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The curious case of Specialist Town, continued.

By The Armorer on April 6, 2007 | | Comments (4)

If you need to catch up - click here for the original post.

In my post on the subject, I slapped around a lot of people, reserving especial contempt for the "Un-named Official" used as a source by Josh Kors, the author of the article.

Mr. Unamed Official Who Handles Discharge Papers? If he's done no more than act as Kor's source, then he's just a crapweasel, pure and simple. Unworthy of the soldiery he or she serves. The DA IG would take that complaint. His congressional delegation would take that complaint. And if their representation are Republicans, and Unamed Official believes that their CODEL wouldn't act on it - then any Democrat with an axe to grind for political gain (Representative Murtha or Waxman come to mind) would have been happy to latch on to it - and would probably also latch on to it just for the right reasons, with political gain being a nice side benny. So, Mr. or Ms. Unamed Official - if this was your first action in this saga - shame on you. You're a faithless servant. If you did the above and this was your last resort, fine. But if that's the case, somehow you neglected to inform Mr. Kors - or he thought that was unworthy to include in the tale. Which, given how juicy it would be... I doubt it.

Now while this is a mildly popular place to visit, posts like this just usually cause some head-nodding, the occasional comment, and are left up for Googlers to peruse, and that's the end of it. We have no delusions (well, tiny ones, anyway) of grandeur about our impact here, excepting as one more voice among many, the total cacophony of which sometimes drags eyes our way.

This time it was different. I was contacted. By Mr. Un-named Official.

Let me see if I can answer some of your questions and reply to your comments since I am the "Mr. Unnamed Official".

Let me give you a small portion of what personally happened to me. I am an Iraq War Veteran who came home from Iraq with many issues, one being mental related. So I too sought help from the Mental Health professions at the Army Hospital . On the first visit and within the first 15 minutes of the one on one with the Psyche I was told that I could be out of the Army within 2 weeks if I took a personality disorder discharge. I went home that evening and looked up AR 635-200 chapter 5-13 and read about it (being the army geek that I am). I went back the next day and told my doctor that I didn't feel that a personality disorder was what I had. My doctor immediately started the paperwork to begin the MEB process. 4 months later my 10 year military career came to an end with the PEB giving me a 30% disability rating which made me medically retired. I now receive half my base pay, all military installation benefits to include commissary and PX privileges and Tricare Prime for me and my family. Even though I will have this disability for the rest of my life, I find myself lucky that I went home that evening and read the regulation. Jon Town believed his doctor and chooses not to read the regulation. Jon Town was an infantry soldier who listens to his leaders, he was trained to listen and respond to orders. If someone tells him to do something, he does it. No questions asked. He trusted a doctor, a jag officer and his unit commander. All these people are part of the Discharge system.

After being discharged, I decided the only thing I knew was soldiering and I missed being around troops. So I went to work as an out processor. Myself and another 20 year retired veteran are the only two that do this part of the out processing here at our installation. We were both there the day Jon Town came in. The 20 year vet (Paul) was so disgusted when he heard Town's story and after taking care of more and more Iraq vets with personality disorders said to me "we need to do something about this".

I agree with you that their were many in-house organizations that this could have been brought to, but we felt it was better for the discharged soldier to tell the story rather than an employee of the Defense Department.

Josh Kors doesn't finish the story so let me. Jon Town went to his congressman who made this a big issue with my installation and the Pentagon. After many months of work, Jon Town's debt to the military was wiped away and he also received payment for Separation Pay due to the fact that he had served over 6 years and was involuntarily discharge. The Pentagon asked Town, in his words "To shut up about this", which obviously he didn't.

Paul and I give out the phone number of numerous Veterans Service Organizations and Veterans Advocacy agency to help these soldiers fix this issue. We also have helped some of these agency's fix this issue with the DOD. We have had numerous visits from Senator Kit Bond (R), Senator Barbara Boxer (D), and Senator Barrack Obama (D) who have come to fix this problem.

The number of personality disorders here at this installation has declined severely since Josh Kors started writing his piece. I know that the article was slanted and I tried to help Mr. Kors stay unbiased since this is not a political issue. I didn't know that it was going to be in the Nation (my fault, should have asked), I'd rather it had been on the cover of USA Today or Time. Something that has a better reputation than the obviously far-left leaning The Nation. Our sole purpose of getting this story out was to show the American people that we as a nation must take care of our Veterans. We owe it to every American hero.

Lastly, I would like to apologize for a few things. One, I wish Mr. Kors had understood or maybe I should have explained better the difference between the Department of Defense and the Department of Veteran Affairs. Second, I remain unnamed for selfish reasons, I need to feed my children and I just don't trust the Federal Government.

Hopefully you understand me a little more. Please feel free to ask me anything else.

This is why I put the "if" qualifiers in my screed. This is also an advantage of blogging, vice the newspaper and especially television. I can give this piece the same prominence as I did the original bit - without squeezing out other news, etc.

If you've got questions, ask them in the comments. I'll send the link to Mr. Un-named Official and see if he has any answers for you.

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4 Comments

By Cricket on April 6, 2007 8:56 AM
John, I don't have any questions for Mr. Un-Named, as it is pretty obvious that while he deemed it not a political issue, there is still something strange about the number of 'personality disorders' declining after the story broke; not to mention the officers in the chain being part of the discharge process and being aware of the regulation and NOT protecting the rights of the soldier. As you say, mileage varies and I know it will be so with my comment. That said, this is another reason why your blog is a must read. You are fair and will give others the chance to tell their side of the story.
 
By The Unnamed Official on April 6, 2007 11:00 AM
Thanks John for posting this, and if anyone does want to ask me any questions I will be happy to answer them. I will check back often today.
 
By Cricket on April 6, 2007 3:10 PM
You know, I would rather a story come out so we can fix the problem instead of exacerbating it. The only thing that I see as an impediment are the moonbats who would sieze on this as political hay for their side by citing all military personnel as baby killers and committers of atrocities. One person who decried the desensitization of the troops used Justin Raimondo's spittle flecked rant at antiwar.com (Murder Inc was the title of the article) as justification for her stand. She went on to say that his evidence was the 'tip of the iceberg, since if 10-15 in a unit are doing rape and murder crimes, how many more are involved?' A righteous smackdown was in order and I gave it. Fortunately for me, there were others on this discussion group who, though anti war, had members of their families serving and she had tarred them all with that brush, and they weren't too happy about it. So here is the question I would have for anyone: When something is wrong, and needs fixing, who do you go to so it can be fixed and we do right by our people? How is punishing those who bring to light injustice or just plain bad assistance going to fix the problem? Where do we go from here?
 
By kat-missouri on April 6, 2007 7:41 PM
I have some questions: Did Mr. Unofficial, upon suspecting that soldiers were being diagnosed and discharged inappropriately and prior to this story, report or make known to any senior officer or civilian manager that this was occuring? If yes, to whom and when was this report made? If yes, what was the response? If no, why did he feel that he was unable to make such a report? Are the mechanisms for making such a report unclear? Unavailable? Or, did he feel making these representations "inter-office" would result in some punitive action against him personally? If so, why or what gave him that impression? Previous experience? To be clear, my questions are directly related to how such issues can be resolved quickly and less painfully. Obviously, there are not many Mr. Unofficials who are willing to go outside of their lane or who do not recognize the necessity or who may feel intimidated. That means there are many more soldiers who are not being helped or who are being sidelined due to inappropriate processing if nothing else. the culture and atmosphere of an organization generally leads to these activities. I said previously, having worked with doctors and with the bureaucracy of government, when physicians feel they have found the "short cut" to getting their patients what they need (and nobody tells them they are wrong), they tend to run with it. Particularly if they feel other processes are too onerous. Not out of malice, but because they believe they are doing what is best for the patient. In the case of this young man, if I read the story correctly, the concern was to keep him from being deployed again which required quick action, per the physician. Which resulted in the shortcut. Which resulted in the inappropriate labeling and discharge.
 
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