Veterans Have Earned Their Benefits

Josh was one of my troops in Alaska; he was of those good guys with a since of humor everyone loved.  In the military, especially overseas, your troops, comrades, and their families become your family of choice. In allot of cases the home of the Non-Commissioned Officer in Charge (NCOIC) is their home away from home. We had a small shop, there were only 7 of us and our families were very close.  Almost everyone is away from their families during the holidays, to prevent depression, especially during the holidays our house was their home away from home. Particularly for the single troops that lived in the barracks. Josh became part of our family, our children adopted him as a big brother and he became like a son to my wife and I.  

One day he was called out for a disabled fire truck, while on his way he hit a moose, not unusual in Alaska. This was the turning point that would change his life. He received a concussion and hurt his back. He was out of work for 2 weeks and on limited duty for a month. As things went along we thought everything was ok. After a couple of years he got out of the Air Force with an honorable discharge and moved back to Colorado, all was good.

We kept in touch and talked to him at least once a week. That continued for the rest of his life. He would come to California, we went to Colorado, and this went on for years.  At that time his life was good, he had a good job (with benefits), house, wife, and great friends. None of us had any idea everything would come crashing down in a few years.

About 2 years later his back problems flared up again. I tried to get him to fill out a VA 21-526 disability claim from the Veterans Administration (VA) and like many he refused. He did not want to be a whiner or deal with the VA red tape. He had insurance through his job and everything would be ok. The doctors gave him various tests and some pain medication and sent him home. That did not help; the back pain continued for another 2 years, he continued to go to the doctor, where they gave him more pain medication. As time went on he had two back surgeries, nothing helped. During this time I was still talking to him every week, I could see his decline. After a while we realized he was hooked on the pain medication, he had become a drug addict and his wife and family were enabling him. Soon after he was fired from his job because of missed work, his wife left, and his house went into foreclosure. My wife and I decided it was time to get him some help.

It took us months to convince him to come see us and get help from the VA, he finally agreed. We scraped up enough money to buy him a plane ticket from Denver Co. to Ontario Ca. I picked him up from the airport on a Thursday night. Friday morning, we went to the Veterans Administration (VA) hospital. He brought all the needed documents, tax returns, DD-214, unemployment paperwork, medical records, it was all there. After the wait he was told by a benefits counselor that he could not get services. He needed to be a combat veteran, have a service connected disability, or meet low income standards. He did not meet any of the criteria because he never filed a claim for his back. He never was in combat, and he did not meet the low-income standards because he had made too much money the prior year. Like many we were unaware there was an income cutoff at the VA.  He had proof he had lost his job, but the system got in the way. They told him he could appeal, it would be 3 to 6 months before a board would make a decision, we did not know it but he did not have that long.

We offered him the opportunity to live with us and help him work through the problems. But he gave up once adversity arose. We would not allow him to drink alcohol and be on medication at the same time when he was with us; so, he decided to go back to Denver. Three weeks later I received a phone call from his mother, he was found dead, he died of an accidental drug overdose.

This might have been preventable, but who knows. If he had filed a claim for his back when he got out, the VA would have taken him. If the VA did not have a limit on income for non-combat veterans and non-service connected disabilities things might have turned out differently. Veterans see their brothers and sisters with missing limbs and don’t believe they deserve benefits for their unseen disabilities. Every veteran, family member, friend of a veteran needs to let them know they are not a whiner for filing a claim, and the red tape is just another hoop to jump through. If Josh had, it might have saved his life. Do not let this happen to others, be proactive. They have earned their benefits. They deserve their benefits.

For questions or comments, you can contact me at afterdutyvets@gmail.com or visit my website at www.afterdutyvets.com, and subscribe to my YouTube channel After Duty Vets or like us on Facebook at After Duty Vets.