Acid Reflux but oh well...

🤔
The reference was about vets retiring from service, opting for disability payment for service related injuries ,
during the retirement process at the time of their retirement.

Something that only retired vets, or current vets might know, or have a need to know.
Okay, but you can receive disability from the military and also from the VA. So does that count as double dipping?
 
Yes. For example, Social Security Disability (SSD) is paid to those who are disabled and cannot work. My father got SSD after his severe heart attack. However, once he reached retirement age, he got regular Social Security and his SSD stopped. No 'double dipping'
It seems to me this would have been an added plan for example Social Security Disability = Social Security + Disability. If you are not at retirement age you just get Disability. When you are at retirement age Social Security + Disability would kick in.

If I sold insurance, then I wouldn't want to sell Dentist Medical. I would want to sell Dentist + Medical. It should not be that a person can only choose either dentist or medical but not both. If the current Social Security system doesn't handle both then a separate system should be made. If the Social Security wants to offer this additional service, then it should be integrated into the system so that it Social Security + Disability.

I'm going to take a deeper look into this so I can not only understand it more, but to also see where I'm being confused.
 
Thank you for this post. I hope expressing your pain is helping.
This always helps. "suffering alone" is never a good path. People should always know your pain. This doesn't mean that you have to tell the world, but someone should know.

We may not have the solution, but we have the story. One day we may tell the story "I know someone who." and the person we tell it may say. "Oh, my friend hand the same problem this is what they did."

Or the story may fall on the ears of someone who can champion the solution. Bill's problem may not be solved but the story may reach the ears of someone who can solve the problem. We can only solve the problems that we are aware of. The VA may be aware of his issues, but they may not be the ones who can solve it. Solutions tend to come from the most unexpected sources.

As for me. I always have an open ear for anyone and mostly because I know what it felt like to suffer alone and how much the weight of my issues lost the heaviness when I was finally able to share. Men in general already have a problem with not expressing emotions. For me the only problems we shouldn't listen to are the ones where people try to use a problem to indoctrinate. They aren't looking for solutions.
 
Currently, a person can be retired from the military, and draw SSD, and draw VA disability. There are various plans afoot to change that. Whether they'll come to fruition, I can't say.
The one thing I hate the most about business is a stupid policy. It's time for me to be more involved with elected leaders. Thanks for this information.
 
Military Retirees is an interesting one. All military vets, including retirees, can buy their time back in FERS, and it’s generally very advantageous to do so. If you retire as an E8 for example, and then get a federal job as a gs-12 or gs-13 for over ten years, you could get a nice fers annuity based on your high three based on a 30+ year career. While you would sacrifice your military pension (though not the other benefits) at your federal retirement, you would have received it the entire time you are working for the Fed And receiving your federal salary. Sounds a lot like double dipping to me.
I'm a bit unclear on how it works these days. In my day, it was 20 years for 50% pay, 30 years for 3/4 pay. That was it. Get out at 19 years, get nothing. However, it did mean that you could enlist at 18, retire with 30 years at 48, go to work for the Post Office, retired at 65, and enjoy a military retirement, Post Office retirement, and Social Security. I knew at least one person who claimed that's what he did. The man operated a book store outside of the base at Twentynine Palms, CA. I was only in for six years, I got bupkis. Worse, I served during the years between GI Bills. I was too late for the Vietnam era GI Bill and too soon for the Mongomery GI Bill, which only applied to new enlistees. Those of us who served between 77 and 84 got nothing.
 
The US military does not have a disability system.
This doesn't surprise me. It's the one branch of government that naturally creates disability.

It can't be helped. My cousin was in the navy. He saw someone get too close to the intake of a jet engine. I'm not even sure how that came up but I guess he needed to tell someone.

But what I would expect would be that the military would be at the front edge of treating disabilities.
 
This doesn't surprise me. It's the one branch of government that naturally creates disability.

It can't be helped. My cousin was in the navy. He saw someone get too close to the intake of a jet engine. I'm not even sure how that came up but I guess he needed to tell someone.

But what I would expect would be that the military would be at the front edge of treating disabilities.
That's literally the entire purpose of the VA. They operate several divisions. One is military cemeteries. Another is benefits, from VA Home Loans to disability pay to pensions for certain wartime veterans who are disabled due to NON military reasons, but who served at least one day of their honorable enlistment in a combat zone and have no or little income. And the third division is health care. Not all veterans are eligible for health care, and there are a lot of rules about who gets it and how much they get.

For example, I was a Cold War veteran. If I had enrolled in VA healthcare immediately after getting my discharge in 85, I would have been permitted to enroll. But some years later, they closed enrollment for veterans from my time period. Then it was determined that I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, in 1979 when the ground water was poisoned with dry cleaning chemicals. Congress, after denying it happened for several decades (I mean literally, the military and Congress absolutely, 100% denied that it happened, but the truth came to light and they were caught red-handed lying about it), gave me the ability to enroll in VA health care as a 'Special circumstances veteran.'

But that only gave me the right to health care for a limited set of illnesses, like some kinds of cancer. Nothing else. And based on my income, even that was denied.

Then I filed for my tinnitus and got a 10% disabled award. That gave me access to health care, but the VA pays second, after my private insurance, and there is a copay.

BY THE WAY, I knew NOTHING about any of this until earlier this year, despite the fact that I have a VA Home Loan. The VA does NOT teach veterans this stuff. It's all on their website, but you have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. You have to find out how to file a claim and what needs to be in a claim and how you prove your claim and what to say to an examiner to have your claim awarded in your favor and ON and ON. And turnaround time on a single claim is currently about six months.

I have filed for PTSD disability. If I get it, and if it amounts to 50% or more, THEN I get full VA healthcare with no copays. And it's for life, so I won't have to go on Medicare. My wife will, though.

If by some miracle I end up getting 100% disability that is judged "Permanent and Total" (another VA gotcha), then my wife can enroll in CHAMPVA, a type of VA healthcare where they pay the difference between what her Medicare pays and what is left over for her to pay. A desirable thing if it's possible to get.

And finally, if I again get 100% P&T and I happen to die of one of my rated disabilities, my wife could get a special stipend, known (I am not joking) as DIC. So yes, if I get to 100% P&T and I die due to one of my disabilities, the VA will give my wife DIC.

See how complicated it all is?

And VA math is something else. Everywhere else in the world, if you get a 50% disability and then you get another 50% disability, that adds up to 100%, right? Not with the VA. If you get 50%, that's 50%. Get a second 50%, and that's 25%, because it's considered 50% of the 50% of 'able-bodiedness' you have left. So it's 75%, which would be rounded to 80%. The closer you get to 100%, the harder it becomes to get those last few percentage points. Vets end up with 180% or 200% just to get to 100% in VA math world.

Government, man.
 
The VA does NOT teach veterans this stuff.
😂 They don't...

And VA math is something else. Everywhere else in the world, if you get a 50% disability and then you get another 50% disability, that adds up to 100%, right? Not with the VA. If you get 50%, that's 50%. Get a second 50%, and that's 25%, because it's considered 50% of the 50% of 'able-bodiedness' you have left.

So it's 75%, which would be rounded to 80%. The closer you get to 100%, the harder it becomes to get those last few percentage points. Vets end up with 180% or 200% just to get to 100% in VA math world.
😂

yep, totally weird how it's set up...
Not to mention Tricare, and so on...🤔

Retired under the Vietnam, era benefits.
Was in the cold war, stationed in the GDR...Mec Infantry unit.

They had a philosophy back then..

Happy grunts = ineffective grunts.

They did they'er best to make sure the grunts
were very effective.
 
That's literally the entire purpose of the VA. They operate several divisions. One is military cemeteries. Another is benefits, from VA Home Loans to disability pay to pensions for certain wartime veterans who are disabled due to NON military reasons, but who served at least one day of their honorable enlistment in a combat zone and have no or little income. And the third division is health care. Not all veterans are eligible for health care, and there are a lot of rules about who gets it and how much they get.

For example, I was a Cold War veteran. If I had enrolled in VA healthcare immediately after getting my discharge in 85, I would have been permitted to enroll. But some years later, they closed enrollment for veterans from my time period. Then it was determined that I was stationed at Camp Lejeune, NC, in 1979 when the ground water was poisoned with dry cleaning chemicals. Congress, after denying it happened for several decades (I mean literally, the military and Congress absolutely, 100% denied that it happened, but the truth came to light and they were caught red-handed lying about it), gave me the ability to enroll in VA health care as a 'Special circumstances veteran.'

But that only gave me the right to health care for a limited set of illnesses, like some kinds of cancer. Nothing else. And based on my income, even that was denied.

Then I filed for my tinnitus and got a 10% disabled award. That gave me access to health care, but the VA pays second, after my private insurance, and there is a copay.

BY THE WAY, I knew NOTHING about any of this until earlier this year, despite the fact that I have a VA Home Loan. The VA does NOT teach veterans this stuff. It's all on their website, but you have to do all the heavy lifting yourself. You have to find out how to file a claim and what needs to be in a claim and how you prove your claim and what to say to an examiner to have your claim awarded in your favor and ON and ON. And turnaround time on a single claim is currently about six months.

I have filed for PTSD disability. If I get it, and if it amounts to 50% or more, THEN I get full VA healthcare with no copays. And it's for life, so I won't have to go on Medicare. My wife will, though.

If by some miracle I end up getting 100% disability that is judged "Permanent and Total" (another VA gotcha), then my wife can enroll in CHAMPVA, a type of VA healthcare where they pay the difference between what her Medicare pays and what is left over for her to pay. A desirable thing if it's possible to get.

And finally, if I again get 100% P&T and I happen to die of one of my rated disabilities, my wife could get a special stipend, known (I am not joking) as DIC. So yes, if I get to 100% P&T and I die due to one of my disabilities, the VA will give my wife DIC.

See how complicated it all is?

And VA math is something else. Everywhere else in the world, if you get a 50% disability and then you get another 50% disability, that adds up to 100%, right? Not with the VA. If you get 50%, that's 50%. Get a second 50%, and that's 25%, because it's considered 50% of the 50% of 'able-bodiedness' you have left. So it's 75%, which would be rounded to 80%. The closer you get to 100%, the harder it becomes to get those last few percentage points. Vets end up with 180% or 200% just to get to 100% in VA math world.

Government, man.
Ok that made my brain hurt. I'm going to go to the website and see what Ai translates it. I hate when companies do this. The purposely do things so that it's complicated to discourage people from successfully getting what they seek. They don't seek to increase enrollment they seek to reduce it.

Happy grunts = ineffective grunts.

They did they'er best to make sure the grunts
were very effective.
This part of the thread has been a mind-blowing experience for me as someone who hasn't served in the military. I can't help to think that this is like family abuse. Where the father beats the kids but it's a secret and no one outside of the family knows about it.
 
This part of the thread has been a mind-blowing experience for me as someone who hasn't served in the military.


Keep in mind the role of the military

"The Infantry Branch is the maneuver branch with the mission to close with and destroy the enemy by means of fire and movement to defeat or capture him, or repel his assault by fire, close combat and counterattack. "

The training itself is designed to mentally and physically prepare a soldier to do this.

With the advent of advances in drone Technology it's even worse, as those operating the drones are not always up in the front lines with the unit,.

This further removes them from the actions they take during their mission..
Allowing them to become immune from the actions taken.



With the recent events between Russia and Ukraine this has changed.
no longer a video game, or maybe for some it is,,with the caveat.
Those in the game, on the other side have the ability to shoot back, everyone gets to play...


welcome to 21st-century warfare. 🪖

Note: offering thoughts, sharing experience,
Not a judgement or commentary, of recent and ongoing events.
 
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I'm a bit unclear on how it works these days. In my day, it was 20 years for 50% pay, 30 years for 3/4 pay. That was it. Get out at 19 years, get nothing. However, it did mean that you could enlist at 18, retire with 30 years at 48, go to work for the Post Office, retired at 65, and enjoy a military retirement, Post Office retirement, and Social Security. I knew at least one person who claimed that's what he did. The man operated a book store outside of the base at Twentynine Palms, CA. I was only in for six years, I got bupkis. Worse, I served during the years between GI Bills. I was too late for the Vietnam era GI Bill and too soon for the Mongomery GI Bill, which only applied to new enlistees. Those of us who served between 77 and 84 got nothing.
A lot of different ways one might do it. Federal service and military service are good together. Regardless of how long you served, you can buy back your military time for peanuts and have it count toward your retirement. It’s a FERS calculation based on your actual taxable earnings while serving.

FWIW, my GI Bill was helpful but nothing compared to modern benefits. Don’t get me wrong. Still very grateful, but it basically amounted to about a $350 per month stipend for four years.
 
I am not on the defensive. But yes, disagreeing with facts and science does make you incorrect. Particularly when using the terminology determined by that field of science.
I has nothing to do with facts and science when a person starts out with the wrong assertion from jump. You completely misread me and your (fully unsolicited) choice to diagnose me was Very wrong. So you got on the defensive. And now you are trying to crawfish out of your blunder. Yeah, on the defensive sounds about right.
 
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I has nothing to do with facts and science when a person starts out with the wrong assertion from jump. You completely misread me and your (fully unsolicited) choice to diagnose me was Very wrong. So you got on the defensive. And now you are trying to crawfish out of your blunder. Yeah, on the defensive sounds about right.
What you are saying here makes no sense. You made a claim about mental illness (depression). I said it proves you don't understand the topic. You asked for clarification, and I provided the clinical definition, along with where your definition falls on it.

I made no wrong assertion (you were incorrect in your statement of what depression is). I did not misread you, and made no diagnosis of you (I don't know anything about you, and did not claim you do/don't have depression). I am not defensive in the slightest. You, however, are choosing to ignore the science of psychology, and making erroneous claims for your concept of people should just hold in their issues.
 
What you are saying here makes no sense. You made a claim about mental illness (depression). I said it proves you don't understand the topic. You asked for clarification, and I provided the clinical definition, along with where your definition falls on it.

I made no wrong assertion (you were incorrect in your statement of what depression is). I did not misread you, and made no diagnosis of you (I don't know anything about you, and did not claim you do/don't have depression). I am not defensive in the slightest. You, however, are choosing to ignore the science of psychology, and making erroneous claims for your concept of people should just hold in their issues.
Okay, let's put a pin in the depression argument and agree to disagree. It is getting nowhere as far as the thread is concerned. If I misspoke, so be it. If you misinterpreted, so be it

This is a good example of the bigger rub: you said "and making erroneous claims for your concept of people should just hold in their issues."

First, where did I ever say "just hold in their issues"? This is a Specific example of putting words in my mouth and you obviously not understanding what is being said. Instead you repeatedly jump to the same science/medical definition. It shows a Huge lack of experiential knowledge that apparently all you have it to repeatedly go back to one and only one source to form an argument. Quite unhelpful and counter-productive to someone going through tough times.

Never, ever did I say just hold it in, quite the opposite. In simplest terms, a person has to do whatever it take to make it through the weeds to the other side (yes, I will say it again; suck it up buttercup). That is especially true in a case like Bill's or mine where you have absolutely No clue what the other side will look like or (initially) how you are going to get there. Believe me when I say some made up diagnosis has little to do with getting through tragedy.

You want to lean into and fixate on our disagreement about one word, and completely miss out on an opportunity to help someone else, that is your prerogative. Speak into Bill with your real life experiences. Don't hide behind what you read in a book. If that is all you have to offer, shallow is an understatement.
 
As to 'sucking it up', that's exactly what I did, from age 18 to my 60s. It was the expected response to trauma in a warrior culture. You suck it up, you don't show weakness, you drive on. That's what being a warrior is; the mission is more important than the person.

This was very much the same in the UK military, shades of the old 'lack of moral fibre' from the First World War. Everybody coping with their problems without telling anyone, so that everyone felt they were the only ones with problems. Talking to families was always a big no no, you can't inflict your experiences on them.
I've been in the military then worked with it since I was 18 until I retired 11 years ago at 60. I still live close though. I've known several suicides with all friends, family etc saying asking why because 'they were always happy ' and 'had everything to live for'. In politics here it's a common thing to call for housing ex military over immigrants as if it's just a case of finding bricks and mortar rather than the actual reason veterans are homeless despite the amount of help there is for them.
Asking for help in the military is for many a very difficult thing, they feel they will let their mates down if they admit their mental health isn't good. Of course by not saying anything they don't realise their mates are in the same boat.
The MoD here several years ago launched a campaign to normalise talking about mental health, it's part of basic training now, seniors are taught to look for signs of poor mental health and NOT to minimise it or tell the person to 'suck it up'. The mental health practitioners are a Tri-service team, who are stationed across the UK, Cyprus, Germany, Falklands etc. There were mental health teams in Afghanistan. It's not perfect of course but mental health is 'recognised' now.
Outside the military for those who've left we have a lot of help, charities take the heavy lifting but being run by ex military they are a great help. We have simple things like Breakfast Clubs to Combat Stress who does really good work. While veterans have priority for healthcare here, it doesn't mean a lot so as always we do it ourselves, as always I suppose.

My husband was deployed in N I during the Troubles, did several hours then was in the Falklands War was fine for many years but now in his 70s he seems to deteriorating, he forgets everyday things but the years in the military seem to have come back to haunt him after all this time. I think he's heading to dementia and the last is starting to get more real than now. It's mostly why I can't spend as much time here as I used too plus I now have health issues of my own, as you say the joys of getting older. 🙄

I can't offer advice, but can send a virtual hug and my hopes that something will work for you. X
 
This was very much the same in the UK military, shades of the old 'lack of moral fibre' from the First World War. Everybody coping with their problems without telling anyone, so that everyone felt they were the only ones with problems. Talking to families was always a big no no, you can't inflict your experiences on them.
I've been in the military then worked with it since I was 18 until I retired 11 years ago at 60. I still live close though. I've known several suicides with all friends, family etc saying asking why because 'they were always happy ' and 'had everything to live for'. In politics here it's a common thing to call for housing ex military over immigrants as if it's just a case of finding bricks and mortar rather than the actual reason veterans are homeless despite the amount of help there is for them.
Asking for help in the military is for many a very difficult thing, they feel they will let their mates down if they admit their mental health isn't good. Of course by not saying anything they don't realise their mates are in the same boat.
The MoD here several years ago launched a campaign to normalise talking about mental health, it's part of basic training now, seniors are taught to look for signs of poor mental health and NOT to minimise it or tell the person to 'suck it up'. The mental health practitioners are a Tri-service team, who are stationed across the UK, Cyprus, Germany, Falklands etc. There were mental health teams in Afghanistan. It's not perfect of course but mental health is 'recognised' now.
Outside the military for those who've left we have a lot of help, charities take the heavy lifting but being run by ex military they are a great help. We have simple things like Breakfast Clubs to Combat Stress who does really good work. While veterans have priority for healthcare here, it doesn't mean a lot so as always we do it ourselves, as always I suppose.

My husband was deployed in N I during the Troubles, did several hours then was in the Falklands War was fine for many years but now in his 70s he seems to deteriorating, he forgets everyday things but the years in the military seem to have come back to haunt him after all this time. I think he's heading to dementia and the last is starting to get more real than now. It's mostly why I can't spend as much time here as I used too plus I now have health issues of my own, as you say the joys of getting older. 🙄

I can't offer advice, but can send a virtual hug and my hopes that something will work for you. X
Thank you for this! I realize it looks a little funny to "love" this post of yours, but I am happy to see you posting, and also think that what you posted is so important. In the USA, suicide rates among veterans is extremely high. Each year, over 6000 veterans commit suicide in the USA, and in 2021, it was the 2nd leading cause of death for vets under 45 years old. The Veterans Administration does a better job identifying it than they used to, and there has been some progress in the USA to de-stigmatize mental illness, though not without setbacks. But it's an uphill battle. I work with homeless vets regularly, and it's a complex issue with no single, magic answer. Many self-medicate with drugs and/or alcohol and suffer from a host of mental and physical issues.

I'm really sorry to hear about your husband's declining health, and your own health issues. :(
 

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