Big Country Issues: ''You go from protecting your country to receiving food stamps just to get by,''

A Battle for Benefits

Airman forced to retire for health reasons loses home, cars and savings as he waits for VA pay; At 28, Jeremiah Cottle has lived in nearly constant pain the last three years

By Sidney Levesque / levesques@reporternews.com
March 19, 2006

MORAN - Retired Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Cottle, 28, has lived in nearly constant pain the last three years from debilitating brain swelling he first experienced while serving in the Air Force.
After he was medically retired in 2005, it took the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs nearly a year to begin sending his benefits. It took a phone call from the Reporter-News to get the VA to send thousands of dollars in back pay, Cottle said.
The delay cost the Cottle family their home, vehicles, savings and pride. They now live with his grandparents on their ranch in Moran, a small Shackelford County community 42 miles northeast of Abilene.
The anguish has been so great, Cottle said, he believes his wife and two sons would have been better off if he had died because survivor benefits are immediate.
''You go from protecting your country to receiving food stamps just to get by,'' he said.
Surprisingly, Cottle's situation is not rare.
Injured soldiers routinely are retired into a bureaucratic limbo waiting for VA benefits.
''It's a terrible, terrible situation,'' said Vicky Field, who works for the U.S. Department of Defense, raising community money to help severely wounded Texas troops. Last year, Texas had about 1,500 badly injured troops. That number has increased this year, said Field, whose own son was wounded in Iraq.
Medically retired troops receive retirement pay until their VA benefits start. But if their medical problems render them unable to work, they can become financially drained waiting for their benefits, said Field, who is trying to drum up local support for the Cottles.
With the war on terrorism ongoing, Field said, she doesn't see the situation letting up.
''The VA is so overrun with the veterans themselves, and then there's the wounded and the family members eligible for VA benefits,'' said Field, who lives in Granbury.
The war on terrorism is not causing a backlog of claims, said VA spokesman Jose Llamas. He said a number of factors keep the VA busy, including veterans who are better educated about their benefits and aging baby boomers.
The military has started partnering with the VA more to get soldiers' medical records turned over before they are discharged to speed up the VA enrollment process. Unfortunately, this effort only started about six months ago, too late for the Cottle family.
Pain
Cottle's troubles started in August 2003, when he developed a high fever while working as a computer programmer in Germany during the war in Iraq. He began sweating profusely, suffered head pain and couldn't lie on his back without blacking out.
''I felt like somebody was crushing the back of my skull,'' Cottle said.
Days later, German doctors examined him and found swelling in the left hemisphere of his brain. They concluded he had meningitis/encephalitis.
Meningitis is an infection of the membranes surrounding the brain and spinal cord. Encephalitis is inflammation of the brain, according to the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke. Both are usually caused by viruses or bacteria.
Cottle returned to the United States, still in severe pain. After waiting months for the military to acknowledge his pain was real and not imagined, he had two surgeries to reduce his brain swelling. Neither was successful.
By then, Cottle could no longer drive. He suffered from severe cranial pain, light sensitivity, memory problems, drowsiness, nausea and vomiting from heat exposure.
During the last week of February 2005, Cottle said a medical evaluation board told him because he was unable to work and probably couldn't be rehabilitated within a year, he needed to medically retire.
The Defense Department requires military personnel to leave 40 or so days later, said Col. Johnnie Seward, the Air Force's physical disabilities division chief. Troops with extraordinary hardships can stay in another 30 days, but those cases are rare, Seward said.
Cottle was advised to apply for VA benefits immediately, and he was retired March 22, 2005.
His income fell from about $3,200 a month, which he had received while on active duty, to $850 as a military retiree. It was not enough for Cottle to support his wife and two young boys.
His wife, Lora, 32, was completing a master's degree and working part time, but she stopped to care for her children and ailing husband. Leaving him at home required hiring a sitter.
Financial drain
The family exhausted their savings waiting for VA benefits to start. They received some help from the Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion.
The family applied for food stamps and sold their two vehicles, some of their furniture and their San Antonio home. They moved to his grandparents' ranch in Moran, where Cottle had graduated from high school.
The VA told him the move further delayed his paperwork. Frustrated, the Cottles began writing legislators begging them to intervene with the VA, including the office of U.S. Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Lubbock.
Cottle said none was successful in getting his claim processed quickly.
His paperwork was further delayed because he did not report for physical exams necessary for the VA to process his claim, according to information provided by Tom Morley, a spokesman for the Waco VA Regional Office.
The Cottles said they weren't notified about one appointment. Others were made at the wrong VA hospitals, a confusion attributed to the family's move.
In September 2005, Cottle received his first Social Security disability check, which he had applied for four months earlier. The next month, the VA rated him 100 percent disabled.
His first VA check was issued Dec. 30 for $2,979. Cottle is receiving extra pay based on the severity of his disabilities and because he is homebound and cannot work.
It took the VA about 10 months to process Cottle's claim.
''I was baffled by how much red tape and crap you have to go through,'' he said.
The VA said the length of time it took to process Cottle's claim was rare. The VA's Web site said the national average time it takes to process a claim is 5.4 months.
But the Taylor County Veterans Service Office, which serves as a liaison between vets and the VA, has cases that have taken a year or longer. The VA isn't funded to handle its workload, said Jim DeFoor, who heads the local veterans office.
''I do not like the way they do it,'' DeFoor said. ''I think it's horrendous to put a young man and his family in that position.''
'Light at the end of the tunnel'
By mid-February, the Cottles had started receiving the VA benefits, but thousands of dollars in back pay from nearly a year of waiting on the VA was nowhere in sight.
The family was distraught when a VA caseworker told them there may be no back pay. They were counting on the money to repay a loan from his grandparents.
Days after the Reporter-News spoke to the VA about Cottle's case, the family received a phone call from Morley, the VA spokesman. Morley delivered good news - the back pay was processed March 2 and the family would receive it within a week.
''I was crying,'' Lora Cottle said. ''I was saying, 'Thank you, Lord.'''
The family is still facing the possibility of bankruptcy for money they owe on a house they had started building in San Antonio before Jeremiah Cottle became sick.
Cottle said his family's financial nightmare could have been avoided if the Air Force had delayed his retirement until the VA was ready to issue his benefits. Instead, his family lost everything. The Cottles said it may take five years for them to get back on their feet.
They know other young veterans are in the same position.
''We're struggling to get back what we lost, but there is light at the end of the tunnel,'' Lora Cottle said. ''Our issue is there are so many people coming back (from the war on terror) right now who are going to have to deal with this.''
Cottle still suffers from agonizing pain and is homebound most of the time. He has a box full of pills and other medicine to help him get through the day. He can't even roughhouse with his sons, ages 8 and 5.
To this day, Cottle doesn't know how he contracted meningitis/encephalitis.
Military doctors told him to accept the pain and learn to live with it. But now that he is receiving all of his benefits, his wife said they can afford to take him to nonmilitary specialists.
''We haven't given up hope that somebody out there can do something so his life isn't like this forever.''

Timeline
August 2003
Air Force Staff Sgt. Jeremiah Cottle becomes ill overseas with what doctors said could be meningitis/ encephalitis.
August 2004
The military performs two surgeries to reduce swelling in the brain. Neither is successful.
February 2005
A medical evaluation board informs Cottle he will be medically retired. He applies for Veterans Administration benefits. The paperwork is sent to Houston.
March 22, 2005
Cottle retires. His military pay was $3,200 a month. His retirement pay is $850 a month.
April 19, 2005
Rerouted VA paperwork arrives at the Waco VA Regional Office.
June 2005
Unable to work or live on $850 a month, Cottle and his family put their San Antonio home up for sale. They move in with his grandparents in Moran.
September 2005
Cottle begins receiving monthly Social Security disability payments of $1,500 in addition to his retirement pay.
October 2005
VA rates Cottle 100 percent disabled.
January 2006
Cottle receives first VA benefits check for $2,979. Military retirement pay ends.
March 2, 2006
VA processes his back pay. VA enrollment was a 10-month journey.

source: http://www.reporternews.com/abil/nw_military/article/0,1874,ABIL_7960_4553185,00.html