Dear Jim, I am writing this because I was hoping to get your expertise and assistance in this matter. I recently separated from the Marine Corps after 8 years of active service.
At the time of my separation, I was disabled from a previous injury and unable to reenlist due to being unfit for duty (I actually have my Primary Care Manager’s letter stating as much). I was not sent to a Medical Board or a Performance Evaluation Board, but was instead told to ‘take it up with the VA’ and dropped to full duty for my EAS date.
I did take it up with the VA, and I am happy to report that (due in large part thanks to a Congressional ‘nudge’) I was rated this week at 80% service-connected disability.
That brings me to my question: if I am rated at 80% service-connected, shouldn’t I have been retired from my branch of service through a MEB/PEB? I also noticed on the VA’s benefits explorer that I had a ’military rated disability’ of 80% as well.
Again, this leads me to believe that I should have been retired. I know this is a bit outside the scope of the VA Watchdog site, but I thought with your experience with the system, you may have come across this issue before or know how to resolve it.
Your assistance in this matter is greatly appreciated.
Reply:
The VA is known as the most impenetrable fortress of all the federal agencies. Nobody, not Congress, not the popular press, not even the Commander in Chief are able to break down the barriers that have been established over the decades by the professional bureaucrats who run the VA.
When the VA doesn't feel like responding to an inquiry, it just shrugs and walks away. Everyone in VA is issued a teflon jacket on day one of employment there so that nothing can possibly stick to them.
Now...if the VA is an organization that can't be breached, imagine just how it came to be that way. Yes, you're correct...it learned all of its corporate behavior style from the experts of denial at the DoD. The only organization with defenses greater than the VA is the military.
In a nutshell, neither of those federal businesses have any reason to make you or anyone else happy.
Many recent veterans have gotten the shaft because of variances in the way they were discharged. Mental health problems, pre-existing conditions, strict denials of patently obvious currently existing medical conditions are as common as can be in the military of today.
Some active duty soldiers are held in "transitional units" for months or even years without any decisions made on their discharge status.
You've been treated unfairly. That seems apparent. The question is, what can you do about it? The answer is; Probably nothing.
Once you're discharged, the DoD doesn't know you. The difference and distance between being an active duty soldier and a veteran is measured in light years. Any issues you may have had on active duty are instantly forgotten by DoD as they toss you over to VA and let them deal with you.
Yes, your questions are outside the scope of the VAWatchdog. Any time that a veteran needs to deal with an issue like the one you present, I refer the veteran to an attorney experienced in military law for advice.
I often refer veterans to a VAWatchdog friend and contributor, Drew Early. Drew is a veterans law attorney who is also a veteran. He's retired from the Army, a graduate of West Point and other military colleges and he understands the system as well as anyone I know.
Drew even jumped out of military aircraft as part of his career but we forgive him for that.
I'd recommend that you contact Drew by clicking here.
http://www.militaryveteransadvocate.com/
If Drew doesn't have the answers for you, he may be able to refer you on to another expert who can help.