Troops Lost in the Land of Oz
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In a recent Tacoma News Tribune report, the Army's Physical Evaluation Board - PEB - has allegedly been using undocumented criteria for rating a soldier's fitness for duty. Army lawyers representing wounded soldiers, say they are forced to navigate the Board's bureaucracy "even though the new guidelines have yet to be published."
The Office of Soldier's Legal Counsel claims that the PEB is utilizing what has become known as the "Wal Mart greeter test" to evaluate a brain-injured a soldiers level of disability.
According to The News Tribune, senior Army civilian attorney Benedict S. Cohen "reported, staff members alleged that the PEB "routinely" misapplies Army regulations and Department of Defense instructions "to evade reaching the 30 percent disability threshold that triggers a soldier's eligibility" for medical retirement and benefits"
Cohen "raised concerns about a possible "Wal-Mart greeter test" in determining whether soldiers are well enough to be denied benefits. It was claimed that PEBs employed a 'Wal-Mart greeter' test, whereby if an injured soldier could function as a Wal-Mart greeter he or she would receive a rating of 0 percent disability, as opposed to the outcome mandated" by Army and Defense Department regulations, Cohen wrote."
The Department of Defense seems to have the same disregard for honest, hard-working Wal Mart greeters as it does for wounded soldiers and remains tied to the "Rumsfeld Model" of war on-the-cheap.
If seasoned attorneys struggle with disability rating systems, imagine how difficult, no impossible, the process must be for a soldier suffering from a traumatic brain injury.
Sadly, measuring the true cost of the Iraq debacle is not limited to dollars and cents. The human cost of this tragic war is beyond measure with over 3,300 American troops and an estimated 650,000 Iraqi civilians killed. Estimates of American wounded range between 26,000 and 50,000, the higher number reflecting potential cases of post traumatic stress syndrome and traumatic brain injury that may have escaped diagnosis.
The alleged practice of low-balling the disability ratings of soldiers and veterans was raised at a recent joint House and Senate hearing on the disability ratings practices of the Defense Department and the VA. Senior Secretaries of both departments categorically rejected any claim that soldiers and veterans were being denied needed care and benefits. But the evidence piling up over the last several months - at Walter Reed, Fort Lewis and other yet-to-be-disclosed locations, would seems to belie their impassioned denials.
In the meantime, Bush and Cheney keep trying to lead us all down the yellow brick road of a delusional and hopeless foreign policy. Tragically, brave men and women find themselves unable to simply click their ruby slippers together and find their way home.
The Office of Soldier's Legal Counsel claims that the PEB is utilizing what has become known as the "Wal Mart greeter test" to evaluate a brain-injured a soldiers level of disability.
According to The News Tribune, senior Army civilian attorney Benedict S. Cohen "reported, staff members alleged that the PEB "routinely" misapplies Army regulations and Department of Defense instructions "to evade reaching the 30 percent disability threshold that triggers a soldier's eligibility" for medical retirement and benefits"
Cohen "raised concerns about a possible "Wal-Mart greeter test" in determining whether soldiers are well enough to be denied benefits. It was claimed that PEBs employed a 'Wal-Mart greeter' test, whereby if an injured soldier could function as a Wal-Mart greeter he or she would receive a rating of 0 percent disability, as opposed to the outcome mandated" by Army and Defense Department regulations, Cohen wrote."
The Department of Defense seems to have the same disregard for honest, hard-working Wal Mart greeters as it does for wounded soldiers and remains tied to the "Rumsfeld Model" of war on-the-cheap.
If seasoned attorneys struggle with disability rating systems, imagine how difficult, no impossible, the process must be for a soldier suffering from a traumatic brain injury.
Sadly, measuring the true cost of the Iraq debacle is not limited to dollars and cents. The human cost of this tragic war is beyond measure with over 3,300 American troops and an estimated 650,000 Iraqi civilians killed. Estimates of American wounded range between 26,000 and 50,000, the higher number reflecting potential cases of post traumatic stress syndrome and traumatic brain injury that may have escaped diagnosis.
The alleged practice of low-balling the disability ratings of soldiers and veterans was raised at a recent joint House and Senate hearing on the disability ratings practices of the Defense Department and the VA. Senior Secretaries of both departments categorically rejected any claim that soldiers and veterans were being denied needed care and benefits. But the evidence piling up over the last several months - at Walter Reed, Fort Lewis and other yet-to-be-disclosed locations, would seems to belie their impassioned denials.
In the meantime, Bush and Cheney keep trying to lead us all down the yellow brick road of a delusional and hopeless foreign policy. Tragically, brave men and women find themselves unable to simply click their ruby slippers together and find their way home.
