True. My ex wife never deployed. Spent one year in Okinawa out of her 7-year enlistment. She got a 30% rating right away. Definitely under rated. Uses VA health care exclusively. No private insurance

Then why did they allow cigarettes to be sold so cheaply in the commissary for so long?

I typically gave away my 3 drinks a day to anyone that was passing through from AFG or IRQ.  A bunch of us did.

For sure. At the time there were about 30 of us in the entire USMC. I’m sure it’s better now and parts of the job became different more specialized MOSs

I can attest to that as well.  All health care service connected and non service connected are paid for from my employer health insurance plan.

Warehouse had beer and wine at the French PX. The phone card guy at Souter could also score you Jim beam or whatever.

Yet, worship those who served, especially those who flew or carried a gun.

They definitely do not.

I didn't know until recently that was even an option.  It definitely wasn't when I got out in '95

I'm probably not eligible due to income requirements, but I may check it out

Very cool of you.

Are those people even eligible for medical?



Fuck that. I'll gladly pay for private insurance. Haven't been to the VA since 2005 when I dislocated my knee. 5 week wait for MRI and then 6 month wait for surgery (did PT and was 90% better so I never got surgery).

Disclosted same knee last year and had an MRI in 3 or 4 days with private medical.

I guess if you count Motrin as lifelong total care.

IIRC, they were making it harder to actually qualify for the rating. Being in a MOS that is constantly around noise, like Aviation, made it a slam-dunk for me. People that spend all of their time in an office, like 92A for example, have a harder time qualifying for it.

Medical benefits aren't based upon your location of service. Four years is longer than the shortest enlistment term and the time-in-service requirement is very short, because people get permanently injured or killed in Basic training.

This plus one... by the time I retired I had over 1800 pages of medical records. At one of my visits at around the 18 year mark, the PFC that was doing the intake exam asked me "damn, SSG... how are you even still in the Army?!"

Me: "Willpower, hate, and inertia."

I used to say nicotine, caffeine and hate.

I think my personal medical document collection is about an inch thick and my medical folder was about 2/3 of that. I even had my medical documents from when I was a minor dependent.

I can't hot link, but I recommended everyone Google and read; The Last Of the Light Brigade, by Kippling.

I never served in the military, but I imagine health care would be a huge incentive to join in an all-volunteer force. The Vietnam War ended one month before I graduated high school. Because of the draw down, I doubt they would even accept me as a volunteer straight out of high school.

People that begrudge veterans benefits should take the Oath and serve. I know a lot of drug addicts/alcoholics that have blamed their service time for not being able to hold a job, constantly scheming to get their disability percentage increased. I have volunteered a VA hospital over the course of many years and have seen it over and over again.

I have also seen people missing limbs and blinded, so there is that. There will always be people that take advantage of government benefits. I would prefer to see the total elimination of welfare before any talk of attacking our veteran's benefits.

Why are people so hung up on " out of country"?  Military get hurt or killed every day in CONUS. Every service member signed that blank check.  After that, they had very little say in where they were stationed/deployed.

Good post

Our country has lost her morals

It's because they didn't serve and don't understand how dangerous the job is in garrison. Even more so when they don't know the number of people that die in training.

Yes, I know, CNN...

CNN Article titled "More US Troops Die During Training Than In Combat Operations"

No shit, service is service....NOW!!! 30% for paper cuts or stapler malfunctions...

I remember a Bright Star exercise in Egypt circa 1980 or 1982 maybe?  Anyways it included the 82nd doing a Division Mass tac…..every swing dick jumping in….so maybe 14 or 15K paratroopers in the air. I want to say that maybe a dozen or so guys were killed during the jump….winds were marginal and some guys got drug into Wadis , etc…

The one thing I do remember was the Div CG's comments in Stars and Stripes. He basically said that we planned on about 25-30 guys getting killed and we only lost 12…or something like that, and that they did better than expected.

I never forgot that. War fighting is a dangerous business by nature and guys getting killed in training is part of maintaining a ready force. Safety is ceratinly a consideration but it doesn't drive the train.

Doing airdrop was my freakin' life back then and I sure don't remember that. Are you possibly thinking of the mishap during Gallant Eagle when five jumpers died because of the winds?

We had a vehicle rollover in Germany where we had a guy die. A few years later, a retard private shot his team leader in the ass during Team/Squad live fire in our sister company.

Here in Texas, we had a couple guys hit by lightning in the training area, one of which needed an amputation. The same field rotation, a squad leader in my platoon was driving guys back to the cantonment for a refit during a storm and the truck slipped off the road and he was killed. I've done two body recovery details looking for people who drowned in the training area when their vehicles were washed away near the high water crossing areas(one was an LMTV with 6-8 dead). In NTC, our Brigade lost a guy who was crushed between an Abrams and another vehicle and on a different rotation another guy was ran over while sleeping underneath an LMTV.

Shits dangerous.

You're right! Gallant Eagle, not Bright Star.  I'm all fucked up….NTC, not Egypt. Fuuucckkk….I'm getting old.  Here's the med report.

That sounds very unusual.  What was your MOS?  How did you avoid being chaptered or medical'd out?

I think anyone would argue you've earned your benefits.

We're talking about people who do four years in, never see combat or anything like it, and get out with zero injuries/disabilities.

Oh it has jumped up by a staggering amount.  

Not quite.  If you retire with 20 or more active you have Tricare Standard/Select (which you pay for) until you hit 65.  At 65 you MUST sign up for Medicare part A and B and be paying for Medicare part B for Tricare-for-Life (TFL) to kick in.  Medicare is then the primary, TFL is secondary payer.

I'm 61 y/o and spent the majority of my life, first as a military dependent and then as an active military service member under the military healthcare system.  When I retired after 30 years on active duty I became a field rep for a defense contractor and signed up for the company health plan.  I haven't stepped foot in a military hospital since.  I have a company health plan as my primary payer, Tricare Standard/Select as a secondary payer, and I have a 70% VA disability rating that allows me access to the VA if I so choose.  I NEVER utilize the VA.  My father was a WWII and Korea combat vet and seeing how the VA treated him left a bad taste in my mouth.  Not to mention the pain in the ass it takes to get the VA to do it's job.

Your pay is reduced by the VA benefit. So if it's anything decent you will be getting points only. You need to get at least 50% or you can kiss your retirement away at 60 as well.

The system does not make a whole lot of sense. Also why I waited until my last year to start filing.

I did not read the article post above so feel free to correct me if I fucked this up but....

ETA....there was a link back like on page 3 or something, what I did not include was income limits for each "tier of healthcare"

My understanding is you get your service connected disabilities and any thing that might have came from it free for life.  For instance, say your a paratrooper and fall/pushed out of a plane...(who the fuck would jump out of a perfectly good airplane right....right.... ).....on the landing you bust your ankle really good.  You get off active duty and file your VA claim and get it service connected (this claim should be fairly easy since you did get it put in your service record right....right?).  Years later from this injury you need knee surgery due to walking funny since that point, also have to file a claim and get that service connected (this injury will also go to a review board, it may or may not be granted).  Once the second injury is service connected you can get treated for it for free as well.  Now say your out walking and get hit by a bus, that is not service connected and may or may not be free*.

The bus incident is where it gets sketchy.  Once your rated over a certain % you can go to the VA for free in many cases.  The fact they gave sleep apnea people 50% and PTSD for getting yelled at in boot camp is where the "fake" 100% disabled Vets stuff comes from.  I believe this is 100% free healthcare at this point.  (as a note I do believe sleep apnea is a problem and some sever cases deserve the 50% but I saw a at least 5 over weight people get tested in their last year....they all got it.  PTSD is real and the ones who fake it just hurt the ones that really need help by clogging up the system).

I will say I have seen both sides of the coin, a Vet that did 87 tours in Vietnam and gets blown up by white phosphorus grenade missing half his body get 30% while some kid fresh off the street goes to book camp and got a hang nail....proceeds to join a facebook group for all the hints and tricks to get rated 100%.  It took them over 30 years to get all the people that drank the water at Camp Lejeune some help after trying to kill them.....  I want to say if your truly disabled my hats off to you but if your scamming the system faking stuff to get that extra 10-90% then go ask your parents for help because I am all out of fucks to give.  These people just make it harder for the real cases to get seen.

ETA...and to answer OP's question in my opinion.  (When did it change to everyone thinking they get free healthcare for life if your a veteran.):

My thoughts before I joined, if I get hurt they would take care of me.  If I served 20 years and got an honorable discharge they would take care of me.  After serving it was similar but the free healthcare after 20 was instead just less $$$ than normal healthcare Via Tricare.  

I still stand by my opinion of when they opened the flood gates to all sorts of things the tide shifted.  Overall I want to see the older vets that got denied get a fair shake before I cut the welfare rats off.

We expect care after lifelong service to our country.  I did not retire, so I am not one.  The fucking illegals seem to get all for free.

15Y. Army Aviation is an odd branch in that some units (looking at you, 122 ASB, IYKYK) try to be more hooah than hooah, meaning the senior leadership likes to make us do Infantry-type stuff in favor of Aviation type stuff. One shining example was that we were the only ones wearing face paint in the field at Hohenfels when not even the Infantry cats that we were supporting were wearing it. We are also exposed to a lot of industrial hazards, chemicals, mechanical hazards, etc. So, I have joint and musculoskeletal issues, GERD, tinnitus/hearing loss, etc.

I haven't went through all 1800 pages, but I would make the assumption that some of them are Rx records, "this page left blank," referrals, imaging, pre and post-deploymemt health screenings, etc. I had one condition that was a med board trigger. I told the Doc that I could still do my job, so they didn't initiate a MEB. My health took a turn for the worse at around year 15, and I went through a few surgical procedures to correct chronic issues between year 15 and 18. I learned early on thatt I got better results by skipping Sick Call in favor of just making appointments with my PCM to have issues addressed, and I started every conversation with the Doc with "I want the pain to go away/function restored, and I want my retirement."

I’m exaggerating but illegals sure seem to get red carpet treatment in California

I snapped my tib/fib and had a “Terrible Triad” in my left knee playing football for my base team in Okinawa in ‘78.  My knee never healed, and has bothered me my whole life.  Found fit for full duty and served out the rest of my enlistment.  Had the knee replaced on my civilian insurance.  The bad knee has caused hip and back issues over the years. Never applied or sought out VA benefits until a few years ago.  Fortunately, I had copies of all my medical records from the time it happened, until discharge.

They said “10%”.  Now I’m on Triwest for full healthcare.  Still debating whether I need Medicare Part B in a couple of months, or save the money and stick with Triwest.

Wow. I would have never thought that…..makes sense though,  I suppose.

Good luck to you. The chemical stuff is insidious and can cause all sorts of glandular, musculoskeletal, psychological, and a host of other health related issues. Nasty stuff and I'd rather take a bullet that prolonged exposure in that environment.  Wish you the best and hang in there.

Probably beat but here goes nothing:

"When the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act allowed veterans with service-connected disabilities and those enrolled in the Department of Veterans Affairs' caregiver program to access the base, the 88th Security Forces Squadron didn't have a hard time with the influx of veterans requesting access, said Patrick Poth, chief of plans and programs for the 88th at Wright-Patt. They opened up early registration for veterans to get base access.

Although entrance rules might vary by base, most operate under the same procedures as Wright-Patterson. To get base access there, eligible veterans first need to get their Veterans Health Identification Card (VHIC) from the enrollment office of their local VA. Usually, you just need to have a photo taken, and your new ID will show up in the mail within a few weeks."

Beat but I don’t think anyone will previously mentioned 2019 NDAA

Veterans should get more medical care than illegals.

Government insurance card.

Provider paid at the rate of Medicare.
CARD good anywhere for any care that was service related.
Co-pay established by years of service.

I'll stick with the VA clinics. Thanks.

So a guy enlists at 18. he goes to Iraq and gets his legs blown off by an IED. he has 1 year of service. He has a co-pay?

... and most veterans never use the VA.  I deployed in two wars, was not injured other than the eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee in my ears and quite frankly that was as much the fault of the lawnmower my father had when I was a kid as it was the Army.

I've never visited a VA facility since I resigned my commission and I don't ever expect to.

Probably beat again but....

You can not receive VA disability and drill pay concurrently.  It can depend on the amount you normally get in drill pay Vs VA disability.  Take the monthly amount of VA disability and divide by the number of days in that month (not sure if they just use 28 or not ).  Hopefully your drill pay should be obvious how much per day.  There is a form to fill out and give to your command if you accept VA disability over your drill pay, not sure how to file it the other way?  I think it is easier to do it that way but could be leaving money on the table, just remember that VA disability is tax free.

If he has Tricare, then he is either retired, or still actively serving in the Reserves, or his wife is one of those two options.

Nobody that serves "a few hours" as you suggest, would be qualified for Tricare on that merit alone...

Don't forget, military service was open to everyone that met the qualifications, and our military has been 100% voluntary for quite some time