DoD willing to reconsider discharges of Vietnam vets with PTSD

http://www.navytimes.com/article/20140903/NEWS05/309030039/DoD-willing-reconsider-discharges-Vietnam-vets-PTSD

DoD willing to reconsider discharges of Vietnam vets with PTSD
Sep. 3, 2014 - 03:26PM
By Andrew Tilghman
Staff writer

The Defense Department has agreed to reconsider the bad-paper discharges for thousands of Vietnam-era veterans who may have suffered from combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder but were kicked out of the military in the era before that became a diagnosable condition.

In a new rule announced Wednesday, the Pentagon said veterans from the Vietnam era and other past wars with other-than-honorable discharges will be given “liberal consideration” if they seek to correct their military records and provide some evidence of a PTSD diagnosis that existed at the time of their service.

Upgraded discharges could result in the restoration of some benefits, such as disability pay, separation pay or GI Bill benefits from the Veterans Affairs Department, which are typically denied to vets who receive other-than-honorable discharges. Health care in the VA system is typically provided to veterans regardless of their discharge.

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For years, the military services have rejected PTSD claims from Vietnam-era vets with what McTiernan called “Catch-22-like denials” that say changes cannot be granted without a diagnosis of PTSD from the 1970s — even though PTSD did not become officially recognized by the medical profession until 1980.

And for many veterans, fixing their official discharge document, known as a DD 214, is about more than VA benefits.

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The Pentagon’s new rule will apply to all veterans with discharges prior to the formal recognition of PTSD in 1980. The vast majority of those are likely to come from the Vietnam era.

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The new guidance is focused on veterans with low-level misconduct that may have resulted in administrative discharge. It is unlikely to affect veterans who were court-martialed for serious misconduct and kicked out with a bad-conduct discharge or dishonorable discharge.

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