Associated Press story in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer:

Army veteran Isaac Stevens (left) was discharged with a disability last November and was homeless by February. Veterans advocates say his experience was caused by a bureaucratic military system that releases injured soldiers on just a fraction of their salary and then forces them to wait up to a year or more before their full disability payments begin to flow.

“When I got out, I hate to say it, but man, that was it. Everybody just kind of washed their hands of me, and it was like, ‘OK, you’re on your own,’ ” said Stevens.

Nearly 20,000 disabled soldiers have been discharged in the past two fiscal years, and lawmakers, veterans’ advocates and others say thousands could be facing financial ruin while they wait for their claims to be processed and their benefits to come through.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 17th, 2008 at 7:11 am and is filed under NOT2BEMISSED, benefits, disabilities, veterans. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.  Email This Post