The life of a hero sucks...badly

[Dari]

There's this guy I met when I was in Iraq. He was part of a unit that defuses IEDs. On is way to defuse a bomb the convoy got hit with one. Everyone in his vehicle died except him. Somehow, he did not lose any of his limbs but walks with a limp, has major headaches, among other issues. He has to take like a dozen different medicine. He just moved to New York from Maryland recently with his wife. At the VA hospital on 23rd street they treat him like he's a drug user. Absolutely no respect for him and what he's done for his country. Luckily, he has a great wife but who knows how long that'll last.

Another person I know works for the organized crime control bureau, the NYPD detectives that investigate the mafia and other criminal enterprises in the City, along with the FBI. He tells me that sometimes they need someone to protect them from the animals they're investigating. It puts a strain on their families and can even lead to divorce. Some guys return to an empty home, eat sardine or take-outs for dinner, and sleep with their guns.

Another guy, in my building, used to work for the firm. He's in his 80s, lives alone and has no children. He drinks every single day. We are in the same lodge and after our meetings I have to take him up to his apartment. The stories he tells me pale in comparison to what he's going to leave behind.

There are other stories of divorces because agents have to be away from their families for so long that they hardly recognize each other. When I was growing up I always wanted to be a cop. Even today I'm thinking of becoming an auxiliary cop for weekend service (to add a little instability into my life). All these stories are giving me pause.


Moved to P&N because the thread is becoming rather politicized.
-Admin DrPizza

 

[Mai72]

There was a documentary on war vets who were coming home from Iraq and it wasn't pretty. It seems that a large percentage start abusing drugs. In the documentary there were guys addicted to heroin. A few were homeless. I believe a guy died when they wrapped up the story.

What gets me is people are now hung up on Obama's latte salute. Who gives a rats ass. We have men who are coming back from the middle east, and their personal lives are now destroyed. The government doesn't give a f*ck! I will repeat it. The government doesn't give a f*ck about the vets. Why should they? Most can't relate. How many senators are draft dodgers? How many have served in war, or even in the military? Not many. They have a difficult time relating to average people who enlist. Yet, they are quick to send our men to war and die.

I don't care for John MCcain as a politician, but I do have respect for him as a war veteran.

I'm not that familiar with the lives of people who work for the FBI. TV makes it look exciting and glamorous, but I have a feeling it's not those things. It's probably a very dark, dangerous, and lonely field.

 

[maddogchen]

yeah so being a hero most likely gets you screwed by your own country and die a horrible death.

Just to add to this:
3 retired firefighters died of 9/11 illnesses yesterday. 92 total firefighters have died of illnesses directly related to the search for survivors because of exposure to toxic air.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/911-illness-kills-retired-firefighters-day-25749238

Air that the Bush Administration and the government had said was clean and had allegedly tried to cover up the health risks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health...ber_11_attacks#Ground_zero_workers_and_cancer

 

[manimal]

dari. dont disclose where someone lives who works in organized crime.

 

[Carson Dyle]

VA hospitals are some of the worst health-care facilities in this country. It's a disgrace.

 

[manimal]

VA hospitals are some of the worst health-care facilities in this country. It's a disgrace.

everyone is happy to drape flags on their backs when they go off to war but NO WAY will congress appropriate proper resources to take care of them.


Hipocrazy at its best!


like my new word?

 

[Carson Dyle]

Yeah, Americans are great at meaningless flag waving and self-congratulation.

 

[manimal]

Yeah, Americans are great at meaningless flag waving and self-congratulation.

politicians write checks the country cant cash. The weak minded just listen to them. A ton of us though going into Iraq was stupid and crazy.

History is showing us right.

 

[Brainonska511]

Just to add to this: 3 retired firefighters died of 9/11 illnesses yesterday. 92 total firefighters have died of illnesses directly related to the search for survivors because of exposure to toxic air. http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireSto...s-day-25749238

The Zadroga Bill, which passed a few years ago extended health coverage (such as the assumption that cancers were most likely caused by exposure to the site) to thousands of people who worked at Ground Zero and have developed illnesses like cancer is up for reauthorization soon (part of it expires in late 2015, part in late 2016). I fear there will be another fight in Congress about how health coverage for these individuals costs too much money, just like it was the first time they tried to pass it.

 

[MarkXIX]

I'm going to say something as a veteran that is unpopular and even dangerous to say, but I'm going to say it now anyway.

There are A LOT of veterans who have filed false claims for disability benefits that otherwise clog up the VA system with bullshit.

I know a "veteran" who served his contract time in the Army and as he was separating from service claimed he got asthma from the Army. He was an IT guy in uniform. That led to a follow-on claim for back injury as service connected, but he wasn't airborne, wasn't infantry, etc. He was a communications guy. Today this same guy is at minimum 100+ pounds overweight, smokes like a chimney, and YOU and I are paying for mounds of services and medication for this guy in addition to his LIFELONG disability check from the VA.

I know another guy who served his 5-year contract with a congential defect of his foot (club foot). Somehow he managed to make it into the Army that way and when he left was able to claim it as a service connected disability. From talking to people he served with he was unable to perform his full range of duties from the beginning and ended up being assigned to desk jobs for his entire 5-year enlistment. Yep, we pay him close to $1,700/month in disability for something he was born with. He had the audacity to tell me one day "Dude, you gotta get some of this VA benefit! There's gotta be something wrong with you?"

I know another guy who served a garrison tour for 3-4 years in Korea and then got out. Some 20+ years later he filed a compensation claim for bad knees, the VA awarded the claim and the VA just replaced his knee. He too is overweight, but has NOTHING to reflect any high optempo, highly physical periods of service that would have damaged his knees when he was in his early 20's over 20 years ago. BUT, you and I are paying for the medical bills and the disability check he gets now.

I can go on and on. I've watched at VA reps brief Soldiers returning home on all the ways they can in effect submit fraudulent claims and how they are ENTITLED to disability compensation and medical benefits simply from serving. It's bullshit and it's part of the problem. They tried to tell my Soldiers after we did police work here in the states that we absolutely should file a disability claim for lower back issues because we had to sit in a patrol car for 8+ hours a day with our police equipment belt and body armor on and that although we didn't know it now, our backs were irreparably damaged. WTF?!?!

THIS is what's going on by the tens of thousands. The REAL guys that need VA support get fucked by those other people that I have seen the VA encourage EVERY SINGLE TIME I've left a deployed environment. They ENCOURAGE people to all but falsify their medical history and actually HELP people draft and assemble documents that present specious medical conditions that MIGHT impact them years or decades down the road.

 

[destrekor]

I'm going to say something as a veteran that is unpopular and even dangerous to say, but I'm going to say it now anyway.

There are A LOT of veterans who have filed false claims for disability benefits that otherwise clog up the VA system with bullshit.

I know a "veteran" who served his contract time in the Army and as he was separating from service claimed he got asthma from the Army. He was an IT guy in uniform. That led to a follow-on claim for back injury as service connected, but he wasn't airborne, wasn't infantry, etc. He was a communications guy. Today this same guy is at minimum 100+ pounds overweight, smokes like a chimney, and YOU and I are paying for mounds of services and medication for this guy in addition to his LIFELONG disability check from the VA.

I know another guy who served his 5-year contract with a congential defect of his foot (club foot). Somehow he managed to make it into the Army that way and when he left was able to claim it as a service connected disability. From talking to people he served with he was unable to perform his full range of duties from the beginning and ended up being assigned to desk jobs for his entire 5-year enlistment. Yep, we pay him close to $1,700/month in disability for something he was born with. He had the audacity to tell me one day "Dude, you gotta get some of this VA benefit! There's gotta be something wrong with you?"

I know another guy who served a garrison tour for 3-4 years in Korea and then got out. Some 20+ years later he filed a compensation claim for bad knees, the VA awarded the claim and the VA just replaced his knee. He too is overweight, but has NOTHING to reflect any high optempo, highly physical periods of service that would have damaged his knees when he was in his early 20's over 20 years ago. BUT, you and I are paying for the medical bills and the disability check he gets now.

I can go on and on. I've watched at VA reps brief Soldiers returning home on all the ways they can in effect submit fraudulent claims and how they are ENTITLED to disability compensation and medical benefits simply from serving. It's bullshit and it's part of the problem. They tried to tell my Soldiers after we did police work here in the states that we absolutely should file a disability claim for lower back issues because we had to sit in a patrol car for 8+ hours a day with our police equipment belt and body armor on and that although we didn't know it now, our backs were irreparably damaged. WTF?!?!

THIS is what's going on by the tens of thousands. The REAL guys that need VA support get fucked by those other people that I have seen the VA encourage EVERY SINGLE TIME I've left a deployed environment. They ENCOURAGE people to all but falsify their medical history and actually HELP people draft and assemble documents that present specious medical conditions that MIGHT impact them years or decades down the road.

This goes on in just about every way throughout any department connected to the DoD, and probably throughout most government departments in general.

I wouldn't doubt if half of that is to ensure they spend what they need to spend in order to justify getting the same budget for the following year, just so they can have said budget, even though year after year it is shown they don't need nearly as much as requested.

This happens in the Army too, regarding training missions and supply requests and other uses... things get sidelined for half the year, then toward the end of the fiscal year, all of a sudden everyone is in a rush to cash in as much of their unused budgets as possible to ensure the overall budget is the same for the next fiscal year.

There are so many ways the government can cut back on spending, with realistic limitations that honestly wouldn't negatively effect about 99% of useful and necessary operations.

The budget review and renewal process could use tidying up, I'm sure, to ensure fluctuation between years is essentially built into the system so a low spending year doesn't introduce significant difficulties in getting support for a bigger budget... when fiscally responsible and necessary.

Fiscal responsibility isn't built into the government mindset one bit. It really is sad, because many of the top department leaders would be behind smart changes, but I think there is so much dysfunction that they feel that they are committing necessary evil because they'd get screwed hard if they didn't, as everyone else is doing the exact same thing.

It really requires a fundamental reset of how things operate.


Regarding the VA fraud, it isn't just happening at the VA. Service members are essentially encouraged to work as many angles as possible to get every single dollar that can be coerced out of every single tit on the government hog. I get some of the mentality of "why" it happens, but it's usually taken too far, as in your example.

 

[manimal]

for every 1 guy scheming a system you have hundreds and thousands who need it.

 

[Carson Dyle]

for every 1 guy scheming a system you have hundreds and thousands who need it.

If this were true, it would mean that those scheming the system have little to no effect on the overall cost, efficiency or availability of VA services. I doubt that was the point you were trying to make.

 

[Newell Steamer]

,... the NYPD detectives ,...

Most people on these forums do not consider cops as heroes,.. or even human.

 

[manimal]

If this were true, it would mean that those scheming the system have little to no effect on the overall cost, efficiency or availability of VA services. I doubt that was the point you were trying to make.

The point I am trying to make is every incentive scheme ever created has been cheated, It doesn't make them effective. It just means that proper administration is necessary and loopholes closed and changes made based on fact based findings not I know a guy who cheated the VA once...


You guys are all for burning shit down before fixing it. Narrow minded and unproductive and serves a narrative that is disingenuous.

 

[Red Storm]

Serious question: Are they really heroes (those who were sent to Iraq)? I see them more as men and women who were unfortunately exploited by our government. We didn't need to go to Iraq, but the government decided they had to go, and in the end some rich people got richer, and thousands of soldiers lost their lives, while many others were irreversibly damaged.

They made a sacrifice in joining the military, and I respect those who do it because of a sense of duty and/or honor, but the reality is they're victims of government exploitation, they're not heroes IMHO.

 

[ultimatebob]

Most people on these forums do not consider cops as heroes,.. or even human.

That's because the only time that most of us run into cops is when they are pulling us over for stupid reasons like not wearing a seat belt or going 6 miles over the speed limit.

Those jerks aren't cops, they're supplemental tax collectors for the towns where they work.

Oh, and good luck actually getting a cop to help you out if you report a property theft... the best that most of them will do is write a police report for your insurance agency.

 

[kage69]

yeah so being a hero most likely gets you screwed by your own country and die a horrible death.

Just to add to this:
3 retired firefighters died of 9/11 illnesses yesterday. 92 total firefighters have died of illnesses directly related to the search for survivors because of exposure to toxic air.

http://abcnews.go.com/Health/wireStory/911-illness-kills-retired-firefighters-day-25749238

Air that the Bush Administration and the government had said was clean and had allegedly tried to cover up the health risks.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health...ber_11_attacks#Ground_zero_workers_and_cancer

So republicans lie about the air safety at Ground Zero, first responders start falling ill and dying, and then the republicans sink a bill that would fund extended care for them because they want to give those funds to foreign corporations in the form of tax cuts - and only change course when John Stewart lights a fire under their asses and made an issue of it, then let widespread outrage wear the holdouts down (which took some time, of course).

Just one of the reasons I hate those bastards.

 

[Jaskalas]

50,000 wounded these past 13 years.
8,000 killed.

 

[Svnla]

The point I am trying to make is every incentive scheme ever created has been cheated, It doesn't make them effective. It just means that proper administration is necessary and loopholes closed and changes made based on fact based findings not I know a guy who cheated the VA once...


You guys are all for burning shit down before fixing it. Narrow minded and unproductive and serves a narrative that is disingenuous.

And how do you expect to fix it?

Case in point: right now, I saw on TV so many polictical ads that said so and so voted to increase the age to receive SS and medicare, tax cut for millionaires, <insert sad looking old folks with sad music>....while the person that ran those ads would never say how he/she would fix SS/medicare/entitlement programs except "eliminate fraud and abuse"...ie..kicking the can down the road again. Yeah, he/she would fix it ...uh huh.

Guess who would likely win the election? The guy that kick the can or the guy that vote to fix thing(s)? What is the odd for incumbents to get re-elect again?

 

[squarecut1]

50,000 wounded these past 13 years.
8,000 killed.

As Springsteen sang...

We sent our sons to Korea and Vietnam
Now we're wondering what they were dyin' for

 

[John Connor]

What gets me is people are now hung up on Obama's latte salute. Who gives a rats ass. We have men who are coming back from the middle east, and their personal lives are now destroyed.

So out of one side of your mouth your saying that a soldier's life is destroyed and on the other side you are saying who gives a rat's ass how Obozo salutes these men and woman? Really?

dari. dont disclose where someone lives who works in organized crime.

Believe me. The mafia doesn't know shit about computers let along get on the Internet, find a forum, join and let along it being a computer forum like this one. I met a Mafioso who said, "WTF is a hard drive?" LMAO! They know drugs, cars, loan sharking, gun trafficking, extortion and all that shit. Computers? Not a chance. Although I hear that the stock market may be the new mafia husel to get into. This thing of ours isn't exactly too bright.

 

[destrekor]

So out of one side of your mouth your saying that a soldier's life is destroyed and on the other side you are saying who gives a rat's ass how Obozo salutes these men and woman? Really?

Well, to be brutally honest, the President has no right returning a salute in the first place.

It some respects it seems like it should happen, but it really shouldn't. In fact, it never did, not one President returned the salute required to be presented to them (by Military doctrine, not civil law) prior to Reagan. That rat bastard started a terrible trend, imho. He should never have questioned the lack of salute.

It is improper, in all aspects. The POTUS is not a member of the military. Commander in Chief? Sure, but a Civilian Commander.

Even President Eisenhower, a retired 5-star, refrained from saluting at any time that otherwise would have been the customarily appropriate duty as an Officer. As President, he was no longer a Commissioned Officer, he was the Civilian Commander in Chief. A major distinction that 39 Presidents prior to Reagan understood, a few who had previously served as Officers in the military.

So that it is rendered by the President at all is sort of a nasty habit that shouldn't even be happening, and as a civilian, the customs of the salute are not regulated by doctrine, so there technically is no such thing as a right or wrong salute. Is it something one should strive to do as the military does, when said salute is being exchanged with a member of the Armed Services? Yes, but it should not be subject to all this attention.

I don't think even GWB's failed dog salute got this kind of attention and got this many riled up. I actually didn't even know it happened until reading about this recent gaffe.


For your reference:

http://www.texasgopvote.com/military-salute/it-proper-president-render-military-hand-salute-002816

 

[destrekor]

Believe me. The mafia doesn't know shit about computers let along get on the Internet, find a forum, join and let along it being a computer forum like this one. I met a Mafioso who said, "WTF is a hard drive?" LMAO! They know drugs, cars, loan sharking, gun trafficking, extortion and all that shit. Computers? Not a chance. Although I hear that the stock market may be the new mafia husel to get into. This thing of ours isn't exactly too bright.

Also, LMAO, don't be so naive. One mafiaso does not speak for the entire community of organized crime, be it specific to the Italian Mafia or to the general concept of organized crime families and communities found throughout the world.

The Italian Mafia may not be as into computing as the cybercrime-heavy Russian "mafia", but I'm sure many can get by just fine on the computer.
Especially if they are heavily into the stock market.

I've also met many people in general who know how to get about the internet, but have no idea what specific part is the hard drive. Many still call the desktop tower the "hard drive" or "CPU".

I don't know much about my internal car components, but I know how to use it, and how to properly abuse it without destroying it, and how to maintain control at all times.

 

[John Connor]

Well, to be brutally honest, the President has no right returning a salute in the first place.

It some respects it seems like it should happen, but it really shouldn't. In fact, it never did, not one President returned the salute required to be presented to them (by Military doctrine, not civil law) prior to Reagan. That rat bastard started a terrible trend, imho. He should never have questioned the lack of salute.

It is improper, in all aspects. The POTUS is not a member of the military. Commander in Chief? Sure, but a Civilian Commander.

Even President Eisenhower, a retired 5-star, refrained from saluting at any time that otherwise would have been the customarily appropriate duty as an Officer. As President, he was no longer a Commissioned Officer, he was the Civilian Commander in Chief. A major distinction that 39 Presidents prior to Reagan understood, a few who had previously served as Officers in the military.

So that it is rendered by the President at all is sort of a nasty habit that shouldn't even be happening, and as a civilian, the customs of the salute are not regulated by doctrine, so there technically is no such thing as a right or wrong salute. Is it something one should strive to do as the military does, when said salute is being exchanged with a member of the Armed Services? Yes, but it should not be subject to all this attention.

I don't think even GWB's failed dog salute got this kind of attention and got this many riled up. I actually didn't even know it happened until reading about this recent gaffe.


For your reference:

http://www.texasgopvote.com/military-salute/it-proper-president-render-military-hand-salute-002816

If your gonna give a half ass salute don't do it at all.