So - I was medivac'd from CENTCOM in 2016 for a laundry list of ailments and I spent 2 years going through a super painful LIMDU process, then PEB. In the end I had 10 referred diagnoses - that are really just descriptions of my symptoms - PTSD, Depression, TBI, Migraines, IBS and fibromyalgia so they can label them with a number. After 21 years total and 7 years attached to the SEAL teams, I'm exhibiting all of the signs of something called "Gulf War Syndrome" - this mystical thing that thousands of us have "for no apparent reason". It starts turning up about 10 years after combat operations in the Middle East - 2006 was my first deployment there. So in 2016 I went from perfectly healthy to barely being able to walk and carry on an intelligent conversation in less than a year and no one wants to tell me why.
In the end, the doctors just gave it a seaman salute and said they couldn't fix me - so the Navy kicked me out. At my formal board the lawyer said the board decided they "would only use the fibromyalgia to determine the UNFIT so they could move me immediately to PDRL because they felt sorry for the process I had been through - but it doesn't matter because you're past 20. If we use your other conditions, it will only put you on TDRL and you will have to go through this all over again in 2 years". He said it was a good deal, and it would allow me to "get on with my life" (whatever that means). I thought they were doing what was best for me - but I didn't understand the ramifications until now... The board had my VA disability numbers in front of them - so they had to know what they were about to do to me. I don't understand how this is legal. The VA had me at 100% - PTSD, Depression, TBI, Migraines are the top percentages - fibromyalgia is only 10% because the VA cannot double dip conditions. Everything together put me well over 200% so they just call it 100. Now - supposedly, because they have to consider the history of actual injuries to all of my various limbs in their own right so they can be covered as service connected injury for any complications later, the fibro cannot move up from 10% to the next category of 70%....even though I exhibit all of those symptoms as written for the top category.
Here is where I feel like I got robbed - when I just recently got my final paperwork from DFAS and the VA - I saw the actual numbers between the VA Disability % to the Navy% - VA had me at 100% (well over that for each condition separately) and Navy only listed 10% for Fibromyalgia because the Navy automatically awards whatever the VA determines. Fun fact - they HAVE to use whatever the VA says.
So it was recently explained to me that if the Navy had counted me as the full 100% disabled to match the VA - or least the 70-80% using my top 5 conditions that make it impossible to leave my house - that would give me over 70% of my base pay as my disability pay $3665 by my calculation. Instead, I'm getting 52% of my high 3 pay at $2650 - my traditional pension for 21 years..... That's $1000 a month for the rest of my life that they jipped me out of. And I have to pay tax on it because it's "retirement" instead of "disability". So my TBI will never go away...and neither will the PTSD, depression and all of the other symptoms directly related to it. The Navy literally broke me a full 10 years before I would have originally retired...I am now a shadow of who I used to be. I was on the fast track to Master Chief and fully intended to be a lifer since day one. And now I am NOT even an "able bodied" veteran that can run out and get a new job. I will have to depend on this money for the rest of my life. How can they justify the decision they made? Is there anyway to fight this? I was told I can't fight it... If my brain worked half as well as it used to - I would go to law school and learn how to sue the government for their BS. There has to be something...
After reading many entries on here, it seems like they should have used the 100% designation, even if they had to put me on "TDRL"...because at some point I would have been moved to PDRL no matter what. So basically they just save the Navy $12,000 for the rest of my probably short life.
In the end, the doctors just gave it a seaman salute and said they couldn't fix me - so the Navy kicked me out. At my formal board the lawyer said the board decided they "would only use the fibromyalgia to determine the UNFIT so they could move me immediately to PDRL because they felt sorry for the process I had been through - but it doesn't matter because you're past 20. If we use your other conditions, it will only put you on TDRL and you will have to go through this all over again in 2 years". He said it was a good deal, and it would allow me to "get on with my life" (whatever that means). I thought they were doing what was best for me - but I didn't understand the ramifications until now... The board had my VA disability numbers in front of them - so they had to know what they were about to do to me. I don't understand how this is legal. The VA had me at 100% - PTSD, Depression, TBI, Migraines are the top percentages - fibromyalgia is only 10% because the VA cannot double dip conditions. Everything together put me well over 200% so they just call it 100. Now - supposedly, because they have to consider the history of actual injuries to all of my various limbs in their own right so they can be covered as service connected injury for any complications later, the fibro cannot move up from 10% to the next category of 70%....even though I exhibit all of those symptoms as written for the top category.
Here is where I feel like I got robbed - when I just recently got my final paperwork from DFAS and the VA - I saw the actual numbers between the VA Disability % to the Navy% - VA had me at 100% (well over that for each condition separately) and Navy only listed 10% for Fibromyalgia because the Navy automatically awards whatever the VA determines. Fun fact - they HAVE to use whatever the VA says.
So it was recently explained to me that if the Navy had counted me as the full 100% disabled to match the VA - or least the 70-80% using my top 5 conditions that make it impossible to leave my house - that would give me over 70% of my base pay as my disability pay $3665 by my calculation. Instead, I'm getting 52% of my high 3 pay at $2650 - my traditional pension for 21 years..... That's $1000 a month for the rest of my life that they jipped me out of. And I have to pay tax on it because it's "retirement" instead of "disability". So my TBI will never go away...and neither will the PTSD, depression and all of the other symptoms directly related to it. The Navy literally broke me a full 10 years before I would have originally retired...I am now a shadow of who I used to be. I was on the fast track to Master Chief and fully intended to be a lifer since day one. And now I am NOT even an "able bodied" veteran that can run out and get a new job. I will have to depend on this money for the rest of my life. How can they justify the decision they made? Is there anyway to fight this? I was told I can't fight it... If my brain worked half as well as it used to - I would go to law school and learn how to sue the government for their BS. There has to be something...
After reading many entries on here, it seems like they should have used the 100% designation, even if they had to put me on "TDRL"...because at some point I would have been moved to PDRL no matter what. So basically they just save the Navy $12,000 for the rest of my probably short life.
