So it's been quite a while...so a little update for any other type-1s fighting the good fight.
So after our (I say "our" because I'm as much invested in this as my husband--but he's got other things to do, like look for a job) first discharge memorandum came back with a litany of notable errors, my husband's reconsideration request took another 6 months to respond to. So, in that timeframe, we wrote a very detailed Congressional Inquiry that pointed to the numerous errors/inconsistencies throughout our specific case (though I'm sure you all have similar issues with your own cases).
I think the only thing that the Congressional did was speed up the discharge, truthfully, because magically after the inquiry was in the que, our reconsideration came back within a few days.
The lowdown of the reconsideration was a bunch of b.s. akin to this: 3 pages of them applauding themselves for even permitting a reconsideration and attaching some AFI policy to prove how magnanimous they were for even allowing it. Then, they acknowledged their errors, but said they didn't use the information they wrote in their previous findings--those were only put in there for "illustrative purposes." Then, after saying they didn't use that information to render a decision, their new discharge has virtually nothing in common with their first discharge memorandum--mostly because we called them out for just about everything they wrote, so they couldn't very well repeat those mistakes again. And, like in our previous 3 sets of findings, they simply ignored anything in our favor (which is the majority of it). Ultimately, the reason my husband's diabetes is considered unfitting is because he poses too much of a risk to himself, or so they say--funny, he has had it for 10 years and nothing has changed...so why did that risk increase exponentially between January and July, the timeframe in which they drafted an entirely new discharge memo? Seems a little suspicious to us...
The response from the Congressional Inquiry was laughable. We had posed about 20 questions. They answered one: we implied that the MEB process is being used as a RIF tool--based on senior leaders telling us there was pressure on the PEB to lower the return to duty rate, and friends of ours with a variety of medical conditions who were also suddenly in similar situations as us. Of course, since it is not permissible to use the MEB in such a manner, the official response is that the MEB is completely unrelated to the Force-shaping process. So in order to prove to our Senator just how legit their response is, they said "we've been consistent in rendering decisions about type-1 diabetics. To prove this, every type-1 diabetic who met the board in fiscal years 2011, 2012 and 2013 were found unfit for duty." Hmmmm...then please explain to me where my husband fits in with that statistic, since he was found fit for duty in fiscal year 2011 when insulin-therapy began. Oh, and two of our friends who were returned to duty in 2012 upon initial diagnosis. Our Senator's (Patty Murray) assistant allowed us to rebut to their response due to this blatant lie. So the Legislative Liaison team responded and just repeated verbatim their initial response--but removed their incorrect statistic. They never responded to any of our other questions and simply said "we have closed this case, the only recourse is to apply to the AFBCMR." His 30 day out processing began and he is officially off active duty as of late January 2015, 13 days shy of 15 years.
He did apply to the VA to see if they would reconsider retiring him. While we didn't really think anything would come of it, what we were sort of hoping would happen is that the lengthy time frame in which they consider those cases would take him over the 15-year mark and allow him to apply for certain programs like LAS or TERA. We are completely firm in our belief that my husband's diabetes has no affect on his duties--to support this, he was just selected for promotion to Lieutenant Colonel (quite coincidentally, he was informed of his promotion on the same day he received his discharge orders). And if he had not been caught up in this MEB, would have gone to IDE and been one of a handful of Majors in CE to be considered for Command (typically, LtCol slots). We were not trying to seem inconsistent and try to take an entirely new path by saying that after he got discharged that he was falling apart so he could get retired. All he did was say while I contend that I am a fit and vital diabetic, here are a few things to consider about my day/diet. But don't take my word for it, take the AF's word for it--and he quoted all the things the previous Boards had written in previous findings about how bad diabetes is. But it was a lost cause, as the VA found that they couldn't retire him because he is clearly a well controlled diabetic who is fully capable of enduring physical strenuous activities. Hmmm...that's funny. That is the argument we've been making these past 21 months, and yet the AF translates his case as he is a poorly controlled patient who isn't capable of handling the strenuous military environment. Wow...same medical record and evidence before both panels, and this is how incongruous the decision-making is? Unfortunately, our response to the Legislative Liaison's lie sped up our VA processing--somehow, given the enormous backlog at the VA, our case was processed some 4 months quicker than everyone else--likely because we had a Congressional in the que and they had to act on it in some capacity. So rather than give a valid response, their action was a quicker discharge.
So, after leaving Hawaii and getting our case together, we just submitted our AFBCMR appeal, for whatever that is worth. Now the wait begins. However, after reading over so many sad stories on this forum, it's difficult to get our hopes up.
