Military Disability

[Fargo]

I have a buddy who was in Army for 16-18 years, he is now in the Guard until his retirement vests. He owns his own business and is 60% disabled for bad knee and shoulder and he said this has to stay above 50% to get his retirement.

That is why I made my initial post, I didn't really understand how you can be considered "disabled" but still be fit for duty and earn as much as you like. I know the general public, if 100% disabled....can not earn any money without jeopardizing disability.

Different programs serving different purposes for different reasons. When you hire on at a job where they can put you in jail for not showing up for work or trying to quit, there should be solid framework to take care of what happens to you while working on that job.

When I was a roofer, I could quit or refuse to do anything unsafe I wanted, and the worst thing happened to me was that I moved on to the next crew looking for someone with experience. You don't have that luxury in the military.

 

[CHCRandy]

Different programs serving different purposes for different reasons. When you hire on at a job where they can put you in jail for not showing up for work or trying to quit, there should be solid framework to take care of what happens to you while working on that job.

When I was a roofer, I could quit or refuse to do anything unsafe I wanted, and the worst thing happened to me was that I moved on to the next crew looking for someone with experience. You don't have that luxury in the military.

I have known more than 1 guy who claimed they pissed the bed to get discharge because they were homesick. Don't know if it is true, but that's what they claimed. That was 25 years ago....

 

[phylodog]

You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to Fargo again.

 

[Alpo]

I have known more than 1 guy who claimed they pissed the bed to get discharge because they were homesick. Don't know if it is true, but that's what they claimed. That was 25 years ago....

Where do you think the term "War Story" was invented?

Once Upon a Time turns into: "Now this is no ****"

 

[Que]

So, jumping out of our perfectly good aircraft causes pain?

Only when you go over the static line like an idiot.

 

[PistolBob]

No property taxes??? Wow!

They get a special deduction for being a disabled veteran...it's not 100%.
In Indiana and many other states, children of disabled veterans get free access to state schools....that could all change at any minute at the whim of the state legislature.

 

[Que]

They get a special deduction for being a disabled veteran...it's not 100%.
In Indiana and many other states, children of disabled veterans get free access to state schools....that could all change at any minute at the whim of the state legislature.

Those are tuition-free, so the fees, room and board remain. In many states 100% disables vets receive free hunting licenses.

 

[Brad69]

10 year hunting and fishing license $27.50

Golden Hoosier Passport free admission for state parks ect.

 

[Trigger Time]

Anything can be considered run of the mill, but I got your buttercup, my man, and I’ll leave it at that.

If there is any vet vet on this board who has not been assessed for whatever reason, do it. It doesn’t matter if you were a desk jockey or door kicker. How much burning oil did you suck up? How many anthrax pills were you forced to take? How many jumps and rucks did you make with 85 pounds? How many of your friends did you see injuried or die? Don’t listen to people who will never understand and try to make you feel guilty. I’ve talked to many vets just over this holiday who are in pain and some of them still won’t go to the VA. It’s not about the money, but your health as you age and making our government care for us beyond two days out of the year.

Exactly! If you signed the blank check then you earned whatever you qualify for or get. You signed up for **** pay and gave up your life for however many years and so did your family. You earned your benefits!
You did your part without hesitation and now it's time to hold the government accountable for what they agreed to.
Too many people wanna focus on if a person got deployed or not. It doesn't matter. If they wore the uniform they gave up their life for X amount of years for a higher purpose and some gave it ALL and now their family doesn't have them. Do Ranger candidates who die in training sacrifice mean any less than someone who dies on a foreign land? Not to me. They paid the ultimate price to protect this country. If you die in a flash flood during a training exercise for the national guard is that sacrifice any less important? No.
So if you blow out your knee or develops arthritis or hearing loss because of military training and or combat, what makes that any less important? What makes you a disability whore? Not a.damn thing. You earned everything you can get and then some!
This is one area of our Republic that I don't give a damn what anyone whose never wore the uniform says. I've never claimed or thought that veterans are any better than someone who never served, but they do deserve what they were promised when they joined. A promise was made by both sides and the veteran kept his promise. The support for our veterans is **** in this country. If every American truly cared about and was thankful for what our veterans did then around 30 veterans a day wouldn't be blowing their brains out on tarps they neatly place in their garage so that their wives will have less of a mess to clean up. Veterans wouldn't be dying who got put to the back of a waiting list for treatment. And the government wouldn't be covering up and lying about service related cancers and skin diseases or parasites you got from a half cooked fish you ate when you were an 18 year old bad ass in a place called Vietnam that you never even learned about in school and now you're 70 and dying from it because your damn Government who you did your duty for and should have your back mother****ed you.
Or people wanna ***** because a disabled veterans kids get free or reduced college or free lunch. Maybe those kids deserve it because their disabled daddy couldn't even hold them as babies or young kids without dropping them or never play with them or run around and chase them l Ile normal daddies do? Or their daddy hurt so bad or couldn't stand to be around groups of people so they didn't go out and do as much together as they normaly would have. Examples could go on and on. What are the affects of the stress of having a father or mother or wife or husband deployed and having your heart skip a beat every time the phone or the doorbell rings?
And no one I know signed up because they just couldn't wait to fight the VA for several years or decades in order to claim their golden ticket of **** care and a check that's less than what most healthy people could earn Working a good job. Yeah that conversation never came up in a serious sense and if those people do exists they don't last long. The military police's it's own.
Yeah, there's a problem alright but it's not veterans milking the system I promise you that.
To any veteran than is abusing the system **** you

 

[Vigilant]

Exactly! If you signed the blank check then you earned whatever you qualify for or get. You signed up for **** pay and gave up your life for however many years and so did your family. You earned your benefits!
You did your part without hesitation and now it's time to hold the government accountable for what they agreed to.
Too many people wanna focus on if a person got deployed or not. It doesn't matter. If they wore the uniform they gave up their life for X amount of years for a higher purpose and some gave it ALL and now their family doesn't have them. Do Ranger candidates who die in training sacrifice mean any less than someone who dies on a foreign land? Not to me. They paid the ultimate price to protect this country. If you die in a flash flood during a training exercise for the national guard is that sacrifice any less important? No.
So if you blow out your knee or develops arthritis or hearing loss because of military training and or combat, what makes that any less important? What makes you a disability whore? Not a.damn thing. You earned everything you can get and then some!
This is one area of our Republic that I don't give a damn what anyone whose never wore the uniform says. I've never claimed or thought that veterans are any better than someone who never served, but they do deserve what they were promised when they joined. A promise was made by both sides and the veteran kept his promise. The support for our veterans is **** in this country. If every American truly cared about and was thankful for what our veterans did then around 30 veterans a day wouldn't be blowing their brains out on tarps they neatly place in their garage so that their wives will have less of a mess to clean up. Veterans wouldn't be dying who got put to the back of a waiting list for treatment. And the government wouldn't be covering up and lying about service related cancers and skin diseases or parasites you got from a half cooked fish you ate when you were an 18 year old bad ass and now your 70 and dying from it because your damn Government who you did your duty for and should have your back mother****ed you.
Or people wanna ***** because a disabled veterans kids get free or reduced college or free lunch. Maybe those kids deserve it because their disabled daddy couldn't even hold them as babies or young kids without dropping them or never play with them or run around and chase them l Ile normal daddies do? Or their daddy hurt so bad or couldn't stand to be around groups of people so they didn't go out and do as much together as they normaly would have. Examples could go on and on. What are the affects of the stress of having a father or mother or wife or husband deployed and having your heart skip a beat every time the phone or the doorbell rings?
Yeah, there's a problem alright but it's not veterans milking the system I promise you that

The rep gods won’t let me! Couldn’t have said it better, or nicer, definitely couldn’t have said it nicer.

 

[CHCRandy]

I just want to say I am sorry I asked. I am sorry if I offended anyone and sorry if I caused bad feelings between anyone. I should have just assumed, never asked and never known. I thought I could ask you guys because I knew there were a lot of military vets here and figured it would be cut n dry. I didn't realize the raw emotions of it and when I try to put myself in your shoes, I understand and am sorry.

We buried my cousin about 10-11 years ago who was killed in Iraq. He had been shot in April by a sniper and could have came home, he stayed with his men and died in June. I could never look his widow and children in the eye and tell them they are undeserving, nor would I tell any of you that you are undeserving....you guys deserve anything you can get and then some. I appreciate everything the military does.......you guys allow us to be the baddest country in the world.

 

[churchmouse]

The rep gods won’t let me! Couldn’t have said it better, or nicer, definitely couldn’t have said it nicer.

I put +10 on him.

 

[hog slayer]

I'm not offended. These are good things to be curious about. You can find a sloth abusing the system if you look, but as has been said, there are too many not getting properly compensated. Let Uncle Sam uphold his end of the bargain. Programs have been put in place to better assist our vets today than years past. Those old timers got a solid screwing plenty of times and plenty of ways. This just confounds the issue. I've been well taken care of and hand no complaints with how I've been handed in every regard. Not everybody can say that.

But I'm not offended by your questions. Thanks for caring at all. Chances are, the guys who chimed in here that aren't vets will be some of our greatest bastions for proper compensation and upholding promises.

 

[Woobie]

I just want to say I am sorry I asked. I am sorry if I offended anyone and sorry if I caused bad feelings between anyone. I should have just assumed, never asked and never known. I thought I could ask you guys because I knew there were a lot of military vets here and figured it would be cut n dry. I didn't realize the raw emotions of it and when I try to put myself in your shoes, I understand and am sorry.

We buried my cousin about 10-11 years ago who was killed in Iraq. He had been shot in April by a sniper and could have came home, he stayed with his men and died in June. I could never look his widow and children in the eye and tell them they are undeserving, nor would I tell any of you that you are undeserving....you guys deserve anything you can get and then some. I appreciate everything the military does.......you guys allow us to be the baddest country in the world.

I'm sorry you're sorry. The fact that you are free to ask, and are concerned enough about your country to ask, is why these guys paid the price they did. My position is that even though two people could have the exact same injury and problems from that injury, the fact that one of those people was once government property means their care belongs to the government if the government broke them. But your question and position are reasonable. And I would say valuable to the discussion on how we care for those who have served.

 

[thunderchicken]

I know I said I wasn't going to post in this thread again because I don't want to be offensive. But I have been mulling it over today and keeping tabs on the discussion. I need to say that I had a brief conversation last night with Que and he gave me some insight that I hadn't had regarding how ths system works and I just want to say that it has sort of softened my stance on the subject. Sometimes when you are on the outside looking in with limited info it can lead to an opinion that is a little too far off base. I hope I wasn't too out of line

 

[halfmileharry]

I know I said I wasn't going to post in this thread again because I don't want to be offensive. But I have been mulling it over today and keeping tabs on the discussion. I need to say that I had a brief conversation last night with Que and he gave me some insight that I hadn't had regarding how ths system works and I just want to say that it has sort of softened my stance on the subject. Sometimes when you are on the outside looking in with limited info it can lead to an opinion that is a little too far off base. I hope I wasn't too out of line

No problem I see. It's an opinion and we've all got one. I don't see how opinions can be right or wrong. I already did my apologizing earlier today over this thread.

 

[KellyinAvon]

While we're on the subject, what about civilians and contractors? It's not just GIs who deploy anymore. Contractors were driving buses at Al Udeid, Qatar and up-armoring HUMVEEs at Balad, Iraq in 2005. A big advantage to contractors is no long-term cost like you have with GIs. Performing support roles because our military isn't as large as it used to be is why we have contractors performing that mission. I don't think we'll ever see a draft again (I'll be back on active duty before that happens, scary thought isn't it?)

What happens when a contractor gets hurt in a combat zone performing the mission? I honestly don't know, but kicking them to the curb doesn't strike me as the right thing to do.

 

[phylodog]

While we're on the subject, what about civilians and contractors? It's not just GIs who deploy anymore. Contractors were driving buses at Al Udeid, Qatar and up-armoring HUMVEEs at Balad, Iraq in 2005. A big advantage to contractors is no long-term cost like you have with GIs. Performing support roles because our military isn't as large as it used to be is why we have contractors performing that mission. I don't think we'll ever see a draft again (I'll be back on active duty before that happens, scary thought isn't it?)

What happens when a contractor gets hurt in a combat zone performing the mission? I honestly don't know, but kicking them to the curb doesn't strike me as the right thing to do.

I see the contractors in an entirely different light. No one goes to the middle east as a contractor for minimum wage. It is a choice, it is a calculated risk and what they are entitled to should be agreed to long before they ever step foot in country.

 

[Woobie]

I know I said I wasn't going to post in this thread again because I don't want to be offensive. But I have been mulling it over today and keeping tabs on the discussion. I need to say that I had a brief conversation last night with Que and he gave me some insight that I hadn't had regarding how ths system works and I just want to say that it has sort of softened my stance on the subject. Sometimes when you are on the outside looking in with limited info it can lead to an opinion that is a little too far off base. I hope I wasn't too out of line

It's not like you burnt a flag. You have a reasonable opinion. Plus it isn't totally off base. People do game the system. In a system this big, there are bound to be abuses. And there are going to be raw feelings on this subject. It's hard to understand the respect and admiration you can have for a service member unless you have been next to them as they poured their hearts out for their country. And when you see those same patriots suffering for their efforts, it cuts pretty deeply. Under those circumstances, it's hard to separate a rational policy discussion from emotion. I still believe a person hurt while serving their country deserves to be taken care of, and I think that should include long-term compensation for disability. I can see how that wouldn't necessarily be fully supported by someone footing the bill. But I will respectfully disagree.

 

[Woobie]

I see the contractors in an entirely different light. No one goes to the middle east as a contractor for minimum wage. It is a choice, it is a calculated risk and what they are entitled to should be agreed to long before they ever step foot in country.

They can pretty much quit and get on the next plane home if they choose.