SEAL That Took BL Down

FredHayek wrote: The real tragedy here according to Fox's Red Eye is how long it takes for the VA to process these vets and get them into the system, around 200 days, and 400 in some communities like Los Angeles.

Question for the vets, does combat time affect your pension payouts? For example, if you were a navy guy for the last 20 years and never got into a combat zone you get the same pay as someone who did 10 tours as long as you were both the same rank, right? So a CPO working out of San Diego his whole career would earn more in pension benefits than a SEAL Petty Officer who served multiple tours in Afghanistan?

No.

Fred,

The only thing that could affect your pension is that amount of disability you receive. It is a complicated system, but if you are under 50% disabled (like me), then that percentage of your pension is nontaxable. The disability must be military related, but not necessarily combat related.

The only thing that chaffs my hide about the system is that a person with an equal percentage of disability who doesn't retire receives a cash payment, versus a retiree who merely gets a portion of their pension fenced off.

My father is a prime example, we both ended up with an equal percentage of disability. He did four years in the Air Force; I did 24 years in the Army. He receives a cash payment, and I receive the same dollar equivalent of the retirement pension that I already earned fenced from taxes.

This is a quote from a thread that is populated by folks in the know that encapsulates why I am skeptical. We seem to be in the minority most there seem to accept the premise.

"Something just isn’t right here. I am a retired NSW SWCC and can tell you that NSW takes care of their own. In 99 I sustained a crushed pelvis while training at SBT-22. It took me almost 2 years to get back into a deployable status. The Team put me in various jobs until I was able to get back on the boats. This happens very often at the regular teams, so imagine how a tier 1 unit with all their flexibility would handle a guy like Shooter who was so close to retirement. He would be shipped off to the training department or something similar until he was eligible to retire. Another thing brought up is Shooters stunning lack of basic military benefits knowledge. There is a whole host of folks who help with this type of thing from the Command Master Chief to the Career Counselor to the Command Ombudsman, even the Corpsman gets involved with understanding medical benefits and this Unit has full on Doctors assigned."


http://www.socnet.com/showthread.php?t=114265

Combat "time does not"...IF wounded in combat....that helps. Military SERVICE is real service.....not like firemen and cops.....there is no comparison....well minimal comparison. IF in combat and you come through unwounded and alive----well just another day at the office.
I hold three Combat Action awards and other decorations......for a career servive vet that gets you a good $5.00 cup of coffee at Starbucks.....thank you very much. We expect that......today who knows the servivepeople are a reflection of the culture......enough explained.

The CPO in San Diego could be ordered into a combatzone at any time.......and career commissioned officers serve even if inactive for life.....can be recalled until they get the deep dirt nap......as in forever.

BTW....Gunny reminds me....we pay State , Local and FED taxes on retirements.....we paid into Medicare like all....and are forced to take Medicare B

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I still pay almost $2000 a tear for medical and dental conerage......my spouse pays $1200 ayear for B.....a requirement.....So we pay $3000 a year for benefits after a combined 70 years of service.......no free lunch. A local cop gets three times the benefits and sits in a car or donut shop most of the time...and quits at 20........WE serve and still do.

Gunny has another excellent point.....WE who really served ----I mean 20+ and did not quit.....are subject to the whims of spoiled Congresspeople......who vote themselves perks and lots of benefits at will....they rarely served at all and now come from a "Me first" culture......WE who served do have lobbies and do vote and correspond with our Senators and Congressmen......that is our salvation.

IMHO no person in Congress should by law be permitted to run for office unless they served at least four years in the military (active) and their whelps should also have to serve or pay with elevated taxes........we would have a much differtnt country I assure you. IF you or your kids are at risk your attitude gets calibrated.....really quickly. IF you have no personal risk.....you probably have little compassion for those that permit you to enjoy freedom.

To expand on what delta said, some people are concerned that the US Military is such a small percentage of the population and so many of the career people came from family that also served, that most Americans have no skin in the game if they are sent overseas. A draft would be very expensive, but would expose a greater cross section of the nation to what military life is like and the sacrifices it entails.

Politicians and service? Because of WWII and the after war peacetime draft, most male polticians did have military experience, but first with Clinton and now Obama, and so many in the House & Senate no longer have that.

Luckily it looks like a large number of veterans from the First Gulf War, and now Iraq and Afghanistan are choosing to continue their service to the nation by running for office.
Hopefully the ones who are elected remember their brothers in arms when it comes to funding the VA and other benefits.

Professionals do not want a draft.......the inductes which "serve 24 months" were and especially are today with all the tech and training........USELESS.....again USELESS. Thank God war now is highly technical and we do not throw meat into the field of battle.......The volunteer force concept with reverses (sorry reservists)available are a good approach IMHO. BUT a lack of commitment to country will IMHO lead to civil unrest as the me-me crowd (really whelps of Boomers and their offspring) is steadly entraped in a police state with subsistance living standards.....I see no way out at this point. Thus the SECOND is vital IMHO.

Excellent and thoughtful article today from Michael Brenner out of Huffington addressing this subject. I will post on another new thread......he explains the culture that is established and may well lead to significant upheavel once the populace fully grasps what is happening in the USA

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an outfall of 911 BTW.

If someone receives the Medal of Honor they get special treatment...information below cut and pasted from Wikipedia. Purple Heart recipients get put in a higher category by the VA. I'm unsure about any other medals or awards.

It took 15 months for me to get my physical after I filed for disability...once they did the physical it took another 2 months to get my disability. And mine was relatively fast, from what I've heard.


Privileges and courtesies The Medal of Honor confers special privileges on its recipients. By law, recipients have several benefits:[81][82]

Each Medal of Honor recipient may have his or her name entered on the Medal of Honor Roll (38 U.S.C. § 1560). Each person whose name is placed on the Medal of Honor Roll is certified to the United States Department of Veterans Affairs as being entitled to receive a monthly pension above and beyond any military pensions or other benefits for which they may be eligible. The pension is subject to cost-of-living increases; as of 2011, it is $1,237 a month.[83]
Enlisted recipients of the Medal of Honor are entitled to a supplemental uniform allowance.[84]
Recipients receive special entitlements to air transportation under the provisions of DOD Regulation 4515.13-R. This benefit allows the recipient to travel as he or she deems fit across geographical locations, and allows the recipient's dependents to travel either Overseas-Overseas, Overseas-Continental US, or Continental US-Overseas when accompanied by the recipient.[85]
Special identification cards and commissary and exchange privileges are provided for Medal of Honor recipients and their eligible dependents.[86]
Recipients are granted eligibility for interment at Arlington National Cemetery, if not otherwise eligible.[87]
Fully qualified children of recipients are eligible for admission to the United States military academies without regard to the nomination and quota requirements.[88]
Recipients receive a 10 percent increase in retired pay.[89]
Those awarded the medal after October 23, 2002, receive a Medal of Honor Flag. The law specified that all 103 living prior recipients as of that date would receive a flag.[90]
Recipients receive an invitation to all future presidential inaugurations and inaugural balls.[91]
As with all medals, retired personnel may wear the Medal of Honor on "appropriate" civilian clothing. Regulations specify that recipients of the Medal of Honor are allowed to wear the uniform "at their pleasure" with standard restrictions on political, commercial, or extremist purposes (other former members of the armed forces may do so only at certain ceremonial occasions).[92]
Most states (40) offer a special license plate for certain types of vehicles to recipients at little or low cost to the recipient.[93] The states that do not offer Medal of Honor specific license plate offer special license plates for veterans which recipients may be eligible for.[94]

OK.....a handful earn MOH......do nor get the point. Hope you are not venturing into some search for equivalency..interesting but not germane. Thanks.