Physical Evaluation Board Forum

Whatever became of the recommendations made by the President’s Commission on Care for America’s Returning Wounded Warriors (PCCWW), aka, the Dole-Shalala Commission? In short, not much. This is particularly true of the PCCWW’s second recommendation designed to reform the Defense Disability Evaluation System (DES). The PCCWW came about in 2007 in the wake of the Walter Reed press coverage. It was co-chaired by former Senator Bob Dole, and Donna Shalala, the Secretary of Health and Human Services during the Clinton administration.

The PCCWW’s second recommendation called for all service members, deemed unfit for further military service due to a service connected disability, to receive disability retirement. Currently, only those who are rated 30% or more by DoD receive disability retirement. Service members discharged for disability would then receive retirement pay based on their length of service as well as...

This week’s Outrage is more of a deep concern at this point in time. My concern is about the status of the Department of Defense Task Force on the Care, Management, and Transition of Recovering Wounded, Ill and Injured Members of the Armed Forces. Congress mandated the creation of this Task Force in Section 724 of the 2010 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). I have included the text of this legislation at the bottom of this Outrage.

My chief concern at this point is the delay in appointing members to the Task Force. Congress mandated a 120 day deadline from the date the law was enacted to appoint the members of the Task Force. President Obama signed the 2010 NDAA into effect on October 29th, 2009, making the deadline for appointing the Task Force members 26 February 2010. I have yet to see any evidence that DoD has made these appointments. Such a delay is inexcusable given that taking care of wounded warriors is allegedly DoD’s second highest priority behind...

This week’s DES Outrage of the Week will discuss yet another DoD decision that does the least for our wounded warriors. It involves how DoD calculates Combat Related Special Compensation (CRSC) for disability retirees. CRSC is a form of concurrent receipt. Concurrent receipt is a concept allowing military retirees to collect, without offset, both their DoD retirement pay earned by years of military service and their disability compensation from the Veterans Administration for service connected disability.

A longstanding law prevented military retirees from collecting both their military retirement pay and VA disability compensation. In 2003, those laws started changing with the introduction of CRSC and its counterpart, Concurrent Receipt of Disability Payments (CRDP). CRSC allows a military retiree to collect retirement and VA disability compensation for combat related disabilities rated as little as 10% disabling. CRSC is tax free and originally required all retires to...

This is more of a test than anything else. But, for those of you who have not met Tootie, here she is.



I have taken to calling her my C.H.E.W.S (Canine Homedefense Early Warning System). She is a great alarm system, barking loudly anytime anything happens. And by this I mean anything. Wind. Cars passing. Sunlight. Rain. Days ending in the letter "y."

Unfortunately, her only offensive capability is a ferocious face licking. She does not do much else, though she is a loyal and (mostly) obedient dog. She has mastered sitting, shaking, and will sometimes speak on command. Her two greatest pastimes are eating treats and she has recently (despite her deceptively small size) mastered mounting the couch. One downfall for her is that once she has mounted, she cannot get off of the couch. I am undecided as to whether she is practicing psyops on me by refusing to get off the couch without assistance or whether she is terrified of the 18 inch drop from couch to...

First, I would like to thank attorney Jason Perry who runs Pebforum.com. Jason is representing Kevin Stein, pro bono, in Kevin’s lawsuit in federal court. Kevin is challenging his Navy administrative discharge for unsuitability. You can read about Kevin’s situation in Outrage # 3 which can be found here: http://www.pebforum.com/content/des-...y-benefits-33/
In last week’s Outrage, I discussed problems with the Physical Disability Board of Review (PDBR). This week’s Outrage will discuss problems with two other review boards available to wounded warriors. These boards are the Disability Review Board under 10 USC 1554 and the Discharge Review Board under 10 USC 1553. I will discuss problems with these...