• FreeAdvice has a new Terms of Service and Privacy Policy, effective May 25, 2018.
    By continuing to use this site, you are consenting to our Terms of Service and use of cookies.

The military has taken away my brother-in-law's disability status

Accident - Bankruptcy - Criminal Law / DUI - Business - Consumer - Employment - Family - Immigration - Real Estate - Tax - Traffic - Wills   Please click a topic or scroll down for more.

J

jamierose428

Guest
What is the name of your state?My brother in law is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He has had 100% disability status since returning from Iraq in April of 2003. My brother in law has no vision in one eye, no hearing in one ear and partial hearing in the other ear, and has lost his right middle finger, which was formerly his trigger finger. What is left of his middle finger is still broken because it never healed properly. The military has told him that his rank is not high enough to warrant surgery. In addition, he suffers from major headaches when near an excess of light and loud noises. He wishes to stay in the military, but those at his base have recently been instructed to treat him as persona non grata. His disability status has been taken away from him, and he has been put back onto 12 hour shifts. His former doctor, who granted him 100% disability has been taken away from him, and he has been given a new doctor that says he is fine and tells my brother in law that his problems are "in his head." If ordered to do 50 pushups, my brother in law stops at 10 because his headache has gotten out of control. His superiors tell him that this is fine, but do not let him go to sick call when he asks. They tell him that he may go after he has completed his shift, but after his shifts he goes home. The military intends to send my brother in law over to Iraq in August. Is there anything he can do to prevent this, and get his disability status back? Is this legal?
 


Shay-Pari'e

Senior Member
jamierose428 said:
What is the name of your state?My brother in law is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He has had 100% disability status since returning from Iraq in April of 2003. My brother in law has no vision in one eye, no hearing in one ear and partial hearing in the other ear, and has lost his right middle finger, which was formerly his trigger finger. What is left of his middle finger is still broken because it never healed properly. The military has told him that his rank is not high enough to warrant surgery. In addition, he suffers from major headaches when near an excess of light and loud noises. He wishes to stay in the military, but those at his base have recently been instructed to treat him as persona non grata. His disability status has been taken away from him, and he has been put back onto 12 hour shifts. His former doctor, who granted him 100% disability has been taken away from him, and he has been given a new doctor that says he is fine and tells my brother in law that his problems are "in his head." If ordered to do 50 pushups, my brother in law stops at 10 because his headache has gotten out of control. His superiors tell him that this is fine, but do not let him go to sick call when he asks. They tell him that he may go after he has completed his shift, but after his shifts he goes home. The military intends to send my brother in law over to Iraq in August. Is there anything he can do to prevent this, and get his disability status back? Is this legal?


I'm sorry, but unless you can be truthfull with your post no one can answer you. I can assume his disability ran out. I can assume they are allowing him to stay active duty. A soldier with no vision in one eye, total loss of hearing in one ear and partial loss in the other does not get deployed to Iraq. The trigger finger will hopefully not be needed when he gets there.

Sorry, I just do not believe anything in this post at all.
 
J

jamierose428

Guest
Truth

I can assure you that I am being truthful. That is why I wanted to know if what they are doing to my brother in law is legal. He is 19 years old and has been in the air force for two years so far. Can disability run out in two years? He does not have sight in one eye or hearing in the other. I don't know how to respong to you because I am telling the truth. I don't know what to do to help my brother in law; that is why I posted his story. I am not lying; that would not help me whatsoever and would be beneficial to noone. They fully intend to deploy him, and I think it is just as ridiculous as you do. I cannot see how the military intends to deploy him, but they do. I'm sorry if you do not believe me but this is the truth and I want to know what I can do to help him. If you do not know, maybe someone else does? Are any laws being broken? Is there any way to stop this?
 

Shay-Pari'e

Senior Member
If there is someone else that can help you with this then I invite it. My stand point is this......If your brother-in-law is deployable, then I have to assume he is. Soldiers being deployed go through very strick guidelines. They have a medical and mental clearence before ever boarding, and their records are hand carried from destination "A", to "B". If he is not fit as you say, there is no way he can even be deployed to Kansas.

If you really truly think this is true, advise your brother-in-law to go to his commander with his medical records. If you need to further this, please tell your brother-in-law to hire a civilian attorney that can represent him.
 
M

mensaman

Guest
simple answer

Your brother-in-law can, at anytime, request a second opinion from another doctor on base or go to a civilian doctor if he pays for it.

But I seriously doubt that his sight or hearing loss was permanent. There is a medical review board that the member's record is sent to before returning him to "fit for full duty". These doctors are professionals in several different fields and do not make their decisions lightly. He can appeal the medical review board's decision, in which case his record is copied and sent to another base medical review board.
 

VR_Hunter

Member
jamierose428 said:
What is the name of your state?My brother in law is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, NC. He has had 100% disability status since returning from Iraq in April of 2003. My brother in law has no vision in one eye, no hearing in one ear and partial hearing in the other ear, and has lost his right middle finger, which was formerly his trigger finger. What is left of his middle finger is still broken because it never healed properly. The military has told him that his rank is not high enough to warrant surgery. In addition, he suffers from major headaches when near an excess of light and loud noises. He wishes to stay in the military, but those at his base have recently been instructed to treat him as persona non grata. His disability status has been taken away from him, and he has been put back onto 12 hour shifts. His former doctor, who granted him 100% disability has been taken away from him, and he has been given a new doctor that says he is fine and tells my brother in law that his problems are "in his head." If ordered to do 50 pushups, my brother in law stops at 10 because his headache has gotten out of control. His superiors tell him that this is fine, but do not let him go to sick call when he asks. They tell him that he may go after he has completed his shift, but after his shifts he goes home. The military intends to send my brother in law over to Iraq in August. Is there anything he can do to prevent this, and get his disability status back? Is this legal?
After spending twenty years in the military and deploying countless times (to hostile fire areas and training), the military would NOT deploy someone (to a combat arena) that is blind in one eye, deaf in one ear, partial hearing in the other ear, and lost his middle finger (or was it just badly damaged?) you were not clear on that one.

He did not lose his 100% disability, what happened is, he was reevaluated at specific points in time and eventually deemed ready for duty/deployment. He had been disqualified for duty while his injuries healed and treatment was given. If he had been "100% disabled" he would have been medically discharged and given disability pay relevant to his disability, grade and time in service.

As Mensaman said, he can get a second opinion, he can appeal the MEB. To do this, he must first not do as you said, "but after his shifts he goes home". He needs to go in and get checked out every time he runs into the headache problem. Document, document, document.


I don't have any special love for military doctors, but they do have a process that must be followed and many do know what they are doing. Your BIL must also strictly follow the guidelines if he wishes to have the military reevaluate him.
 
N

NancyLou9

Guest
The fallacies in this person's original and subsequent posts...

He is 19 years old and has been in the air force for two years so far.

This is possible, but then they go on to show their lack of knowledge, thereby showing that this is all crap...

My brother in law is currently stationed in Fort Bragg, NC

Fort Bragg is an Army post. They don't have Air Force there. They have them at Pope AFB, which is right next door. Even if the Air Force DID have some people attached to their unit, it would be as part of a tenant organization and their main duty station would STILL be Pope. I have two sons stationed at Ft. Bragg and they are both Army. My younger of the two sons is with an Airborne Unit as a Combat Engineer. He was injured in Afghanistan when he was jumping and blew out his knee. He has had two operations on it and has been removed from his regular duties. This happened almost a year ago. While the military can do lots of shady things, to allow someone to enter combat when they are blind and deaf is beyond ludicrous. My son can see AND hear AND pull a trigger and he is still considered non-deployable.

Also, I and my husband are both Veterans of the Air Force and the last time I had to do PT with my unit was when I was in Basic. Something isn't right with this post. The Army can't make the Air Force adhere to their PT standards. This whole cheesy story is so full of holes you could put it on a sandwich and eat it.
 

rmet4nzkx

Senior Member
Something isn't right, OP made two posts on 6-26 and nothing more since then and seems to have flown the coop.

It sounds like a conversion disorder which can easily be responsible for the hearing and vision problems and most likely why he was declared fit for duty. The middle finger is not the trigger finger although it may be used to trigger hostile fire, lol! It is possible that he was in the hospital at Ft Bragg and that is why they think they are there rather than at Pope. It is not unusual for the degree of disability to change, it might be 60% while on active duty and the VA cut it back upon discharge, this happened to my son with an ankle injury that was not Dx upon injury, he still completed his tour on limited duty, including overseas service but not in active combat zones, in fact his injury was during "war games" at Ft. Pitt (he was USMC) so that gave him a status as combat veteran this was in the late 1990's.
 
N

NancyLou9

Guest
Oh yeah...

I know Pope doesn't have a hospital. Both bases use Womack at Bragg.

Also, my husband and I are both disabled Vets. I don't know that I've ever heard of the military actually assigning a percentage to a disability, outside of a Medical Review Board. To be boarded and remain on Active Duty? I've seen first term airmen get a retirement for a disability and then be re-evaluated a year later to return to duty. I think this might be what happened with the brother in law.

Too often a person thinks a medical release gives them the right to leave the military entirely when in fact it doesn't. My husband was placed on the TDRL (temporary disability retirement list) when he left the Air Force and a year later was re-evaluated and then placed on Permanent Disability Retirement List. (At least that's what my ID card says)

The OP seems to not have a grasp of the situation. Too bad they left the board. I would have told them the brother in law needed a JAG and fast.
 

Find the Right Lawyer for Your Legal Issue!

Fast, Free, and Confidential
data-ad-format="auto">
Top