06 January 2008

Who takes care of them now?


From the CITIZEN side: Today I went to church...yeah, I know, I'm going to hell anyway, so why bother. I friend of mine was there, he was home on leave. He is an honest to God friggen war hero in my book. He went to Iraq last year...I remember talking to him just before his (Regular Army) unit shipped out. He was very proud of himself. A very positive, eager happy young man. He heard I'd been to Iraq and asked me lots of questions.
He deployed with a platoon of 35...there were only 9 of them left. He's been wounded so many times...he has a wrecked back, no vision in one eye, parts of an RPG round still in his leg, and not Mild Traumatic Brain Injury, but a Major one I'd say. His unit continued to send him out even after he said his vision was blurry and he had bad headaches. They finally sent him back to the states...where he had to wait over a month to see a doctor about his head injuries.
Now the Army may discharge him. I explained what he should do to insure he gets medical benefits and other benefits.... They'll just toss him away.... It's happened for over 200 years-- don't think the military takes care of the injured once they are no longer able to work. He thinks the VA will help him...but it'll take him months to get into the VA system when he's discharged.....
Keep this in mind next time someone wants to take us to war.
Mission Mosoul will cont later, I just had to get this out of my system.

3 comments:

Sergeant Grumpy said...

Man that sucks. Hope he listens to you.

Anonymous said...

That is disturbing on many levels...no one should be treated that way, let alone a heroic vet.
-J

Anonymous said...

D--if you need any strings pulled let me know...I have some contacts higher up with the VA...anything he needs anything at all.