The Lowell Sun newspaper is running a four-part series this week on the many difficulties that Iraq and Afghanistan veterans are encountering upon coming back home after their service. The April 6th article in that series, which ran this past Sunday, was a wrenching account of a soldier who was wounded while on duty in Iraq with the US Marines.

Chuck Millard, a rifleman to the Third Battalion, Second Marines, Kilo Co, suffered a back injury while on a night mission with the Marines in Iraq. He didn’t report the injury right away because he thought he could tough it out. Later tests revealed that he had injured his back and would require a series of surgeries in order to relieve some of the pain and damage in that area.

The Lowell Sun article told how the injured Marine tried to get a disability ruling from a Physical Evaluation Board:

Last fall, a Physical Evaluation Board found Millard “unfit” for service. He leaves this month with a single severance check. It’s a far cry from the monthly payments and lifetime health care of full medical disability.

Medical records say he qualifies for a medical disability retirement. But Millard has been rebuffed twice by Naval boards, without explanation. Millard says he is owed more, based on the military’s own injury ratings system.

Fearful of losing what he’d already been promised, Millard gave up on a third, “formal” hearing in Washington D.C., on March 20. He would have been represented by a Naval Judge Advocate General (JAG) lawyer to plead his case before three high-ranking officers.

A war in Iraq was enough. Why fight one in Washington, too?

Is this what veterans can expect from the Veterans Administration? A board that wears out veterans in a long grinding process, that tells vets that the appeal process itself might deprive them of treatment if they should they lose a single ruling?

This is no way to honor troops that have honorably served this country. The Department of Defense should not be trying to save money on the backs of people who have served their country in a time of war. This is morally wrong.


Mr. Millard’s story ran in the Lowell Sun on Sunday, April 6th. The Sun also ran another story on veterans who have lost their jobs upon returning home and how the law is supposed to offer protection to service members to prevent that from happening. Two more stories about other hardships facing returning troops are scheduled to run in this series and on the Lowell Sun website.