By: Patrick Aldridge
https://twitter.com/patdaldridge
In 2014, I took the time to request a Freedom of Information Request from the Army. In my request I requested the following:
* How many men and women were administratively separated from the Army since January 1, 2008 to present.
* How many men and women were medically discharged after processing through a medical evaluation board/Physical Evaluation Board from January 1, 2008 to present.
* What percentage of award was awarded from the medical evaluation board for men and women from January 1, 2008 to present.
When I was requesting this information, it was during the time that the Veterans Administration was under fire from public opinion and Congress for how they had handled military veterans and their care. For the first time in a very long time it appeared that some of the misgivings were being brought to light for how treatment is provided within the veterans affairs hospitals. My sole intention for the FOIA request was to see if I could determine what percentages of men and women were separated administratively rather than attaining a Medical Board. Looking back, I wish I would have requested separated under military chapter 13 (AR 635-200) "Active Duty Enlisted Administrative Separations" instead of just "Administratively.
The Army was the only branch of service that honored the request without putting up some sort of excuse for a road block. The Navy informed me that I would be charged $1584 for the same information, soI am sure most will not be surprised when I state I withdrew my request.
The Army's FOIA request provided me with the information related to how many medical boards occurred since 2008 and the percentages that were issued for those boards.
*Number of Army members from 2008-2014 that received a Medical Evaluation Board and their percentages
Several veterans have come to me, via email and over social media and have told me their personal stories, many of them are the same. I was told about a situation where a military member was injured on active duty and rather than the medical unit referring him for a medical evaluation board, the command started an Administrative military chapter 5-17 discharge. The member was able to fight, but all too often, it is the active duty military member that was injured or ill is pushed out the base gate holding onto a DD214 and very little else for any compensation or benefits. Often the member is than expected (if even made aware) to go and stand in line to "apply" for disability compensation from the Veterans Administration.
It is intriguing to me that the number of active duty military members administratively discharged as it correlates to the number of new applicants for Veterans Disability compensation from the Veterans Administration would be similar or within alignment. It should not be hard to wonder why is one governmental body is bottle necked and has a backlog when five other bodies are literally passing the buck and pushing what should have been their obligation and responsibility before sending a military member out the door.
October 2012 the Veterans Administration Claim data showed that 883,930 claims were in inventory. As of January 2016, there was a reported 77,437 in Veterans Disability Compensation claims backlog. Since it was almost financially impossible to attain the numbers needed from all of the branches of the military to align against the Veterans Administrations claim trends, unfortunately my endeavor to glean more into what is happening within the system came to an abrupt halt.
If you are reading this and are still active duty military, I would urge you to literally keep copies of everything. Use an application on your cell phone such as Scanner Pro and save everything to the cloud. Take photos of your prescription bottles that you have been prescribed, take photos of any profiles you are provided, take photos of literally everything because too much will never be your issue, it will be not having what you need when you need it. You will be told you are not supposed to, but I have even known members that have set their cell phones to record audio of administrative and medical meetings. The ability to refer back to what was specifically said can be extremely valuable later if you ever need to file a formal complaint.
I know of a veteran that was in the process of getting ready to be separated from the Army for a administrative chapter 13 (5-17). The only reason why this member was not separated and instead was referred to a Medical Evaluation Board was because he filed a formal rebuttal which literally had a log of every conversation, every medial and administrative visit and even had copies of everything he was ever given (profile and medication). In this case, the military command was scrambling because much of what he provided for copies in his rebuttal the command was saying had never happened at all, so they were essentially caught in a huge lie.
Military regulations are clear and members are protected and have rights when it comes to getting a medical evaluation board. The ongoing problem is that so many active duty military members do not know their rights or are afraid to say something. Often times they are intimidated to not use their rights and are pushed out the door. The numbers within this article do not lie. From 2008 till 2014, 100k members were separated from the Army with a medical compensation percentage. A little over 14k a year received a rating as they walked out the gate.
According to an article by the Washington Times the Army plans to cut 40,000 troops from it's ranks by January 2018. Without needing to bring in all branches of the military in this article, it is a general assumption that the military is down sizing overall. In order to push such a large amount of individuals out the gate at a fast rate, the necessity to use the Chapter 13 will become the catch all and preferred method of achieving the overall end goal- reduction.
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