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Before I start, I am donning my asbestos underwear: I put 10 years in service and many of my friends have real service-related and combat disabilities. Many of them are still fighting just to receive their benefits (especially in regard to GWS). If someone wants to fight for these guys, then I am all for it. However, this does not excuse the goldbricking, money-grubbing, disability-point-averaging scumbags who besmirch the name of veterans everywhere by their fraud.

These bastards are the same ROADies we all met before we got out. You remember them: The guys who regaled young troops about their “combat” experience, but got very quiet when a real veteran came in. The guys who would get mad if asked questions about their exact duty stations and units during hostilities. The guys who could went to the same sick call as you, but always came out with a pass while you got two Tylenol. The guys who always had a waiver when it came to heavy labor. The guys who told you how to pad your medical records with false claims so you could “get what’s due to you” before you leave. The guy who now tells people how he received a Purple Heart, but the closest he ever got to a combat injury was a magic bullet in Pusan for an unreported STD.

These are the guys who are clamoring for double-dipping. They want standards lowered so everyone is eligible for benefits. They want universal health care. They want equalization of pay. They want to be guaranteed a living. They feel that Uncle Sam should pay for everything for the rest of their days. Now, I am all for taking care of our vets, but I do not support even disabled veterans getting paid twice for their service—as valiant or as unremarkable as it may have been. And for God’s sake, if it does happen, make sure it isn’t universal. It needs to be for documented combat injury or catastrophic problems directly related to a persons’ service.

You, Sir, are an unmitigated moron! An old saying says "never attribute to another manners or morals meaner than thy own." I suspect that somewhere there is a disputed VA claim in your past.

Many Nam vets have hidden their problems for many years as, I suspect, have many "Gulf War Heroes."

This is a plain and simple case of one "class" of federal workers being discriminated against as opposed to
another "class."

A postal worker who gets a hernia picking up a mail bag and gets a disability collects not only his/her retirement but an additional disability payment. This is for all federal workers to the exclusion of only career military.

A grunt who collects a crotch full of frag and goes on to reach twenty or more years of honorable service gets their retirement pay reduced by the amount of the grudgingly granted diasbility from the VA.

You disgust me by your aspersions on honorable vets.

MOst of what you rant about is irrelevent...it is, after all, the federal government itself who rates the disabled as service connected or not...case closed on that.

Effects of Agent Orange, PTSD and a host of other service connected maladies frequently appear long after retirement time. They are service connected.

Fact: every federal employee can (and do) retire from the civil service rolls and collect VA service conected disability concurrently...retired military do not.

Fact: the ill founded notion of free medical care is that...an illusion. closed facilities and downsizing, contracting and farming out of care makes health care an empty bullet and a lost "benefit". Ditto VA care (not service connected...not covered, and how many VA health care facilties are there where a lot of retirees live?)

Fact: DOD has the retirement funds in place. What occurs in VA disability for retired military is simple. For every dollar received in disability, a dlooar is taken from retired pay...it's a wash...a zero payment. BUT...what does DOD do with that money? "Discretionary spending"...authorized by the fed and indorsed by a RAND study...and guess who was VP of RAND when the recommendation was made? DR. CHU HIMSELF!!! And now Chu saus it will come from active forces funds...nope!

Hey...the retired disabled vet didn't ask for the disability...it is service connected...conceded to bt the government (see first paragraph here!). And...bottom line? It's like two other issues: you arte either dead or you're not; pregnant or you're not...in this case, you are either service connected disabled or you're not...and if you are, you should be afforded the same compensation as any other federal employee...retired military disabled are not...and they are the ONLY ones so discriminated against.

Thanks, congress...for at least allowing ius a burial flag!