Retired Army 1st Sgt. Arthur C. Thornburgh of Ewell, Ala., figures the Department of Defense owes him $20,000 so far in combat-related special compensation.
The missing payments, he claims, go back to June 1, 2003, the day he applied and also the day the compensation program began.
Thornburgh, 68 and a former helicopter crew chief who survived several combat tours in Vietnam, received notice March 23 that he is eligible for tax-free compensation, based on his 70-percent disability rating from the Department of Veterans Affairs for post-traumatic stress disorder.
But after nine months, he must wait to learn officially whether his compensation will reflect his VA 100-percent "unemployable" rating, which would double the size of his tax-free payment to more than $2,200 a month.
Thornburgh and thousands of retirees with 20 or more years of service and severe disabilities, have seen long waits for combat-related compensation decisions. Particularly frustrating has been the lack of Defense Department guidance on such compensation for retirees deemed to be unemployable or eligible for the VA’s special monthly compensation for severely debilitating injuries or illnesses.
Their concerns may be eased this month. Defense officials have promised within weeks to publish long-awaited guidance on the compensation programs. Also on the way, four months behind schedule, is a new compensation application for an expanded pool of eligible retirees, those with 20 years of service, active or reserve, and with combat-related disabilities as low as 10 percent.
The Bush administration’s early opposition to compensation, or any relaxation of the ban on "concurrent receipt" of full military retirement and VA disability compensation, fuels speculation by disabled retirees that the delays involve either politics or an attempt to hold down program costs.
Arguing against that idea are Department of Defense officials, who deny it and the reality that compensation payments are retroactive to June 2003 for those with Purple Heart wounds and combat-related disability ratings of 60 percent or higher or to January 2004 for retirees with combat-related disabilities of 10 to 50 percent.
Service officials say lack of compensation guidance and a new application not only have frustrated applicants but have stunted what they expected would be a tidal wave of new applicants in early 2004.
"There are 500,000 Army veterans with VA-rated injuries that could be eligible for (combat-related compensation) under one of the four scenarios: direct combat, instrumentality of war, simulating war (training), and hazardous duty," said Col. John F. Sackett, chief of the compensation branch in the Army Human Resources Command based in Alexandria, Va. "We’ve only received 25,000 to date."
The Air Force also expected a flood and hasn’t seen it.
By March, 153,000 retirees began receiving concurrent retirement and disability payments, an automatic benefit and an option to applying for compensation. Service officials suspect that the concurrent payments, paid to retirees with 20 or more years and any type of service-connected disabilities rated 50 percent or higher, has left some retirees confused about combat-related compensation.
With the extra pay coming in, retirees might decide not to apply for compensation, unaware they could see even higher payments. Some might be discouraged by the hassle of a five-page application, the need to provide supporting documents to show injuries or illness relate to combat, and the prospect of a long wait for a decision. But that would be a mistake.
Air Force combat-related compensation expert Kathy Garfield said the service has been encouraging retirees for months to use the old compensation application if they don’t want to wait for the new one. They simply can ignore, or amend by hand, references to the now out-dated "60 percent" disability threshold.
"Our biggest priority," added Cook, "is to find people who are eligible and get them compensated."
Win Reither, a retired officer who monitors combat-related compensation for his Web site, www.crlegislation.com, says the great challenge ahead is "to avoid the coming train wreck of 150,000 (compensation) applications this year."
The services have processed only 24,000 applications of 43,000 received since June. So the tidal wave looms.
Comments are welcomed. Write to Military Update, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA 20120-1111, e-mail milupdate@aol.com or visit his Web site at: www.militaryupdate.com.
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