Vets in Combat against Archaic System
In February 2005, Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Ian LeJeune was sleeping in his barracks when a 9-foot rocket slammed into the structure. The explosion threw him across the room and burned both of his legs. LeJeune says he knew he was in trouble when he saw a priest standing over him. Praying.
Since that dreadful day, LeJeune has undergone 18 surgeries and has graduated from a wheelchair to a cane. His left Achilles tendon is severed, he wears a leg brace, and there are plates inside his left foot and right knee. Doctors put a spinal cord stimulator in his back to help with the pain in his legs. A wire leads to batteries, which he can signal to send a tingling sensation.
LeJeune had always planned to stay with the marines but, in the event, he retired and now works full time in Civvy Street - which precludes him from claiming 100% VA benefits. He said, "I wanted to go back to work; it was more of a mental, therapeutic process to keep myself busy. I didn't want to sit home and feel sorry for myself. I could have gotten 100 percent disability."
LeJeune is not alone. A veteran who assists veterans with VA claims, and who wants to remain anonymous, said:
I see a lot of them going back with a lot of traumatic brain injuries, post-traumatic stress disorder; those are two major issues with vets coming from Iraq and Afghanistan; some are being discharged with personality disorders. These are considered pre-existing into combat. They don't get any benefits for that, for a psychiatric disorder. It's not fair, because they're serving in combat and coming back with a lot of issues.
Among the hardest issues, she said, is the paper trail:
If not in the service medical record, it didn't happen. Now the veteran is left with coming up with proof of what happened to him.
For Retired Marine Staff Sgt. Ian LeJeune and others wounded in Iraq, the battle is not yet over.