Military Disability

[CHCRandy]

I was just wondering something...has it become common for young guys leaving military to get disability from military?

I have ran into more people in the last couple of weeks that get big checks from military but yet work full time, own their own companies, and some are even still in Guard.....and do just fine. I'll be honest, I was kind of shocked although I don't blame anyone for taking what is owed, but man....a couple of these guys were in 3 years, never left US soil and are getting, or fighting to get, nice disability checks.

 

[phylodog]

Very, very common. There are a lot of benefits which come along with even the most minor disability ratings. A friend receives a pretty small disability check for a bum knee which hasn't prevented him from being a police officer. He also pays no property taxes and his kids receive free tuition to state funded colleges.

 

[voidsherpa]

A friend receives a pretty small disability check for a bum knee which hasn't prevented him from being a police officer. He also pays no property taxes and his kids receive free tuition to state funded colleges.

A former friend of mine that I met at university was getting disability for knee problems from guard, while still actively being in guard for a couple years. I never fully understood that one.

 

[phylodog]

I've been encouraged to go in and seek a disability rating but I haven't done it. Probably stupid on my part but I've always felt like I took more away from that 6 years than I ever put in.

 

[Dirtebiker]

No property taxes??? Wow!

 

[KellyinAvon]

No property taxes??? Wow!

I wouldn't say "no" property taxes unless th assessed value is under $50K. It's like another Homestead exemption

 

[femurphy77]

Very, very common. There are a lot of benefits which come along with even the most minor disability ratings. A friend receives a pretty small disability check for a bum knee which hasn't prevented him from being a police officer. He also pays no property taxes and his kids receive free tuition to state funded colleges.

This along with excellent medical (not VA but of their choice) is the way it SHOULD be!

 

[Nojoy621]

Technically, it’s not disability, it is compensation. A lot of people get it for knees, back, ptsd, hearing loss, etc... if anything on your body, mental or physical, isn’t the same as when you went it, the VA will give you compensation because it’s ervice related. I also think you can go to the VA hospital for free even if you are not rated at 100%, but only for the specific service related issues you get compensated for. I have a comp rating for sever hearing loss and tinnitus....stupid m777....

 

[1775usmarine]

I'm 10% for a torn meniscus that I didn't know about till 2011 didn't get my rating for 18 months after I found out. I never requested an MRI while I was in because I believed the doc's who said it was just a knee strain. I've had 2 surgeries in 2014 and 2016 work for the railroad and still deal with pain due to my craft.

I read that your kids basically get a discount equal to your rating for in state school. I also get an exempt on part of my property taxes can't remember the amount. I also get free care for my rt knee and travel pay when I go for a knee appointment.

 

[CHCRandy]

Sounds like it is kind of the common thing then. The crazy part is the one guy who gets 1100-1200 a month is always dogging people who draw disability but could work, but then I find out he is drawing it as well....and getting to work full time, plus be in the Guard until he retires and gets his full military pension....now it sounds like he gets property tax discount and his kids who are in college may be going for free. I don't begrudge him getting it....he was in the sandbox for years as a full time soldier and has been in for 20+ years.

But a couple of these guys I know have always been worthless, never left US soil, never had a job.........one wasn't even in for 1 1/2 years and is fighting for his disability while he lives at mom and dads and has no job. I am sorry, but that is pathetic. He is as healthy as a horse. I am surprised the military took them to start with.

If I had known about all this stuff though.......I may have given them a few years as well, recruiters should use this in the sales pitch.

 

[halfmileharry]

I've been encouraged to go in and seek a disability rating but I haven't done it. Probably stupid on my part but I've always felt like I took more away from that 6 years than I ever put in.

Get your rating taken care of. I've always felt that I owed this country more than it owed me as well.
I got some bumps and bruises while I served. They didn't bother me much when I was younger.
Now that I'm older the damage done is really taking a toll on every day life.
Hurting 24/7, skin bleeding, blood diseases showing up that the VA warned about for decades, hearing, cost of clothing due to ointments, salves, and creams is ridiculous.
Nothing hurt me until I turned 38 and sat on the side of the bed one morning and knew right then that my invincibility was gone.
There's not enough money printed daily to make it worth while but it helps take care of some of the things that happened to you that you'll never get back.
This is just a small part of the pay compensation package due to any member of the military past or present.

 

[Woobie]

Sounds like it is kind of the common thing then. The crazy part is the one guy who gets 1100-1200 a month is always people who draw disability but could work, but then I find out he is drawing it as well....and getting to work full time, plus be in the Guard until he retires and gets his full military pension....now it sounds like he gets property tax discount and his kids who are in college may be going for free. I don't begrudge him getting it....he was in the sandbox for years as a full time soldier and has been in for 20+ years.

But a couple of these guys I know have always been worthless, never left US soil, never had a job.........one wasn't even in for 1 1/2 years and is fighting for his disability while he lives at mom and dads and has no job. I am sorry, but that is pathetic. He is as healthy as a horse. I am surprised the military took them to start with.

If I had known about all this stuff though.......I may have given them a few years as well, recruiters should use this in the sales pitch.

I don't know if telling people we're going to break them is a good sales tactic Besides, you join to serve. We don't want people who come in for the purpose of adding to the deficit.

Whether or or not they went overseas is basically immaterial in this discussion. Paratroopers all have bad knees, artillery men can't hear anything but the ringing, and infantry have back problems. Training is rough on the body. On my fourth day of basic I watched one kid turn his leg around backwards and another blow his ankle into match sticks. They got discharged. Maybe they would have been great soldiers, but they never got the chance. Their service was short before we broke them, and they'll likely deal with those injuries for a long time. They missed out on a lot of pay and opportunities too. On the other hand, I'm sure there is some abuse of the system. But there needs to be a method of compensating those who have served for what we have done to their bodies.

 

[hog slayer]

I certainly agree with woobie. The vast majority of compensation is for injuries related to training rather than combat. The Marine Corps maintains the ability to put 90k troops on foreign soil within 96 hrs self sustainable for 90 days. There's a lot that goes into that sort of thing. I took a shot of steroid in my foot so I could walk on my own two wheels just to board the plane to get to Afghanistan. Once there it often felt like a mistake, but I wouldn't miss that for anything.

 

[actaeon277]

Train like you fight.
Train hard.

It's rough on the individual.
But not as rough as going into combat with bad or easy training.

 

[MrsGungho]

I don't know if telling people we're going to break them is a good sales tactic Besides, you join to serve. We don't want people who come in for the purpose of adding to the deficit.

Whether or or not they went overseas is basically immaterial in this discussion. Paratroopers all have bad knees, artillery men can't hear anything but the ringing, and infantry have back problems. Training is rough on the body. On my fourth day of basic I watched one kid turn his leg around backwards and another blow his ankle into match sticks. They got discharged. Maybe they would have been great soldiers, but they never got the chance. Their service was short before we broke them, and they'll likely deal with those injuries for a long time. They missed out on a lot of pay and opportunities too. On the other hand, I'm sure there is some abuse of the system. But there needs to be a method of compensating those who have served for what we have done to their bodies.

Hubby can't hear his Granddaughters voice unless he is looking at her. At 6, it's hard for her to understand she has to get Papa's attention first.

Heavy artillery, USMC. Shipped for Desert Storm with no hearing protection at all.
He didn't want the compensation, I encouraged him to try and get it. He is missing a lot of life. We can't converse in a crowded room, we rarely go out to crowded places because of this.
It is a small check every month along with the property taxes taken care of. It in no way replaces what he has lost.

 

[Jeepster48439]

Besides the compensation from the VA, if you have a disability and buy a house using your VA benefits, you don't pay the funding fee.

 

[amboy49]

Those who haven’t registered for the Agent Orange registry should also do this ASAP. If you were in country in Viet Nam and were exposed you have a ticking time bomb in you. One of my good friends is suffering from Parkinson’s Disease. He served in Nam 1967-1968 - he told me the government writes him an annual check for medium 5 figures. It doesn’t offset having to deal with the effects of the disease, but he is deserving of whatever he can get. Many Nam vets may probably never know what they have or will contract as the result of being exposed.

 

[1775usmarine]

For those of us in OIF/OEF the thing we are learning about is the burn pits.

 

[Bapak2ja]

Very, very common. There are a lot of benefits which come along with even the most minor disability ratings. A friend receives a pretty small disability check for a bum knee which hasn't prevented him from being a police officer. He also pays no property taxes and his kids receive free tuition to state funded colleges.

This along with excellent medical (not VA but of their choice) is the way it SHOULD be!

Agreed. These men put their life and limb on the line for us. They earned this benefit, far more than the welfare queen with fifteen kids, or the woman who is too ft to work. The did things with their bodies that left them weakened or broken. The injuries may not be significant, or life changing; but they do have a loss of freedom of movement or pain when doing certain things, or nagging pain that just never goes away. JFK, for example, injured his back and was never able to pick up his children. It was a minor thing in some ways, but it did have an ongoing impact on his life. I have no problem with them getting the health care and cash benefits.

 

[Brad69]

The new Benefits at Discharge program is catching many of them at discharge and ensuring they get Compensation for injuries.
As stated before it is compensation not disability you have two basic categories able to work and not able to work.
For example You can be %70 and not able to work or %100 and able to work.
Not to get into the weeds on it but injuries are rated from 0-100 percent in 10 percent increments then it goes into VA math which uses the whole person concept. If you are retired you have to be rated at 50% plus to receive any VA compensation.

If you are a recent veteran the VA has a complete listing of deployments, days in combat, days you were missing ect.
The improvements made in the past few years are impressive the VA now record match’s with the DOD before final determination and has uncovered many fake veterans. Combat veterans are given priority in the VA system.

17% of all military make it to a 20 retirement some get hurt some get in trouble some do not get promoted some lose their will power some get tired of the BS some have came did what the wanted and leave. As I look at the window it’s raining at about 38 degrees now think about grabbing you rucksack and living in the woods the next two weeks walking for miles each day and sleeping on the ground no campfire no tent no hot food.
One slip and you may break a ankle because of the 50-60 pound rucksack on your back.
Garrison life is easy right? Think of showing up for work everyday at 0530 for PT you are going to run do push-ups sit up ect. for an hour or more some days you will run 4-6 miles. You can’t call in sick or miss a day that’s not how it works.
You have to meet height and weight standards qualify with your weapon ect.
To top it all off you get to go to other countries and get shot at and blown up by people that want to kill you because your Americans. All of this takes a toll on the body and the mind.

Sure you will always have some that abuse the system the VA does a decent job at being a gatekeeper and rating Veterans fairly.
If a person here on INGO is a Veteran they need to request their medical records and see if they have anything to file a claim for.
Just about every Veteran should file for hearing loss and tinnitus. Get a VA exam and get in the system it will help you in your later years you can get drugs free. I see many elderly Veterans that didn’t want anything by the time they need help a few months can be a long time. The registry’s are important it gives the VA a database to track illness and go to Congress for money to treat the Veterans’s effected. If you served during the effected periods you owe it to other Veterans to get the exam to help them even if you have no effects now what will you have in 40 years?

https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/gulfwar/benefits/registry-exam.asp
https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/burnpits/registry.asp
https://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/benefits/registry-exam.asp