In DES Outrage 15, I briefly mentioned the disability case of Sergeant Roy Sanchez, USMC. This Outrage will be dedicated to discussing his case. In short, the Navy continuously found ways to bend over backwards and screw him out of his disability benefits. At the end of the process, I filed a detailed Petition for Relief (PFR) with the Navy Council of Review Boards (CORB), the entity that oversees Navy Physical Evaluation Boards (PEB). The PFR centered on the fact that Sergeant Sanchez’s Medical Evaluation Board (MEB) was incomplete, that the PEB cherry-picked which conditions to deem unfitting, and that the PEB low-balled the ratings for the conditions they deemed unfitting. The CORB, facing the facts that Sergeant Sanchez’s disability case was improperly adjudicated, simply declared that he was suddenly fit for duty in a devious attempt to make the issues of his case moot. I apologize in advance for the length and details of this Outrage but there is a lot to discuss. I have...
DES Outrage # 15, The Navy Continues to Use the Same Old Tricks to Deny Disability Benefits to Wounded Warriors.
I haven’t written a DES Outrage in a while but that doesn’t mean I have run out of issues to write about. Rather, I have been quite busy assisting wounded warriors trying to gain their legally due DoD disability benefits. Much of the assistance I have given in the last six months was in support of marines who were systematically cheated out of their disability benefits by the Navy DES system. I now have the time to relay the problems and concerns I encountered supporting these marines.
As background, the 2007 Walter Reed press coverage revealed numerous deceitful tactics DoD and the Services used to cheat wounded warriors out of their DoD disability benefits. Some of these key tactics were:
- Use of non Veterans Administration Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD) rating criteria to low-ball DoD disability ratings.
- Failing to...
I’ve been contacted by the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP), a nonprofit veterans service organization that is representing thousands of veterans found unfit for continued service due to PTSD in a class action lawsuit (Sabo v US). To support a legal argument in this lawsuit, NVLSP is now investigating how the military has handled a similar group of cases -- veterans who were (a) found unfit for PTSD and initially placed on the TDRL after 14 October 2008, and thereafter (b) medically separated from the TDRL with severance pay as a result of a PEB reevaluation.
If you have been processed in this manner, please let me know and I will put you in contact with the NVLSP attorneys.
To clarify, they are looking for Vets meeting these criteria:
1) Placed on TDRL for PTSD after 14 OCT 2008
2)At later PEB, separated with severance (i.e., rated at 20% or less).
They are not looking for those who went to the BCMR/BCNR/PDBR to get their TDRL placement,...
I was just doing some searches on military.com website and came across this and thought I would post it here. Basically how it all started with the Disability Retirement not being granted and how our own Government is short changing us. Granted there is more information out there but I thought would bring this up. Enjoy!!
DES Outrage #14, Navy PEB Ignores the Law and Does its Own Thing to Deny Disability Benefits
It has been awhile since I wrote a DES Outrage. I apologize, but it has been a busy summer on all fronts. I will continue to write DES Outrages as needed be it twice a week, once a month or whatever timeframe is needed given the issues at hand.
The issues in this Outrage were covered in this week’s Military Times newspapers (20 September 2010 editions). I will use this Outrage to expand on the details that the Military Times article could not include due to their space limitations. The article covered three main issues which I will expand: Medical Evaluation Boards (MEB) not covering all medical conditions; MEBs failing to properly document the required details of medical conditions; and the Physical Evaluation Boards (PEB) not rating all conditions that contribute to unfitness per the Veterans Affairs Schedule for Rating Disabilities (VASRD). All of these issues lead to a...
