these news reports just make my head explode! where does the armed forces get off pulling this crap? these men were clearly injured in the line of duty & now they get screwed.
Questionable Treatment for Some Iraq Heroes Veteran Care Under Review as More Than 22,000 Are Discharged With 'Pre-Existing' Personality Disorder, Which Some Say Developed During War Army Spc. Jonathan Town went from earning a Purple Heart to challenging the Veterans Administration to maintain his benefit claims. (ABC News)From WN By BOB WOODRUFF, JAMES HILL, JAIME HENNESSEY and JOSHUA KORS July 12, 2007 Font Size
E-mail Print Share Army Spc. Jonathan Town is back home in Ohio now, but still very much at war.
"When you see bits and pieces of actual people or people bleeding to death or anything, it's very unsettling. It's something you'll never be able to forget. Period," Town told ABC News' Bob Woodruff.
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Since his discharge in 2006, Town has not only dealt with the emotional scars of war, but he has also found himself at the center of a national debate on mental health care for veterans as a crowd as diverse as singer Dave Matthews and members of Congress has questioned how 22,000 veterans were diagnosed and discharged since 2001.
In Town's case, the discharge came two years after he was injured in an attack. In the fall of 2004, a 107 mm rocket ripped through his unit's headquarters in Ramadi, exploding two feet above Town's head and knocking him unconscious.
The rocket blast left Town with hearing loss, headaches, memory problems, anxiety and insomnia. For his wounds, he was awarded the Purple Heart.
But when he returned to the states seeking treatment for those very wounds, the Army quickly discharged him, asserting his problems had been caused not by the war but by a personality disorder that predated his military career.
A Quick Way Out
It is known as a "Chapter 5-13" "separation because of personality disorder." The Army defines it as a pre-existing "maladaptive pattern of behavior of long duration" that interferes with the soldier's ability to perform his duties.
In practical terms, this diagnosis means the personality disorder existed before military service, and therefore medical care and disability payments are not the military's responsibility. But some veterans and veterans' advocates have been vocal in their belief that personality disorder is being misdiagnosed in combat veterans.
"A significant percentage of the ones who are discharged with personality disorder truly have it, but there is another percentage that are put out simply to eliminate them from military service. It's done maliciously or as some sort of a policy," said Russell K. Terry, founder of the veterans' advocacy organization, Iraq War Veterans Organization.
Since 2001, more than 22,000 servicemen and women from all branches of the military have been separated under the personality disorder discharge, according to figures provided by the Department of Defense.
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i know there's a lot of extraneous stuff but i don't know how to just post the link. sorry.
kris
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an ABC soap fan since i was a teen. favorte hobby is reading mysteries & legal or medical procedural mysteries
the story was first on abc's world news tonight w/bob woodruff reporting. isn't amazing how he received such wonderful care from the military & the regular soldiers are left hanging like this? fortunately for the soldiers ~~~ and bad for the folks running things ~~~ bob woodruff has become quite the pit bull about the medical care they are not providing. i say, go get em, bob!
kris
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an ABC soap fan since i was a teen. favorte hobby is reading mysteries & legal or medical procedural mysteries
I saw a similar report, Kris. It's mindboggling how these men and women put so much on the line for the country, and then get treated like this at home.
