My father in law passed away this last december. He was a paraplegic trapped in a wheelchair for the last 15 to 20 years. He had a spinal cord injury due to calcium build ups on his spine that was initially tracked to a combination of effects from "agent orange" and a broken spine incident in the field from his time served in Vietnam. As soon as those finding began to become evident his medical record were sealed by the military. A few years ago he broke his leg in an accident but because of his confined nature it was deemed better to remove the leg rather than to encase and heal the broken bone.

During all this time, the only aid he received from the military in the form of medical pensio...

My father in law passed away this last december. He was a paraplegic trapped in a wheelchair for the last 15 to 20 years. He had a spinal cord injury due to calcium build ups on his spine that was initially tracked to a combination of effects from "agent orange" and a broken spine incident in the field from his time served in Vietnam. As soon as those finding began to become evident his medical record were sealed by the military. A few years ago he broke his leg in an accident but because of his confined nature it was deemed better to remove the leg rather than to encase and heal the broken bone.

During all this time, the only aid he received from the military in the form of medical pension was based on "mental illness". The military refused to acknowledge he had any physical problems. Several times the military scheduled him for a medical evaluation update but in every single case the appointment was canceled because some pencil neck felt that a re-evaluation due to mental illness was unwarranted.

It was truly pathetic that the only military aid the guy got was for "mental illness" when he was trapped in a wheel chair, missing a leg, having a tube draining fluids out of his lung and living off of O2 canisters.

Our government does not take care good of its soldiers and does not take responsibility if they caused their disabilities. I do not know if agent orange was the source cause of his problems, but the fact that the military sealed his military records after his initial problems just stinks to me.

Death for relief or the will to fight for life - it was a topic that we discussed often. Pap was a lifer and a fighter. Through it all he maintained that life is what you make of it and every setback was accepted and endured. He refused to be confined to bed and could be found traveling around our neighborhood in his electric wheelchair any chance he could get. No one can really understand how much enjoyment he had out of life regardless of his condition.

I too feel that I would not have the strength of will to continue in such a condition but Pap did show us all that you can lay their and moan about how life sucks until its over, or you can shove the pain aside and live it as much as you c...

Death for relief or the will to fight for life - it was a topic that we discussed often. Pap was a lifer and a fighter. Through it all he maintained that life is what you make of it and every setback was accepted and endured. He refused to be confined to bed and could be found traveling around our neighborhood in his electric wheelchair any chance he could get. No one can really understand how much enjoyment he had out of life regardless of his condition.

I too feel that I would not have the strength of will to continue in such a condition but Pap did show us all that you can lay their and moan about how life sucks until its over, or you can shove the pain aside and live it as much as you can while you can.

Anyway, my original point was to simply share another story of how this government failed a soldier and a patriot.