I wanted to say hello to everyone. Unlike many on this forum, I’m the husband of a veteran.
My wife was a victim of MST when she served in the Air Force back in the late 1980’s. And like many female service members, she was pretty much railroaded out of the Air Force by being given a diagnosis of “Immature personality disorder with histrionic features.” As many of you may be aware, this was used to so extensively by the armed forces to remove women from service who reported sexual assault that it is now widely recognized to be a false narrative reason for discharge. I have to say that with the amount of research that I had to do, finding examples of writing good case documents, probing for information in records, and being complete in filling out VA Form 21-0781a, I almost feel like and expert and reading and interpreting bureaucratic jargon. I also learned to be thorough and complete, because the last thing you want to do is have your case stalled because of insufficient information.
We filed her claim for VA disability benefits on 25 October, 2015. Unlike most reviews which can take upwards of 6 months or more, we received notification on 01 March, 2016 that she was rated 50% for PTSD related to the MST that occurred while she was on active duty.
We are currently working on getting her DD214 upgraded from “General – Under Honorable Conditions” with a narrative of “Misconduct—Other Serious Offenses” to an “Honorable Discharge,” hopefully with a Medical narrative. Her case was filed by VLI in late June of this year with the Air Force BCMR. Only after prodding by myself and a push from my senator’s office, we finally received a cursory email in late September letting us know the docket # that was assigned in early July. With an expected submission load of well over 10,000 cases this year alone, the expected wait time for an initial ruling will be 18 to 20 months.
So we are now in the waiting phase to see if the BCMR will grant her an upgrade to her discharge, and if the narrative will be changed to medical.
This is where I have questions. From reading many other comments on this forum and others, I keep seeing mentions of back pay and/or benefits back to the time of discharge. If her narrative is changed to medical, is she entitled to retroactive retirement benefits? If so, what are the next steps?
Thank you for your time. And to all of you who have served, I also want to say thank you for your service
My wife was a victim of MST when she served in the Air Force back in the late 1980’s. And like many female service members, she was pretty much railroaded out of the Air Force by being given a diagnosis of “Immature personality disorder with histrionic features.” As many of you may be aware, this was used to so extensively by the armed forces to remove women from service who reported sexual assault that it is now widely recognized to be a false narrative reason for discharge. I have to say that with the amount of research that I had to do, finding examples of writing good case documents, probing for information in records, and being complete in filling out VA Form 21-0781a, I almost feel like and expert and reading and interpreting bureaucratic jargon. I also learned to be thorough and complete, because the last thing you want to do is have your case stalled because of insufficient information.
We filed her claim for VA disability benefits on 25 October, 2015. Unlike most reviews which can take upwards of 6 months or more, we received notification on 01 March, 2016 that she was rated 50% for PTSD related to the MST that occurred while she was on active duty.
We are currently working on getting her DD214 upgraded from “General – Under Honorable Conditions” with a narrative of “Misconduct—Other Serious Offenses” to an “Honorable Discharge,” hopefully with a Medical narrative. Her case was filed by VLI in late June of this year with the Air Force BCMR. Only after prodding by myself and a push from my senator’s office, we finally received a cursory email in late September letting us know the docket # that was assigned in early July. With an expected submission load of well over 10,000 cases this year alone, the expected wait time for an initial ruling will be 18 to 20 months.
So we are now in the waiting phase to see if the BCMR will grant her an upgrade to her discharge, and if the narrative will be changed to medical.
This is where I have questions. From reading many other comments on this forum and others, I keep seeing mentions of back pay and/or benefits back to the time of discharge. If her narrative is changed to medical, is she entitled to retroactive retirement benefits? If so, what are the next steps?
Thank you for your time. And to all of you who have served, I also want to say thank you for your service