difficult child's (and PCs) planning to go into the military

[Sara PA]

In the past week there has been a lot of publicity about the military dismissing personnel with "pre-existing personality disorders". The thrust of the articles is that in order to get out of paying for treatment of PTSD which is the result of serving in the Middle East war zones, the military is claiming that the personnel had a pre-existing conditions. The part that really caught my eye in this is the report that one young man who agreed to the personality disorder label rather than the PTSD one was then asked to repay his enlistment bonus.

WASHINGTON After two combat tours in Iraq on a "quick reaction team" that picked up body parts after suicide bombings, Donald Schmidt began suffering from nightmares and paranoia. Then he had a nervous breakdown.

The military discharged Schmidt last Oct. 31 for problems they said resulted not from post-traumatic stress disorder but rather from a personality disorder that pre-dated his military service.

Schmidt's mother, Patrice Semtner-Myers, says her son was told that if he agreed to leave the Army he'd get full benefits. Earlier this month, however, they got a bill in the mail from a collection agency working for the government, demanding that he repay his re-enlistment bonus, plus interest — $14,597.72.

Schmidt, 23, who lives near Peoria, Ill., is one of more than 22,000 service members the military has discharged in recent years for "pre-existing personality disorders" it says were missed when they signed up.

"They used these guys up, and now they're done with them and they're throwing them away," Semtner-Myers said.

 

[BusynMember]

OMG. How typical of a certain person who will go unamed.
I'm personally glad my grown sons didn't choose the military. Their stepfather had been in the AF for ten years and managed to avoid combat, but I can't imagine how anyone can fight and kill other people, even for their country, and not have problems. And now the government doesn't even want to help these boys and girls (and, yes, they are THAT young). in my opinion it's pathetic.

 

[susiestar]

It is not just pathetic, it is evil. Not a word I use lightly.

Susie