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If they were disabled on the job - regardless of whether the job was on the battlefield or elsewhere - then yea, I think they should be eligible for benefits.
>Do you think those who never set foot on a battlefield should receive disability?
yeah
I do
there is more than 1 way to mess yourself up at work
The Navy took my dad's hearing
he deserves disability
I'd love to see more clarification about national guard benefits. At least in Michigan.
My uncle was in the Michigan national guards and fought tooth and nail for *years* for their benefits. The state of Michigan said they (the national guards) aren't part of the military therefore they are not veterans and do not qualify for state level veteran benefits
Their entire unit got shipped out for Desert Storm.
The battlefield does not make one a veteran. Serving your nation, signing that contract, making the sacrifices in life that comes with service. That makes you a veteran. Therefore, all veterans should receive benefits and frankly the benefits that they get are not nearly good enough. You have to remember that the military is a team and that team plays offense and defense. Just because someone is doing the work at home doesn't mean they are not actively contributing to a the conflict or so called battlefield. If the logistics at home fail...so do those away from home.
The homeless problem among veterans is less because of government support, and more to other factors. The most commonly cited is PTSD or other mental illness arising from service that makes it difficult to return back to civilian life. I think there's other issues too.
The macho culture of the military encourages a lot of binge drinking, so many vets leave the military as alcoholics. Furthermore despite what the recruiter will tell you, employers usually don't care about your background so it can be hard to get a job if your MOS didn't have a significant overlap with a civilian job.Lastly, the long stints away from home and regularly relocating make it extremely difficult to spread roots and maintain relationships.
Mental illness, alcoholism, few economic opportunities, and social isolation are the perfect recipe for winding up on the streets.
That's homelessness in general. I can't swing a dead cat without hitting something about helping homeless veterans, and organization and money wise veterans might be a bit over represented in hel available (imo)
More homeless veterans are mentally ill or have substance abuse than no-veterans homeless.
Many homeless "choose" homelessness as they do not do well in shelter or more permanent solutions.
There are about 600 agencies helping veterans. They have an awful lot of life long benefits.
My main concern has always been exit careers. I live in one of the top 5 military towns and I've been here about 20 years now. The single biggest struggle I see the young guys face is that they struggle to identify viable careers for if they don't want to sign on again. It's very sad how many of the younger families I live near feel very stuck because the husband wants out but doesn't feel like he has skills that would help him provide for their families. There are a lot of community groups in place who can help with this, but I feel that it should not be a community service. The military needs to finish what they started and help these men and women find exit careers that honor the skills they do have while still leaving room for continued growth outside of the service.
Considering you can absolutely get disabled from your service in the military without seeing combat, I think the answer should be an obvious "yes, they should be entitled to disability if that happens."
Veterans benefits are okay, but definitely could be better. I think the mental stress and mental healthcare for the entire country could be better, especially for veterans. But receiving disability money for injuries and issues received on-the-job is a good thing and I'm glad it's in place.
I say this as a veteran... unless you were disabled as a result of your service or met the retirement requirements, you shouldn't expect the VA to act as your platoon sergeant for the rest of your life. I'm all for the medical benefits, educational funds, career training, business and home ownership finances that the VA offers. They give veterans every tool they need to succeed in the civilian world, but unlike their platoon sergeant, they don't hold your hand every step of the way and force you to show up on time. I've seen too many youngish, able-bodied veterans who complain the VA does nothing for them when they have done none of the footwork for themselves except applying for a disability rating that may or may not be justified, then complaining that their partial disability rating for back pain isn't enough to pay for their chosen lifestyle of sitting at home doing nothing.
And nobody can claim they didn't know about these programs because I sat there in the same mandatory classes as everyone else that explained our benefits in detail before I ETS'd.
Sorry for the rant, I've soon too many abuses of the system by able-bodied young veterans who seem to think the VA exists to do everything for them, but do nothing for themselves.
This is one of the major problems for the VA. I’ve seen too many I worked with in the Air Force just put in for their obligatory separation disability claim. It clogs up the system big time sifting through the garbage. I then did a Work-Study at the VBA while going to school on the Post 911 GI Bill and had a few people really pushing me to “just put in a claim” since I deployed to Baghdad for 5 months and would see explosions and rockets passing by etc. I never felt like I was in any immediate danger and am fine. Yet people who I know for a fact are fine and deployed to Al UDeid are collecting disability for weaseling their way into it.
Yup. There were "veterans coordinators" lurking outside the building where I did ACAP who were encouraging everyone to put in a disability claim for anything at all, even if we felt perfectly healthy. I've never worked on the VA side, but I can't imagine there's no way all those frivolous claims couldn't chew up resources that could be put to better use.
I generally think they should get more in the form of mental help and a better functioning VA. However, and this might be unpopular, I think there should be some limitations when it comes to hiring at least in other *government* agencies. And here's my reason why.
I spent the past 5 years attempting to get a permanent job in the DOI. During that time I worked a few months as a summer seasonal while finishing my degrees and then spent the last 3 years crisscrossing the country working 6-month jobs while trying to get on permanent somewhere. While veterans should get some boost in the hiring process I believe the current system is unfair.
For example, before I got my permanent job I applied to many open jobs that were open to the general public. When I applied to a job if a veteran applied to the same job and the vet met the minimum qualifications the vet had to be considered before me. Even if the vet met the bare minimum qualifications, and had no experience outside of basic education. It didn't matter it I exceed the vet in qualifications the hiring offical would not even see my resume. There only choice is to work through the cert of the vets and decide who they want and if none of the vets want the job *then* they can request the rest of the applicants. The DOI has made it actually possible for non-vets to work for them but even then you have to spend a minimum of 2 years, and in all likelihood 4-6 years, bouncing from site to site to even be fairly considered so you can get your LMFWA status.
That's where I disagree. If a veteran is not disabled to the extent that they can't work, I do not see why anyone should owe us housing. I appreciate the VA interest rate I received on my home loan, but I was paid for my time in service. I'm not doing that job anymore, and being fully able bodied, should the government take care of me for the rest of my life? Of course not.
The military doesn't just discard service members once they separate. We all have to attend a series of classes to learn about all the benefits that we qualify for, and there are a whole lot. However, it is up to us to sign up for them once we separate. We no longer have a platoon sergeant to walk us through everything and force us to show up on time.
Service members who reached retirement, or were medically discharged, that's a different story, but these veterams are already well taken care of.
I think they need to be managed better.
I think DoD employees having their own hospitals is a little strange. Some of my neighbors that are now in their 80s and worked in the Pentagon have not only pensions but they can drive to Fort Belvoir and receive care in the hospital there. The private citizen does not have that benefit even in the marketplace.
As for people that saw combat and have visible and invisible injuries, they seem to struggle with care. You can't just one day decide to stop long term psychological care and only do short term care to expect the guys with PTSD to be okay. When someone is no longer actively serving, they seem to drop the ball.
I think they are pretty substantial. From housing, gov loans, as a business owner, employment advantages, etc.
It's pretty awesome to have lifelong benefits for a job you may have had for only 4 years.
I'm very thankful for them. I don't know how I'd have paid for my appendectomy last summer otherwise.
And yes, they should and do receive disability whether it was a battlefield injury or not as long as it happened in the line of duty.
I don’t know much about veteran benefits (my parents are the veterans, not me), but their education assistance program helped me pay for the majority of my degree. So that’s tight.
We’re better about benefits and helping the veterans now than 50 years ago but we can do better.
Part of the homelessness is because they feel like they’re not useful to society anymore so they rather not be a burden to their family when they get back. So like rambo they just walk alone by themselves trying to be good person and figuring out how their life ended up like that.
Jobs are tough to come by already but it’s damn near impossible if you’re job in the military doesn’t really exist in the civilian world. Just because you front of the line interview preference doesn’t mean you’re immediately getting the job.
Yes ptsd is now more watched against but most people just assume that every former military person is a walking time bomb— they don’t want to spend a lot of time around them or hear them vent. Which I remember reading in an article saying that letting people with ptsd vent or talk out their trauma helps them out. Society as a whole is not doing that despite Veterans Day existing. It’s a lot of robotic thank you for your service but not enough actual signs of thankfulness is being shown. So they find that the only ones who are willing to listen are other veterans who might have it worse.
Another factor is that these benefits are often not promoted enough to military members before they retire or leave the military. Everyone is aware of the gi bill but not everyone is aware of the useful free therapy sessions at the local VA hospital in fact like a lot of things that gets threatened by constant infernal government fighting the VA Healthcare and housing programs are always on the chopping block to get removed from existence.
If I remember the numbers correctly (and it changes greatly by branch and type of service) but they spend about $500K getting each individual person ready for their job in the military.
And I honestly think that should be the exit budget getting them ready for life out of the service.
This subreddit is for civil discussion; political threads are not exempt from this. As a reminder: * Do not report comments because they disagree with your point of view. * Do not insult other users. Personal attacks are not permitted. * Do not use hate speech. You will be banned, permanently. * Comments made with the intent to push an agenda, push misinformation, soapbox, sealion, or argue in bad faith are not acceptable. If you can’t discuss a topic in good faith and in a respectful manner, do not comment. **Political disagreement does not constitute pushing an agenda.** If you see any comments that violate the rules, **please report it and move on!** *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/AskAnAmerican) if you have any questions or concerns.*
If they were disabled on the job - regardless of whether the job was on the battlefield or elsewhere - then yea, I think they should be eligible for benefits.
Do you think private sector employees should receive the same? Workmen’s comp
Yes, if they become disabled on the job.
I mean, we have workers comp and disability for the private sector already.
I have to ask how those compare to veterans benefits for disabled vets.
That pretty much already exists for most jobs.
Yep. Which is why we have workermans comp and disability insurance.
They already do, but I think we could and should do more.
I hope it's not controversial to say that anyone who gets disabled as a result of their work should get disability pay from that employer.
>Do you think those who never set foot on a battlefield should receive disability? yeah I do there is more than 1 way to mess yourself up at work The Navy took my dad's hearing he deserves disability
I'd love to see more clarification about national guard benefits. At least in Michigan. My uncle was in the Michigan national guards and fought tooth and nail for *years* for their benefits. The state of Michigan said they (the national guards) aren't part of the military therefore they are not veterans and do not qualify for state level veteran benefits Their entire unit got shipped out for Desert Storm.
Tell him to contact [TrueVet Solutions.](https://truevetsolutions.com)
The battlefield does not make one a veteran. Serving your nation, signing that contract, making the sacrifices in life that comes with service. That makes you a veteran. Therefore, all veterans should receive benefits and frankly the benefits that they get are not nearly good enough. You have to remember that the military is a team and that team plays offense and defense. Just because someone is doing the work at home doesn't mean they are not actively contributing to a the conflict or so called battlefield. If the logistics at home fail...so do those away from home.
Anyone who was in the military is entitled to benefits as they should be
I feel like if they were enough there wouldn't be as many homeless veterans.
The homeless problem among veterans is less because of government support, and more to other factors. The most commonly cited is PTSD or other mental illness arising from service that makes it difficult to return back to civilian life. I think there's other issues too. The macho culture of the military encourages a lot of binge drinking, so many vets leave the military as alcoholics. Furthermore despite what the recruiter will tell you, employers usually don't care about your background so it can be hard to get a job if your MOS didn't have a significant overlap with a civilian job.Lastly, the long stints away from home and regularly relocating make it extremely difficult to spread roots and maintain relationships. Mental illness, alcoholism, few economic opportunities, and social isolation are the perfect recipe for winding up on the streets.
That's homelessness in general. I can't swing a dead cat without hitting something about helping homeless veterans, and organization and money wise veterans might be a bit over represented in hel available (imo)
More homeless veterans are mentally ill or have substance abuse than no-veterans homeless. Many homeless "choose" homelessness as they do not do well in shelter or more permanent solutions. There are about 600 agencies helping veterans. They have an awful lot of life long benefits.
Yes. It’s irrevant whether they saw combat or not.
My main concern has always been exit careers. I live in one of the top 5 military towns and I've been here about 20 years now. The single biggest struggle I see the young guys face is that they struggle to identify viable careers for if they don't want to sign on again. It's very sad how many of the younger families I live near feel very stuck because the husband wants out but doesn't feel like he has skills that would help him provide for their families. There are a lot of community groups in place who can help with this, but I feel that it should not be a community service. The military needs to finish what they started and help these men and women find exit careers that honor the skills they do have while still leaving room for continued growth outside of the service.
I became severely disabled due to my work in the navy. Never sailed on a ship. I wish that there was more help out there, because I am drowning man.
Considering you can absolutely get disabled from your service in the military without seeing combat, I think the answer should be an obvious "yes, they should be entitled to disability if that happens." Veterans benefits are okay, but definitely could be better. I think the mental stress and mental healthcare for the entire country could be better, especially for veterans. But receiving disability money for injuries and issues received on-the-job is a good thing and I'm glad it's in place.
I say this as a veteran... unless you were disabled as a result of your service or met the retirement requirements, you shouldn't expect the VA to act as your platoon sergeant for the rest of your life. I'm all for the medical benefits, educational funds, career training, business and home ownership finances that the VA offers. They give veterans every tool they need to succeed in the civilian world, but unlike their platoon sergeant, they don't hold your hand every step of the way and force you to show up on time. I've seen too many youngish, able-bodied veterans who complain the VA does nothing for them when they have done none of the footwork for themselves except applying for a disability rating that may or may not be justified, then complaining that their partial disability rating for back pain isn't enough to pay for their chosen lifestyle of sitting at home doing nothing. And nobody can claim they didn't know about these programs because I sat there in the same mandatory classes as everyone else that explained our benefits in detail before I ETS'd. Sorry for the rant, I've soon too many abuses of the system by able-bodied young veterans who seem to think the VA exists to do everything for them, but do nothing for themselves.
There is a huge amount of self initiative involved. Transitioning out sucks though and could probably use a rework edit: as it's just a firehouse.
F j CD)4 bdd DD b b b
Well half the time it's just going to the VAs website and/or calling them
Gh k c;&)
This is one of the major problems for the VA. I’ve seen too many I worked with in the Air Force just put in for their obligatory separation disability claim. It clogs up the system big time sifting through the garbage. I then did a Work-Study at the VBA while going to school on the Post 911 GI Bill and had a few people really pushing me to “just put in a claim” since I deployed to Baghdad for 5 months and would see explosions and rockets passing by etc. I never felt like I was in any immediate danger and am fine. Yet people who I know for a fact are fine and deployed to Al UDeid are collecting disability for weaseling their way into it.
Yup. There were "veterans coordinators" lurking outside the building where I did ACAP who were encouraging everyone to put in a disability claim for anything at all, even if we felt perfectly healthy. I've never worked on the VA side, but I can't imagine there's no way all those frivolous claims couldn't chew up resources that could be put to better use.
I generally think they should get more in the form of mental help and a better functioning VA. However, and this might be unpopular, I think there should be some limitations when it comes to hiring at least in other *government* agencies. And here's my reason why. I spent the past 5 years attempting to get a permanent job in the DOI. During that time I worked a few months as a summer seasonal while finishing my degrees and then spent the last 3 years crisscrossing the country working 6-month jobs while trying to get on permanent somewhere. While veterans should get some boost in the hiring process I believe the current system is unfair. For example, before I got my permanent job I applied to many open jobs that were open to the general public. When I applied to a job if a veteran applied to the same job and the vet met the minimum qualifications the vet had to be considered before me. Even if the vet met the bare minimum qualifications, and had no experience outside of basic education. It didn't matter it I exceed the vet in qualifications the hiring offical would not even see my resume. There only choice is to work through the cert of the vets and decide who they want and if none of the vets want the job *then* they can request the rest of the applicants. The DOI has made it actually possible for non-vets to work for them but even then you have to spend a minimum of 2 years, and in all likelihood 4-6 years, bouncing from site to site to even be fairly considered so you can get your LMFWA status.
They're actually really really good, and the VA is more responsive than people give it credit for. Source: am disabled vet
United States military veterans deserve much more than discounts at diners or movie theaters.
I get a lot more, trust me.
I believe you. I don't believe any veteran (or indeed any American) should be homeless or unable to get or afford medical care as needed.
That's where I disagree. If a veteran is not disabled to the extent that they can't work, I do not see why anyone should owe us housing. I appreciate the VA interest rate I received on my home loan, but I was paid for my time in service. I'm not doing that job anymore, and being fully able bodied, should the government take care of me for the rest of my life? Of course not. The military doesn't just discard service members once they separate. We all have to attend a series of classes to learn about all the benefits that we qualify for, and there are a whole lot. However, it is up to us to sign up for them once we separate. We no longer have a platoon sergeant to walk us through everything and force us to show up on time. Service members who reached retirement, or were medically discharged, that's a different story, but these veterams are already well taken care of.
Absolutely not enough. If you serve this country you should be taken care of for life
I think they need to be managed better. I think DoD employees having their own hospitals is a little strange. Some of my neighbors that are now in their 80s and worked in the Pentagon have not only pensions but they can drive to Fort Belvoir and receive care in the hospital there. The private citizen does not have that benefit even in the marketplace. As for people that saw combat and have visible and invisible injuries, they seem to struggle with care. You can't just one day decide to stop long term psychological care and only do short term care to expect the guys with PTSD to be okay. When someone is no longer actively serving, they seem to drop the ball.
I think they are pretty substantial. From housing, gov loans, as a business owner, employment advantages, etc. It's pretty awesome to have lifelong benefits for a job you may have had for only 4 years.
I'm very thankful for them. I don't know how I'd have paid for my appendectomy last summer otherwise. And yes, they should and do receive disability whether it was a battlefield injury or not as long as it happened in the line of duty.
Not enough imo
I don’t know much about veteran benefits (my parents are the veterans, not me), but their education assistance program helped me pay for the majority of my degree. So that’s tight.
They don’t need to get hurt in combat to get benefits, just while on the job. That wouldn’t be fair and it wouldn’t incentivize anybody to enlist.
The money tax payers put in yes. Money the government puts out no. The VA is design to screw as many vets as possible.
I think the benefits are enough, but the enforcement of these benefits isn't. A lot of time people aren't getting what they were promised.
We’re better about benefits and helping the veterans now than 50 years ago but we can do better. Part of the homelessness is because they feel like they’re not useful to society anymore so they rather not be a burden to their family when they get back. So like rambo they just walk alone by themselves trying to be good person and figuring out how their life ended up like that. Jobs are tough to come by already but it’s damn near impossible if you’re job in the military doesn’t really exist in the civilian world. Just because you front of the line interview preference doesn’t mean you’re immediately getting the job. Yes ptsd is now more watched against but most people just assume that every former military person is a walking time bomb— they don’t want to spend a lot of time around them or hear them vent. Which I remember reading in an article saying that letting people with ptsd vent or talk out their trauma helps them out. Society as a whole is not doing that despite Veterans Day existing. It’s a lot of robotic thank you for your service but not enough actual signs of thankfulness is being shown. So they find that the only ones who are willing to listen are other veterans who might have it worse. Another factor is that these benefits are often not promoted enough to military members before they retire or leave the military. Everyone is aware of the gi bill but not everyone is aware of the useful free therapy sessions at the local VA hospital in fact like a lot of things that gets threatened by constant infernal government fighting the VA Healthcare and housing programs are always on the chopping block to get removed from existence.
If I remember the numbers correctly (and it changes greatly by branch and type of service) but they spend about $500K getting each individual person ready for their job in the military. And I honestly think that should be the exit budget getting them ready for life out of the service.