WASHINGTON, May 11, 2008
Number Of Disabled U.S. Veterans Rising
More Wounded, Disabled Vets Translates To A Projected Doubling Of Costs Associated With Their Care
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Wounded soldiers involved in physical therapy at the Center For The Intrepid at the Brooke Army Medical Center in San Antonio are seen in this November 2007 file photo. The number of disabled veterans has jumped by 25 percent since 2001, to 2.9 million. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
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Interactive Military 101 Basic training to learn all about America's fighting force.
"You see an awful lot of Vietnam veterans over the course of the years have gone from a 30 percent to 40 percent disability rating up to 100 percent when their employment years start to wane a little bit," said David Gorman, a Vietnam War veteran who is executive director at the Washington headquarters of Disabled American Veterans.
Conditions, such as a bad back or knee, can worsen with age and draw higher payments. A big concern for Vietnam vets is diabetes. Last year, more than 271,000 veterans were receiving disability benefits for diabetes. Most of the disabilities - 236,000 of them - were linked to Agent Orange exposure.
Veterans who are approved for disability receive monthly checks for injuries or illnesses sustained or aggravated while on active duty. Ratings are scaled from 0 to 100 percent in 10 percent increments. A rating of 10 percent, for example, is given to tinnitus, or ringing in the ears, which is increasingly common for troops returning from Iraq and Afghanistan because of roadside bombings. Ratings for post-traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury can range from 0-to-100 percent, and 10-to-100 percent, respectively.
Former Army Sgt. Michelle Saunders was rated at 70 percent by the VA after being shot at during a 2004 convoy mission in Iraq. The bullet was caught in her flak jacket, but she sustained painful injuries, including two ruptured disks in her lower back and nerve damage to her right leg.
"It's turned me from a really alive, pretty happy person into somebody who is numb. I don't know how to feel anymore," she said.
Saunders gets a disability check each month from the VA for just under $800.
Annual benefits run from $1,404 for a veteran rated at 10 percent to about $30,324 for those at 100 percent. Severe disabilities, such as the loss of a limb, draw additional compensation.
Other Web Sources:
AMVETS (American Veterans)
Iran and Afghanistan Veterans Of America
National Veterans Foundation
© MMVIII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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shut your arse up!! you and you liberal friends spit at soldiers and NOW you all of a suddenly care about them????????
you guys make me sick...
WE ARE FIGHTING THE SUNNIS IN IRAQ? OR WHO EVER THREATENS OUR OIL...
WE ARE FUNDING THE SUNNIS IN LEBANON TO DESTABLIZE THAT COUNTRY???
BUSH IS SENDING AID TO ISRAEL IN THE BILLIONS...
BUSH IS SENDING AID TO THE PALESTINIANS IN THE MILLIONS THRU ISRAELI BANKS???
16 OF THE 19 HIJACKERS WERE FROM SAUDI...
CHENEY AND HALIBURTON ARE TIGHT WITH THE SAUDIS...
RUMFELD BROKERED CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO SADDAM IN THE 80S...TO FIGHT IRAN
WE ATTACHED IRAQ TO GET RID OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS...
RICHARD PEARL A DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING ISRAELI AMERICAN NEOCON IS BROKERING AN OIL DEAL WITH THE KURDS...
TURKEY IS FIGHTING THE KURDS...
BILLIONS OF AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST!
4000 PLUS AMERICANS HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FIGHTING A CHANGING ENEMY WHO ONE DAY CHANGES FROM ONE SIDE TO THE NEXT...AND WHOS POLITICIANS ARE ON THE TAKE AS BAD AS AMERICAN POLITICIANS ARE?
MISS NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE CONDI RICE IS RUNNING THE STATE DEPARTMENT!
WHO IS RUNNING THIS MIDDLE EAST TRAIN?
START WAR CRIMES NOW!
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
Personally I have tremendous respect for the veterans and families of those who fought in previous conflicts and are fighting for us in the Middle East. We owe them much for the lives that have been given up and for the families that have lost so many loved ones. Once a week at the end of the evening news in a segment on PBS, a moment of silence is given and the names and pictures of the soldiers that have died for us are shown. They are so young and their faces were full of so much hope and promise, for their families, and for what they could have become for this country.
The economic loss is tremendous, not only for the United States but also Iraq people. We have to ask ourselves, what has really been accomplished since that day four years ago when the President said " Mission Accomplished"
-- Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials
http://www.snopes.com/quotes/goering.asp
WE ARE FIGHTING THE SUNNIS IN IRAQ? OR WHO EVER THREATENS OUR OIL...
WE ARE FUNDING THE SUNNIS IN LEBANON TO DESTABLIZE THAT COUNTRY???
BUSH IS SENDING AID TO ISRAEL IN THE BILLIONS...
BUSH IS SENDING AID TO THE PALESTINIANS IN THE MILLIONS THRU ISRAELI BANKS???
16 OF THE 19 HIJACKERS WERE FROM SAUDI...
CHENEY AND HALIBURTON ARE TIGHT WITH THE SAUDIS...
RUMFELD BROKERED CHEMICAL WEAPONS TO SADDAM IN THE 80S...TO FIGHT IRAN
WE ATTACHED IRAQ TO GET RID OF CHEMICAL WEAPONS...
RICHARD PEARL A DUEL PASSPORT HOLDING ISRAELI AMERICAN NEOCON IS BROKERING AN OIL DEAL WITH THE KURDS...
TURKEY IS FIGHTING THE KURDS...
BILLIONS OF AMERICAN TAX DOLLARS ARE GOING TO THE MIDDLE EAST!
4000 PLUS AMERICANS HAVE GIVEN THEIR LIVES FIGHTING A CHANGING ENEMY WHO ONE DAY CHANGES FROM ONE SIDE TO THE NEXT...AND WHOS POLITICIANS ARE ON THE TAKE AS BAD AS AMERICAN POLITICIANS ARE?
MISS NO ACTIONABLE INTELLIGENCE CONDI RICE IS RUNNING THE STATE DEPARTMENT!
WHO IS RUNNING THIS MIDDLE EAST TRAIN?
START WAR CRIMES NOW!
AMERICA STAND UP OR SHUT UP!
Posted by jamesm12341 at 09:46 AM : May 12, 2008
lollll....you are correct, but not in the manner that you are assuming.
We are in fact enabling you to rationalize your own deficiencies.
Shame on us - or rather on me, since I shouldn''t presume to speak for others.
The only thing that prevents them from being utterly boring is your amusing attempts at various forms of psychological trickery.
Would that your parents had spent less time leaving you unsupervised in front of a keyboard and/or video game and more time raising you into a mature, responsible adult who was capable of both empathy and rational argument.
Actually, I will respond to your post and scold you like your Mommy.
It is your posts, James, which reek with bullying and non-productive name-calling.
Your posts fall far off topic, and are designed to put others down.
You have some weird, strange fixation with MCvet, who''s posts have a lot of truth.
Your posts frequently consist of questions, designed to bait someone into going off-topic.
I can''t decide why you have so much time to engage in your bullying, foul, and goading posts. You have too much time on your hands, and certainly have too much anger.
It is not healthy.
Chill out.
Posted by jamesm12341 at 07:44 AM : May 12, 2008
If he knocks the bush/chaney administration, then I would have to agree with him. I will stand up for the soldiers however I do believe that the bush/chaney administration will go down in history as the most corupt and most destructive to the country. I do believe that this administration is incapable of telling the truth about anything and so many people just suck up their lies.
As you can tell I''m not a fan.
God protect them from another moment in time where the Republicans control our Presidency and, worse, our Congress, lest they be instantaneously transformed from honorable veterans who suffered greatly in the pursuit of the goals of America''s political leaders into "entitlement spending".
One more thing, I assume from your handle that you are a vet, well I am also. I served two tours in nam as a chopper pilot for the 1st Cav.
If you think for one moment that I support this administration, you are saddly mistaken. Go back and read all my posts and you will see how much contempt for this administration I have even before invading Iraq.
"The oil companies should be the ones paying the bill for these morons that went to iraq."
In this statement I read that the oil companies should pay for the ones that Went to Iraq. The cowards in this administration and in congress did not go to Iraq they sent soldiers. That is why I Asked if he ment the soldiers then made a comment. If he ment the administration then I would agree with him but if he ment the soldiers I take exception. No matter what I will stand up for the soldiers as many other vets will. I will spit on this administration and also on members of congress. If I offend you then I am sorry but that is the way it is for me.
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Posted by woodjd42 at 05:36 AM : May 12, 2008
+ report abuse
Now anyone with a BRAIN can read and understand what the poster was saying yet YOU attempted to turn his dislike for the Fuhrer and the Fascist who started this War for Oil into a hatred for those who have paid such a high price. YOU should be ashamed but I''ve given up on you bootlickers, who continue to support that Incompetent piece of human trash a few call a President, ever being true American''s. Now lets let the fuhrer know you''re out here this morning!! SIEG HEIL BUSH!!
Posted by andrew_693
Are you calling the men and women of our military morons? If so you are the moron. Like in Vietnam, the soldier did not ask to go to war, they were sent to war. Blame this administration or the oil companies or anyone but not the soldiers. Our soldiers are heros.
Posted by NonayaBiness
That''s why I like the parliamentary system. Lose a no-confidence vote, any time and you''re history.
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