Readers of Tom Philpott's Military Update column sound off.

Help with CRSC Claims Available Online Or Toll Free

Your recent column stated that veterans forced to retire because of disabilities before completing 20 years for combat related injuries can now apply for combat-related disability compensation. Can you tell me what the steps are to get this done?

My husband was in a helicopter crash in 1969 and spent the following year in hospitals. He had to have some of his colon removed and had a colostomy along with third degree burns. The colostomy was reversed and he was put back on active duty. Eventually he developed many problems with his colon and in Jan 1980 he was given a permanent colostomy and then was medically retired.

Can he apply for the payments? If he can, what documentation will he need to have?

PAM DEVEREUX
Via e-mail

You can visit the Army's CRSC (Combat-Related Special Compensation) website to get started. The link is www.crsc.army.mil. Information presented there should answer many of your questions. You also can download the new CRSC claim form for Chapter 61 retirees who served fewer than 20 years.

If you need to talk to an Army CRSC adviser, call toll free: 1 866 281 3254. Here are websites and toll free numbers for other services' CRSC offices:

Navy and Marine Corps
www.hq.navy.mil/corb/CRSCB/combatrelated.htm
Phone: 1-877-366-2772

Air Force
www.afpc.randolph.af.mil/disability/CRSC/CRSCnew.htm
Phone: 1-800-616-3775

Coast Guard CRSC applicants can write to: Commander (adm-1-CRSC), U.S. Coast Guard Personnel Command, 4200 Wilson Boulevard, Arlington, VA 22203-1804 – Tom Philpott

EARLY RESERVE RETIREMENT

I am a Reservist on active duty in support of the war. Will I qualify for earlier reserve retirement even if I haven't gone to Iraq or Afghanistan?

I'm 58 and have been on active duty since January 2007.

STEVEN G.
Master Sergeant
Via e-mail

The early reserve retirement provision applies to active service by reserve and Guard members under wartime emergency orders [Title 32 sections 101(a)(13)(B), or 12301(d), or 502(f)].

 It does not apply to recalls under section 12310 used to help organize, administer, recruit or train reserve components.

Reservists' age 60 retirement start can be lowered by three months for each 90 days of qualifying active service. But the change applies only to active service after the law's enactment which was Jan. 28, 2008. Therefore it will not benefit most reserve component members with post-9/11 service. – T. P.

NEW GI BILL ALLOWANCE

I read the article on the new Post-9/11 GI Bill and found it very helpful. I have one question. It says it does not provide the living allowance for online courses. I planned to use online courses after I get out.

I believe I should be able to get the housing allowance whether the courses I take are online or in a classroom. College online requires the same amount of hard work and dedication, in my opinion. I still need a place to live and feel this is very unfair.

Can you explain this restriction?

DAVID MARTINSEN
Sergeant, U.S. Army
Via e-mail

Architects of the Post-9/11 GI Bill were concerned about the potential costs associated with paying a geographic-based living allowance to online students.  It is designed to be set based on where schools are located.  If that feature isn't modified for online students, they feared online colleges would spring up in high cost areas like San Francisco and New York City and attract GI Bill users looking for hefty living allowances. So, at least as written now, the law prevents living allowance payments for online courses. – T.P.

FEELING LEFT OUT

I am a veteran of 20 years' service in the Marine Corps. I have a disability rated 40 percent [which is not high enough to avoid a dollar-for-dollar offset of military retired pay by VA disability compensation.]

 I cannot understand why someone medically discharge with less time because of an exercise accident or training exercise should be given concurrent pay and not one who served at least 20 but falls short of 50 percent.

I believe every one who has served at least 20 years should be considered first before some one who is medically discharged earlier.

JOSE A SALAS JR
Via e-mail

It is good that progress is being achieved with Concurrent Retired Disability Payments (CRDP) and Combat-Related Special Compensation (CRSC). Still ignored, however, is concurrent receipt for more than 400,000 retired disabled veterans with 10- to 40-percent disability ratings who lack a "combat" merit badge. These are the "forgotten veterans" by the Bush administration, the Pentagon, veteran service organizations and Congress.

In the September-October 2004 DAV magazine, then presidential candidates were asked: Do you support provision of concurrent receipt to veterans rated 40 percent or less and will your administration actively work to bring it about? This was the last effort by veteran service organizations to address this issue. In the 2008 presidential election, the issue is not discussed yet 400,000 or more retired disabled veterans still are paying the veterans disability tax. We are the ignored veterans, the unworthy.

The Veterans Disability Benefit Commission was created because the government did not want to address the issue. The administration's hope was that the VDBC would rubber stamp their belief that this group of veterans was not worthy of concurrent receipt.  So the administration was surprised when granting concurrent receipt to all disabled retired veterans turned out to be one of the commission's stronger recommendations.

Cost is not the main issue because more than 70 percent of concurrent receipt dollars already are being paid, according to research noted on the VDBC web site. So the issue must be apathy toward veterans with disabilities of 40 percent or less, and that must change.

KENNETH L. HANFT
U.S. Army-Ret.

Letters may be edited for clarity or length.  Write to Military Forum, P.O. Box 231111, Centreville, VA  20120-1111, send e-mail to militaryforum@aol.com or visit www.militaryupdate.com.