Veterans fight for benefits after combat traumas force military discharges

WASHINGTON — Kristofer Goldsmith came home from war and tried to kill himself.

The former Army sergeant attempted suicide the night before his second deployment to Iraq. He said he woke up in the hospital handcuffed to a gurney, punished by the military for not reporting for duty. He was later discharged from the Army with a less than honorable discharge.%

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“Instead of treating me medically, they treated me like a criminal,” Goldsmith said.

Two months after leaving the Army, a Veterans Affairs psychiatrist diagnosed him with post-traumatic stress disorder. His diagnosis did not change the terms of his general discharge.

The Veterans Fairness Act could change that. It’s being added as an amendment to a larger defense policy bill that will soon be voted on in the Senate. The bill’s authors say the bill would “help veterans who may have been erroneously given a less than honorable discharge from the military due to negative behavior resulting from mental traumas such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) or Traumatic Brain Injury (TBI).”

More than 20,000 veterans suffering from mental health conditions were discharged from military service for misconduct since 2009, according to Dale Barnett, the American Legion National Commander. “Veterans who receive less than honorable discharges are often disqualified from receiving health care services from the Department of Veterans Affairs," Barnett said. "This bill would ensure combat veterans, whose condition should have been considered prior to their discharge, receive due consideration in their discharge appeals process.”

Goldsmith is now fighting to help other military members with PTSD as a veterans' advocate for the Vietnam Veterans of America. He is also appealing his discharge.

He said many times, PTSD symptoms can be mistaken as misconduct, and troops get discharged without getting the care they need.

Goldsmith said he was a stellar soldier. In 2005, he said his main job in Iraq was to take pictures of what his platoon did while on patrol. He said one assignment particularly troubled him.
 
"On May 15, 2005, my platoon was called to respond to a mass grave that was being exhumed," Goldsmith said. "It was my job, at the age of 19, to take close-up photos of the faces of every one of the victims of torture and murder."
 
Goldsmith said those images stuck with him for a long time. After a year-long deployment, he came back to the United States and struggled with anxiety, depression and stress.
 
"Everyone around me realized something was wrong, but I didn't," Goldsmith said. "PTSD was little more than an acronym."

Even though he still received care from the Department of Veterans Affairs, he was cut off from other benefits like money for school or a home.

"Veterans with less than honorable discharges are more likely to be homeless, suffer from drug or alcohol dependency, to become incarcerated, to suffer from untreated physical and mental wounds of war, and ultimately, die by suicide," said John Rowan, President and CEO of Vietnam Veterans of America. 

"I think it's an absolute disgrace that our government is willing to send American soldiers and Marines, airmen and sailors into combat and then to deny them healthcare for service-related or combat-related injuries or illness," Goldsmith said. "That's not something I think the average American would stand for."

Cox Media Group