Research - Rehabilitation - Re-Employment

Sgt. Shaft 10/27/2003

Dear Sgt Shaft
The latest test balloon tossed up by the committee on Concurrent Receipt of pay is not acceptable. It again falls short of providing EVERY disabled retiree full retired pay AND their full VA compensation entitlement.

The first prong of three prong recommendation would include all reservists for the Combat-Related Special Compensation program (CRSC) retirees, the second prong would lower the percent from 60 percent to 30 percent for combat-related disabled retirees, and the last prong would require a congressional study on the DoD and VA disability system. How absolutely ludicrous!!!

The first prong is smoke and mirrors. Only a few reservists would even qualify for the CRSC even if they were added. Only those who were activated in time of war and then only those who were actually disabled as a direct act of combat would even be qualified. Therefore, DoD is not being forthright in its negotiations. This fails in the face of logic. Currently reservist retirees cannot receive their retired pay until age 60!!! DoD knows full well that by age 60, the reservists (the few who did qualify for the CRSC) are nearing the end of life's trail and that DoD will not have to fund the few reservists for very long. In fact, many reservists die long before age 60 and those who do reach 60 have little time left. DoD already has publicly acknowledged the older the retiree becomes, the more they are susceptible to deteriorating health conditions. They know full well that in the case of the few reservists who would qualify, in many cases, death will have already overcome the qualifying retirement event.

The second prong of lowering the percentage rate from 60 percent to 30 percent again is for combat-related (CRSC) disabled retirees again adds only those who qualify for CRSC!!!

The third prong is just another attempt to delay providing the disabled retiree their earned full retired pay and their VA Compensation entitlement. This study recommendation, and the other prongs, are nothing more than smoke and mirrors or a pea and shell game. DoD historically has been good at that game. It is time for ALL of the disabled retirees and veteran groups, something that labor unions have realized for some time, to rethink what candidates that they will support in future elections. Our vote should not be taken for granted by either party. In Texas we have a saying that, "the horse that comes to the fence gets the apple". Only those politicians that support the veterans to receive their rightfully full earned retired pay and their full entitlement VA compensation should get our vote. Guess which horse seems to be coming to the fence?

One disabled veteran should not be favored or sacrificed over another. Every disabled retiree is entitled to everything that they have earned and should be compensated for relative to any disability incurred as a result of their military service. While I am not a smoker and do not like to be even around it, the argument that disabled retirees who now have lung cancer due to smoking over many years should not be entitled to receive all of their earned retired pay and all of their VA compensation entitlement is absolutely absurd!!!! Was it not the DoD who was directly involved in putting the Lucky Strikes, Pall Malls, and the Camels (all unfiltered I might add) in the C-Rations and as a result, now directly responsible for causing the tobacco addiction (where the nicotine content and additives were not regulated) and the resulting cancer??? If they ever read this and it causes an uproar, I am sure that the next prong offered by the DoD and their Republican party cohort will be, "Well, we add the disabled retiree who has lung cancer only if they received some other kind of combat-related CRSC qualifying event. This sounds like something out of a Mel Brooks' movie where the towns people kept adding groups of people, based on levels of bias, who would ultimately be allowed to live in the town.

What hypocrisy. What callousness. What subterfuge. How is this "taking care of our own"?

Wilbur V. LTC, US Army, Ret
Towson, MD

Dear Wilbur,
Although you and other military retirees are dissatisfied with the congressional concurrent receipt compromise, you must agree that much progress has been made.

As the The Military Officers Association of America (MOAA) has pointed out Under the agreement, all retirees with a 50 percent disability rating from the VA will see the current offsetting reduction in their military retired pay phased out over a 10 year period.

All retirees with combat or operations-related disabilities will be eligible to receive payments under the recently enacted CRSC program. Currently, only those with Purple Hearts or combat disabilities rated at 60 percent or higher are eligible.

“It doesn’t solve the whole problem, but it is a giant step that will provide substantial relief for the most severely disabled and combat-wounded retirees. .

“We deeply appreciate the efforts of legislators who have fought so hard on this issue” said VAdm. Norb Ryan, USN (Ret), president of MOAA,. “Senator Warner, Rep. Roy Blunt (R-MO), and Armed Services Committee Chairman Duncan Hunter for their lead roles in these negotiations, and long-time Concurrent Receipt champions, Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) and Rep. Mike Bilirakis (R-FL), and also Rep. Jim Marshall (D-GA), whose discharge petition initiative played a significant role in achieving this victory.”

The initiative would mean as much as $25,000 a year for a 100-percent disabled retiree.

Send letters to Sgt. Shaft, c/o John Fales, P.O. Box 65900, Washington, D.C. 20035-5900; fax to 301-622-3330; call 202-462-4430 or email sgtshaft@bavf.org.

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