Washington, DC – Yesterday, World War II Veteran Norm Bussel, Trustee, Adjutant and Commander, Hudson Valley Chapter American Ex-Prisoners of War testified before Congress on behalf of veterans suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD). Bussel, a Mohegan Lake resident, was invited to speak by U.S. Rep. John Hall (D-Dover) before the Veterans' Affairs Subcommittee on Disability Assistance, which Hall chairs. The hearing was to discuss H.R. 952, the Compensation Owed for Mental Health Based on Activities in Theater Post-traumatic Stress Disorder Act, or COMBAT PTSD Act.  The bill would remove the roadblocks at the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) that  veterans encounter when the VA requires proof of specific stressors in order to receive service-connected compensation for PTSD incurred as a result of their military service.

"Sixty-five years ago this month, my B-17 Bomber exploded over Berlin and I lost four of my crew who were as close to me as my brother," said Mr. Bussel. "I've struggled with PTSD ever since and survivor guilt is one of my strongest stressors.  There is no cure for PTSD, but the VA offers counseling and medications that make improvement almost a given and vast improvement is commonplace. To refuse PTSD compensation to veterans because their job titles are not synonymous with combat is unconscionable.  There's more than the money involved.  Even more important is the colossal insult of telling a combat veteran that he didn't fight for his country.  Pass H.R. 952.  Eliminate the practice of forcing combat veterans diagnosed with PTSD by one branch of the VA, from the task of battling another branch in order to obtain their rights."

 

Congressman Hall said, "The intent of Congress in enacting the original law, was to extend full cooperation to our war-time wounded veterans.  Over time, VA regulations, procedures and General Counsel decisions have resulted in a more restrictive and unreasonable process for our veterans trying to prove an injury or stressful event occurred in combat.  It is time to clarify the meaning of ‘combat with the enemy’ that reflects the realities of modern warfare and affords our veterans the benefits that they have earned."

 

Hall's COMBAT PTSD Act (H.R. 952) would clarify the definition of "combat with the enemy" to include "active duty service in a theater of combat operations during a period of war or in combat against a hostile force during a period of hostilities." This expansion would help ease burden on veterans of having to provide non-essential corroborating evidence of combat when a medical diagnosis is present.

 

Barton F. Stichman, Joint Executive Director of the National Veterans Legal Services Program, testified: "Under current law, VA has to expend more time and resources to decide PTSD claims than almost every other type of claim.  According to the VA, an extensive search for corroborating evidence is necessary even when the medical evidence shows that the veteran currently suffers from PTSD, and mental health professionals attribute the PTSD to stressful events that occurred during military service.  Often there is no corroborative evidence that can be found – not because the in-service stressful event did not occur – but because the military did not and does not keep detailed records of every event that occurred during periods of war in combat zones."

 

"Adoption of this bill would allow disabled combat veterans, particularly those diagnosed with PTSD, to have their claims for benefits decided fairly without facing unnecessary and often insurmountable documentation hurdles imposed by VA,” said Chairman Hall. 

"As a volunteer National Service Officer, accredited by the VA to file benefit claims for veterans, I find it so unfair when clients I represent: clients who served in combat zones, clients who fought and endured enemy attacks, clients diagnosed with PTSD by VA psychologists, have their claims denied by the VA because their job titles did not reflect their combat experience," testified Mr. Bussel.  "A cook, a Seabee, a supply Sgt. are no more immune from injury or death than anyone else in a combat zone."

 

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