Prisoners of war suffer in ways most veterans don’t, enduring humiliating forced marches, torture or other trauma that may haunt them long afterward. In partial recompense, the government extends them special benefits, from free parking and tax breaks to priority in medical treatment.
Trouble is, some of the much-admired recipients of these benefits apparently don’t deserve them.
There are only 21 surviving POWs from the first Gulf War in 1991, the Department of Defense says. Yet the Department of Veterans Affairs is paying disability benefits to 286 service members it says were taken prisoner during that conflict, according to data released by VA to the Associated Press.
A similar discrepancy arises with Vietnam POWs. Only 661 officially recognized prisoners returned from that war alive — and about 100 of those have since died, according to Defense figures. But 966 purported Vietnam POWs are getting disability payments, the VA said.
Being classified as a POW doesn’t directly increase a veteran’s monthly disability check. There’s no “POW payment.”
But a tale of torture and privation can influence whether a vet receives some money or nothing at all in disability payments — and the VA’s numbers raise questions about how often such tales are exaggerated or invented altogether.
For one Korean War veteran, a made-up story helped to ensure more than $400,000 in benefits before his lies were discovered. A Gulf War vet told a tale of beatings and mock executions, though he was never even a POW.
At the root of the problem is a disconnect between two branches of government: The Defense Department determines POW status and posts the lists online; the VA awards benefits, but evidently does not always check the Defense list to verify applicants’ claims. Result: Numbers of benefit recipients that are higher than the number of recognized POWs.
“They’re either phonies or there’s a major administrative error somewhere,” retired Navy Cmdr. Paul Galanti, who is on a VA advisory panel for POW issues, said when told of the agency’s numbers.
Galanti, who was shot down over North Vietnam in 1966 and spent nearly seven years in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton” prison, calls the discrepancy “outrageous” and adds: “Somebody ought to get fired for that.”
There’s incentive to lie. A 100 percent disability rating can be worth more than $35,000 a year in tax-free VA benefits for a married veteran with at least one dependent child — not to mention also making the veteran eligible for Social Security disability payments, and full health coverage and significant educational benefits for himself and his family.
POWs are exempt from co-pays for VA inpatient and outpatient care and medications. Many states offer POWs free parking at public facilities, property tax exemptions and a waiver of vehicle registration fees, benefits worth hundreds or thousands of dollars a year.
It’s surprisingly easy to fake a record of being a war prisoner. P.O.W. Network co-founder Mary Schantag has purchased stacks of surplus military separation forms on the Internet.
“These guys are way too good at it,” said Schantag, who formed the group with her husband, Chuck. “And the people at the VA are NOT good enough at it.”
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