Jason, I PM'ed you...
Here is my story for all to read if they care to.
BLUF, NO injured Soldier should ever have to deal with what I had to.
I'd be glad to talk with the media, I believe you already know my ordeal but to summarize for them;
I sustained a severe spinal injury while on Active Duty for a combat deployment as an Infantryman/Sniper, to Iraq 2004-2005. NO LOD was written and after the year long tour I was transferred back to being a Guard Soldier, late 2005.
About 6 months after coming home I needed (what turned out to be 2 major surgeries and a spinal infection that left me out of work for 8 months) medical care for the spinal injury. My Guard unit knew it was an LOD injury, and even had me (with my records) examined by our Battalion Surgeon, but again failed to initiate a LOD. They also remained silent and failed to inform me the INCAP pay benefit. I was left to fend for myself, pay the lost time from work and the medical bills out of pocket.
In early 2007 I returned to duty and continued service including a second combat tour, this time to Afghanistan as a member of a SOT-A (Special Operations Team - Alpha). While the injury still bothered me, it was manageable and I continued to serve.
By mid-2013, the spinal injury had deteriorated to the point I needed further medical treatment (which included a third major spinal surgery). I once again informed the unit, and their first reaction was to start the process to discharge me without an LOD and ultimately without benefits. I was unable to work due to the LOD injury for two months without any help from the Guard.
In December of 2013, I forced the issue by formally requesting an LOD from the unit. At the same time and by chance I stumbled across the existence of INCAP pay benefits and requested INCAP as well.
From that moment forward I met increasing animosity from both the unit and the Florida Office of the State Surgeon. They initially refused to process my INCAP claim and ordered me not to have ANY contact with military medical. It took nearly six weeks of fighting and filing an Art. 138 complaint to the States Commanding General before they "allowed me" to be seen by a military physician.
From the first contact with the military physician to my eventual medical retirement nearly a year and a half later I was continuously found to be Unfit for Work and Unfit for Duty. While the regulations state that the unit was to process my INCAP claim and forward it to FL-OTSS for determination, under direction from FL-OTSS the unit "sat on the claim" refusing to process or send it up as required. This started the next battle, which ultimately necessitated me filing an complaint with my Squadron Commander who overrode FL-OTSS and ordered the INCAP claim be sent up IAW the regulations.
Even after FL-OTSS received the INCAP claim, they refused to process it for payment (something that is required to be done within the first 30 days after INCAP is requested -WHILE- the LOD is being processed). Instead they delayed any INCAP payment for five months, not including the two months I was out of work before I even learned of INCAP's existence. Our family home nearly went into foreclosure while the state knowingly and deliberated violated the regulations and refused to process the claim.
I filed complaints with the Inspector Generals Office as well as contacting my state's U.S. Senators and the Governors Office. Still FL-OTSS refused to comply with the regulations. Finally after five months, the informal LOD (which was required to have been completed within the first 40 days) came back Approved In the line of duty. The LOD itself was fatally flawed in that it listed my spinal injury as "thoracic" rather than "lumbar" even though all my medical document, and the 2 prior surgeries were for the lumbar spine. I immediately requested the LOD be corrected or redone, and FL-OTSS refused to respond to the request.
After paying INCAP for two months, my INCAP payments were stopped while the claim was held awaiting approval by NGB (which after 6 months of INCAP is a standard part of the process). Luckily I was paid in part for the back paid for the INCAP claims from December through the 6th month, and was able to catch up on my mortgage and have a small amount in reserve.
Shortly after the INCAP pay was stopped awaiting NGB approval, my care under the military medical system was suspended due to the fatally flawed (1st) LOD. It was at this point FL-OTSS refused again to issue a new LOD unless I agreed to FALSIFY the record and state that I had been injured recently during drill, I refused to do so as it would be a serious violation of the law. Finally after another month or so delay they initiated a second LOD to replace the first, this process took several more months, during which time my medical care was suspended.
After the 2nd LOD was finished, it was forwarded to NGB to be included in the INCAP claim. NGB denied further INCAP pay until a 3rd LOD was completed, stating the reason to be that the 2nd LOD did not include the wording "Lumbar Radiculopathy" (pain and numbness in my legs - caused by the spinal injury). This lead to several more months without INCAP pay, most of the time neither my unit nor FL-OTSS responded to any inquiry regarding progress on the 3rd LOD or the increasing difficulty of being without INCAP pay and unable to work due to the LOD injury, this lasted another five months in total.
Finally out of any other option, I had no choice but to contact the Florida Army National Guard Chief of Staff, Col. Canzoneri. I was fortunate enough that he was our former Squadron Commander years prior to this, and he knew I was a good Soldier. Out of channels, through Facebook I contacted him, and he provided me help in getting the 3rd LOD finally completed, and INCAP pay resumed. His intervention also helped open the door to my finally getting the surgery needed, in January of 2015, having first informed the unit of the need for further medical care in September of 2013.
In May of 2015, I was found by the Army to be permanently disabled due to my spinal injury and medically retired from service. At the time of my retirement I was still owed over a thousand dollars in unpaid (and I found out late unprocessed) travel claims relating to my military medical care, many of the claims being unpaid for over a year.
In June 2015, while working with the state Pay and Finance Office (PFO) to address a possible overpayment of INCAP benefits due to receiving VA compensation in December 2014 and on, I was able to get all but one overdue travel claim paid, that final claim more than a year overdue is still unpaid. As for the possible VA overpayment, from the day I received the VA benefit I have consistently informed the unit and FL-OTSS of the situation. They first calculated that I owed over $16,000 in overpayment, but upon audit review it was reduced to $4300 due to the fact I had been underpaid INCAP. Even for the remainder it is still unclear if I owe or am owed, as according to both the Department of Veterans Affairs legal counsel, and the Army senior JAG counsel, there is no overpayment and the Army has no statutory authority to collect such a debt. Still even without statutory (legal) authority it is their practice to collect.
Finally, during the initial IDES process, the unit and FL-OTSS were required to initiate and complete a separate LOD for IED (bomb) blast injuries I sustained in combat in 2005. The LOD was requested in early 2014, and to date it has been mishandled several times, including not listing all the injures incurred, an attempt by the unit to summarily state it NOT to be in the line of duty (even though the injuries were caused by enemy action) and finally to "administratively close" (stop processing) the LOD without final determination or affording me due process and the Right to appeal, all violations of the regulations (AR 600-8-4).
I served my country with honor and when injured I was thrown away and left to fend for myself. When I fought for the Guard to follow regulations, I was and still am met with constant resistance, which at best was with animosity and contempt, and on occasion openly hostile. My family nearly lost our home on several occasions and I was forced to wait on needed medical treatment for months on end. I do not accept that ANY injured Soldier should have to deal with what I had to, so I am more than willing to speak out in hopes that the situation will be improved and the systemic practice of violating the regulations and cheating of injured Soldiers stops.
