New Blog you MUST read!

PTSD = Post Traumatic Stress Disorder

There's a new post at PTSD Combat blog. It's from the Navy Times and speaks to the Vets being granted permanent disability today. Here are some excerpts and the link:

Fewer Vets Granted Permanent Disability Today Than in 2001

In 2001, 10 percent of soldiers going through the medical retirement process received permanent disability benefits. In 2005, with two wars raging, that percentage dropped to 3 percent, according to the Government Accountability Office. Reservists dropped from 16 percent to 5 percent.

Soldiers go to VA to try for more benefits, but the department had a staggering 400,000-case backup on new claims in fiscal 2006, according to VA. For that reason, Van Antwerp faces another wait at VA. Cases there have an average of a one-year wait. ... [M]any of the soldiers leaving Walter Reed face post-traumatic stress disorder. Studies have shown that if soldiers receive treatment within a year, they fare much better. ...

On Christmas Day, six soldiers spent their time at Walter Reed picking up trash, mopping floors and emptying garbage. “I was planning to go home for the holidays,” said Spc. Ruben Villalpando, who dropped from sergeant rank when he came up hot for marijuana on a urinalysis while at Walter Reed. “There’s a 100 percent urinalysis policy for med hold.” In other words, every soldier in the medical hold company is tested for drugs.

The other five soldiers also came up hot, he said. Not only did Villalpando lose his holiday, the reduction in rank means that if he does receive a disability payment, it will be lower than it would have been a month before.

I was angry and saddened yesterday, when I read the Walter Reed article of how our vets were treated. This article just adds sand to the wound! Compassionate Conservatives!?! To whom are they compassionate?

Here's the LINK