Same thing here. I was told that after 25 years on the flight line, I was almost certain to get disability for hearing. I said, “Huh?” and left.
I have mild hearing loss, but I expected that with so much exposure to jet engines. The truth is, if they would let me fly again, I’d walk across broken glass to get there! How could I collect disability for that?
But the VA is pushing benefits, and their doctors aren’t all that honest, IMHO. If you are an administrator, and you want a bigger program, you need more people to need you...
You chose the warrior life because it is in your blood.
The long term trend I see for the military is that labor costs will eventually overwhelm us, and that the focus will become more female oriented and about quality of life issues, social issues etc.
A volunteer military naturally starts focusing on pay and benefits in time, and everyone starts seeing it as a career more along the lines of other government jobs.
We will get farther and farther away from the days when we could attract a semi-pro level athlete with an IQ of 140 and executive skills, and the courage of a hero for the Green Berets for $10,000.00 a year, as the females and homosexuals fill the officer corp and become Generals the budget focus will move more and more to the human element and their families, and their financial compensation in relation to the rest of the federal employees.
I don’t know if the military would ever unionize, but it will take on some of that type of lobbying unity.
We are at war now, but many of us know what happens and who gets all the power during long stretches of peace time. When the military and officer corp is 50% females, and we have all the liberalism of a teachers union spread among our ranks and officers, the military will lose it’s traditional atmosphere and warrior culture, and spirit of masculine sacrifice and emphasis on adventure over pay and personal well being and health.