Casey's Story: War Was Half the Battle

Casey's Story: War Was Half the Battle
Paul Rieckhoff | February 08, 201

Former Army Specialist Casey Elder is trapped in a story without a conclusion. It began in 2004, the moment an IED struck her Humvee in Baghdad, slamming her hard enough to dislocate h­er shoulder and cause permanent joint and nerve damage.

After returning home, Casey began suffering from balance problems, short-term memory loss, and severe migraines. After a series of misdiagnoses, her local VA was finally able to pinpoint the source of her injuries: Casey had a Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI). She responded by filing a disability claim with the VA in January 2009, assuming that a diagnosis from a VA hospital would qualify her to receive compensation. But that assumption proved to be painfully wrong.

After waiting eight months, Casey was shocked to learn that her claim was rejected. Her only recourse was to appeal the VA's decision, an arduous, drawn-out process. Today, more than a year after she started this journey, Casey still waits for word on whether or not she will receive her hard-earned benefits.

Unfortunately, stories like Casey's could fill a stack of books at your local library. She is just one of the nearly 425,000 members of the nation's least envious club: injured veterans waiting for their disability benefits. And no, members of this club don't have their own jackets or 10% off at Walmart. They are stuck waiting. And waiting.

Why the backlog? Like all Iraq and Afghanistan veterans applying for disability benefits, Casey is essentially using the same paper-based system that Vietnam veterans used more than three decades ago. The current disability process was created before most Iraq and Afghanistan vets were even born. In the last thirty years, we've moved from DOS to Windows 7, from rotary phones to iPhones, from Beta-Max to Blu-Ray -- but the VA is still operating with paper clips and printer paper. Now we know who is keeping Dunder Mifflin in business.


Rest of article at: http://www.military.com/opinion/0,15202,210351,00.html?wh=news