention to a very serious problem that needs to be addressed immediately. One that will only get worse as the number of US combat casualties rise in the years to come.
Billy has a daughter Angel, age 10. Angel is also severely disabled. She has had Cerebral Palsy and brain damage since birth. She cannot walk or talk and she eats through a feeding tube. When Angel was seven, Billy’s disability rating was increased to 100%, at which point Angel’s Medicaid was abruptly cut off. At the time Billy was also paying child support for his other children from a previous marriage. But the support he paid was considered part of his gross income, which put him over the Medicaid income limitations and added salt to the wounds.
In recent years, Angel has required two hip surgeries to keep her hips in proper alignment. Billy’s CHAMPVA insurance paid 70 percent, but this still puts his current debt at roughly 10 to 15 thousand dollars.Despite all of the hardships, he and his family have persevered. He says they’re doing OK now. Angel now has medical insurance, but only as long as there’s enough revenue from tobacco taxes.
What exactly are the long-term consequences of classifying a veteran as 100% disabled?
First of all, for anyone who has never been through this process, it is quite demeaning. Although only rated at 50%, in my case, I was asked to concur with and sign a written determination that I was “unfit for duty”. I was then moved to a barracks where I performed menial tasks until I went home. Despite being a 4.0 sailor, I was also threatened during “exit counseling” that if I violated any laws while I was awaiting discharge, bye-bye pension. Like a criminal…
The problem with the treatment of America’s veterans is not George Bush. The problem is the use of disabled, paralyzed or amputee veterans as political footballs by ALL politicians in an election cycle now two years long and it needs to stop right here. Right now.
If a veteran is 100% disabled and rated unemployable, they are not PERMITTED by law to hold a job. In fact, they are penalized. If something catastrophic happens to a member of that veteran’s family, they are faced with some very ugly choices, none of which I would want to make. In Billy’s case, his loyalty to both his country and his family have cost him dearly. Yet illegal immigrants cross our border by the millions every year, with pamphlets instructing them how to seek free medical care and state Medicaid benefits. Congress is considering legislation to legalize what could be 100 million people over the next 30 years [1], giving them all the benefits of citizenship, while Billy struggles to provide life-sustaining formula for his daughter.
To Congress, I say:
Shut up, already. Despite your floor speeches and campaign promises, you have a responsibility to fix this mess before you even consider universal health care or legislation to legalize a single illegal alien. Stop trying to dig up whatever you can on this President, and get about the business we elected you for. You’re failing miserably. You owe it to EVERY SINGLE member of the armed forces who has either been disabled or has made the ultimate sacrifice to ensure their children are adequately cared for. If not for our flesh and blood staining the Earth, yours soon will; shed by whichever jihadist group decides to launch the first assault and begin slitting the throats of your wives and children.
Related Articles:
Mindful of Past, Clinton Cultivates the Military - NY Times - 3/27/07
Dem’s Agenda? Just Follow The Money - WorldNetDaily 3/17/07
VA Tightens Standards for Individual Unemployability Claims
Fleet Reserve Association - Individual Unemployability Update
1. This figure is based on analysis of the May 2006 Immigration Reform legislation passed by the US Senate. Including amnestied illegals, their eligible family members, various types of entry visas and “Guest workers”, my estimate was 100 - 300 million people in 50 years, with exponential growth.
