OneMansCourage

It angered me greatly to learn that Pop had been receiving only
50% disability pay for his service-connected injuries since 1947,
and although he attempted to increase his disability many times
over the fifty-years since his honorable discharge, he was
continuously denied.

With Pop's permission, I began my second mission; getting Pop
what he was rightly entitled to as an ex-Prisoner of War.

The first thing we did was request a copy of Pop's entire C-File
(Claims File) from the VA Regional Office in New Jersey and also
sent to St. Louis, Missouri for additional records that could
support Pop's claim.

I learned through my research at the National Archives and
Records Administration (www.nara.gov) that on July 12, 1973, a
devastating fire at The National Personnel Records Center in St.
Louis, Missouri destroyed between sixteen and eighteen million
Official Military Personnel Files. There were no duplicate
copies, microfilm copies or indexes created of the destroyed
records prior to the fire.

The website states eighty percent of Army records were destroyed
for military personnel discharged between November 1, 1912 and
January 1, 1960. Seventy-five percent of Air Force records were
destroyed for military personnel discharged between September 25,
1947 and January 1, 1964.

Once I finished reviewing Pop's C-File, I was thoroughly
disgusted. What I believed to be inconsistencies throughout his
entire C-File, in the end, empowered me to fight harder than I've
ever done before.

I found it interesting that on November 28, 1945, two days before
Pop's discharge, Major Maurice Stamler completed VA Form 38,
which is a Report of Physical Examination of Enlisted Personnel
Prior to Discharge form.

At the time of Pop's discharge, he was awarded 0%
service-connected disability compensation for his war-related
injuries. I believe the answers that Major Stamler gave to the
following questions said it all, but apparently not.

I'm not sure why Pop was only receiving disability compensation
pay at a 50% rating, when he was awarded 30% disability for his
left eye injury and 30% for his liver condition. Perhaps they
didn't have a 60% rating for disability compensation back in
1947.

On August 25, 1947, Pop filed a Request for Administrative and
Adjudicative Action (VA Form 10-2731) for additional
service-connected disability compensation related to dysentery
while a Prisoner of War, and that claim was denied.

May 1950, Pop again requested additional disability compensation
and his claim stated, "Vet claims he is unable to get a job
anywhere where a physical is given. Vet is currently employed at
the North American Export for three months and earning $1.20 an
hour."

On May 25, 1950, Pop's claim was again denied by the Ratings
Board Specialist, stating, "This will serve to inform you that
your compensation claim has been considered upon the basis of
your examination of May 12, 1950, and it has been determined that
there is no change in the degree of your service connected
disabilities."

January 27, 1977, Pop applied for additional compensation through
the VFW and that claim stated, "The veteran feels that his
disabilities have now worsened to an extent where a higher
evaluation is warranted."

Attached to that claim was a doctor's note diagnosing Pop with
heart disease. In February 1977, Pop's claim was once again
denied.

I learned that Prisoners of War have priority status when it
comes to benefit claims, and on August 20, 1999, Pop and I
re-opened his claim for additional disability and compensation,
asking that he be re-rated for his service-connected disabilities
that fall under Public Law 97-37, Former Prisoners of War Benefit
Act (August 14, 1981).

On the VA Official website (www.va.gov) they described
this law as follows:

In 1981, Congress passed Public Law 97-37 titled,
Former Prisoners of War Benefit Act. This law
accomplished several things. It established an
Advisory Committee on Former Prisoners of War and
mandated medical and dental care. It also
identified certain diagnoses as presumptive
service-connected conditions for former POWs.

Other public laws passed since then, and a policy
decision by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in
1993 has added additional diagnoses to the list of
presumptive conditions. Today, former POWs who were
interned or detained for at least thirty days are
generally entitled to a presumption of
service-connection for certain diseases if
manifested to a degree of ten percent or more after
discharge or release from active military, naval,
or air service.

In the 1981 decision, the following seven diseases
were considered presumptive conditions:

Psychosis

Dysthymic Disorder (depressive neurosis)

Post-Traumatic Osteoarthritis

Any of the anxiety states

Cold Injury (trench foot/frost bite)

Stroke and Complications

Heart Disease and Complications

Added to the presumptive conditions in 1993 are the
following diseases:

Avitaminosis

Chronic Dysentery

Helminthiasis

Malnutrition, including associated Optic Atrophy

Peptic Ulcer Disease

Beriberi, including Beriberi Heart Disease

Cirrhosis of the Liver

Irritable Bowel Syndrome

Pellagra and any other nutritional deficiency

Peripheral Neuropathy except where directly
related to infectious causes

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

PTSD is an emotional response to violent situations, and its
symptoms surface after a person has experienced a dangerous,
frightening, and uncontrollable traumatic event.

PTSD can be debilitating for soldiers, or anyone who has been
exposed to a traumatic event or events in their life, and it's so
important to get mental health counseling. It doesn't mean you're
crazy. You're a good person with a bad problem.

As a means of survival, soldiers tend to shut down their emotions
as they bear witness to the horrific atrocities suffered by their
friends and foes annihilated by bullets, bombs, and booby traps.
The smells of burnt flesh and decaying bodies are permeated in
their senses.

Survivor's guilt is one of many symptoms of PTSD. Others, not all,
include anxiety, substance abuse, exaggerated startle response,
and re-living the experiences through intrusive thoughts,
nightmares, and flashbacks.

The guilt veterans experience is from believing they, the veteran,
could have done something differently that perhaps would have
changed the outcome of a deadly situation, when in reality they
couldn't have changed a thing.

Anxiety is an internal alarm that alerts us to danger. In combat,
a veteran can experience trembling, shortness of breath, a
pounding heart, and muscle tension because their anxiety levels
are on overdrive. Certain events such as a specific date or place,
a time of day, a noise, a smell, or a situation can trigger
anxiety in combat veterans.

Many veterans return home and turn to alcohol and drugs as a means
of coping with the horrors of war, hoping to numb their emotional
pain by self-medicating.

Exaggerated startle response includes feeling jumpy, jittery,
shaky, being easily startled or, as Pop described, feeling nervous
all the time. Pop was also over-sensitive to loud, unexpected
noises, stating, "I think it's gunfire for a second and find
myself ducking."

Intrusive thoughts are uncontrolled thoughts, images, or
unpleasant ideas that can be quite upsetting or distressing to an
individual because they, in a sense, are re-experiencing the
trauma all over again.

Nightmares, or night terrors, are usually quite vivid at the time
a veteran has them. One veteran described his nightmares as
watching a movie in color. The blood and guts are real and so are
the people chasing them during these episodes, which would account
for their night sweats and rapid heartbeat.

In addition, some veterans will thrash, scream, or jump out of bed
disoriented during these episodes. Pop also suffered with
nightmares, including thrashing about and screaming in his sleep.
When he woke, he told me his heart pounded out of his chest, and
he would be drenched in sweat.

Many veterans experience flashbacks, which are past trauma
memories triggered by a certain smell, sound, or even a TV show or
movie. Flashbacks are scary and can be emotionally draining,
taking the veteran back into the horrors of war, but only in their
minds.

A great example of this was how Pop reacted to thunderstorms. The
loud boom would send his anxiety levels soaring, and his psyche
wouldn't allow the reality of the thunder to override the trauma
of war, even sixty years after the fact.

I did my best to delicately 'interview' Pop and get as much
information as I could for his claim, knowing some questions I had
for him would be difficult.

There were times when Pop struggled to contain his emotions while
revisiting his combat and prisoner of war experiences, especially
when he spoke of those he knew who were maimed or killed. A good
example of this was the day the Nazis blew up Pop's tank.

There were times Pop was evasive and vague about his experiences,
even becoming irritable when I asked for more details. I had to
respect Pop's boundaries and take this process at his pace, not
mine. I knew when I needed to stop questioning him and redirect
our conversation to happier times.

On September 1, 2000, approximately one year after filing the
initial claim for increased benefits, Pop received a decision, and
this is what the VA determined. "We found the following disability
is service-connected. Here is the condition and the percentage of
disability. We found your post traumatic stress disorder 10%
disabling."

That's not a typo on my part. Ten percent is all they awarded Pop
for his PTSD. To say I was livid would be an understatement at the
least. What happened to presumptive service-connected conditions
for all former prisoners of war, especially since Pop was
diagnosed with heart disease by the VA in 1977?

I took this decision personally and translated it to mean, "A
veteran who is tortured, beaten, and starved for months, sometimes
longer, does not warrant an increase in disability, prisoner of
war or not."

I believed the decision severely minimized the hell Pop endured
and was an absolute insult to all Prisoners of War and veterans
alike who've suffered, and continue to suffer from Post Traumatic
Stress Disorder.

They further stated in their decision they did not find the
following conditions to be service-connected:

The supervisor at the VA Regional Office in New Jersey stated to
me when I called, "Usually people with PTSD don't have friends."

Are you kidding me? That's what the VA based Pop's PTSD on? The
fact that he had friends? I was speechless, and it clearly
indicated the Rating Board Specialist assigned to Pop's case was
clueless about PTSD and the debilitating effects it has on an
individual.

Yes, it's true that veterans might isolate themselves from
others, including family, but to base their decision on the fact
that Pop stated he had friends was ridiculous. Of course, he had
friends. Who doesn't? Pop considered everyone his friend.

I decided it was time to get my sister-in-law Jenny involved for
a couple of reasons. First, she lives in New Jersey, I live in
Florida, and I needed her to assist me with New Jersey phone
calls and paperwork to make our next course of action go quicker.
Second, Jenny is a fighter, especially when it came to Pop, and I
needed her help with writing some letters.

In July of 2000, we wrote letters to Senator John McCain, who
called Jenny personally and was supportive of Pop's claim and the
injustice handed down in the decision.

We also wrote Senator Bob Franks, Christine Todd Whitman, who was
the Governor of New Jersey at the time, Major General Paul J.
Glazer, who was the Adjutant General of the Department of the
Military and Veterans' Affairs, Vice President Gore, and
President Clinton.

On November 16, 2000, a second rating decision was made by the
Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in New Jersey.
This is what they decided:

Can you say 'generic letter,' boys and girls? If I didn't know
better, I would swear there is a conveyor belt in the basement of
all the VA Regional Offices that moves a veteran's file along
until the file reaches a fork in the conveyor belt and the
veteran's file is stamped with denied or additional evidence
needed.

Realistically speaking, I believe the people who make these
decisions are overworked and underpaid with deadlines to meet. I
know in Pop's case, the Regional Office had the same evidence I
did, because they're the people who sent Pop a copy of his
C-file, the same file they use to make their decisions.

My decision was easy. I returned a Statement in Support of Claim
form 21-4138 and went as far as making copies of the VA's own
paperwork as proof. I even highlighted the areas in bright yellow
to make it easier on them to reference.

The outcome of Pop's settlement is in the final chapter of the
book.

Several organizations can provide information about PTSD. The
following are just a few: