Why does this piss me off?

[Stick]

I was at the wife?s store yesterday when a handicap van pulls up dropping off a load of people in wheel chairs to go to the movie theater beside the store. One of the guys was wearing a U.S. Navy baseball cap and I went out to talk with him. The man had been in the wheel chair for thirty-seven years, paralyzed on the right side and was handicapped while in the Navy and based in Hawaii. He was riding his motorcycle and in a terrible accident which left him in that condition.
What gets me is that for the last thirty-seven years it has been the VA system that has taken care of him. They have paid for his care. Provided his housing. Provided his food and cooked it for him. Provided his electric wheel chairs and provided his tax-free income. He is "Service Connected." and that ticks me off enough that at 4:00 this morning I wake up pissed off. Don't know why, but it does.
Come on now; Hawaii, screwing around on a motorcycle, thirty-seven years ago, if he had a motorcycle in Hawaii he was based there. VA full service connected disability with loss of use payments and fully tax-free.
Maybe I was just shot at too many times.

[Arrow]

I don't think it is so much the guys in the wheelchairs that were awarded compensation thirty-seven years agothat we have to worry about.

Look a little higher up on the food chain..to the bean counters that skim off the top what should be awarded to the service connected of this present day.

To error on the side of compassion isto be on the side of the Angels.....

To defraud outrightour warriors and their familiesis unconscionable....

Just my thoughts brother....Sis

[FlyBoy]

Originally posted by Stick I was at the wife?s store yesterday when a handicap van pulls up dropping off a load of people in wheel chairs to go to the movie theater beside the store. One of the guys was wearing a U.S. Navy baseball cap and I went out to talk with him. The man had been in the wheel chair for thirty-seven years, paralyzed on the right side and was handicapped while in the Navy and based in Hawaii. He was riding his motorcycle and in a terrible accident which left him in that condition.
What gets me is that for the last thirty-seven years it has been the VA system that has taken care of him. They have paid for his care. Provided his housing. Provided his food and cooked it for him. Provided his electric wheel chairs and provided his tax-free income. He is "Service Connected." and that ticks me off enough that at 4:00 this morning I wake up pissed off. Don't know why, but it does.
Come on now; Hawaii, screwing around on a motorcycle, thirty-seven years ago, if he had a motorcycle in Hawaii he was based there. VA full service connected disability with loss of use payments and fully tax-free.
Maybe I was just shot at too many times.

It should piss you off Stick. I have been fighting 11 years for a service connected injury. Finally got a 10% ruling last year and it was dated back to 2000, when I paid to have the surgery to repair it. The disability started 12-92. Get this, they are paying me and then taking back my separation pay???????????? Sorry, but the Army broke the contract and that was my money to shut up and go away. Now they want it back. I appealed and they sent paperwork to start all over as if they have lost all my records.

It's friggin insane....................and Congress is no help at all.

JUST PISSED

[Jerry D]

Every election year I hear our Senators and Congressmen saying that they will pass a bill to remove the clause that makes Retirees pay their own VA disabilty out of their retirement checks. and every year I hear the same old excuse it will cost too MUCH! But, we can pay ungrateful little countries Billions every year no problem, Hmmm now who do you think gets the Shaft ? I know the Vet always does .......

[locksly]

I am now in a wheelchair because of an injury I recieved in the engineroom of my ship the USS Simon Lake . I could walk for years after the navy operated on my knee. now the knee is worn out from 10 years in the navy reserve and boiler-room work at my Post Office job . The dam V A will not give me a knee replacement operation because I weigh over 185 . I was a football player when I went in the navy and weighted 245 then .According to their records I was to big to get a knee replacement then. They still have me at only 10 percent compensation and I have been tottaly disabled since 1998 the goverment should do away with the dam V A Hospitals and send us to civilian doctors then we could get some help.

[SparrowHawk62]

? ? ? In Memory of Lt. Roy Hubert Hodge

?? The Drowning accident of Lt. Hodge on the 30th of July 1982, from the deck of the Carrier USS Independence CV-62 has been relived in my mind thousands of times. ? It is one reason why I suffer from PTSD.
??This may not have been a case of Pilot error as so many of us were told. ?The EA6-B this crew was flying in parted an arresting gear wire. ? The Planes arresting?gear hook ?did not fully engage the wire. ?I've been told it was embedded in the cable about one quarter of the way. ?Actually cutting the cable itself, in a normal trap the hook captures the wire. ?(Picture your hand around an ice cream cone.) ?The plane was not at full power after the trap and may have come to a complete stop, when this small section of cable parted. ?The Bird slowly rolled off the angle deck and into the water. ? The flight crew ejected before the bird rolled off the deck and hit the sea. ? There ?was a panicked concern that only three chutes were seen, word was quickly received and put ?out that one of the back seats had been flown empty. ?Two of the aviators in fully deployed chutes drifted clear of the slowly sinking plane. ?They were watched from the point of their ejection until they were picked up by rescue helo's from the Independence.
??Lt. Hodge was not to be that fortunate. ?His chute did not appear to have fully opened and if it did it was to close to the sea to make a difference. ?Lt. Hodge landed on top of the now crippled and sinking plane his chute enveloping both himself and the slowly sinking aircraft.
??From both the Flight Deck and the Hanger Bay, helpless crew members watched in shocked horror. ?I remember throwing my P.F.D. along with many other crew members into the water. ?The water around the stricken aircraft was littered with any items that would float. ?Both the 5 and 3 MC's blasted orders that no one was to jump into the water. ?I don't recall the crash alarm being sounded, I'm told it was. ?I remember no noise other than the 5mc. ?The ship had commenced a slow turn returning to the site of the accident and went D.I.W.
??Myself and others watched as Lt. Hodge tried in vain to free himself from the chute that may have saved him otherwise.
??After what seemed like hours, the chute entangled with the Prowler slowly sunk and took with it LT. Roy Hubert Hodge III.


?? This year (July 2001) while talking to some coworkers, my conversation about this accident was over heard by a third party. ?This person angrily asked me where I heard this story. ?I told him in no uncertain terms that I didn't hear the story, I lived it! ??He recounted that he had been a bar tender and heard a story very much like the one I've told above. ?
??There's only one shipmate I've run into from the area I use to call home. ?I told this man that I had run into a shipmate about 1987-88, tall skinny, dirty blond haired guy. ?The third party said this was the guy. ?He was visibly shaken, seems for all these years he never knew if this story was true or not. ?I have confirmed it for him. ?He told me the next day he couldn't sleep now knowing that this was a true story, I told him he only lost one nights sleep, I've got him well beat!


??Please also remember that this is how I relive the story in my own mind. ?It does not match the official version I'm sure.
Others I've talked to recall the accident almost the same way.
One shipmate was watching the event directly below were I was standing on the flight deck, he was in the hanger bay. I never
met Lt. Hodge, I am sure like the rest of the Men of VAQ-131 he was great guy. ?I know I'll never forget this man, I only hope to see him while I'm on my final cruise.

[MORTARDUDE]

I hope you have filed a claim with the VA about this.

Larry

[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by MORTARDUDE I hope you have filed a claim with the VA about this.
Larry

After years of this and other "accidents" I saw on the Indy. Lt. Hodge dying, a shipmate ingested by an S-3, a shipmate who walked through the prop arc of an E-2 (he lived but it still freaked me out), a H-46 crash on deck, shipmates getting hurt, blown down on deck..... Far to many car accidents that I arrived to as help. A young woman's life that slipped out of my hands when my attempt at CPR failed. My wonderful years spent in law enforcement, working inside a jail. The hangings, the shakings, the fights, inmates dying from AIDS...
All these things I have kept inside have cause me to explode from time to time. I have finally been fired from my job because of my temper and foul mouth.
Yeah, loosing my job has finally been the motivation to file with the VA. Maybe I stand a chance of getting some compensation, who knows?

Yeah, I'm a bit of a mess. I have sought help and when I get some kind of bennies back, I'll be continueing to get help.

[SEATJERKER]

...check your pm's,...

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[SparrowHawk62]

Originally posted by SEATJERKER ...check your pm's,...

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Roger that, wilco!