Broken Promises: The Government's Responsibility to Its Veterans Is Not Being Met

If a country goes to war, or a veteran is injured or falls ill during their time of service, then it has a moral obligation to take care of its veterans.  Unfortunately, too often that is not the case.  Instead, for many veterans when they seek compensation and benefits it feels like the VA’s motto is “Deny, Deny, and wait (hope) that they die.”  The veterans of Desert Shield/Storm conflict are one of the groups who, the last time I saw a statistic, had an over 80% denial rate for claims.  It has been at 80% for denials since at least the mid-1990s.  Using myself, let me give a brief review of my experience with the Bureau of Veterans Affairs.

            In October, 1991 I returned from Saudi Arabia after having been exposed to multiple toxins, poisons, stress, infectious diseases, pesticides, oil well smoke, substandard living conditions, and other exposures for ten months.  For several months myself and others literally lived in a depression under a cloud of fumes from chemical agent resistant coating (CARC Paint) and its solvents.  This dome of fumes over our living area and worksite was so thick a safety officer shut down the site because he was afraid if a light that was being used for night time illumination was to bust the spark could explosively ignite the fumes.   I fell into a bunker with all my gear on and landed on my back, and even went on sick call for it even though it was miles away because ten days later my back and knees were still hurting.  When I arrived back in the states I specifically noted the fall, the heartburn, the smoke from the oil wells, the paint exposure, and other items on my redeployment physical. 

            I started going to the VA approximately 13 months after my return.  I am not sure when I first asked to go, it could have been within 12 months and it took some time for the VA to be able to see me.  What I do know is that 21-23 years ago I was not treated well by the VA or many of its employees.  Episodes included purposely being given the wrong directions to an office (turned out to be an outside door), being hung up on while I was on hold because it was five o’clock and the union would not allow anyone to work past that time, and being in line waiting to check out when quitting time came around, and being told that the ones in line would have to find another station to finish that day.  At the turn of the century I applied for a reconsideration/increase of my contentions and all were turned down.  In the statement of the case it mentioned an exam that I did not show up for, and that was used against me.  However, I made every exam that I knew about. 

I have recently been going through the process again for the aches and pains have progressively gotten worse.  Other than a clerk or two who was probably having a bad day no one has been obnoxiously rude to me, but there has been an attitude of condescension from many.  It is important to note, not all that I have come across has exhibited this, but many have had an aura of “you should be glad that we are letting you be examined here by our great personages.”  Others have shown disinterest, and others have shown no interest.  There have been some who have been nice, but at the same time project an attitude of disbelief.  Doctors are, for the most part, not interested in material one brings in to show them about what one had been exposed to in theater.  It seems as if the physicians look at two things when they see me, and make up their minds simply because I am aging (48y.o.) and overweight.   They do not believe there is something wrong other than deconditioning and aging.  It seems as if they cannot accept the fact that part or all of the deconditioning and weight gain is due to something they cannot explain or figure out, or they make snap judgements that are hard to break.

            From my experience what seems to have hurt me are several factors.  Here are some of them:

1.  I have not always been able to go to a doctor because of cost or distance.  I have never had a lot of money and I have three children and a wife.  Even with insurance the cost of going to a doctor can be prohibitive.  Also, many times you go to a doctor and they will tell you the same things to do you have been told before.  It is often a waste of time and money to go to a doctor if you know what is wrong.  Other times the medical advice that is being issued to the public is to not go to the doctor for every sniffle, ache or pain.  Instead one should try to wait it out to see if it resolves itself without professional medical intervention or prescription drugs.  

     As for the distance to a VA Medical Center in the last twenty-two years I have lived within a ½ hour of a VAMC only six of those years.  Most of those years it has been over an hour away, and no less than 50 miles away.  Some of those times the distance has been over two and a half hours.  Because of not complaining and unnecessarily spending time and money every six months the VA will say there is no chronicity of at least six months that would make it chronic.  This is even if it is more than six months after they receive your claim and you get a so called compensation and pension exam (the exam I have been told is not really an exam, but rather the physician is supposed to just review the records, maybe take a few x-rays, and do some very basic testing such as “can you push my hands up while I am pushing down on your hands.  This was a VA C&P MD examiner in the last three years who told me this.) 

2.  An action taken by the Department of the Army that calls into question any denial of service connection is the order that was given units to destroy their records because there was not enough room to ship them back.  The Army acknowledged this was in contradiction to their own policies.  This action makes one wonder and lays the ground work for the granting of any condition.  Some will say this is not/should not be the case, but if they destroyed some records on purpose in contradiction of standing orders reasonable doubt is raised as to what else was ordered destroyed, or what the government wants to keep hidden.  Some will say this is conspiratorial, but all one needs to do to see that the government is capable of such things is to remember Tuskegee , Vietnam and Agent Orange, the Atomic Veterans and others. 

3.  Like many veterans I did not go on sick call for every ache, pain, or fever.  In good conscience now, I have started telling those who are going to serve to make sure you get everything into your medical record.  Unfortunately that may hurt their advancement because of the attitude of “sucking it up” that is prevalent in the military.  Too many complaints can cause someone to be rated lower.

      Then there is the issue that many times in a combat theater the medical personnel that are seen are medics, and not necessarily nurses or physicians. 

4.  As a young man I was ignorant of many of the health issues that were affecting me, or did not realize there would be long term consequences to my health or to my benefits.  When I returned stateside, I was ready to see friends and family, and did not have anyone helping to guide me through the process.  An example of this would be heartburn actually being gastro-esophogeal reflux disease.  As a 25 year old who had been eating army food for a year, and had not had any major bouts of heartburn before, I just thought it was something I ate.  Little did I know heartburn was a serious condition, or that it would continue to get worsen.

 5.  An attitude of denying a claim when possible.  Even when there is a clear link to a health problem if one has not been diagnosed while in the military with a problem the claim is likely to be denied.  An example is my back where the VA will admit that I fell into a bunker and went to sick call, but because there was no diagnosis given, and I think I was seen by medics and not physicians, I am not service connected to it.  This is even though I have heard medical people say that back injuries often will not show up for years after the precipitating event.  I have not seen a doctor very many times for my back because they will give me some exercises to do, and sometimes pain medicine or muscle relaxants.

6.  A desire on the part of the Department of Defense and/or the Bureau of Veterans’ Affairs to not admit that the environment that was in Saudi Arabia during the Persian Gulf War was extremely toxic , and the troops even in Saudi Arabia were exposed to chemical warfare agents.  The standard line is that even if there were chemical agents in the area they would have been so dispersed to render them ineffective.  The problem with this is that it would be unethical to test to see how much it would take to begin to damage the troops minds and bodies.  Another standard tactic is to say that there are no proven studies that exposure to the many different chemicals and conditions the troops faced were actually dangerous or harmful.

     Another thing it seems that the government wants to deny or not admit to is the number of military personnel given experimental vaccines.  Before my company left Ft Stewart for Saudi Arabia we were told that we were receiving the botulism vaccine which was experimental.  The line today is that only about 8000 troops received it while they were in Saudi Arabia.  What happened to the ones stateside who received it.

            I will admit I am writing this out of frustration and hurt as once again I have been denied items that should be service connected.  Unfortunately my story is not unusual.  The process for applying and being granted compensation and benefits has become so complicated that most people who do not use a veterans service organization such as the American Legion do not get granted on the first try.  They have to fight and appeal for years to be granted connection for benefits they have earned, often at the expense of their health.  It is time for the executive and the legislative branches of the United States to meet and fund the promises they made when the personnel of the Armed Forces raised their right hands and entered into the service of the USA.
This is a copy of the letter someone received when they were searching for their records.  Notice it flat out says most records below the brigade level were destroyed, and it went against the regulations.