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Fighting Walter Reed After Fighting the War

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In late February, I was offered a 30 percent rating. I signed the paperwork on March 6. Then came another round of mistakes and delays -- wrong forms, missing reports, orders that didn't come through, administrators who contradicted what other administrators were telling me -- before I could complete my outprocessing. I could never let down my guard. If I had signed one particular form that my outprocessing manager insisted I had to sign, I could have lost my health insurance.

I suspect that my going outside the chain of command has caused some repercussions. One day, I was escorted to my PEBLO's office (as if I didn't know the way), only to learn that there was no reason to be there. And when my medical records were returned to me last month, key documents were missing. No one seems to know where they are. Fortunately, I'd made copies of everything, just as friends had urged me to do more than a year ago.

This is not supposed to be an adversarial system, but that's the way it feels -- like another battle to fight.

I finally got my orders. I expect to leave for home next week and return to civilian life. I hope I never have to return to Walter Reed.

davidyanceymp@yahoo.com

The writer is a sergeant in the Army National Guard. He was assisted in the preparation of this article by Paula Span, a contributing writer to The Washington Post Magazine.

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