dojN001173.xml

dojN001173.xml

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2001-12-21

Friday, December 21, 2001 4:27 PM
Victim's Compensation??

As the recent widow of a career Army sergeant, who died in April of Agent
Orange related cancer at the age of 52, I want to state that this whole
process deeply offends those who have lost loved ones to the service of
their country for so many years. I am concerned that the first applicant at
the Virginia office was an Army Sgt First Class who had a broken ankle and
scratches. If he is awarded compensation, an effort must be made to award
all military with purple hearts!! He is still getting a full-time paycheck,
free medical care, and time off for recuperation. Military people live with
the knowledge that they could be hurt or die at any time in the service, and
they take that risk along with the job description.
I am concerned with this quote in the Seattle Intelligencer on the 21st:
"The size of compensation payments would depend largely on the victim's
family size, age and earnings. Survivors of a low-income, 60-year-old
bachelor may receive $300,000, while those of a high-earning 35-year-old
with two children could receive $3.8 million."
If these breadwinners had been hit by a truck on the way to work on Sept
10th, there would only have been the arrangements they themselves made for
their families: life insurance etc. I understand we don't expect to go to
work and be hit by a terrorist plane, but we also should always know that
there is a chance of loss. To base anything on a person's life-time earning
potential sets aside the fact that they could have been injured or killed
anytime in the future, also without a lifeline for their families. I read
where the OK City victims are already offended. I realize that we are nice
people, and we want no one to be in suffering, but billions of dollars? Is
that money coming from where it should be--from the funds seized from the
terrorist organizations? That is called recompense, and is right and just.

My husband served 23 years in the Army, from Viet Nam, until after Desert
Storm. He had 2 bronze stars, an Air Medal for Valor, and at least five
good conduct medals, I lost count. His uniform was full of "fruit salad",
the term for lots of ribbons. He had letters from &nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp through
&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp&nbsp extolling his work and virtues. Yet, he fought for years with
PTSD, with chloracne from Agent Orange, then diabetes and finally with
esophageal and liver cancer. The paperwork has been horrendous and
intrusive. The humiliation of trying to simply change the Survivor's
Benefits from DFAS to VA ($800/month without taxes is a little more than
$800 with taxes.....) is demeaning. We were unable to keep up his SGLI, due
to his PTSD and job loss, and the process of upgrading his disability status
from 10% (for chloracne, hearing loss, joint damage, upper respiratory
damage, and one more, I forget) to enough percentage to simply be able to
see our own doctors rather than driving hundreds of miles to a VA facility
were such that he gave up on it. We drove to Roseburg, to Portland, and
sometimes, he just didn't go. He redid the paperwork in Nov after his
cancer diagnosis, but because he died before it was finalized (6 months
later!), it was terminated and I had to redo it all. Because he died four
days before the end of the month, the government saw fit to take back his
entire April pension, then prorate it and return it to me 4 weeks later,
after messing up the bank account. We had one old life insurance policy
that we had borrowed against, and credit life on the mortgage, praise God,
but with his illnesses, we could not get more. CHAMPUS (military medical
coverage) is a joke, and if it weren't that he had a job at a local
hospital, I would be bankrupt now from the bills. I understand what those
families went through, I am going through it. My life has changed
irrevocably. I would love to have 300,000 to rebuild! The 50,000 initial
amount sounds glorious.

I do not begrudge them help. They are the most-given to group of people in
our history, and rightly so. I am begrudging the rhetoric, the outrageous
statements, the impending law suits over things that no one could have
prevented. I am begrudging the casual treatment of men and women who gave
their whole lives to service, and have been treated shabbily. Are we giving
extra compensation to those young men injured by friendly fire?? We never
have in the past. Persons killed in the military received only 25,000,
during Viet Nam. Now it is up to 200,000, but after you retire, if you
don't keep paying into that, you lose that coverage as well.
Victim compensation?? When the Congress has said that farmers who were
unfairly denied their water rights this year in this area (Klamath Falls,
OR) don't get compensation? Were the Lockerbie families compensated? Are
we paying even the foreign nationals' families?
The greedy statements made about pain and suffering; about rights to sue;
that some want the government money, and will sue as well; that the amounts
aren't enough (.5 to 3 million isn't enough?) are very ugly. All those who
suffer loss know these feelings. Kenneth Feinberg said this morning (on
NPR) that every life is precious. He's right, so why are these lives
seemingly more precious than the ones lost before? Why more precious than
the three Viet Nam vets in this town alone who died within the last year of
Agent Orange related cancers? Why more precious than Oklahoma City or
Lockerbie, or Viet Nam or.......

Please tell me this will be monitored well. I know they said that there
will be deductions made for life insurance, 401K's and provision made by the
breadwinners, but are careful investigations going to be made? (I have
doubts, look at the welfare system). How are they going to verify this
person is really deceased, when so many escaped, and so many who worked
there weren't there that day, but could state they were? So many holes in
all of this. Please say this will remind the government of the honor and
respect owed to the people who already died for their country, for the vets
Viet Nam is still killing.
I don't think I'm a whiner: I am offended at the neglect men like my
husband have suffered. I am offended that there is not an outcry over
dioxin and what it has done to the servicemen, even 30 years later. I am
offended at the rhetoric, that somehow the families who survived Sept 11
have had more suffering than others who have lost loved ones. I am
concerned that anyone who has a loss thinks that it is someone else's
responsibility to provide recompense for that family. I am busy doing what
these other wives should be doing: getting on with taking care of my
family, taking classes, working harder, and picking up the pieces. I
haven't had the time to be lobbying in Washington DC, or doing interviews.
We aren't promised that there will never be disasters in our lives. Others
have gone through it. Most survive!

thanks for listening to me gripe,

Individual Comment
Klamath Falls OR

2001-12-21