Soldier Sacrifices For Country, Faces Problems With VA, Military
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Veterans issues
Army veteran Josh Dillard is being called to Iraq, despite being declared medically unfit for duty by the VA.
photo by Jason Parker
Josh Dillard has been deemed unfit for military duty by the VA, but is being called to Iraq by the Army.
Published: November 11, 2008
One local veteran isn’t feeling very appreciated on this Veterans’ Day. Josh Dillard of Seneca is in the Army Reserves and served for 16 months in Afghanistan. He dislocated his shoulder and had his hand crushed while there. “It was pretty rough,“ he says. “I was in five ambushes where one of my friends got shot in the neck and is paralyzed.“
Once he was released from active duty, he came home and everything seemed fine. But then he went into what he calls a downward spiral, having nightmares and suicidal thoughts. His fiancée urged him to get help. A Veterans Administration psychiatrist diagnosed Dillard with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and Anxiety Disorder, and ruled that Dillard is not fit for military duty.
Now, he’s received orders calling him back to active duty, this time to be sent to Iraq. “I’ve read the Army regulations, and there’s Army regulations in there that say specifically if you’ve been diagnosed with mental disorders then you’re unfit for duty,“ he says. When he contacted the Army, he was told to send his paperwork from the Veterans Administration and he would receive a medical discharge from any remaining service obligation. He sent in that paperwork but has not heard anything from the Army.
We took the problem to U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham, who was in Columbia for the Veterans’ Day parade. He said his office would help Dillard.
“Clearly, if he’s got a medical condition that’s inconsistent with service, he will not have to serve another tour,“ Sen. Graham says. “He will be medically discharged. He will get a paycheck from the Department of Defense. Then he will be enrolled in the Veterans Administration for follow-on PTSD treatment. What happens is when you’re medically disqualified from service, you’re not left out in the cold. The Veterans Administration takes up your case and treatment. That’s what we’ll do for this gentleman.“
He also said the VA system is overwhelmed right now because of all of the injured soldiers coming home from Afghanistan and Iraq, and that can lead to cases falling through the cracks, like this one. He supports a bill pending in Congress to streamline the process, so a soldier given a disability rating by the military doesn’t have to get a separate one from the VA and vice versa.
Dillard says he’s relieved to hear that Sen. Graham will help. “That makes me feel very happy, to have someone on my side because, you know, it’s the government versus me,“ he says.
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Reader Reactions
I saw Senator Graham interviewed by WSPA concerning the Seneca soldier who suffers from PTSD, but is being recalled to go back to the war zone. This soldier is one of the few that have actually received the PTSD diagnosis as many do not even get diagnosis. I say this because as part of my class assignment for Crisis Intervention I did my paper on the military. I am completing my master degree in counseling and I am from a military family, wife of a DAV, and mother of two serving our country with a son-in-law who just retired from the navy. You may want to look at this report: Fairweather, A. (2006). Iraq Veteran Project: Risk and Protective Factors for Homelessness among OIF/OEF Veterans. San Francisco: Swords to Plowshares’. It was shocking. I can email you the report and you may find my paper interesting as I have other sources that are also shocking, such as “Despite the effort of the military to reduce the psychiatric causalities the price of war is 13.8 percent or 226,000 of troops returning have PTSD and 13.7 percent, or 225,000 of returning troops have major depression (Yeoman, 2008). “
Also To make matters worse “the Department of Defense is failing to follow up with treatment for troops, referring just one in five troops to treatment who report risk factors for PTSD” and they are “returning troops to combat who have been diagnosed with PTSD, this despite the fact that repeated exposure to trauma can worsen psychiatric symptoms” (Fairweather, 2006, p. 4). The Iraq Veteran Project reports that
the conditions of the Iraq war are a recipe for PTSD. They (military personnel) are
exposed to extremely hostile conditions, in constant 360-degree danger of drawing fire,
coming under mortar attack and falling prey to improvised explosive devices (IEDs). The
repeated exposure to trauma and the fact that just being in Iraq is itself a traumatic
stressor is resulting unprecedented numbers of veterans experiencing mental health
issues, from difficult transitions to full blown PTSD requiring crisis intervention. (2006, p. 3)
It is also reported in the Iraq Veteran Project (2006) that the veterans are allowed free medical care for combat related conditions for only up to two years after discharge despite the fact that PTSD can occur a long time after the exposure to the traumatic event. The report also states that the VA only expected to treat 2,900 for PTSD, but as of June 2006 that had treated 34,000. Because the VA was not prepared for such a large number there has been a long delay in services or claims being processed.“ Not much has changed in the way the military confronts the trauma that leads to PTSD and depression.
Something has to be done to help our military. Thank you for airing this soldier’s story and hopefully Senator Graham will do more than just talk, because this soldier is just one of many who needs help.
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