So I did three combat tours in Iraq and received Purple
Heart. Suffered a concussion, A/C separation, many knees, ankle injury along with the shrapnel I took earning a purple heart

I got out in 2006 Marines did not care about what I had deserved or earned! I have not collected a penny from the government. In 2006 I was told my records were not at Quantico. This wants on for a year and I went on with life.

My wife who is a VA RN and everyone wants me to register. I don't want to because I don't want to work to be taken away from me! I know I'm near 100% of everything.

I have a buddy or a brother who is 100% DAV and he earned it having only 1.5 of his lungs left. Yet I don't feel I earned it? I'm alive kicking and wanting to work! Guess I'm most scared of not being able
to work!

If my spelling and grammar are bad yes it's because I have been what McClintock would say I have been doing some thinking drinking!

You can still work and collect depending. There are folks who have never seen OCONUS and have 100%. Gov gonna be subsidised anyways

Lee Marvin always collected his veterans disability, no matter how much he was making in the movies (which wasn't nearly as much back then as today).
When asked about he said he had earned it the hard way and deserved it - he also had earned a purple heart in WWII.
Take the money and don't worry about it, that purple heart shows you earned it the hard way.

I would rather someone like you getting paid rather than someone who doesn't deserve it getting paid.

Not .mil but this popped up in Active Topics.

From the outside looking in whether you file it or not is up to you but it is a job and disability payments are part of the compensation package. If you were scamming for something you didn't deserve then yes, you should feel bad. If the injuries were caused by your job during your service term then that's legit. FWIW those disability payments don't mean you're unable to work just that you lost a % of your max potential that you can't get back.

Would you feel bad about BAH, GI Bill, or Tricare?

If you do it, join a veterans group and have an advocate walk you through the process.  It can be frustrating and if you try to do it alone, you will likely fail.  Friends of mine are members of AVU in CA and this is what their group does for Veterans.

Veterans are entitled to collect disability, and still work.  It's not necessarily a reflection on your ability to do any work, it represents the disability you incurred while serving.

OP, go apply for your benefits since you have earned them. And as others have said, have a Veteran Service Officer help you with the claim process.

The only thing that would keep you from being "gainfully employed" is if you have the "UI" designation behind any disability rating. UI stands for Unemployable Individual.

You can be rated at 100% and still work, as long as you do not have the UI designation.

In my case, I'm actually rated at 70% with the UI designation. What that means is I get paid (and all benefits) as someone rated at 100%. To keep all 100% benefits/pay, I cannot be gainfully employed. If I were to be gainfully employed, my pay/benefits would be at the 70% rating. Yes my service connected disabilities do keep me from working.

I know how you feel feeling like you are so much better off than a brother or sister who suffered more. Hard not to feel guilty but you deserve your benefits. Register now as you never know how those injures will affect you down the line. Get set up in the system before you truly need it. Much harder when sick or unable to function to jump through the hoops

This.  You didn't create the benefits programs you are entitled to, and you have actually sacrificed in order to receive them.

Hell yes take them.

I want guys like you who served to get what you deserve, it’s one of the few things I’m happy to pay taxes for.

If the military broke you, it is their responsibility to do their part in making you right (that is what the VA exists for).

Even if you don't feel that you deserve the money (hell, donate it to a good cause if you don't want it), get everything taken care of and recorded for the simple fact that you don't know that one day you wont be out of a job with no healthcare other than the VA to turn to.  With the damage you describe, its in the realm of possibility that it could prevent you from getting work in the future.

That would drive me crazy if I did that and my wife also! I did not have a job for about a year and took care of my kids and the home.

I drove my wife crazy! I also felt I was going crazy! Nothing but respect for you Brother!

My feeling is that I could not do that at all. I'm still 40 years young and can do more at my job lifting 100+ lbs boxes of meat then snowflakes half my age! Don't call out because I have pains from working hard the day before!

Really your 18 or 19 and call out when you have pains from lifting boxes when a guy who is old enough to be your Dad (I do have a 19 year old son.) Is doing this job full time! 5 days a week 40+ hours a week. Sorry for the rant!

I know I need to go in and get what I earned. I have not been to a doctor since I left the military! Don't care too really.

I Just need to stop being bullhead! Waste a day off and get this done!

That's why I have a sugar Mama! With a GOV job and health plan!

Yet your right I need to go in and take care of this since 2006 been to long!

Not really joking about the Sugar Mama! She was the person who bought me gear the military would not get for me or ask me to buy! It was only because of her that made my time in Iraq OK! She sent me the 20 lbs of beef jerky I dried  during my 6 months stateside!

Can't beat that! Also so probably paid for 90+% of it!

You should never feel bad about using benefits you agreed to receive. Don't abuse it, but don't get all self riotous and NOT use them either. It's a HUGE part of your total compensation.

I am 100% and the VA told me I can work, however its wouldn't be something that required heavy lifting, concentrating for hours or standing for long periods.

You earned it OP, nothing to feel ashamed about. go talk to your local VA rep and they will explain it.

There are folks collecting 100% for doing far less

I know that trust me! I once was a student of a guy who received 100% DAV because he got drunk and dove into a 1 foot deep pool and broke his neck!

I also get hear about a lot of Vets who take advantage of the system from my wife! Not that she gives me names or I'd ask for them or care to! Yet to hear people who were medical discharge for asthma in boot camp and they received 100% DAV makes me laugh.

OP.  sorry this is a late reply but I went through exactly what your dealing with.  1 tour Iraq, EAS'd in 2005.  I went to the VA directly after my EAS and spent an entire day at the local VA hospital getting poked and prodded.  Came down to my last exam and a haji doctor was a total fucking asshole, we got into an argument, he called me a liar, I straight lost my shit and was escorted out of the building by VAPD.  Only reason I wasn't charged was bc the cop was a fellow Marine and he could tell I wasn't in a good place.  I rotated back from Iraq in Aug05, EAS'd in Sept05, at the VA by Oct05.   so everything was very fresh.

I didnt look or think about the VA until last year.  went 13 yrs without doing anything about anything.  things started to come up and creep back and it took a brother I served with to convince me to go back.  he works for the VA now and he promised me things were far different now.  Im tailing towards the end of my claim process and things are going better than I expected.  Its still stressful, and I still really fucking hate doing it.  But things are coming up that are now affecting my full time job so bottomline is I need this shit covered incase I can't do my actual job anymore, someday.

I urge you to go through the process.  Im not proud of it, I dont feel great about it...but it needs to be done.  I know for a fact there's some scumbag fucks that dont deserve shit and are collecting.  At least there's some of us that actually are fucked up and could use the help

Get it done brother,  just bite the fucking bullet and do it.

You earned it.  You may not have suffered as much as some, but you suffered more than others.

They offer it and you legally obtain it....it's yours.  If you don't elect to take it, that's up to you.  But it's there, you aren't conning anyone to get it if you are telling the truth (not saying you aren't, I just don't know more than you are saying so....internet and all).

If you don't feel you are due, fine.  But I've known people who were way less injured than you who were taking disability.  People who didn't do as much as you at the call of the nation, and got it.  Please take it.

What is a haji doctor?

I had considered registering with the Veterans Administration and going through the process.  Decided against it when Obama allowed the VA to start gun confiscation via their Statement of Understanding with the FBI for those who could no longer manage their finances.

That should be a family decision - not the governments.

As far as I know, the VA no longer pursues that, but, another Obama can do it again, I'm sure.

Getting rained on the very first Five times I had Guard Duty.
24 hours of CQ Duty.
Training in garrison or the field.

OK, I served during Peace Time.
But when I served the Berlin Wall was up and the guards were shooting people.  It was The Cold War.
16 Active Duty Divisions and an unknown amount of NG and Reserves brigades.

People still got hurt or killed while training.  I know a corporal that had an accident that left him paralyzed.

Come November I'm in line for these goodies and meals.  I've earned those meals.  I've even earned those glasses.

While I know I've earned my spot on those line I know people that have earned their spot in those lines more than I ever have.
YOU EARNED a spot on those lines more than me.  
Why are you complaining?  You need some help?  Help is out there just waiting out there for you!

Stop being like that character in the book The White Donkey  He needed help but refused to get any.
Get the Help You Earned

Sounds like you've earned it.  Go get it.  With that said, I understand where you're coming from.

I retired in 2015 and never filed a claim and I will not - ever.  My injuries do not keep me from doing anything I want to do.  Sure, I move slow sometimes and I hurt in certain places, but I get over it and do what I need or want to do.  I do not feel disabled so I will not claim that I am.

This is part of what you signed up for. Your signature on that line with Uncle Sams entitles you to the benefits you have earned.
Thanks for serving!

muslim doctor working for the VA that barely spoke a lick of English...

50% of the specialists I’ve seen at the va

Without a veterans service officer advocate, you can come out the process feeling like crap, as well as being needlessly denied. The interviewer's job is to try to find an excuse to deny the claim.
Get some help with this and save yourself a ton of anxiety.

Do it and don't tell anyone about it if you're worried what others might think. If you're fucked up you earned it, stash it all in a bank account and forget about it or help out a charity or something.

That seems to be a thing with the VA. Almost like a cruel joke they’re playing on the veterans who come through their system.

Case in point: my dad went in for a VA appointment some years back and walked right back out again, red hot pissed.

They assigned him a Vietnamese doctor who barely spoke English, and he walked right the fuck out.

your not kidding.   and the one I dealt with wasnt even fucking nice.   huge cock sucker.   I get fucking hot thinking about it and it was years ago.

Do it .

tayous1,

Brother, when you joined the service they poked and prodded you at MEPS to confirm you weren't broken.

In the course of whatever the hell you did in the service and your MOS, a Purple says the service broke parts of you -- parts that will never be 100% again, or the same as they were when you rolled out of the rack when you were 18.

It ain't charity, and it ain't welfare.  It's Uncle keeping his side of the bargain when you signed and shipped.  The VA is a specific government agency to take care of the servicemembers it breaks.

You are part of the tiny, tiny number (per total United States population) that has plain served in uniform, let alone eaten from the shit sandwich of combat deployment.

You might get a hard dick and bubble gum.  A Purple says Uncle takes care of you when you're 50-60-70 years old and you ain't making bank like you are today, paying your Obama Care premiums.  It also takes care of all your service-related wounds and injury treatment down the road.

For the love of all that's freaking holy submit your paperwork for a rating evaluation.  It's free.  Get with the Disabled American Veterans (the guys I used) or one of the other veteran advocates (VFW, American Legion, etc.) and they'll help with the paperwork.

Don't be a stoopy like my buddy who broke his leg on his rucksack during a night parachute landing fall.  35 years later they did spine surgery on him because he walks with a list.  He and his civilian insurance paid for that.

Texas is also good to its veterans.  Buy a house or land and a certain percentage of your tax burden is pro-rated by disability rating.

A VA disability rating doesn't mean you can't work -- ignorance of what the VA is supposed to do is keeping you from using the entitlements the government has for everyone they break.

Hell, if nothing else be registered for the free grave stone.