Define “enemy”.
I had a relative who did two tours in Viet Nam in the Air Police (Air Force MP) as they were formerly known.
During one tour at Da Nang air base there was a race riot. The AP had to put it down. One of the rioters cut him in the hand with a broken beer bottle. Purple Heart ensued.
Let me begin by saying legitimate disability that causes lifelong pain and/or, well, ‘disability’ should be compensated.
Having said that, the effort among some military members approaching retirement turns into a ‘competition’ or quest for the highest rating possible with little regard to their actual day-to-day physical or mental health. Reform is necessary.
My dad is a WWII vet, he was drafted in 1944 and is 98 years old now. He caught scarlet fever while serving and spent a time in a convalescent hospital before going on to serve on his ship, but no real lasting impact to his health. He’d been given a 10% disability for most of his adult life, but at one time in his 80s his VA designated him as 100% disabled. I’m not sure what the change was, he certainly has more health issues now.
It is very difficult to generalize across all veterans, let alone all recipients of VA disability benefits. But I’ll express my opinion that some non-zero percentage of disabled veterans are fuckups, bullshitters, and goldbricks - pretty much as is a non-zero percentage of any other segment of society.
You know your SIL. If you think he’s a bullshitter gaming the system, I wouldn’t worry overmuch about second-guessing yourself.
My impression (having some familiarity with disability claims during the past few decades) is that when VA disability backlogs were being widely reported, the response was to pay more people to eliminate the backlog. You claim you have bad dreams? Here’s 100% disability for you! In my job I regularly encounter 100% disabled veterans claiming PTSD who were never in combat zones, and who are capable of leading very full and active lives. Many were working without apparent issue before they realized they could claim disability instead. Such claimants consistently convey the most entitled attitude of any claimants I encounter.
Just my anecdotal experience, and having nothing to bear on the awarding of purple hearts.
Again, I’m not talking about all veterans. But IMO, a sizeable percentage of them are playing the system. I also do not personally agree with the VA’s legal definition of disability, nor do I understand why they can receive SS disabity with no set-off, but that’s the law.
It used to be stupidly easy to claim disability, if one was so inclined (I wasn’t). I knew guys who were retiring on my-back-hurts claims of 50% disability, when they were no more disabled than I was. After I developed diabetes long after retiring, a woman told me that I should go to the VA and claim disability. This was right after she told me how all those damned immigrants were scamming the system for benefits. 
When was “used to” in your opinion?
My impression is that they started aggressively paying down the backlog starting around 2010 or so. Is that the period you are talking about, or some time earlier?
I assume everyone knows that 100% VA disability does not suggest an individual is incapable of working. And you can work full time, and continue to receive your disability bens. I personally think that odd, but them’s the rules.
On the one hand, it is very real, the toll military service can have on your body, hearing, mind… And some vets experience trauma at the hands of their noble fellows. OTOH, it is extremely infrequent that I encounter a 100% disabled vet whose injuries resulted from combat. See enough vets who were cooks in Germany and are receiving 100% disab due to PTSD, and you can get a tad jaded…
A cow-orker who was a marine squad leader in Iraq expressed the opinion that nearly everyone he knew who claimed PTSD was a fuck-up from day 1. Had no business even serving. Just one anecdote.
Apparently, it was rather common practice in WW2 that the purple hearts would be awarded at the hospital: a general or other high-ranking officer came through with a box of medals and handed them to all the wounded troops therein. Recordkeeping might or might not be complete.
A person claiming to work for the National Archives wrote several years ago:
The awarding of Purple Hearts was a decentralized process and there is no single collection of records for purple heart award files. General orders awarding Purple Hearts are typically found in individual unit records or the records of the military hospital where the soldier was treated. These orders typically consist of a list of soldiers receiving the award, however they do not contain details of the nature of the injuries or the circumstances in which the injury was received.
Yeah, I have heard of that.
The father of a friend of mine was a meteorologist in the Air Force. Purple Hearts are rather rare among meteorologists, and he never wore it because he didn’t want to explain how he got it.
He and some friends were playing golf at a course on the edge of the air base. He was standing behind a tree, taking a leak, when the Viet Cong started shelling the base. A piece of shrapnel struck the back of his hand. “If I were left-handed, your sister would never have been born.”
I told my friend that his father was nuts. If I had a story like that, I would tell it every chance I got.
I retired in 1990, and I recall people who preceded me getting medical disability from the VA.
Not long ago, four civilian weathermen were posthumously awarded Purple Hearts for WWII service.
Other civilians to have received Purple Hearts include journalists, the most famous of whom may be Ernie Pyle.
Thank you for encouraging me to consider my SIL’s VA rating in a new light. I really hadn’t considered that there are disabilities that are difficult to observe directly, even among family members. I know his experiences in a combat zone have to have left scars on him; I don’t believe someone can serve in combat and not be changed by it.
I continue to have concerns about my SIL’s honesty regarding his approach to his VA rating and his applications for SS benefits as well, but I appreciate being reminded that I may not be privy to all that he has revealed to the professionals who have evaluated him.
Speaking of Purple Hearts, can anyone confirm this story? In 1945, the US was preparing for an invasion of the Japanese Home Islands. This operation was expected to inflict truly staggering casualties on both sides. In anticipation of this, the War Department ordered an unprecedented number of Purple Hearts from suppliers. Of course, the atomic bomb made the invasion unnecessary. I remember reading somewhere that the Department of Defense is still awarding Purple Hearts from the supply ordered in preparation for the Japan invasion that never happened. Does anyone know if that is true?
I have heard that also, and this cite confirms it did occur-
*Fortunately, the invasion never took place. All the other implements of that war – tanks and LSTs, bullets and K-rations – have long since been sold, scrapped or used up, but the Purple Heart medals struck for their great grandfathers’ generation are still being pinned on the chests of young soldiers. *
In all, approximately 1,531,000 Purple Hearts were produced for the war effort, with production reaching its peak as the Armed Services geared up for the invasion of Japan. Despite wastage, pilfering, and items that were simply lost, the reserve of decorations stood at approximately 495,000 after the war.
Just having diabetes isn’t enough. If you were exposed to Agent Orange then it could be a qualifying condition for the VA.
Bill Mauldin was hit by shrapnel from a German mortar round in Italy (it was his practice to spend three or four days at the front gathering material before returning to the Stars and Stripes office to produce his cartoons). The shrapnel barely broke his skin and the wound hardly bled, so he went to an aid station where they basically put a band-aid on it and sent him on his way. While he was checking out the clerk reached behind him and grabbed a Purple Heart from a pile and handed it to him; when Mauldin protested that he didn’t deserve it, the clerk told him he might as well take it since it would give him some extra points when it came time to go home (adding that a ration box made a dandy mailing container).
Hell, man, just being in Vietnam exposed me to all manner of shit. We did an entire project up in Hai Van Pass, where all the foliage had been burned off the trees by. . .something. If diabetes is the worst thing that happens to me, I feel fortunate.
“The enemy," retorted Yossarian with weighted precision, "is anybody who’s going to get you killed, no matter which side he’s on, and that includes Colonel Cathcart. And don’t you forget that, because the longer you remember it, the longer you might live.”
― Joseph Heller, Catch-22
Can you get a PH if you are injured by friendly fire? Or by an accident not your fault, such as an ammunition store blowing up?
Oddly the VA didnt count the malaria my dad got, which eventually lead to his death (weak heart, died at 74)
The difficulty is proving that its service related. Making sure things are properly documented is often not a priority when you are at war. Especially then. That’s why separate laws were needed to make certain conditions mandatory. It’s proven that Agent Orange exposure makes you more likely to get diabetes. It’s impossible to for an individual to prove their diabetes was caused by Agent Orange exposure. So Congress had to pass a law making it automatic for those exposed (along with many other conditions). If the law wasn’t passed then most wouldn’t be able to be treated.
Then that woman was right. You should put in a claim.