Will The Army Pay Up?

A soldier suffering from PTSD, or combat stress may have more than just their anxiety to worry about. Often, long term care may be required, and the troops have to deal with the mental and the financial issues that follow.

Living on disability is not much of a living, particularly if you have a family to support.

Much of the stress involved in the situation is from troops trying to argue with the military to get fair compensation and treatment for their issues.

An article on Axis of Logic really goes into some depth in the subject:

Indeed, the Army's system for allocating disability pay to traumatized vets is another source of their frustration and anger. An Army panel at Walter Reed, called the Physical Evaluation Board, decides what percentage of income each soldier should get from the military to compensate him if he is too ill to serve any longer. The doctors decide whether wounds are combat related, and then the board decides how much disability the Army will pay. The board's decision is critical for soldiers trying to make a living after leaving the Army with what can be a debilitating mental condition. Fighting with the hospital about disability pay is a source of considerable stress just as these soldiers are trying to heal their minds.

Some of the soldiers are fighting decisions by the board at Walter Reed. Out of the 14 soldiers interviewed, five have left Walter Reed. Three ended up getting zero percent of their income as disability pay, despite what they said was serious mental stress that made it more difficult or impossible to work. Even those who got a third of their pay still had trouble making ends meet. (In every case I followed, the Department of Veterans Affairs made a later determination that the soldiers deserved more. The soldiers can choose to take the higher percentage of pay from the V.A., but in some cases if they do so, they must pay back what they have received so far from the Army.)

This exact situation happening to a soldier who couldn't go back to work because of PTSD is what inspired us to start working on this project.

To your healing!

Mike