No PTSD for me. I was shot at while flying, but shot at badly and I can’t say if affected me emotionally at all.
PTSD IS a real thing, but it is also something people can learn about online and use to get 100% disability they did not deserve. My former SIL was like that. He read up on how to get a claim approved and how to act the part.
I couldn’t prove it or I would have turned him in. He admitted to me he researched how to do it but I wasn’t wearing a wire...
He’s dead now. Car accident. He WAS a bit weird, but he was every bit as weird BEFORE HE EVER DEPLOYED.
But yes, it is real for some. My Dad apparently suffered from some trauma he would not discuss. Didn’t stop him from being a devoted husband and father and being successful in life. But his life would have been better if he could have gotten help.
That is the trouble with “disability”. Some are genuine. But once it means a lifetime of free income, it WILL attract a lot of fraud. And with the Internet, frauds can research how they need to act and what they need to say.
How does one help the real victims without paying out tons on the grifters? I don’t know.
I admit there’s fraud. No doubt. I think the VA does a tremendous amount of screening in recent years to filter that out.
I knew a LTC who, for his three last years on active duty was on sick call or at appointments nearly every workday. He printed out all of his documentation after each appointment. By the time he retired, his medical file was a measured 13” tall, stacked. I think he had one short deployment early in Iraq. His main issue was arthritis, otherwise generally healthy. He pored through the VA disability manuals one by one and made claims for darn near everything in the book short of traumatic amputations. 100%.
On the other hand, I worked with a dozen or so Soldiers, especially NCOs, who had limbs blown off in combat, burns, missing eyes, missing ears, who declined medical discharge and continued to serve in non-deployment roles in the rear. There was a special Army program Around ‘08 to allow wounded troops to continue to serve. Don’t know if that’s still around or if other services had same? High honor for those Patriots!