i started a new thread because i personally think this needs to be
discussed and the issue laid to rest.

i, for one, am drawing disability pay.  would i give the pay back in
order to have what was robbed from me?   in a heart beat.

anyone who has filed for a veteran's disability claim knows that it's
not an easy process.  the veteran's administration has a very thorough
investigation to prove that you have a claim because of the service.

hell, even though i have it on my DD 214, and in my service record, and
i was issued separate vietnam commendation awards than the usual ones,
from what we were doing over there,  the VA said that i was NEVER in
vietnam.   i had to prove to the united states gov't that i was even
there!!!!!!  

in my case, for example,  it was in my service medical records that i
had a DEFINITE hearing loss.  

if you think that the loud noises from a fireworks display are loud, try
popping 54 lbs of gunpowder at a time REPEATEDLY, without any kind of
hearing protectors and over a period of years.

i fought the VA for 18 years on this claim alone and even at my
compensation hearing,  first said that i was suffering from normal
hearing loss through aging.  

i was put through over a 3 1/2 hour exam.  it was everything from
computerized to a device to sends sound to the bone.   when i told the
examiner that i had an severe ear infection in my life, his response
was, "yes, i saw that,  it was your left ear"

so, the question is. "would i give back that measly 104 dollars a month
to get my hearing back?"  or do i take the check for the price i paid
and then get told that i'm sucking off the gov't?    

and what about the other price tags that my body had to pay?  

i didn't ask to go to vietnam.  i didn't ask to be at risk to be exposed
to agent orange.   i didn't ask to be sprayed with it
and when i felt it burnt my skin - then told that i couldn't wash it off
until after my duty watch was over.  i didn't ask for the skin cancer
and prostate cancer that it caused in later life.   and yet,  SOMEBODY
who sat on their butt in america - in a safe place - never exposed to
these dangers of war or the chemicals that was used in the war, thinks
that they have the RIGHT to tell ME that i don't deserve this pay and
that i'm getting what i deserve!!!!!

i will file their comments under that same file as when i came home and
they spit on my uniform and called me "baby killer".  and threw trash on
my car and said, "oh, you're only those vietnam vets"   or when they
wouldn't hire me because i served in vietnam (yes, employers did that).

my file drawer has a roll of toilet paper beside it.

thanks I.P.  i didn't see this post and glad that you brought to
light...

~ curtis

===================

Re: Disability Compensation for Agent Orange prostate cancer  


From: fuhgheddaboutit@noway.nohow (I.P. Freely)
I’m very disappointed that, beyond revealing his post to me, no
one stood up to Steve Jordan’s whining about military pension
and disability pay.
Steve wrote:
Mike [as he calls me] . . . brags about his ability to obtain
*disability* money and related benefits. And he wants even more but is
not sure that the result would be worth the effort. Hello? Are any of my
brothers and sisters able to comprehend the meaning of "hypocrite"? Or
"parasite?"
We taxpayers are financing Mike's windsurfer lifestyle.
So Steve whines about a military vet's $110 net monthly disability pay,
calls him a hypocrite and a parasite for pursuing another $45 for
additional service-connected medical problems, cries over his pension
(60% above Minimum Wage) earned by 20 years in uniform protecting
Steve's right to whine, and labels informative responses to questions in
a thread titled “Disability Compensation for Agent Orange
prostate cancer “ as “bragging” . . . and no one
speaks out?
Never mind that my service-connected impaired vision, hearing, and
balance threaten me daily and almost got me killed twice, or that my gym
time (which I very strongly encourage and try to motivate everyone to
pursue even though he labels that “bragging”, too) is
for reduction of my disabilities, not for recreation (it took the
staff’s lead trainer many weeks to design exercises around my
clinically verified pathologies to mitigate, rather than exacerbate,
their impacts on my life). Windsurfing is the only sport I can still
pursue with reasonable success and acceptable risk, and even it missed
killing me by less than one second/five feet in 1990 due directly to my
service-connected disabilities. Would Steve deny disability benefits to
a soldier playing basketball in his wheelchair, running on artificial
legs, or demanding to return to combat on an artificial leg? In
denigrating my disability pay he denigrate theirs, because all
disability benefits, whether from combat or not, are awarded through the
same intense, prolonged, verified, expert VA medical scrutiny. And is
Steve our official retirement manager?
His carping about military vets goes unchallenged, yet some of you
expect me to take seriously your criticism of my long posts or how I
phrase facts? Get some perspective, please.
Steve should walk a mile in my shoes â€" without falling backwards
into a heap of cinder blocks and garden tools or stepping in front of a
moving car, both of which I have done due to my disabilities â€"
then get back to us with his vile sniping at things and people he
doesn’t know jack about. I surely hope for his wife’s
sake he didn’t behave this way his whole life, before he
surrendered his senses and humanity to ADT.
I don’t care about the baseless personal nonsense he incessantly
spews about me; it’s about as threatening and substantive as
ghost farts, and tells far more about him than about me. If he tries it
with a combat vet, though, I will send his post and this response to his
hometown newspaper and to some vet forums. Everyone here should demand
he apologize to the vets here.
If Steve’s ad hominem BS is what you want in this forum, folks,
just keep on encouraging it with your silence.
I.P.

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional    
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc