The main Character in “Born on the 4th of July,” Ron
Kovich is a person I can relate to. I did not see the kind of combat he did or
sustain the injuries that he has, but we are both Veterans of war that were
injured while serving our country and like Ron Kovich, I am dealing with the Veteran
Affairs(VA). The VA has come a long way since Kovich’s era, but they still
suck.
In July of 2009, I fell off an obstacle at the Air Assault
course and hurt my shoulder. I was taken to medical, they gave me Ibuprofen and
light duty for a week and said, “I banged it pretty good.” It was medically
documented that I had sustained this injury. In February 2012, I reinjured my
shoulder while training. I was due to get out of the Army in less than a month so
medical didn’t thoroughly document the event. On June 1, 2012 I went to the VA and
told them about my shoulder they ran test and MRI’s and on February 20, 2013 I
finally got the surgery I had needed from 2009.
Very long story short, on May 31, 2012 I filed an injury claim
with the VA stating 30 service-connected injuries. On February 20, 2013 I had this
surgery and now I am 100% temporarily disabled, unable to work. To compensate
for me not being able to work, the VA is suppose to give me disability
compensation. I went to the Veteran Affairs Benefits office to find out why my
claim was taking almost a year and was told they are backed up two years, and I am
going to have to wait. I informed them that I have no means of income, due to
the surgery they performed, and they told me they were “working on it.”
So I go to the Maryland state VA office to talk to someone,
I walk in at 3:00pm and sit down. A half-hour goes by and no one acknowledges my
presence. So I pull out my camera and start recording what they are all doing,
which is not working on claims. The large man is the Director of Veteran
Affairs for the state of Maryland. He saw me and didn’t even say, ”someone will
be with you shortly.”
I figured out why Veterans are not recieving their benefits: too many
people are not doing their job.
video by Jesse Youngs
As of the writing of this blog, there is still no word on the status of my claim.
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