LOD appeal after discharge...

FloridaInjuredInCombat

PEB Forum Regular Member
PEB Forum Veteran
Registered Member
I went through the IDES process, and after about 18 months was medically retired. Till that point I was a Guard Soldier. At the start of the IDES process the Office of the State Surgeon demanded I list all my LOD injuries, and among them I listed blast injuries (burns, permanent hearing loss, tinnitus, and mTbi) that I sustained during a combat deployment to Iraq in 2005, that were treated at battalion aid station for, but no LOD to that point had been generated.

So from early 2014 to late 2015, the Guard shamelessly drug their feet on completing the LOD investigation. By the summer of 2015, the LOD has been (illegally) canned into the "administratively closed" bin. I protested that by showing the regs have no such option, and finally in Nov. 2015, they completed the LOD, but found my IED blast injuries Not In the Line of Duty.

My intent is to appeal the finding, I asked for an extension to file the appeal and did so IAW the instructions listed on the notice I received with the denied appeal in November. For weeks no one responded, until finally I let them know if they failed to respond I would file an IG complaint on the matter. Finally a rep at NGB told me that it would be handled at the state level, and to contact state JAG, this was the day before yesterday, and today I will do just that.

In the meantime, the email traffic from the state OTSS, has been along the lines of "do WE have to do this, or can we push him off to the ABCMR, since the SM is now retired?".

My question is, after being retired, what is the process to appeal an LOD determination? Its my understanding that the ABCMR will kick back any claim that has not expended all channels within the Army/Guard first.

Thank you.
 
Top