all very simple and believable

[SEATJERKER]

...of sleep depravation, there's always coffee to look forward to in the morning...
...Sis, you seem to come up with the right lyrics at the right time...

...there's a tree, and a slight breeze with my name on it calling softly, I must heed the call.......................

[DMZ-LT]

I thank the higher power daily for my life and I thank all of you. We are the very lucky ones, for what ever reason we are still here. Met a carpenter friend yesterday - after 30 years of being a carpenter he cut off half his index finger on a band saw last week - don't mean nothing - he is still my friend - just got a little harder to pick his nose ! We are all different and all the same, God bless us one and all.

[exlrrp]

Well, I just shuffled slowly, sadly , bleakly to my mailbox yestiddy and there was the official news
"James,( I always take stuff personal) we're giving you 73% which means 70% We're also paying you I Thousand $$$ per month for the 70% for the rest of yr lifeand backpaying you back to March 2001.And yr welcome to apply for 100%, just fill out the form
The Check Is In The Mail"

(the old lrrp shuffles forlornly to the cracked dirty window of the shabby room and gazes bleakly at the dreary landscape)

Well, I meant to celebrate but some of the people pointed out how that might be belittling the other PTSD people so I slowly, forlornly hobbled my walker on back to my bleak room and got depressed about it all, later beat up my girlfriend..

Hold it !!! Hold It !!!!! Breakbreakbreak!! Hold it right there!!
Lets be rigorously honest here:
Visualise the ol lrpster leaping and caracoling around, doing the Deion Sanders Goal Line Boogalooo, shaking the "We're #1" fingers and singing a medley of "We're In The Money" "Happy Days Are Here Again" and " Don't Worry Be Happy "

I'M GOING TO DISNEYLAND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
IN FRANCE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
AND JAPAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And I'm going back to Vietnam ( also Europe)

THATS TWENTY THOUSAND SAMOLEYANS!!!!!!!!!!!! ALL MARCHING MY WAY!! AND MORE TO COME!!!!! LOTS MORE!!!!
Gummint money!!!! In the MAIL!!! to ME!!!!!!!!!!!!!
For VIETNAM!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(Capers around with glee)
AHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHHA
AHAHAHAHAHAHHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHA
(Rolls on the floor, laughing his ass off)
Only the grunts will know how this feels

You are all dead right I'm a base, greedy fcker, sure enough, only in it for the money. I'm the only one this bad here, of course, just like my real family.

James

[exlrrp]

Originally posted by masher51
I don't want to butt in here,But, the subject holds great interest
for me.I has thought about filing a PTSD claim after the VA man
told me I was moderate on the ptsd list.I never have yet because
I don't want to hassel with proving this or proving that.He*% my
records are not even right.My CIB got left off of my DD214 and
that has pis#%@ me off for the last 30+ years !
I still have a bad taste toward the govt for the crap they
pulled on us.
Don't even know what I mean sometimes.
In the Bunker again
masher

We;l , you sound a lot like me.
I had all these considerations too, esp the one about the CIB. They didn't tell me untill I was ETSing that there was no orders for the CIB so I couldn't wear it. Notice they didn't offer to cut the orders right away. I left the Army with a bad taste in my mouth for that and other reasons and I bout told em to stuff the fcking thing. Now I woulda for sure.
That ate on my craw for a long, looooong time. There was other stuff but that was the worst. A young boy, 17, wants to get some respect, volunteers for infantry,volunteers for Jump School, volunteers for Vietnam, volunteers for the lrps after 5 months on the line, spends 6 months skulking down the HCM Trail. Now why do people do this? for the medals and recognition, paratroopers anyway. You think theyd have squeezed out one soryassArcom for merit but you'd be wrong sure enough. And the sorry ass incompetents couldn't even have squeezed out a sorry ass CIB--I thought it was a gimme for grunts. This was just a bureaucratic fckup, of course, it was always someone elses job to do this. If Ida known then that I was supposed to make sure I got all the medals I was sposed to, like the Hack, Id have paid a lot more attention to it, but, unfortunately, there was a war on and my attention was often elsewhere. They never taught selfdecoration in any of the schools I went to.
I felt mighty, mighty screwed the day I left the ARmy, felt mighty fcked over and I mean BIGTIME. Not only had the Army sucked me dry but they'd left me with a fcking REMFs DD214 as they kicked me out the door--Sayonara, GI, thanks for nothing. I said it before and I'll say it again--No protestor ever treated me as shtty as the Army.
But I knew then at the bottom of my soul that there would never be a payback, this was one they would always have pulled over on me. And I asked for it
I cursed and muttered over this situation for a long loooong time. Like you, I just considerded it beneath me to fck with this. I considered way beneath my dignity to ever "prove" i was brave.
I was not a hero but I was lucky enough to see some in action. I figured if they denied me the CIB for lack of evidence, I would be sure to start pulling the furniture apart and pitching people out the window so thy could se what a real lrrp acts like when he's semi pissed off. But I didn't have to prove I was brave, I only had to prove I was there, which was a breeze. This is the one time I saw the Army records worked FOR me.
This started for me 4 years ago when I first made contact with my old lrrp company which has a website. The sec of he orgainzation wa the company clerk when I was there and we knew each other (he was best friends with a buddy of mine)
Well, he wrote up a formal request for the CIB and mailed it to me to sign. I set that envelope up on my mantle (actually the shelf over the teevee) and there it set for over a year. all I had to do was sign it. I could NOT do it--everytime I looked at it I'd start shaking. Finally I got so weird about it I knew I had to seek counseling, which I did, returning to counseling at the VA after 18 moths hiatus. My counselor told me to sign it and put it in the mail.
My biggest fear was that theyd reject it and I'd go bonkers and sure enough, the military did not disappoint me again--they rejected it, saying there was not any evidence that I deserved it. Well, that REALLY pissed me off and I got 4 statements from people I'd served with, including my lrrp platoon commander, describing actions where I might have been in danger, such as the time they dropped my team (5 men) on a platoon of NVA (its in the archives here)
So I went to my Congress man (Geo Miller, D-CA) and his staff got it for me. I'll bet I'm the only Vietnam vet who got his CIB awarded by a Congressman IN THE 21ST CENTURY.
Everything I do is a story, usually about taking care of business.
Concurrently with this, about 2.5 years ago, I started on vets.com and met someof the characters that are here now. This is where I learned to respect people getting the PTSD disablity, I'd had a bad impression of them before
Example: In the early 90s I was in a PTSD group with 6 other guys. Only one of them was a grunt ( a Marine) The Marine and I were the only ones then who had not filed for PTSD. We were the only ones with jobs and clean clothes also.
I had my doubts But I made a post: "should I file a claim?" and everybody was extremely positive. NOBODY said"No, James, you don't deserve it" (course it aint wise to piss off lrrps)
So I did--because I wanted the money.
And its BIG money too, we're not talking nickel and dime.
ALL the smart people and people with experience said I had it bigtime--finaly I saw that it was breat benefit to me to accept this. Once I was convinced I wanted ALL the money, just a little would NOT do.
I started out saying I wasn't going to lie to do this--that the honest truth would do and it has--THAT was the most amazing part. I told myself I would not debase myself by lying to get this and I have not. I just got a REALLY great case together, pictures, mucho testimony and finally the Army records. (The Congressman helped me get THAT too.) There was plenty of evidence there to warrant the CIB--I only had to BE there with the right MOS-- which meant the Army Col who said there wasn't was a GODDAM LYING ASSHOLE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I thought a long time about hunting her down and telling her that but it wasn't worth the trouble
I think I have the worlds best case--all the aspects are covered and I'll hire a lawyer and take it to the Suprmem Court if necessary, which it will not be.

So go down there and file a claim, Masher, thats what they told me and thats whats working out now, 2 years later. Just go down and tell the truth and see what it gets you.
Do it for the money

James

[Keith_Hixson]

What is really sad about the problems you guys face is:
It was the Army or the Veterans Administration, but somewhere along the line some little E-3, E-4 paper pusher was overworked or at least he thought he was over worked and decided to pick and choose what jobs that were thrown at him to complete. Little things to him, like the CIB were probably left out because he just didn't have the time (or was too lazy) to finishing tying the orders. So one paper mistake leads to another until such time it is a great big mess. It is the little guy who doesn't care one bit down the line that causes the problems. Yet, that doesn't solve any problems for you.
I was in the headquarters company and I know what went on in those companies. I started keeping a file on every order that came down and any award designation I received I kept my little personal file. You guys out in the field didn't have the privilege of having that opportunity. But, sometimes it wasn't the Army itself but some little PFC or SP4 that started the negative ball rolling.

I don't blame you guys for being frustrated and angry.

Keith

[Andy]

I arrived in the states from Vietnam on 9/9/69 and really wanted to be discharged on that date. A pimple faced E-3 was typing my DD-214. Half way through the first two tries I noticed he spelled my name wrong. That?s easy to do but he wasn?t reading it from anything, I was spelling it for him, knowing he might have a problem.
As he was finishing his third try a Lt said the Captain would sign all DD-214?s submitting to him for the next 10 minutes. The rest of the people could bunk there for the night and get discharged the next day. I grabbed that third try and ran to the Captain, who signed it and I was gone.
As we all know a DD-214 is one sheet of paper with printing on only one side. Yet there are 11 (ELEVEN) errors on mine. It?s always seemed funny to me, I was discharged as a member of the 52nd Inf. Div. The 52nd Division was disbanded two years before I was born. The ?document?, among other things says I was in Vietnam for 2 years, 10 months and 12 days. That?s quite a trick when you think about the fact I was only in the service for 2 years 9 months and 5 days. Well, at least I wasn?t discharged from the horse cavalry.
A DD-214 has some basis in reality - but little more.

Stay healthy,
Andy

[SEATJERKER]

...you said a mouthful this time, and putting in the tidbits makes it all sound fully rightious...

...just a 17-18-19 year old kid that wanted some respect for what he has done, not to be fcked over by the very same ones that should been there to protect him in the first place...

...another year goes by, and still in limbo...

[exlrrp]

What a long strange trip its been.
I really reccommend anyone who thinks he deserves a medal to go for it. Get a case together and do it. I found this to be GREATLY cathartic to me,went home and cried after I got the medal, this is no sht. It was a terrific feeling, a real slamdunk after all these years. Sometimes things work out better anyway--this way my son saw me get it.
Sometimes life gives us the opportunity to go back and make things right and I ALWAYS like the results when I can do it. Sht (aka miracles) happen when you run off the chopper and into the brush. 2 of the miracles I was fortunate to see in this process were :
1)getting the CIB--Yes, this was finally made right, a miracle in itself. I thought for a long time I wouldn' live to see it but I did.
it only happened because I got mad and pursued it.
2) I got to tell the girlfriend of someone I saw shot dead while helping a comrade that her boyfriends sacrifice was the bravest thing I ever saw--this was the only notification the family got of their mans heroism. This was truly miraculous. Some of the people here know this story but for those who don't:
I posted my 101st platoon pic on this website because Packo had a friend that used the word Abu--the nickname for that company. Sure enough, Packo sees his best friend in the picture who was a friend of mine during almost all the time I was there. He puts me in touch with Dan and we hook up again.
I had put on The Virtual Wall that I had seen a certain person shot dead helping a friend and that the family could contact me if they wanted the specifics. The guys sisterinlaw contacted me first and it turned out that the only photo Dan had of the war had this person in it (they were both from the same state)\
So I was able to link her up with that and later the old girlfrind contacted me. I told her that her boyfriends sacrifice was the greatest sacrifice I ever saw, the bravest thing I ever saw. I makes me a proud to be a paratrooper when I think of it
The circle goes around in full.
I think that was miraculous and if you don't youre just not the kind of person who can see a miracle.
But what I came to understand that pissed me off all over was that they only gave this guy a PH.
Hackworth got more medals for bravery and air medals during the 6 months he commanded that battalion than my company got the 5.5 months I was there, to my certain knowledge. What does that tell you about getting medals in the 101st?
And a final note: Ive been on AT LEAST 100 job interviews in my life--I have NEVER been asked to see my discharge, it may be illegal to ask for all I know--no ones ever seen it but me and the VA

James
Happy just to be alive!!!