Veteran Pressure
30 August 2007
by Christian McPhate, Contributing writer for AnaiRhoads.org
AnaiRhoads.org - Hidden on the bottom floor of the Montague County Courthouse, the Veteran Affair's office is a small, dimly lit room for soldiers who come searching for medical and financial help. However, the light within Bill Crabtree, the VA's officer, still blazes with passion more than fifty years after his service in the Korean War.
Crabtree was drafted to the war and served two-years in the artillery division.
"My friends and neighbors sent for me and a lot of other people," Crabtree said and laughed.
He started working for the VA's office in Montague in 2000 to serve and help his fellow soldiers obtain the benefits that they deserve from their efforts in keeping America free. He has lived in the Montague County area for most of his life and attended school in Stoneburgh.
"I've had some real eye-openers since I have been here," he said. "So I hope that you will tone down my rhetoric on it because I feel so strongly about it."
Crabtree said one soldier was injured while serving in New Guinea. His teeth had been blown out. He returned home and began living his life after the injury. However, years later, he went to the doctor complaining about headaches. The medical professionals attempted to do an X-ray, but they said they were unable do it with all that metal in the veteran's head.
The soldier was shocked.
"It was not just his teeth that had been knocked out," Crabtree said. "He lived his life with the metal in his sinuses and almost into his brain."
And with the new influx of veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, as well as several other "hot spots" around the world, is putting increased stress on the VA's administration. In addition, the recent unveiling of problems within the hospitals and the delays of medical care have placed the VA front and sometimes center of the media's eye.
Crabtree explained that the count for veterans in the county has decreased very little over the past several years, but the largest loss was due to the deaths of many WWII veterans.
"It is the Korean veterans expiring in great numbers now," he said, "because they have reached that age in time."
Crabtree explained that he has experienced many different aspects of the VA system, and he has watched soldiers fight more wars after their return home when it came to receiving their veterans' benefits.
As recently as today, he said that he had an inquiry about Cy Young, a well-known Bowie resident who served in WWII and began the Hirojima Survivors Association in Wichita Falls. Mr. Young was unable to help the veterans' office work out his past because he could not remember his serial number that he used in the war.
In 1964, the Veteran Affairs Office changed the soldiers' service number their social security. He said that before this time they did not tie the soldiers' service record with their social security, which is why it is so important to put the DD214 on file. The government used to put all of the VA records in St. Louis back before computers.
In 1973, the VA's building burned to the ground, and the VA has had hard time piecing back together the records because they had no backups for the records.
"The serial number is crucial when applying for VA benefits," Crabtree said.
Crabtree said that when the young soldiers return home from the war, they should go to the courthouse and put their Department of Defense form 214 (DD214) on file in the county clerk's office.
"So if they ever need it in the future," he said, " it's up there. It's just so important to the rest of their lives because if they are going to apply for veterans' benefits the must have it on file."
He said the Young family is attempting to secure that information for the veteran.
"The spouses of veterans can claim some monetary rewards in their old age after the veteran is gone," he said. "However, they must have the serial number."
He explained as the veterans from WWII, Korea and Vietnam wars advanced in age, some of their memories would fade, taking their precious memories along with their serial number.
"Unfortunately, it is not all good now, and my attitude towards fencing with the VA is the same as fencing with the Internal Revenue Service," he exclaimed. "You have to get in there and fight."
He said that we are in a particular tight time for the VA with the hospital conditions that have come to light in the media as well as failed promises from the administration who is still not forthcoming with sufficient funds.
Crabtree said that one of the crucial problems facing the Department of Defense is PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. During WWI, the armed forces passed the disorder off as Shell Shock, and then in WWII, the disorder became known as Battle Fatigue.
However, during the war in Vietnam, doctors changed the diagnosis to PTSD, and people began to realize that soldiers developed the syndrome from combat.
In addition, if someone has been a tour to Iraq and he or she is back home, but they are set to go on another tour.
"Sometimes if they display any of the PTSD conditions, then the department of defense has a catchall phrase: Chapter 5-13," Crabtree said.
He explained that Chapter 5-13, which states the soldier had a personality disorder before joining the military, is an attempt to get those people out of the armed forces.
"They tell the soldiers that they can get them a discharge a whole lot earlier if they sign this form," he said. "This makes the Department of Defense not responsible for the soldiers."
And some of the soldiers are told that the VA will take care of them when they get out, he said.
"The VA won't take care of you," Crabtree exclaimed. "The VA will drop you like a hot horseshoe."
Crabtree said these are things that he probably does not encounter everyday, but he wanted young veterans who are coming back to be aware and take care of themselves.
"They will not tell them," he said. "They whole lot rather that they have a Chapter 5-13 and let them out before the enlistment was up. Then they will never have to pay benefits because the soldier had a personality disorder or a psychiatric condition before coming in to the service."
He said that the government is trying to give some counseling to the soldiers.
"But there are big problems for soldiers getting help for mental health services," he explained. "They may wait three months for their appointment, but in the mean time he shoots himself."
The VA rates the veterans from priority one to eight with several subgroups. The ratings are based on service-connected disabilities, the soldiers' incomes and assets. The VA requires a means test, which will determine how much the soldiers have to pay.
If a veteran has a 50 percent or higher service-connected injury, then the VA provides them with care and medicines at no charge.
However, the veterans in the lower classes will have to pay partial payments (or co-pays) for care on non-service-connected problems as well as partial prescription drug costs. The VA dental and nursing home care is more limited in obtaining services.
"One government agency can't bill another one," Crabtree explained on the co-pays, "so Medicare is out. But if soldiers have private health insurance, then they can bill it."
He said the VA does have a VA Healthcare System that classifies soldiers from 0 to 100 percent for their disability. If doctors diagnose them with 0 percent disability, then they can still receive medical, but no money. However, if they are 100 percent, then they can "walk to the front of the line."
"I encourage veterans that even if you are not going to use it, then at least enroll in it."
He explained that many problems still face the VA.
"It is so political… so… so political. Walter Reed hospital is the centerpiece to be in the shape that it was in. Now there will be a lot of turmoil while politics take care of it. Some senators and representatives try hard… the Veteran Affairs committee, but it doesn't come out."
Crabtree said another thing that troubles him is that so many people sign up for the services and in a short time they are judged not competent to serve and released with many discharges that say… "Other than honorable."
"In my day, it was a black mark that lived with you for the rest of your days," he exclaimed. "I attribute it to drugs."
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