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Bill Ferguson
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Bill Ferguson
@SapperNacho
Married way out of my league. Used to blow things up, now I’m telling war stories in a classroom. Still don’t know how to ‘adult.’ personal account.
Rosie’s Cantina เข้าร่วม Eylül 2015
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
I’ve seen some commentators who support the conflict in Iran now talking about VA disability and alleged fraud like they know what they’re talking about.
Sorry, you don’t.
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
Monday—Time to get out of bed and figure out how you’re going to kick this week’s ass!
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
As promised, let's talk about VA benefits. In this 🧵we will cover:
✅Purpose of VA benefits
✅How service connection and ratings work
✅How VA "math" works
✅Why VA compensation is different from civilian disability and why limiting it to only "combat" veterans is wrong
✅Why VA compensation looks "fraudulent" to the uniformed
✅The problem with claims sharks.
Buckle in, it's gonna be a long one.
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
The heart of the VA “disability” debate isn’t policy, it’s the word itself. Disability is a term loaded with misunderstanding and stigma.
Uninformed veterans and civilians negatively react to the idea of compensation for someone who appears physically “able.” That reaction is conditioned by decades of Hollywood cultural imagery that includes disfigurement, prosthetics, and World War I–style shell shock. In that frame disability is limited to something visible and severe.
But that’s not what the VA system is built around. What veterans leave service with are limitations. Some immediate, others latent but predictable based on exposure, wear, and mathematical and science-based risk. These are measurable, actuarial realities. The system isn’t designed for public adjudication based on anecdotes or subjective thresholds of “hurt enough.”
Yet many people implicitly treat VA disability like workers’ compensation, which invites a kind of vigilantism and an eagerness to identify fraud. It mirrors the logic of true crime culture: find the bad actor and expose the scam! In practice, that instinct often targets legitimately suffering veterans, turning them into suspects and criminals rather than beneficiaries.
What’s missing from the conversation is the underlying purpose: the VA Disability program is, functionally, a quality-of-life compensation model. It acknowledges that service imposes lasting costs, not just on the individual, but often on their family and long-term well-being.
But of course the current terminology obscures that reality. “Disability” narrows the public’s understanding to visible impairment, when the system is actually compensating for diminished lifetime capacity and risk exposure. If the goal is clarity and legitimacy in the public mind, the VA should reconsider the term itself. The whole damn thing… its language, framing, and branding.
Because as long as we rely on a misunderstood word, we’ll keep having the wrong debate. And veterans will lose.
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
Imagine this:
On your first combat tour, you’re outside the wire more than any unit since Vietnam. Blasts knock you off your feet. Bullets rip past your head. You’re taking fire while trying to sleep.
On your second deployment, you watch three friends die in a firefight. You remember touching each of them, saying goodbye. The survivor’s guilt never leaves.
On your third, it all happens again. And you witness a fellow Marine’s suicide. You’re exposed to burn pits and things no one fully understands yet.
Then you’re stuck in a wounded battalion for years… surrounded by triggers, by grief… but they won’t let you go because they don’t want you to become another statistic.
You come home, but you don’t really come home.
You can’t open the blinds. You can’t leave the house. Panic attacks. Nightmares. Sudden rage. Exhaustion that sleep doesn’t fix.
People love you, but they also wish you’d just “get over it.”
You fight for help from the VA. You wait. You appeal. You drown financially while proving, over and over, that you’re not okay.
Twenty years later… you’re still fighting the same war in your own mind.
And then you open 𝕏 and see people say veterans on disability are frauds. That they’re “bleeding the system dry.” That they should all be audited and prove again what they have already proven.
This is my husband’s reality.
Respectfully, you have no idea what you’re talking about. Maybe speak less confidently about things you’ve never lived.
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@ajguckian Sit-ups on the concrete, perhaps?
Like whose idea was that?!
Folks who had to take the APFT for 20 years are definitely broken now.
Wide arm pushups and those sit-ups promoted orthopedic injuries.
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Degenerative disc disease and arthritis are not common among those in their late 20s/early 30s. Unless they are in the military.
Neither of those things gets better over time.
I was 38 when I got shoulder surgery. Told I had the joints of a 65 year old.
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If everything we do in the military is to Prepare for combat, then any injury is
service connected, whether we see combat or not.
Example:
There are a lot more “centurion” paratroopers than there are mustard stains.
Hard training, easy war.
Deterrence >>>
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
The Battle of Iwo Jima (February 19 – March 26, 1945) was one of the bloodiest battles of the Pacific War. American casualties were severe:
Killed in action: approximately 6,800 Marines and Navy personnel
Wounded: approximately 19,200
Total casualties: roughly 26,000
The battle was particularly costly because the Japanese garrison of about 21,000 men fought almost to the last man from an elaborate network of tunnels and fortifications. Only around 216 Japanese soldiers were taken prisoner — nearly the entire garrison died defending the island.
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
Just like a Jarhead to keep their cover on while committing larceny.
Lord Bebo@MyLordBebo
🇺🇸 Hegseth‘s poster boy was busted (stealing) in an apartment of another marine
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@TheIOGuy Some dental work needs a CDR to sign off on someone being non deployable for over a year.
Must have X months left in service before you get X surgery
Can’t get anything done within X months of ETS.
Free healthcare sounds great, but it’s hard work.
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Inservice Commanders don't help either.
"I'm canceling your back surgery for NTC."
Army Med when you get back: "Sorry our next appointment isn't for another 4 months."
Reschedules and: "Sorry you are on the Euro Rotation. Business Rules, you can't have appointments..cancel."
🌶️ 🍜@SpicyNoodles2
@TheIOGuy I can't speak for everyone but I never got seen for a ton of shit so that I wouldn't miss a promotion or deployment. Made sure to have it listed at a minimum for my sep physical.
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A difficult process that has to get independent party confirmation.
Also, some service members are under the poverty line and “qualify” for WIC and food stamps.
Maximilian Uriarte@TLCplMax
Schrodinger’s VA: disability claims are comically turned down all the time despite ample evidence, and also given to everyone who asks. 🐈
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@TheBuddyCSM Apparently, I’ve been failing them for years, but the docs have failed to give me an H2/H3.
They may have told me, but I didn’t hear them.
Hearing aids coming in next week.
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I’ve been trying to fail hearing tests for years to get my hands on these bad boys.
Happy Captain@EODHappyCaptain
One of my favorite things about GWOT veterans is that they are all pretty tech savvy. They all wear hearing aids, but they also have them hooked up to their Bluetooth. It makes it really hard to tell if they are on a call or just muttering to themselves.
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
Statement by President George W. Bush on Robert Mueller:
"Laura and I are deeply saddened by the loss of Robert Mueller. Bob dedicated his life to public service. As a Marine in Vietnam, he proved he was ready for tough assignments. He earned a Bronze Star and a Purple Heart before returning home to pursue law. In 2001, only one week into the job as the 6th Director of the F.B.I., Bob transitioned the agency mission to protecting the homeland after September 11. He led the agency effectively, helping prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Laura and I send our heartfelt sympathy to his wife of nearly 60 years, Ann, and the Mueller family."
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TBI, PTSD, anxiety like nobody’s business, and of course, all the orthopedic stuff.
Oh, and I’m angry all the time because I have impeccable military bearing, and bury that shit down deep inside.
GIF
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Looking for IEDs in non-mrap vehicles and getting blown up.
Or, how about being the lead vehicle on a route clearance patrol and your best protection is that the “cab” detaches from the frame.
Yeah, miss me with the “fraud” crap
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Bill Ferguson รีทวีตแล้ว
We’ve reached a point where so few people know a veteran or active service member that that there is zero desire to understand what real sacrifice looks like.
Everytime a financial podcast drops with a veteran on it, people rush to scream “fraud.”
But, according to the VA Office of the Inspector General, the fraud rate with disability claims is less than 1%.
There are a multitude of conditions that are not physically visible: Traumatic Brain Injury, burn pit exposure, PTSD, gastrointestinal issues, etc that veterans deal with every day.
America just came out of the longest war in our history. Medical testing has gotten better. Documentation of medical issues has gotten better.
You can’t ask America’s sons and daughters to go to war, and then turn your back on them when it’s time to take care of them.
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