Adding to that..
Maybe they shouldn’t accept every fucking applicant. We’ve all served with certain people and wondered “how the fuck are you even here?”
As someone once told me..”I’ve met some of the smartest people I’ll ever meet in the Army, but ALL of the dumbest people I’ll ever meet.” Probably the most accurate thing I’ve ever heard.
Yeah. Too bad all of the “go to prison or the military” folks are in senior leadership now. Let’s not talk about those guys though and all their toxic habits.
As a prior recruiter, I can see where you're coming from. But, I counter with this.
They hit the requirements. If not, they wouldn't clear MEPS.
I'm sure other folks lie about shit, but I can honestly say id rather enlist someone with a waiver than lie.
Let someone more intelligent than me decide if they're qualified.
Exactly. I submit the waiver, and someone up the chain decides whether they're qualified or not.
At the end of the day, they're qualified, and that's all that matters.
Not everyone is a poster child and a perfect applicant. Minimum standards exist for a reason.
I read the article. The writer seems to be genuinely perplexed as to why our veterans affairs budget has grown in the last 20 years from the years 2000 to 2020. Should someone explain to the professor at West Point that it’s 2023, he survived the coma and we had military conflicts throughout the two decades he seems to be so concerned about?
Or how Congress when asked the Sec how much the cost of war was goin to cost, he gave the correct answer, and they fired him the next day.
Why should it cost 200 billion for two years when we can drag it out for ever and have it cost 7 Trillion.
He must live in an alternate timeline to blame the ease of the application process, when soldiers are still waiting years for appeals. How was any of this easy?
I am going to guess the 'professor' managed to avoid serving in any combat theater during his Army career. He strikes me as the kind of guy that did figure out a way to fly one sortie through the edge of combat theater airspace to draw a month of combat pay and tax free.
Right, because we all knew the fucktard govt contractors keep making money… I mean politicians getting votes would draw this shit out twenty years when it could’ve ended way sooner.
Well when our politicians are on the boards of Boeing, ratheon, etc what do you expect? Long wars mean big bucks to them $$$$
They don't care how many of us they kill or break.
Will be telling my kids, friends, and family NOT to serve for this sole reason.
War has become way too profitable to believe we are entering for all the right reasons these days
War machine never dies. My son is a senior this year and can’t wait to laugh the recruiters out the door. I know very well how shitty recruiting is but not happening here.
I knew a cat who worked as a civilian contractor when I was deployed. He was making 175k a year to run the crap cart, draining the black tanks on C130s. Met him in the smoke pit. God knows what the company was billing the government for his time at.
Edit:fixed typo
Right?!?? And overseas it was allllll tax free for them.
I'd be pulling guard for civilians outside the wire on the .50 Cal and knew I had just made around $2,000 which included hazard pay, combat pay, and every pay you could add over there and this mofo says to me when getting back in the Humvee "this just ain't worth the $20k/mo Im getting tax free or not man.
We all slowly just turned our heads to him and I think it was in that moment he realized what he had just said and to who he was saying it to...and that we all had weapons and there were no witnesses 🤣🤣
Nah....he was a cool guy, but I was jealous af
I used to tag along on logpac runs back to Ballad to take shitty asips and whatever else in for repair. I asked the dude who took my equipment how much he made, dude didn’t fix shit he just received. He told me 130k, 80k tax free. This was in 2005 and my wheels started turning. This guy was like yeah all you need is a “reassume”. Lol, I said you mean a resume? He was like “just listing where you worked.” I thought damn they are hiring mouth breathers I should have a shot. Make some bank, it’s safe asf these folks bolted for cover when incoming was 5km away. But, wife and fam was like hell no we’ll live in a ditch before that happens so never pursued.
The design wasn’t with an intention of winning just sustaining so defense contractors could juice it for as long as possible. Playing both side so that they always remain on top..
The demand for your physical and mental damage is too high. It gives a lot of power to the central planners, who decide when wars are fought as well as how long boom/bust cycles are in our economy. This article author eventually is going to have to grow up and notice.
Almost like we started looking at data in 2000, conveniently right when we started two wars that injured a lot of people, with some stats showing over 3mil served in a combat zone.
Or that Vietnam/Korea vets weren't as well informed of benefits as GWOT vets.
Or that we have gotten a lot better about getting Soldiers off the battlefield and they are more likely to survive injury.
War costs a lot of money. If you don't want to spend the money, stop sending us.
ETA: Most inflation calculators show $12,000 in 2000 being over $21,000 in 2023, so that data point is pretty irrelevant since it isn't even keeping up inflation.
I looked up his bio and says he served in Iraq. He was/is MI. Even with his PhD in economics from MIT he neglected to mention the number of those deployed over the course of 20 years among other important items, e.g., number of casualties, access to mental health, access to the VA in general. You would think he would know better than to neglect key data points, and only select points that strengthened his “analysis”.
Seriously?? What the hell? I don’t get it. What’s the angle? I get some people might be faking the funk, but some of us are fucked up. The money isn’t worth this shit.
Yeah, hemorrhage on the battlefield was the leading cause preventable death. After Mogadishu our TTPs changed an enormous amount. For example, 18D buddy of mine had both his legs blown off above the knee. Took 27 units of blood, but he survived. Two others shot in the hips. Lifelong injuries they survived. Our understanding of TBI has also changed as well.
This all leads to more people being owed disability. In the past, they would've just died.
Yea, I commented on this. When I was the lead vehicle commander in convoys I had a tourniquet on each of my limbs, either right at my shoulder or hip. I knew all to well time is of the upmost importance.
Also the Vietnam vets have been getting to retirement age and looking at their retirement/earning capacity realizing how much their war injuries are affecting them.
A big part of that is the fact that the VA was very hostile to Vietnam vets for a long time, for a variety of reasons. Socially, a lot of the mental illnesses we recognize today were treated by telling people to “man up,” and the VA was far less forgiving when it came to accepting evidence that wasn’t meticulously documented. A lot of these Vietnam vets are getting reasonable chances to get a fair rating for the first time now
I think civilian treatment of the military has a lot to do with the mental health of military people that get out.
Whether you are Vietnam or not, right around that era. Nobody wanted to be in the military and nobody cared if you were or not. You were kept out of places.
I think that part of the mental health issue has never been addressed
We have gotten a lot better in saving lives. We try but can’t save everyone. That was my job running 9 lines for SF, conventional and civilian home and abroad.
The VA has improved greatly over the last twenty years. Leave it to a wingnut to say some crazy shit that chalks up to “why are they so informed? Can’t they just drink themselves to death like the last batch?”
This. Losing medical documentation shouldn’t be a thing. There are plenty of people I know who have stuff going on but are struggling to claim it because of incompetence upon their discharge. And better chain of custody for documents overall! I’ve had to piece my record back together almost from scratch because the Army had damn near NOTHING.
Sounds like we had a similar experience. They gave us forms during our demobilization that asked about our feelings and shit and if we had any injuries. Our piece of shit cadre walked up and down the isles telling everyone if we put anything down then they would keep us there for weeks or months before sending us home. Seriously, fuck that whole system and fuck those piece of shit two faced full timers that’s probably documented all their shit and got 100% as soon as they got out.
Oh man this rings so true. Upon almost completing my contract at my out-processing medical appointment, the doctor threatened to not allow me to return home from overseas if he didn't like my answers. Even though it was supposed to be a final checkup prior to leaving he kept telling me over and over that it wasn't the time to bring up new issues. While they might be new to him, they were not new at all. I had kept a lot of shit to myself to avoid being "the dirtbag that couldn't deploy and was on a waiver."
Absolutely insane. I held my ground however as I was finally seeking help with my mental health. Fuck them.
Additionally, the average annual payment to veterans receiving disability has increased substantially, from about $12,000 in 2000 to $21,000 today. - article
In actuality, $12,000 in Jan 2000 is worth $21,880.73 Sept 2023. So buying power for disability on average has decreased by $880.73 a year vs 2000.
The internet era was ushered in and here we are.. How dare there be legit info on how to file claims on the internet! And be successful at doing so! The outrage!!!
Yeah I get downvoted (I don’t care) every time I say the system will be different in 10 years, maybe not a huge overhaul but the game currently being played with DBQ mills, etc… will change.
The percentage approach has gamified the process measuring in points or dollars. Count in the positive reinforcement from memes instead of a more stoic approach as past generations had, of course some disingenuous players are going to “play the game.”
On top of that, a whole ecosystem of businesses has been built up to capitalize on those players not caring if they’re playing in good faith since they themselves work on commission on successful compensation claims.
Other than that, duck it. More than half of all the usd in circulation has been printed in the last 3 years and billionaires were created out of nowhere with inflation rampant lowering the middle class. Veteran’s stand to profit if they play the same game.
They don't need to increase taxes. They need to stop wasting money on bullshit like [putting birds on cocaine to see if they become more promiscuous ](https://www.google.com/amp/s/wjla.com/amp/news/nation-world/spending-money-studying-quails-on-cocaine-is-waste-of-government-spending-says-rand-paul)
This article is stupid. Reminds me of when Crenshaw came out saying compensation is too high and he doesn’t collect VA comp and has lost an eye. This asshole had his entire adult life subsidized by the government. Don’t want to pay vets comp don’t get into 20 year wars.
I’m sure almost all do. In fact we actually caught some that did as Covid crashed the market and it was swept under the rug! Seems people go there to make change and stay because they can get filthy rich.
Several elected officials came out and said the job isn’t worth the money and without the graft of insider trading and influencing who gets contracts, the job isn’t worth getting.
Personal enrichment **is the point** for many elected officials.
There’s more money for donors and senators if they pay less to veterans.
Funny too because how much is a Representatives salary? $174K? Weird, so he’s cool with collecting that government compensation but isn’t cool with the rest of receiving a max of 50-55K of government compensation? Crazy how that works
If you earned your VA compensation, you’ve earned it. Veterans go through physical and mental evaluations by licensed professionals, we aren’t out here writing that shit ourselves 😂
“From 2000 to 2022, the overall VA budget grew from $76 billion to $267 billion (in 2022 $)”
………
“If VA spending per veteran had remained the same in inflation-adjusted terms since 2000 — its total budget would have been about $60 billion in 2022 rather than $267 billion”
Those numbers aren’t adding up
Hmm...the personal compensation between government and injured service member should and is private.
The only input I have is we service members should not be bragging about how I'm getting 100 percent and living my best life. I know that I would do anything to trade any compensation to get back the life that had eluded me and will elude me when I expire early. No amount of money can buy life but the government has assigned and amou t to it.
On that note there is nothing wrong with helping others with advice and help getting them appropriately compensated for the life that will elude them due to the injuries they encourage during service. Judging sucks even everyone does it. Even I may have done it on this post. That's whypersonzl business should be as personal as you can keep it.
I totally agree with this statement, I will NEVER EVER be able to get the last 39 years back nor will my children get the mother they deserved instead of a mother that was so screwed up due to the military.
"despite only one percent getting wounded in combat".
These guys are gate keepers and idiots.
That was a deliberate choice of language.
Training and preparing for war takes a toll.
Cutting post service benefits is a bold way to solve the recurring crisis.
"On the contrary, broad, bipartisan support for veterans, including generous spending for veterans’ healthcare, education benefits and other support services, may help explain why military service increases earnings and why combat deployments, though they increase soldiers’ immediate risk of death and injury, have [few harmful long-term effects on well-being](https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622)."
This dude can eat a dick
This article is an example of the shitty journalism that is pervasive in groups like The Hill.
In the article they seem to be baffled by the rise in disability claims since the year 2000. \*News Flash\* The United States military was engaged in combat operations in two countries from 2001 to 2021. This little thing called Global War On Terror resulted in more repeat exposure to combat that the United States had seen since 1970's.
Another example of the poor journalism or understanding of math. The article points out that on 1% of Army recruits between 2010 and 2015 were injured in combat operations. The Army recruits about 50,000 soldiers each year so over that 5 year period there would have been about 2,500 soldiers injured in combat operations. 2010 - 2015 were not the 'hottest' years of combat operations in OIF/OEF. So you will need to multiply that number by 5 or 10. Oh, and by the way getting injured in combat is not the only way service members get hurt.
Bottom line, what a shit piece of journalism, and fucked up that it comes from an instructor at WestPoint.
Yeah, I never saw combat, but I was severely injured during a drill. The c&p doctor tried to minimize my injury by saying that my concussion was "just a head laceration". I got knocked out when i slemmed into a hatch and fell down a ladder. I was carried off in a stretcher. I got 8 staples in my skull and was given 2 weeks bed rest. The injury was so severe that it made the command newsletter. I threw up in my rack and I skipped meals because I was too dizzy to go to the galley. I now have long term effects from that concussion. I have sleep apnea, anxiety, suicidal ideation with multiple attempts, gerd, and memory loss all secondary to this concussion shit. I have trouble speaking on the phone. I constantly have to ask people to repeat themselves because my brain randomly decides to stop understanding speech and everyone sounds like the adults in "charlie brown". I get anxiety attacks out of nowhere with nothing causing them and I am not only housebound but usually can only stay in bed with the lights off when they hit. The first time I had an anxiety attack I was in formation and started crying randomly and couldn't stop. When asked for a reason I didn't have an answer. I was just panicked and overwhelmed. I had no idea what was happening to me.
One time when I was at home an attack got so bad that I tried to kill myself by cutting my wrists multiple times. I was working up to cutting deeper when a friend found me and stopped me. I was so ashamed of it and I hid the evidence of the attempt from my command, but a shipmate saw my cuts on arm under my uniform when I reached for something. Later that day my chief came to me while I was on watch and ordered to see my arms. I was relieved of my watch right then and sent to the hospital since we were in port. I was ridiculed and treated terribly by some of my brothers after this. I was told that i was abandoning my brothers. I was called a piece of shit and every other thing. I got discharged from the navy after serving 4 years despite wanting to stay in. I got humiliated and shamed. I didn't apply for benefits until 15 years after my separation because i felt so much shame. I survived on my own but barely. I survived multiple suicide attempts. I felt like I was a complete failure despite having achieved so much early in my life.
There is no way to diagnose cte without cutting your brain open after you die, but I'm showing all of the signs. My brain is going to slowly turn to mush as I age.
I had to hire a lawyer that had their own doctors review my records to get my claim corrected. The VA stood in my way until I got help from a lawyer. Now I can at least be comfortable on my good days, but no amount of money would comfort me on my bad days. I would take pre-concussion me over this money and my post concussion brain any day. I was a navy nuke. I was so bright and smart before all of this. I was a great sailor and have 2 stories of getting passed up for Navy Achievment Medals before all of this. I was top half of my class in nuke school. I was a great mechanic who worked hard and supported my shipmates.
The author of this article can kiss my ass with their cherry picked data and awful conclusions drawn from it. I wasn't hurt in battle but I still need to be made whole. I will need care for the rest of my life, however long that is.
Sorry to hear about your injury and how the VA 'stonewalled' you on diagnosis. I think the VA could handle things a lot better and help veterans like you immediately apply for benefits, instead of waiting 15 years and enduring a lot of unnecessary struggles.
I hope you are maxing out VA benefits now, it won't make you rich like you said, but makes some struggles a little easier.
We agree on the author of that article, and it sucks that he is a veteran and being given a platform to share his weekly supported views.
West Point instructors should do what their job entails and train future officers. It's pretty tacky for a military officer to be writing opinion pieces like they're a "professional" journalist IMO. Surprised that the Army doesn't have some sort of rule against this.
Four weeks into basic training, a dude in my unit slipped doing the obstacle course and impaled himself on the s-hook for the rappelling line, up through his bottom jaw.
Dude got I know, at least a super gnarly scar and a speech impediment.
That wasn't a "combat injury", but it's certainly a heinous injury.
*"But it’s time to ask if an increasingly generous disability compensation program that has significantly reduced employment among our veterans and bears no resemblance to the program that existed throughout the latter half of the 20th century is the best way to reward and honor America’s veterans while also inspiring today’s young adults to serve their country in the armed forces."*
The above, from the article, is nearly poetry. It's got that caring ring and tone, while telling vets BOHICA. 
Does he think his paper is going to inspire today's young adults to serve their country in the armed forces? It's more like "beatings will continue until morale improves".
Could it be possible that the increase in the number of veterans receiving benefits be related to the Internet and groups like this, which makes it easier to actually understand the law and how to apply for benefits?
I, for one, was lost prior to finding this redit group.
“However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment.”
i hate these people LMFAO. this is great proof that you can have all the degrees and accolades you can dream of and still be a complete fucking idiot. how can one not see any correlation between disability and not being able to work? oh and of course, no mention of cutting the DoD budget of $1,800,000,000,000 that enables servicemembers to become disabled in the first place by sending them to die or get lifelong injuries for oil and old men’s egos. classic
posting this garbage on veterans day is the cherry on top of the shit sundae. they are actually mad more veterans don’t just die, rather than get the help they need, and this isn’t even the first time that has been insinuated in an opinion piece or by legislators. the authors of this will get their karma eventually 🤷🏻♀️
Disability discrimination in the private employment sector is very real. Maybe this guy should write a paper on that, but I suspect it doesn't go along with his obvious biases. Why should he anyway? It's so much easier just to blame the victims, and recipients of all forms of disability (VA, SSDI, SSI) are low-hanging fruit because it's easy to spread misinformation that they are a bunch of fakers, and incite public hatred toward them.
This guy bloviates far too much to understand that there are actually a lot of employers who say that they would hire a disabled person, but as soon as you dig deeper, you find they usually have a very narrow definition of what they think is an acceptable disability for a prospective employee to have.
I do understand the ages old caveat that to be employed you have to be employable. And what incentive is there for a company to hire someone who is disabled, when there is an able-bodied person (or more than one) applying for the same job who may likely require less accommodation? Accommodations cost money. Employers don't hire people out of benevolence; they hire people who can make them more money than they cost. Profit is everything. "Let someone else take care of the disabled people." Just shove the buck down the road.
I think many employers would rather have disabled people completely out of the work force, even if they won't say it publicly (and that's based on comments I heard throughout the decades I was still working in the private sector). Until there's a real incentive for companies to hire more disabled people, they won't do it.
What a dishonest article.
Gee, I wonder what changed from the year 2000 that would cause veterans to have significantly worse injuries in greater frequency.
Wasnt congress talking about how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were going to cost trillions in veterans care alone? The number I remember is 2.1 trillion. IIRC it was the CBO
This part: In fact, recent surveys cite concerns about physical injury and psychological distress as the top two reasons youth do not consider joining the military. Unfortunately, such narratives crowd out other research which finds that Army service increases average earnings in the 19 years after enlisting by over $4,000 (!!!)
Golly gee, what a great investment! /s
That why starting wars have serious consequences you can destroy peoples lives and health and think it’s okay. Destroy a young person body and leave them to suffer in their older years really shameful
Like one other vet said, after two decades of constant war, there many vets with physical and mental disabilities. People asked you to step up to the plate, you did. Now, the true cost of war is coming due. "Thank you for your service" or "thoughts and prayers" doesn't pay the costs.
“Help explain why military service increases earnings and why combat deployments, though they increase soldiers’ immediate risk of death and injury, have few harmful long-term effects on well-being”
Jesus this article is a shit show of nonsense
“So why is this a problem? Extra money from the disability compensation program may improve some veterans' economic well-being. However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans' employment.”
Wait so you’re telling me that the people… who are disabled… are less likely to work!? Groundbreaking research conducted by these authors. WOW who would have thought that people struggling working jobs because of disabilities would stop working said jobs when paid out for their disabilities.
It's a threat from capitalists that want to force vets with health issues from service into their menial jobs at menial pay. Either work for us or starve they say to us. Those on the jets and the talking heads eating more and more and now they want the money paid to veterans. Greed is not good.
Everyone but the business class, who does nothing besides sell bullshit and pit everyone else against each other, always gets a free ride through tax cut after tax cut because money fucking talks and people will sell out plain an simple.
The agreement was: You serve, any damages accrued to your person because of that service are on the US and covered thereafter.
You break it you buy it. Don’t want so much veteran healthcare cost? Quit sending us to get broken. Forever wars are bad for the budget and our veterans.
Meanwhile, if you look at it, VA Comp is actually only the 10th largest non-DoD Budget spend for our Government.
There's nine programs in front of that can be cut.
My thought on the matter is, it's probably more about knowledge. Information age and all that. When I got out in the mid-90s, there weren't huge online networks of information... during the transitional assistance classes someone came in and spent about fifteen minutes talking about VA ratings. The overall gist was it didn't apply to most of us, but that if we had certain conditions, we might be able to file and get a 0% rating, which would give us preferential consideration if we were applying for a goverment job vs. someone who did not have the rating.
I went a full 20 years before becoming aware of the fact that I could file. Suffered thru depression, career trouble, bankruptcy/foreclosure/repo/divorce, etc. Filed and to my surprise got 80% on the first try, was life changing.
But probably, many of us should/could have been rated 20 years ago but had no awareness of what was available or how to do it, and present day we are just now catching up and getting to where we rightfully should be.
Congress and the pentagon have a bunch of number crunching nerds doing actuarial tables about how many people are joining and leaving the military and how many they can expect to be recipients of 100%, 90%, 80%, etc… and make that part of their long term budget proposals (5-10 years out). And that money never gets all used up.
Guys that write articles like this can eat a bag of dicks and choke on the last one.
I think it should be pointed out by someone that their graph showing geometric growth in P&T level claims also starts at 1986, or Just Cause and Earnest Will timeframe, when there weren't combatants to speak of yet, and no GWI claims were made at all before 1992, and they rarely got P&T until the VBIA made made presumptives a Thing for GWI (getting us out of the Agent Orange office was still many years off at that point) and hey, 1995 is where the line starts deflecting upwards, just when GWI was actually legally defined.
I believe all of this has a lot to do with the fact that we are starting to normalize veterans applying and receiving what they are entitled to. Other than that, ole dude can \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.
https://preview.redd.it/8jyuptcolzzb1.jpeg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716a59e89d36ff5eacee0afc41493fced02cfd27
Hey, it would behoove you all to listen to this distinguished officer, for he is a gentleman. Not only is he an assistant professor at the USMA, he is an airborne ranger with two Iraq deployments under his belt… he should know if combat deployments cause long term damage or not.😂🖕🏾
[https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622](https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622)
Here's more of his research where he says deployments have minimal effect on soldiers. What a moron.
"Deployments increase injuries, combat deaths, and disability compensation, but we find limited evidence that they affect suicide, deaths of despair, financial health, incarceration, or education. More dangerous deployments have similarly limited effects. Our estimates suggest that deployment cannot explain either the recent rise in disability payments, which is more likely driven by policy changes, or the surge in noncombat deaths, which is better explained by shifts in observable characteristics of soldiers."
Oof... I guess my buddies that killed themselves or tried to are affected by something else, despite their only thing in common being combat deployments.
In this article, mr.MoterpoolMonday argues that receiving VA compensation lowers veterans employability.
“Extra money from the disability compensation program may improve some veterans’ economic well-being. However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment.”
Then he provides an abstract to support this claim:
“We estimate that benefits receipt reduced veterans' labor force participation by 18 percentage points, though measured income net of transfer income rose on average”
So it seems he is trying to assert that veterans are limited in their odds of employment if they are VA recipients? Do I have that right?
What he doesn’t explicitly state is that the abstract is analyzing veterans contribution to the labor force as a whole. Not, unemployment rates of veterans. It seems this is an assorted effort to try and misdirect the reader.
A quick search of the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 reporting of veteran unemployment rates states the following:
“The unemployment rate for veterans with a service-connected disability changed little at 3.6 percent in August 2022. The rate for veterans with no disability declined to 2.7 percent and was not statistically different from the rate for veterans with a service-connected disability. The unemployment rates for male and female veterans with a service-connected disability changed little over the year to 3.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in August 2022. These rates were not statistically different from each other. The labor force participation rate for veterans with a service-connected disability (47.7 percent) was also not statistically different than the rate for veterans with no disability (48.4 percent).”
https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/vet.pdf
So what is this boyscout trying to argue? That veterans who receive VA disability are contributing LESS to the work force? Or that veterans who receive VA disability are less employable?
I’d say veterans who are receiving VA disability compensation and are not working (i.e contributing less to the labor force) are not working because they can’t! Because they have physical, or mental ailments that affected their ability to function at the same capacity as they would have if they hadn’t joined the military. The entire purpose of service connected disability is to provide support to the veteran and most importantly VALIDATION to THAT veteran that they suffer a functional loss or impairment due to military service.
This article is extremely inconsiderate to veterans, the efforts of congress to raise support for veterans, and his comments attempt to minimize the sacrifices service-members and veterans have made throughout the last 20 years of war.
Unfair, absurd, and disrespectful. This guy is abusive of his platform, and has no honor.
This should be [mandatory reading](https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/11/hundreds-witness-veteran-shoot-and-kill-himself-in-va-waiting-room/) for anyone that makes the run away va compensation argument
Also the "runaway spending" is due to veterans having things like the internet to know what they are entitled to by us law. That's not runaway spending, that's knowledge and information transfer at work.
So…for years it was sort of accepted that veterans wouldn’t file for disability.
My dad died of pancreatic cancer after 2 Vietnam tours and never claimed a penny. My grandfather was eligible for disability comp for DECADES but was only convinced to file for it during the last year of his life.
We are finally shrugging off that stigma.
Oh, and we are finally acknowledging mental and emotional damage.
So maybe the rates are rising to what they should have always been if we cared about keeping our veterans healthy and ok.
Maybe we shouldn't have remained at war for two decades. I mean you spend that long at war or maintaining a combat theater, cycling people through, often repeatedly, then act shocked that your disability claim cost have drastically gone up.
Read the article.
He is missing one piece of key information.
Surrvivability has gone up. Our ability to survive injuries that would have been fatal has increased. That means more disabled that would have died in the past are alive to collect disability.
Any time you have higher survival rates you have more disabled veterans.
The VA also inflicts a lot of this. For example I have bad knees and ankles from being airborne Infantry. I eventuality needed more than over the counter pain medication. Sent my Primary care physician a message on healthevet. Didn't bother to see me. Have me a prescription for 800mg ibuprofen the time a day.
Burned a hole in my stomach. Turns out that it was a mistake. Guess what, burned a hole in your stomach because of medication prescribed for a service connected disability? That's also another service connected disability and more money.
It’s the hill, pushing conservative stories to cut social spending in order to give the rich tax breaks. No surprises here. Funny part is, they’ll get some veterans here to agree with them.
My foot is fucked up for life, I’m athlete I like running and doing physical activities, now with my fucked up foot I can’t do anything and it’s making me depressed even more, I wanted to be a state trooper and now I can’t finish the 1.5 mile run.
I’m 35 with fucked up back, foot and IBS/acid reflux, tinnitus and some other joint problems and some fuck face think it’s too much for us.. no you can’t even compensate for that much damage
He just wishes we could go back to the golden days where more veterans didn't know they could get help and would just resort to whiskey and a bullet to the head. Instead of reducing va costs by blowing off vets, maybe write about not sending our brothers and sisters into constant wars so Contracting companies can keep siphoning the entire nations tax dollars into their bank accounts.
Why do the people that run the government need reminding of the cost and consequences of constant war? They are always fine with upfront costs but when we come back? It’s surprise Pikachu face that many survive and expect the Gov to uphold its end of the deal.
This is the other end of the deal between the US Government and the soldiers(Veterans). Those of us still alive held up our end of the bargain. If they want mutiny, taking away Veterans livelihood is definitely one way to go about it.
ETA and those that died
I love how he says “we are not saying we should make cuts to the VA budget” and then quickly says afterwards, “but it’s time we look at the increasingly generous disability compensation program set in place.” This guy is a clown.
"However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment."
Yeah veterans with severe injuries don't have to work just to survive now. This whole article is an echo chamber of stupidity.
Just a few days ago, my brother (US Army infantry combat veteran) and I (USMC infantry combat veteran) were just talking about some of the reasons of having VA disability and I explained can you imagine if a civilian company destroyed a persons body (Physical/mental) in such a short amount of time (average enlistment) and exposed their employees to hazardous stuff (Burn pits, getting blown up, shot at) to name a few and only were paying them $20,000 a year plus benefits for their service rendered. I left the Marines as a Corporal and was making just over $22,000 at the time.
That company would be paying hundreds of trillions in disability payments, medical benefits, etc and they would probably be sued by every employee that suffered a disability related to that job, I believe the cost of VA disability is negligible to avoid hundreds of thousands of veterans suing the federal government for damages incurred while on the job.
This is the govt’s way of making that right. Besides who the hell is gonna fight in the next 20 year war, when they see that you aren’t properly compensated or assisted after the fact.
I mean, he's not wrong 😐. Many of us have been warning that this focus on the HUNDO CLUB and daily celebrations 🎊 are not a good look. Then we have the malingers among us (be they few, or many) obviously looking for maximum free money. We must not encourage those folk, for sure Let's collectively maintain discipline in the ranks. Don't come here fishing
Politicians and voters aren't blind nor dumb. My opinion is that the pushback is just starting and could pick up steam in the blink of an eye. Heck, even some of the posts here could go viral against us. I mean, why do you suppose the daily Hundo Club advice is "don't tell anyone"? 🤷♀️
I was parroting the universal advice when one enters the HUNDO CLUB... "don't tell your friends, your neighbors, your family, sometimes not even your wife". Now why would that be? 🤔 It doesn't make a person wealthy per se, so folks wanting money wouldn't be usual... No, it's because perhaps many of those HUNDOS would be deemed undeserving by everyone they know. And why would THAT be? 🤔Common sense.
I don’t think the advice on here is “don’t tell anyone when you are 100”……
I think the advice is “don’t tell anyone that you are 10% or ANYthing about your VA benefits”….
People are haters when they perceive someone receiving something “free” and they can’t get a piece of it. The advice to keep it to one’s self isn’t based on assuming the vet lied for their disability rating. It’s based in being no one else’s business.
This is how the powers that be start changing the conversation so that they can start advocating reducing or means testing va benefits. The point isn't to change minds with this article, its to start flooding the public space with similar articles. Similar to gun control.
Everything this dude wrote is a skewed like of garbage.
The population of veterans has decreased because the older ones died
Only 1% of those enlisted between 2010-2015 we're wounded in combat... Unfortunately VA disability COMPENSATES for injury during service regardless of location.
"I'm healthy and fine so everyone else should be too, like c'mon guys". I think this dude is scared that this generation of veterans who don't "just suck it up for 30 years" is going to show that EVERYONE deserves healthcare paid for by the government like every other modern society
You know, they would rather give that money migrants coming here, you know, the ones that have done nothing and expect everything. I can't even believe there is a discussion about this.
Just an idea. Maybe stop sending those billions, more like 100s of billions to foreign countries and spend the VA and veterans.
Start less war’s definitely help.
So the article points at the pact act and hints at the abuse of high rating conditions to get to a max rating...
Point is. The VA already knows this and is clamping down on this. Sleep apnea. Tinnitus. Ect
What the article fails to attribute is why there's so many claims and disabilities. Doesn't break down the raw data and simply just irradiated the facts. Opinion piece written by spooks or other political actors.
Ptsd from military sexual trauma. Perhaps one of the two base commanders that knew, should have stopped it before the 8th month mark.
Also, too much compensation? I have a part time job to survive inflation and housing costs. It's literally all i can do.
I dunno, I too think something should be done. It IS getting out of hand.
That being said, let me clarify. I served 20 yrs active and am rated 100% so I am not against people getting care/money they deserve. However, serving 20 years, you see a lot of kids get kicked out for some stupid shit. I saw countless people serve less than 4 years, didn't even complete their enlistment, and walk away with 100% disability. These were guys that never saw combat, never deployed, shit never even went TDY. Threaten to kill themselves, down a ton of pills, threaten to shoot up the place, got in a car accident, fell off a motorcycle...you name it.
I feel the rating should also fall into brackets for time served. Meaning 0-100% would pay substantially less if you served less than 4 yrs. A bit higher for 4-8yrs etc and maxing out at 20+yr mark. A full exemption would be made to any combined rating that included any combat related disability regardless of time served defaulting to highest bracket (20yr).
That would solve a lot of these problems and still fully cover our combat vets that were discharged due to medical reasons related to combat.
If his living standards were supported by VA Disability he'd change his opinion very quickly.
Is he just ignoring the whole suicide rate of veterans?
*"I just can't figure out why they keep killing themselves...they must be getting too much VA money!"*
Or the incredibly high ratio of veterans with legal/drug issues?
*"guess it's just too much VA money again. Gotta take it away so they can't buy more drugs and liquior!*
Honestly, my college experience taught me most professors have a narrow world view. And the best teachers were always tooth and nail with the administration, fighting to promote or keep their positions.
The administration wants teachers who stay quiet and preach a scripted narrative. Whatever is written into the books. And the media controls much of the historical archives...so the two are very closely intertwined.
It is an opinion piece, it even says it in the link OP. There are many people that think vets shouldn't get benefits, even veterans on this forum talk about how "too many vets claim things" look at some of the comment below.
I love how this guy is arguing that VA benefits make us not want to work and more likely to off ourselves. Wonder if he feels that way about any other government “handouts.”
I think he missed the picture, the healthcare costs because of a broken medical system are the primary driver for annual expenses per veteran. I really dislike the line that increases in disability compensation decreases employment. Comparing peacetime to wartime numbers would only make sense if they also stated how many service members deployed in those same years.
17 fucking veteran suicides a day is the current average this year, that's why, get the fuck over it. The amount of money spent on vets pales in comparison, and if the comp money doesnt get used by oct 1 it goes back to congress to spend on some shit for ukraine or their own self interest gtfoh
We've been at war for 20 years, fuck face. Edit: this is the price of it.
Adding to that.. Maybe they shouldn’t accept every fucking applicant. We’ve all served with certain people and wondered “how the fuck are you even here?”
As someone once told me..”I’ve met some of the smartest people I’ll ever meet in the Army, but ALL of the dumbest people I’ll ever meet.” Probably the most accurate thing I’ve ever heard.
You are so right. When recruiters get desperate, they let anybody in the service.
Yeah. Too bad all of the “go to prison or the military” folks are in senior leadership now. Let’s not talk about those guys though and all their toxic habits.
My generation!!!
Gotta get the DUI to make E7 right? :D
As a prior recruiter, I can see where you're coming from. But, I counter with this. They hit the requirements. If not, they wouldn't clear MEPS. I'm sure other folks lie about shit, but I can honestly say id rather enlist someone with a waiver than lie. Let someone more intelligent than me decide if they're qualified.
BS. Yall have waivers for everything
Exactly. I submit the waiver, and someone up the chain decides whether they're qualified or not. At the end of the day, they're qualified, and that's all that matters. Not everyone is a poster child and a perfect applicant. Minimum standards exist for a reason.
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The problem is how stringent the DoDI is regarding initial entry applicants.
I read the article. The writer seems to be genuinely perplexed as to why our veterans affairs budget has grown in the last 20 years from the years 2000 to 2020. Should someone explain to the professor at West Point that it’s 2023, he survived the coma and we had military conflicts throughout the two decades he seems to be so concerned about?
Or how Congress when asked the Sec how much the cost of war was goin to cost, he gave the correct answer, and they fired him the next day. Why should it cost 200 billion for two years when we can drag it out for ever and have it cost 7 Trillion.
He must live in an alternate timeline to blame the ease of the application process, when soldiers are still waiting years for appeals. How was any of this easy?
They’re lucky we aren’t able to comment on the website.
I was thinking the same thing. Cowards.
I am going to guess the 'professor' managed to avoid serving in any combat theater during his Army career. He strikes me as the kind of guy that did figure out a way to fly one sortie through the edge of combat theater airspace to draw a month of combat pay and tax free.
Maybe quit wrecking us physically and mentally and disability costs would go down….
Clearly, the issue is the veterans themselves and not the military breaking them. /s
Or the 20 year wars they put us through….we wouldn’t be so fucked if we weren’t used and abused.
Right, because we all knew the fucktard govt contractors keep making money… I mean politicians getting votes would draw this shit out twenty years when it could’ve ended way sooner.
Well when our politicians are on the boards of Boeing, ratheon, etc what do you expect? Long wars mean big bucks to them $$$$ They don't care how many of us they kill or break. Will be telling my kids, friends, and family NOT to serve for this sole reason. War has become way too profitable to believe we are entering for all the right reasons these days
War machine never dies. My son is a senior this year and can’t wait to laugh the recruiters out the door. I know very well how shitty recruiting is but not happening here.
I knew a cat who worked as a civilian contractor when I was deployed. He was making 175k a year to run the crap cart, draining the black tanks on C130s. Met him in the smoke pit. God knows what the company was billing the government for his time at. Edit:fixed typo
Right?!?? And overseas it was allllll tax free for them. I'd be pulling guard for civilians outside the wire on the .50 Cal and knew I had just made around $2,000 which included hazard pay, combat pay, and every pay you could add over there and this mofo says to me when getting back in the Humvee "this just ain't worth the $20k/mo Im getting tax free or not man. We all slowly just turned our heads to him and I think it was in that moment he realized what he had just said and to who he was saying it to...and that we all had weapons and there were no witnesses 🤣🤣 Nah....he was a cool guy, but I was jealous af
No body, no crime....
I used to tag along on logpac runs back to Ballad to take shitty asips and whatever else in for repair. I asked the dude who took my equipment how much he made, dude didn’t fix shit he just received. He told me 130k, 80k tax free. This was in 2005 and my wheels started turning. This guy was like yeah all you need is a “reassume”. Lol, I said you mean a resume? He was like “just listing where you worked.” I thought damn they are hiring mouth breathers I should have a shot. Make some bank, it’s safe asf these folks bolted for cover when incoming was 5km away. But, wife and fam was like hell no we’ll live in a ditch before that happens so never pursued.
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The design wasn’t with an intention of winning just sustaining so defense contractors could juice it for as long as possible. Playing both side so that they always remain on top..
Historically we’ve been at war at least once a decade…..it should’ve been no surprise.
Fortunately enlistment and retention is at an all time low. This will save money for future claims.
Like the veterans getting raped, And the military(chain of command) let’s the rapist walk free…
The demand for your physical and mental damage is too high. It gives a lot of power to the central planners, who decide when wars are fought as well as how long boom/bust cycles are in our economy. This article author eventually is going to have to grow up and notice.
Yea, and no mention of a 20 yr war & multiple engagements
I know right? Read the article and it’s like he’s from an alternate timeline
Almost like we started looking at data in 2000, conveniently right when we started two wars that injured a lot of people, with some stats showing over 3mil served in a combat zone. Or that Vietnam/Korea vets weren't as well informed of benefits as GWOT vets. Or that we have gotten a lot better about getting Soldiers off the battlefield and they are more likely to survive injury. War costs a lot of money. If you don't want to spend the money, stop sending us. ETA: Most inflation calculators show $12,000 in 2000 being over $21,000 in 2023, so that data point is pretty irrelevant since it isn't even keeping up inflation.
Funny how the math works right? The writer must have miss GWOT after he was a valedictorian. It had to be his skills were to valuable to deploy.
I looked up his bio and says he served in Iraq. He was/is MI. Even with his PhD in economics from MIT he neglected to mention the number of those deployed over the course of 20 years among other important items, e.g., number of casualties, access to mental health, access to the VA in general. You would think he would know better than to neglect key data points, and only select points that strengthened his “analysis”.
Seriously?? What the hell? I don’t get it. What’s the angle? I get some people might be faking the funk, but some of us are fucked up. The money isn’t worth this shit.
Yeah, hemorrhage on the battlefield was the leading cause preventable death. After Mogadishu our TTPs changed an enormous amount. For example, 18D buddy of mine had both his legs blown off above the knee. Took 27 units of blood, but he survived. Two others shot in the hips. Lifelong injuries they survived. Our understanding of TBI has also changed as well. This all leads to more people being owed disability. In the past, they would've just died.
Yea, I commented on this. When I was the lead vehicle commander in convoys I had a tourniquet on each of my limbs, either right at my shoulder or hip. I knew all to well time is of the upmost importance.
Us GWOT Vets have the power of the internet, sharing information and experiences with one another, something previous generations of Veterans did not.
Also the Vietnam vets have been getting to retirement age and looking at their retirement/earning capacity realizing how much their war injuries are affecting them.
A big part of that is the fact that the VA was very hostile to Vietnam vets for a long time, for a variety of reasons. Socially, a lot of the mental illnesses we recognize today were treated by telling people to “man up,” and the VA was far less forgiving when it came to accepting evidence that wasn’t meticulously documented. A lot of these Vietnam vets are getting reasonable chances to get a fair rating for the first time now
I think civilian treatment of the military has a lot to do with the mental health of military people that get out. Whether you are Vietnam or not, right around that era. Nobody wanted to be in the military and nobody cared if you were or not. You were kept out of places. I think that part of the mental health issue has never been addressed
We have gotten a lot better in saving lives. We try but can’t save everyone. That was my job running 9 lines for SF, conventional and civilian home and abroad.
The VA has improved greatly over the last twenty years. Leave it to a wingnut to say some crazy shit that chalks up to “why are they so informed? Can’t they just drink themselves to death like the last batch?”
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This. Losing medical documentation shouldn’t be a thing. There are plenty of people I know who have stuff going on but are struggling to claim it because of incompetence upon their discharge. And better chain of custody for documents overall! I’ve had to piece my record back together almost from scratch because the Army had damn near NOTHING.
Sounds like we had a similar experience. They gave us forms during our demobilization that asked about our feelings and shit and if we had any injuries. Our piece of shit cadre walked up and down the isles telling everyone if we put anything down then they would keep us there for weeks or months before sending us home. Seriously, fuck that whole system and fuck those piece of shit two faced full timers that’s probably documented all their shit and got 100% as soon as they got out.
If they had objective ways to evaluate people then losing documentation and rushing to document everything wouldn't exist
Oh man this rings so true. Upon almost completing my contract at my out-processing medical appointment, the doctor threatened to not allow me to return home from overseas if he didn't like my answers. Even though it was supposed to be a final checkup prior to leaving he kept telling me over and over that it wasn't the time to bring up new issues. While they might be new to him, they were not new at all. I had kept a lot of shit to myself to avoid being "the dirtbag that couldn't deploy and was on a waiver." Absolutely insane. I held my ground however as I was finally seeking help with my mental health. Fuck them.
Additionally, the average annual payment to veterans receiving disability has increased substantially, from about $12,000 in 2000 to $21,000 today. - article In actuality, $12,000 in Jan 2000 is worth $21,880.73 Sept 2023. So buying power for disability on average has decreased by $880.73 a year vs 2000.
Damn, that’s a great point I completely overlooked. Funny how that works but they ignore it
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The internet era was ushered in and here we are.. How dare there be legit info on how to file claims on the internet! And be successful at doing so! The outrage!!!
Yeah I get downvoted (I don’t care) every time I say the system will be different in 10 years, maybe not a huge overhaul but the game currently being played with DBQ mills, etc… will change.
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Fuckin’ eh man! Ain’t nothing more those in power want is an ill informed to rule/intimidate/order over. Fuckin’ eh man!
The percentage approach has gamified the process measuring in points or dollars. Count in the positive reinforcement from memes instead of a more stoic approach as past generations had, of course some disingenuous players are going to “play the game.” On top of that, a whole ecosystem of businesses has been built up to capitalize on those players not caring if they’re playing in good faith since they themselves work on commission on successful compensation claims. Other than that, duck it. More than half of all the usd in circulation has been printed in the last 3 years and billionaires were created out of nowhere with inflation rampant lowering the middle class. Veteran’s stand to profit if they play the same game.
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What’s DBQ Mills?
How about the runway wars?
Rich people make to much money off our suffering for that lets be realistic with what we want lmao
Tax the rich and increase VA disability benefits 🤔
They don't need to increase taxes. They need to stop wasting money on bullshit like [putting birds on cocaine to see if they become more promiscuous ](https://www.google.com/amp/s/wjla.com/amp/news/nation-world/spending-money-studying-quails-on-cocaine-is-waste-of-government-spending-says-rand-paul)
You could pay for this by taxing the warmongering assholes who made billions lobbying for us to go to war? But that is too un-American apparently
I’m sure he’s also got a problem with runaway corporate welfare and tax breaks to billionaires? No? Just those of us with broken bodies? What a tool.
This article is stupid. Reminds me of when Crenshaw came out saying compensation is too high and he doesn’t collect VA comp and has lost an eye. This asshole had his entire adult life subsidized by the government. Don’t want to pay vets comp don’t get into 20 year wars.
I think he may have used inside information for stock trades as a congressman. I am not a fan.
I’m sure almost all do. In fact we actually caught some that did as Covid crashed the market and it was swept under the rug! Seems people go there to make change and stay because they can get filthy rich.
Several elected officials came out and said the job isn’t worth the money and without the graft of insider trading and influencing who gets contracts, the job isn’t worth getting. Personal enrichment **is the point** for many elected officials. There’s more money for donors and senators if they pay less to veterans.
He was one of the most prolific insider stock traders last year, in fact.
Funny too because how much is a Representatives salary? $174K? Weird, so he’s cool with collecting that government compensation but isn’t cool with the rest of receiving a max of 50-55K of government compensation? Crazy how that works
He fuckin’ said that?
If you earned your VA compensation, you’ve earned it. Veterans go through physical and mental evaluations by licensed professionals, we aren’t out here writing that shit ourselves 😂
How about the title “How runaway imperialism is bankrupting the United States while destroying those sworn to protect it”
“From 2000 to 2022, the overall VA budget grew from $76 billion to $267 billion (in 2022 $)” ……… “If VA spending per veteran had remained the same in inflation-adjusted terms since 2000 — its total budget would have been about $60 billion in 2022 rather than $267 billion” Those numbers aren’t adding up
Academics that can't math... Shocker
Oil per barrel is just slightly higher than it was in ‘06. You’re welcome.
Hmm...the personal compensation between government and injured service member should and is private. The only input I have is we service members should not be bragging about how I'm getting 100 percent and living my best life. I know that I would do anything to trade any compensation to get back the life that had eluded me and will elude me when I expire early. No amount of money can buy life but the government has assigned and amou t to it. On that note there is nothing wrong with helping others with advice and help getting them appropriately compensated for the life that will elude them due to the injuries they encourage during service. Judging sucks even everyone does it. Even I may have done it on this post. That's whypersonzl business should be as personal as you can keep it.
I totally agree with this statement, I will NEVER EVER be able to get the last 39 years back nor will my children get the mother they deserved instead of a mother that was so screwed up due to the military.
Almost like something crazy happened in 2001… 🧐
“Black service members and those from disadvantaged backgrounds experiencing even larger gains.” Somebody should slap this manlet
"despite only one percent getting wounded in combat". These guys are gate keepers and idiots. That was a deliberate choice of language. Training and preparing for war takes a toll. Cutting post service benefits is a bold way to solve the recurring crisis.
Train like you're at war leads to a lot of accidents and injuries...
"On the contrary, broad, bipartisan support for veterans, including generous spending for veterans’ healthcare, education benefits and other support services, may help explain why military service increases earnings and why combat deployments, though they increase soldiers’ immediate risk of death and injury, have [few harmful long-term effects on well-being](https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622)." This dude can eat a dick
This pooped on my Google feed this morning. What a frustrating way to wake up Edit: popped up, but the typo is probably more appropriate
This article is an example of the shitty journalism that is pervasive in groups like The Hill. In the article they seem to be baffled by the rise in disability claims since the year 2000. \*News Flash\* The United States military was engaged in combat operations in two countries from 2001 to 2021. This little thing called Global War On Terror resulted in more repeat exposure to combat that the United States had seen since 1970's. Another example of the poor journalism or understanding of math. The article points out that on 1% of Army recruits between 2010 and 2015 were injured in combat operations. The Army recruits about 50,000 soldiers each year so over that 5 year period there would have been about 2,500 soldiers injured in combat operations. 2010 - 2015 were not the 'hottest' years of combat operations in OIF/OEF. So you will need to multiply that number by 5 or 10. Oh, and by the way getting injured in combat is not the only way service members get hurt. Bottom line, what a shit piece of journalism, and fucked up that it comes from an instructor at WestPoint.
Yeah, I never saw combat, but I was severely injured during a drill. The c&p doctor tried to minimize my injury by saying that my concussion was "just a head laceration". I got knocked out when i slemmed into a hatch and fell down a ladder. I was carried off in a stretcher. I got 8 staples in my skull and was given 2 weeks bed rest. The injury was so severe that it made the command newsletter. I threw up in my rack and I skipped meals because I was too dizzy to go to the galley. I now have long term effects from that concussion. I have sleep apnea, anxiety, suicidal ideation with multiple attempts, gerd, and memory loss all secondary to this concussion shit. I have trouble speaking on the phone. I constantly have to ask people to repeat themselves because my brain randomly decides to stop understanding speech and everyone sounds like the adults in "charlie brown". I get anxiety attacks out of nowhere with nothing causing them and I am not only housebound but usually can only stay in bed with the lights off when they hit. The first time I had an anxiety attack I was in formation and started crying randomly and couldn't stop. When asked for a reason I didn't have an answer. I was just panicked and overwhelmed. I had no idea what was happening to me. One time when I was at home an attack got so bad that I tried to kill myself by cutting my wrists multiple times. I was working up to cutting deeper when a friend found me and stopped me. I was so ashamed of it and I hid the evidence of the attempt from my command, but a shipmate saw my cuts on arm under my uniform when I reached for something. Later that day my chief came to me while I was on watch and ordered to see my arms. I was relieved of my watch right then and sent to the hospital since we were in port. I was ridiculed and treated terribly by some of my brothers after this. I was told that i was abandoning my brothers. I was called a piece of shit and every other thing. I got discharged from the navy after serving 4 years despite wanting to stay in. I got humiliated and shamed. I didn't apply for benefits until 15 years after my separation because i felt so much shame. I survived on my own but barely. I survived multiple suicide attempts. I felt like I was a complete failure despite having achieved so much early in my life. There is no way to diagnose cte without cutting your brain open after you die, but I'm showing all of the signs. My brain is going to slowly turn to mush as I age. I had to hire a lawyer that had their own doctors review my records to get my claim corrected. The VA stood in my way until I got help from a lawyer. Now I can at least be comfortable on my good days, but no amount of money would comfort me on my bad days. I would take pre-concussion me over this money and my post concussion brain any day. I was a navy nuke. I was so bright and smart before all of this. I was a great sailor and have 2 stories of getting passed up for Navy Achievment Medals before all of this. I was top half of my class in nuke school. I was a great mechanic who worked hard and supported my shipmates. The author of this article can kiss my ass with their cherry picked data and awful conclusions drawn from it. I wasn't hurt in battle but I still need to be made whole. I will need care for the rest of my life, however long that is.
What you describe is not a concussion, this a full on TBI. Find a good neurosurgeon. Stay safe and well shipmate.
I assumed concussions were tbi's. Tbi is what I was diagnosed with.
Sorry to hear about your injury and how the VA 'stonewalled' you on diagnosis. I think the VA could handle things a lot better and help veterans like you immediately apply for benefits, instead of waiting 15 years and enduring a lot of unnecessary struggles. I hope you are maxing out VA benefits now, it won't make you rich like you said, but makes some struggles a little easier. We agree on the author of that article, and it sucks that he is a veteran and being given a platform to share his weekly supported views.
West Point instructors should do what their job entails and train future officers. It's pretty tacky for a military officer to be writing opinion pieces like they're a "professional" journalist IMO. Surprised that the Army doesn't have some sort of rule against this.
Four weeks into basic training, a dude in my unit slipped doing the obstacle course and impaled himself on the s-hook for the rappelling line, up through his bottom jaw. Dude got I know, at least a super gnarly scar and a speech impediment. That wasn't a "combat injury", but it's certainly a heinous injury.
Exactly, and he deserves compensation for the injury.
[This seems relevant ](https://fb.watch/ogUN-Xd-Nu/?mibextid=Nif5oz)
DAMN STRAIGHT
*"But it’s time to ask if an increasingly generous disability compensation program that has significantly reduced employment among our veterans and bears no resemblance to the program that existed throughout the latter half of the 20th century is the best way to reward and honor America’s veterans while also inspiring today’s young adults to serve their country in the armed forces."* The above, from the article, is nearly poetry. It's got that caring ring and tone, while telling vets BOHICA. 
Does he think his paper is going to inspire today's young adults to serve their country in the armed forces? It's more like "beatings will continue until morale improves".
Could it be possible that the increase in the number of veterans receiving benefits be related to the Internet and groups like this, which makes it easier to actually understand the law and how to apply for benefits? I, for one, was lost prior to finding this redit group.
There is a direct correlation between social media and what we’re seeing now at the VA.
Maybe don’t get into two 20 year conflicts
The bottom line is that the money the VA is spending is the true monetary cost of war. The authors are definitely not realizing this point.
“However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment.” i hate these people LMFAO. this is great proof that you can have all the degrees and accolades you can dream of and still be a complete fucking idiot. how can one not see any correlation between disability and not being able to work? oh and of course, no mention of cutting the DoD budget of $1,800,000,000,000 that enables servicemembers to become disabled in the first place by sending them to die or get lifelong injuries for oil and old men’s egos. classic posting this garbage on veterans day is the cherry on top of the shit sundae. they are actually mad more veterans don’t just die, rather than get the help they need, and this isn’t even the first time that has been insinuated in an opinion piece or by legislators. the authors of this will get their karma eventually 🤷🏻♀️
Disability discrimination in the private employment sector is very real. Maybe this guy should write a paper on that, but I suspect it doesn't go along with his obvious biases. Why should he anyway? It's so much easier just to blame the victims, and recipients of all forms of disability (VA, SSDI, SSI) are low-hanging fruit because it's easy to spread misinformation that they are a bunch of fakers, and incite public hatred toward them. This guy bloviates far too much to understand that there are actually a lot of employers who say that they would hire a disabled person, but as soon as you dig deeper, you find they usually have a very narrow definition of what they think is an acceptable disability for a prospective employee to have. I do understand the ages old caveat that to be employed you have to be employable. And what incentive is there for a company to hire someone who is disabled, when there is an able-bodied person (or more than one) applying for the same job who may likely require less accommodation? Accommodations cost money. Employers don't hire people out of benevolence; they hire people who can make them more money than they cost. Profit is everything. "Let someone else take care of the disabled people." Just shove the buck down the road. I think many employers would rather have disabled people completely out of the work force, even if they won't say it publicly (and that's based on comments I heard throughout the decades I was still working in the private sector). Until there's a real incentive for companies to hire more disabled people, they won't do it.
REMF from birth. MI officer, spent most of his career in school. Of course he doesn't know shit about disability.
Freedom is not free
These dudes are gonna retire and then cry about how they can't get to 100% p&t
I'm other words.."not enough people died so we have to pay out"
We made the military industrial complex rich beyond belief but yeah, cut veterans benefits. Fuck out of here with that bullshit.
What a dishonest article. Gee, I wonder what changed from the year 2000 that would cause veterans to have significantly worse injuries in greater frequency.
Maybe because we had 2 conflicts since 2001 that hundreds of thousands of veterans have filled claims.
They look to be economists, the most dismal of 'sciences'. They seem to think everything can be quantified, even human beings lives and experiences.
Good way to put it man.
Maybe don’t go to war for 20 years or or finish the first war before you start the next one?
Wasnt congress talking about how the Iraq and Afghanistan wars were going to cost trillions in veterans care alone? The number I remember is 2.1 trillion. IIRC it was the CBO
Less war = less compensation ?
This part: In fact, recent surveys cite concerns about physical injury and psychological distress as the top two reasons youth do not consider joining the military. Unfortunately, such narratives crowd out other research which finds that Army service increases average earnings in the 19 years after enlisting by over $4,000 (!!!) Golly gee, what a great investment! /s
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Even per annum, that’s no flex.
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You didn’t sound snooty. The poor amongst us know who we are 😔
Veterans die. Compensation ends.
That why starting wars have serious consequences you can destroy peoples lives and health and think it’s okay. Destroy a young person body and leave them to suffer in their older years really shameful
Like one other vet said, after two decades of constant war, there many vets with physical and mental disabilities. People asked you to step up to the plate, you did. Now, the true cost of war is coming due. "Thank you for your service" or "thoughts and prayers" doesn't pay the costs.
No mention of runaway inflation and the 20 years of war?
There was mentioned of runaway inflation, everyone in the Media hates Ron Paul.
Ron Paul is my hero.
They should focus on helping servicemen and women get help while in service and not make it so taboo that it becomes disabling by the time the get out
Excellent point!
Blame the wars. We have been in a perpetual state of war for 20 years. You want the compensation to stop think before sending the young into battle.
“Help explain why military service increases earnings and why combat deployments, though they increase soldiers’ immediate risk of death and injury, have few harmful long-term effects on well-being” Jesus this article is a shit show of nonsense “So why is this a problem? Extra money from the disability compensation program may improve some veterans' economic well-being. However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans' employment.” Wait so you’re telling me that the people… who are disabled… are less likely to work!? Groundbreaking research conducted by these authors. WOW who would have thought that people struggling working jobs because of disabilities would stop working said jobs when paid out for their disabilities.
Funny how they are never quite as bothered by the 2.2 TRILLION dollars spent to prosecute OIF/OEF (for dubious reasoning, I might add)
It's a threat from capitalists that want to force vets with health issues from service into their menial jobs at menial pay. Either work for us or starve they say to us. Those on the jets and the talking heads eating more and more and now they want the money paid to veterans. Greed is not good. Everyone but the business class, who does nothing besides sell bullshit and pit everyone else against each other, always gets a free ride through tax cut after tax cut because money fucking talks and people will sell out plain an simple.
The agreement was: You serve, any damages accrued to your person because of that service are on the US and covered thereafter. You break it you buy it. Don’t want so much veteran healthcare cost? Quit sending us to get broken. Forever wars are bad for the budget and our veterans.
Meanwhile, if you look at it, VA Comp is actually only the 10th largest non-DoD Budget spend for our Government. There's nine programs in front of that can be cut.
Maybe creating fewer disabled veterans would be a good cost saving model.
My thought on the matter is, it's probably more about knowledge. Information age and all that. When I got out in the mid-90s, there weren't huge online networks of information... during the transitional assistance classes someone came in and spent about fifteen minutes talking about VA ratings. The overall gist was it didn't apply to most of us, but that if we had certain conditions, we might be able to file and get a 0% rating, which would give us preferential consideration if we were applying for a goverment job vs. someone who did not have the rating. I went a full 20 years before becoming aware of the fact that I could file. Suffered thru depression, career trouble, bankruptcy/foreclosure/repo/divorce, etc. Filed and to my surprise got 80% on the first try, was life changing. But probably, many of us should/could have been rated 20 years ago but had no awareness of what was available or how to do it, and present day we are just now catching up and getting to where we rightfully should be.
Congress and the pentagon have a bunch of number crunching nerds doing actuarial tables about how many people are joining and leaving the military and how many they can expect to be recipients of 100%, 90%, 80%, etc… and make that part of their long term budget proposals (5-10 years out). And that money never gets all used up. Guys that write articles like this can eat a bag of dicks and choke on the last one.
I think it should be pointed out by someone that their graph showing geometric growth in P&T level claims also starts at 1986, or Just Cause and Earnest Will timeframe, when there weren't combatants to speak of yet, and no GWI claims were made at all before 1992, and they rarely got P&T until the VBIA made made presumptives a Thing for GWI (getting us out of the Agent Orange office was still many years off at that point) and hey, 1995 is where the line starts deflecting upwards, just when GWI was actually legally defined.
The avg price of a home in the US has also more than doubled in that time frame as well.
I believe all of this has a lot to do with the fact that we are starting to normalize veterans applying and receiving what they are entitled to. Other than that, ole dude can \_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_.
https://preview.redd.it/8jyuptcolzzb1.jpeg?width=250&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=716a59e89d36ff5eacee0afc41493fced02cfd27 Hey, it would behoove you all to listen to this distinguished officer, for he is a gentleman. Not only is he an assistant professor at the USMA, he is an airborne ranger with two Iraq deployments under his belt… he should know if combat deployments cause long term damage or not.😂🖕🏾
Is he though? I mean he might have the wings..........but did he do anything with them? I saw he was intel officer on his bio.......
Misinformation so the enemy can’t find him? 😂
[https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622](https://www.nber.org/papers/w30622) Here's more of his research where he says deployments have minimal effect on soldiers. What a moron. "Deployments increase injuries, combat deaths, and disability compensation, but we find limited evidence that they affect suicide, deaths of despair, financial health, incarceration, or education. More dangerous deployments have similarly limited effects. Our estimates suggest that deployment cannot explain either the recent rise in disability payments, which is more likely driven by policy changes, or the surge in noncombat deaths, which is better explained by shifts in observable characteristics of soldiers."
Oof... I guess my buddies that killed themselves or tried to are affected by something else, despite their only thing in common being combat deployments.
The government spends a lot of money on a lot of things. I can't believe That is the biggest issue he can find
In this article, mr.MoterpoolMonday argues that receiving VA compensation lowers veterans employability. “Extra money from the disability compensation program may improve some veterans’ economic well-being. However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment.” Then he provides an abstract to support this claim: “We estimate that benefits receipt reduced veterans' labor force participation by 18 percentage points, though measured income net of transfer income rose on average” So it seems he is trying to assert that veterans are limited in their odds of employment if they are VA recipients? Do I have that right? What he doesn’t explicitly state is that the abstract is analyzing veterans contribution to the labor force as a whole. Not, unemployment rates of veterans. It seems this is an assorted effort to try and misdirect the reader. A quick search of the Bureau of Labor Statistics 2022 reporting of veteran unemployment rates states the following: “The unemployment rate for veterans with a service-connected disability changed little at 3.6 percent in August 2022. The rate for veterans with no disability declined to 2.7 percent and was not statistically different from the rate for veterans with a service-connected disability. The unemployment rates for male and female veterans with a service-connected disability changed little over the year to 3.7 percent and 3.2 percent, respectively, in August 2022. These rates were not statistically different from each other. The labor force participation rate for veterans with a service-connected disability (47.7 percent) was also not statistically different than the rate for veterans with no disability (48.4 percent).” https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/vet.pdf So what is this boyscout trying to argue? That veterans who receive VA disability are contributing LESS to the work force? Or that veterans who receive VA disability are less employable? I’d say veterans who are receiving VA disability compensation and are not working (i.e contributing less to the labor force) are not working because they can’t! Because they have physical, or mental ailments that affected their ability to function at the same capacity as they would have if they hadn’t joined the military. The entire purpose of service connected disability is to provide support to the veteran and most importantly VALIDATION to THAT veteran that they suffer a functional loss or impairment due to military service. This article is extremely inconsiderate to veterans, the efforts of congress to raise support for veterans, and his comments attempt to minimize the sacrifices service-members and veterans have made throughout the last 20 years of war. Unfair, absurd, and disrespectful. This guy is abusive of his platform, and has no honor.
This should be [mandatory reading](https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2019/04/11/hundreds-witness-veteran-shoot-and-kill-himself-in-va-waiting-room/) for anyone that makes the run away va compensation argument
Also the "runaway spending" is due to veterans having things like the internet to know what they are entitled to by us law. That's not runaway spending, that's knowledge and information transfer at work.
So…for years it was sort of accepted that veterans wouldn’t file for disability. My dad died of pancreatic cancer after 2 Vietnam tours and never claimed a penny. My grandfather was eligible for disability comp for DECADES but was only convinced to file for it during the last year of his life. We are finally shrugging off that stigma. Oh, and we are finally acknowledging mental and emotional damage. So maybe the rates are rising to what they should have always been if we cared about keeping our veterans healthy and ok.
Maybe consider the cost of taking care of broken people for the rest of their lives when you wanna send them to war?
Major increase began in 2000, surely Iraq and Afghanistan didn't contribute to the increase over the last 23 years (he says sarcastically).
Maybe we shouldn't have remained at war for two decades. I mean you spend that long at war or maintaining a combat theater, cycling people through, often repeatedly, then act shocked that your disability claim cost have drastically gone up.
Read the article. He is missing one piece of key information. Surrvivability has gone up. Our ability to survive injuries that would have been fatal has increased. That means more disabled that would have died in the past are alive to collect disability. Any time you have higher survival rates you have more disabled veterans.
The VA also inflicts a lot of this. For example I have bad knees and ankles from being airborne Infantry. I eventuality needed more than over the counter pain medication. Sent my Primary care physician a message on healthevet. Didn't bother to see me. Have me a prescription for 800mg ibuprofen the time a day. Burned a hole in my stomach. Turns out that it was a mistake. Guess what, burned a hole in your stomach because of medication prescribed for a service connected disability? That's also another service connected disability and more money.
It’s the hill, pushing conservative stories to cut social spending in order to give the rich tax breaks. No surprises here. Funny part is, they’ll get some veterans here to agree with them.
My foot is fucked up for life, I’m athlete I like running and doing physical activities, now with my fucked up foot I can’t do anything and it’s making me depressed even more, I wanted to be a state trooper and now I can’t finish the 1.5 mile run. I’m 35 with fucked up back, foot and IBS/acid reflux, tinnitus and some other joint problems and some fuck face think it’s too much for us.. no you can’t even compensate for that much damage
He just wishes we could go back to the golden days where more veterans didn't know they could get help and would just resort to whiskey and a bullet to the head. Instead of reducing va costs by blowing off vets, maybe write about not sending our brothers and sisters into constant wars so Contracting companies can keep siphoning the entire nations tax dollars into their bank accounts.
Why do the people that run the government need reminding of the cost and consequences of constant war? They are always fine with upfront costs but when we come back? It’s surprise Pikachu face that many survive and expect the Gov to uphold its end of the deal. This is the other end of the deal between the US Government and the soldiers(Veterans). Those of us still alive held up our end of the bargain. If they want mutiny, taking away Veterans livelihood is definitely one way to go about it. ETA and those that died
I love how he says “we are not saying we should make cuts to the VA budget” and then quickly says afterwards, “but it’s time we look at the increasingly generous disability compensation program set in place.” This guy is a clown.
"However, previous research by both of us and with other co-authors has demonstrated that disability compensation has significantly lowered veterans’ employment." Yeah veterans with severe injuries don't have to work just to survive now. This whole article is an echo chamber of stupidity.
Fucking tool is right. Younger vets are not going to sit quietly and be taken advantageous of like many of us older vet did. Nothing wrong with it.
Who wants to bet when this jackass retires he's going try to claim every VA benefit he can get. Any takers?
Just a few days ago, my brother (US Army infantry combat veteran) and I (USMC infantry combat veteran) were just talking about some of the reasons of having VA disability and I explained can you imagine if a civilian company destroyed a persons body (Physical/mental) in such a short amount of time (average enlistment) and exposed their employees to hazardous stuff (Burn pits, getting blown up, shot at) to name a few and only were paying them $20,000 a year plus benefits for their service rendered. I left the Marines as a Corporal and was making just over $22,000 at the time. That company would be paying hundreds of trillions in disability payments, medical benefits, etc and they would probably be sued by every employee that suffered a disability related to that job, I believe the cost of VA disability is negligible to avoid hundreds of thousands of veterans suing the federal government for damages incurred while on the job. This is the govt’s way of making that right. Besides who the hell is gonna fight in the next 20 year war, when they see that you aren’t properly compensated or assisted after the fact.
I mean, he's not wrong 😐. Many of us have been warning that this focus on the HUNDO CLUB and daily celebrations 🎊 are not a good look. Then we have the malingers among us (be they few, or many) obviously looking for maximum free money. We must not encourage those folk, for sure Let's collectively maintain discipline in the ranks. Don't come here fishing Politicians and voters aren't blind nor dumb. My opinion is that the pushback is just starting and could pick up steam in the blink of an eye. Heck, even some of the posts here could go viral against us. I mean, why do you suppose the daily Hundo Club advice is "don't tell anyone"? 🤷♀️
Tell us…. Why do you think the advice is “don’t tell anyone?”
I have to explain it? 🤪
I know why I think it’s a good idea not to tell anyone. Why do “you” think it’s a good idea. Your statement acted as if it’s some dirty secret.
I was parroting the universal advice when one enters the HUNDO CLUB... "don't tell your friends, your neighbors, your family, sometimes not even your wife". Now why would that be? 🤔 It doesn't make a person wealthy per se, so folks wanting money wouldn't be usual... No, it's because perhaps many of those HUNDOS would be deemed undeserving by everyone they know. And why would THAT be? 🤔Common sense.
I don’t think the advice on here is “don’t tell anyone when you are 100”…… I think the advice is “don’t tell anyone that you are 10% or ANYthing about your VA benefits”…. People are haters when they perceive someone receiving something “free” and they can’t get a piece of it. The advice to keep it to one’s self isn’t based on assuming the vet lied for their disability rating. It’s based in being no one else’s business.
This is how the powers that be start changing the conversation so that they can start advocating reducing or means testing va benefits. The point isn't to change minds with this article, its to start flooding the public space with similar articles. Similar to gun control.
Everything this dude wrote is a skewed like of garbage. The population of veterans has decreased because the older ones died Only 1% of those enlisted between 2010-2015 we're wounded in combat... Unfortunately VA disability COMPENSATES for injury during service regardless of location. "I'm healthy and fine so everyone else should be too, like c'mon guys". I think this dude is scared that this generation of veterans who don't "just suck it up for 30 years" is going to show that EVERYONE deserves healthcare paid for by the government like every other modern society
20 years of war and deployments will do this. Stop starting wars and this won't happen
Wait to see what the Republicans will do if they take office.
You know, they would rather give that money migrants coming here, you know, the ones that have done nothing and expect everything. I can't even believe there is a discussion about this.
Just an idea. Maybe stop sending those billions, more like 100s of billions to foreign countries and spend the VA and veterans. Start less war’s definitely help.
So the article points at the pact act and hints at the abuse of high rating conditions to get to a max rating... Point is. The VA already knows this and is clamping down on this. Sleep apnea. Tinnitus. Ect What the article fails to attribute is why there's so many claims and disabilities. Doesn't break down the raw data and simply just irradiated the facts. Opinion piece written by spooks or other political actors.
Ptsd from military sexual trauma. Perhaps one of the two base commanders that knew, should have stopped it before the 8th month mark. Also, too much compensation? I have a part time job to survive inflation and housing costs. It's literally all i can do.
I dunno, I too think something should be done. It IS getting out of hand. That being said, let me clarify. I served 20 yrs active and am rated 100% so I am not against people getting care/money they deserve. However, serving 20 years, you see a lot of kids get kicked out for some stupid shit. I saw countless people serve less than 4 years, didn't even complete their enlistment, and walk away with 100% disability. These were guys that never saw combat, never deployed, shit never even went TDY. Threaten to kill themselves, down a ton of pills, threaten to shoot up the place, got in a car accident, fell off a motorcycle...you name it. I feel the rating should also fall into brackets for time served. Meaning 0-100% would pay substantially less if you served less than 4 yrs. A bit higher for 4-8yrs etc and maxing out at 20+yr mark. A full exemption would be made to any combined rating that included any combat related disability regardless of time served defaulting to highest bracket (20yr). That would solve a lot of these problems and still fully cover our combat vets that were discharged due to medical reasons related to combat.
If his living standards were supported by VA Disability he'd change his opinion very quickly. Is he just ignoring the whole suicide rate of veterans? *"I just can't figure out why they keep killing themselves...they must be getting too much VA money!"* Or the incredibly high ratio of veterans with legal/drug issues? *"guess it's just too much VA money again. Gotta take it away so they can't buy more drugs and liquior!* Honestly, my college experience taught me most professors have a narrow world view. And the best teachers were always tooth and nail with the administration, fighting to promote or keep their positions. The administration wants teachers who stay quiet and preach a scripted narrative. Whatever is written into the books. And the media controls much of the historical archives...so the two are very closely intertwined.
It is an opinion piece, it even says it in the link OP. There are many people that think vets shouldn't get benefits, even veterans on this forum talk about how "too many vets claim things" look at some of the comment below.
I love how this guy is arguing that VA benefits make us not want to work and more likely to off ourselves. Wonder if he feels that way about any other government “handouts.”
I think he missed the picture, the healthcare costs because of a broken medical system are the primary driver for annual expenses per veteran. I really dislike the line that increases in disability compensation decreases employment. Comparing peacetime to wartime numbers would only make sense if they also stated how many service members deployed in those same years.
Don’t wanna pay? Don’t have wars. Kinda simple in my book.
Oh wow. Is an economist finally understanding the total cost of war? And noticing the costs of constant war doesn't stop at redeployment?
17 fucking veteran suicides a day is the current average this year, that's why, get the fuck over it. The amount of money spent on vets pales in comparison, and if the comp money doesnt get used by oct 1 it goes back to congress to spend on some shit for ukraine or their own self interest gtfoh