Posted on 12/24/2015 9:54:03 AM PST by Olog-hai
No medical or mental health care. No subsidized college or work training. For many who leave the U.S. military with less-than-honorable discharges, including thousands who suffered injuries and anguish in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere, standard veterans benefits are off limits.
The discharge serves as a scarlet letter of dishonor, and the effects can be severe: Ex-military members with mental health problems or post-traumatic stress disorder can't turn to Veterans Affairs hospitals or clinics; those who want to go to college aren't eligible for the GI Bill; the jobless get no assistance for career training; the homeless are excluded from vouchers. ...
(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...
Unless your name is John F. Kerry.
Manning is getting quite a medical package.
I’m surprised we’re not hearing something about the racial statistics of the population of those who receive “less-than-honorable” discharges.
God only knows how I did it but I got an honorable discharge many years ago.Looking at this story,I,who was never ordered anywhere near combat,am asking myself if head injuries (which,IIRC,were very common in the Gulf wars),other types of physical injuries and/or PTSD might be the cause of whatever misconduct might have resulted in a less-than-honorable.
So Eddie Solvik won’t be getting a flag for his coffin?
You said... "package."
Under no other President would he get that type of treatment while in military prison.
This is news? Less than honorables have always been this way.
The issue is always the revolution, so now the AP is attempting to stir up discontent among these less-than-honorables.
I am thinking the same thing. Treat a man like a dog with despicable ROE, lousy leadership, etc, used in both the Bush2 and Obama (ramped up) administrations, and you have a recipe for disaster. Sickening. Would love to see the demographics on those with less than honorable discharges (race, sex, age, legal status).
Soldiers with less than honorable discharges earned their scarlet letter and most had several opportunities to turn their lives around. They chose not to.
Benefits are not some welfare program in reward for voting Democrat, it’s deferred compensation for doing their job.
I served for 8 years, two of them in combat in the Infantry in Viet Nam. I didn’t have a problem getting a Honorable discharge, all you have to do is soldier up. It’s not hard.
And convicted felons can’t vote either.
IMO there's no guarantee that these stats would be important.The Armed Forces have always have *some* bad apples.Don't know if you know this but it wasn't *that* long ago when a lot of guys landed in the military because some municipal judge told them they had the choice of doing 60 days for their minor offense or joining the military.Many such guys chose the recruiting office.
Serving in combat,I'm told,changes a guy...not always for the better.Being *wounded* in combat can be,I suspect,worse.Sustaining a serious head injury might be worse still.And it wouldn't,I suspect,depend on things like race.
But I certainly could be wrong.
I think you have just about hit the nail on the head here. There is a racial disparity in the number of OTH discharges and Obama is laying the groundwork to demand racial parity in OTH discharges. Also, he will make it much easier to upgrade from OTH to honorable, making OTH a less undesirable way to get out of the service.
Millions managed to do it, a few dirtbags couldn’t.
Not likely...I think he got a smoke though..
IIRC, during the Vietnam era, the only difference in benefits between honorable and general was that a service member with a general did not get a flag for his coffin, when he died after separation, which would usually be decades later.
For a dishonorable, I believe the only benefit was transportation to one’s home of record.
For bad conduct there were fewer benefits, but better than a dishonorable.
I am surprised, I would think that service related injuries are covered by the VA regardless of the nature of one’s discharge.
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