![\"Shawn](\"https:\/\/www.azuse.cloud\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/Shawn-McMurray-500x333.jpg\")
<\/a><\/center><\/p>\nThere was this fellow, Shawn McMurray, who applied for disability benefits last year and was unfortunate enough to explain his case to Social Security administrative law judge Gary Suttles who, according to the Austin Statesman<\/a>, has denied more than 80% of the cases he hears. Mr. McMurray was seeking disability compensation for the injuries he incurred in a 2012 motorcycle accident and he tacked on some psychological maladies like depression, bi-polar disorder and PTSD that were a result of his military service in the 1st Gulf War. <\/p>\n Mr. McMurray served on the aircraft carrier, USS America, during that war as an aircraft fueler, He was discharged soon after because the Navy said he had a “personality disorder”. He has unsuccessfully tried to get the VA to compensate him but VA doctors haven’t found a reason to connect his PTS to his service in Navy. The ALJ, Judge Suttles tried to make that connection, too. The conversation recorded in the Statesman went like this;<\/p>\n Suttles: \u201cWhat do you think happened to you in Iraq? I mean, hey, you were in the Navy. You weren\u2019t even fighting on the ground. I mean, you were out in the ocean weren\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n McMurray: \u201cYeah but, I was on a carrier. We lost a lot of planes.\u201d<\/p>\n Suttles: \u201cOK, you\u2019re out there on this big old carrier that doesn\u2019t even touch ground.\u201d<\/p>\n McMurray: \u201cIt\u2019s stressful.\u201d<\/p>\n Suttles: \u201cWell, life is stressful,\u201d (laughing)<\/p>\n McMurray: \u201cUh, yeah.\u201d<\/p>\n Suttles: \u201cTo me it would be exciting. What do you mean stressful? I mean you\u2019re on this floating city in the middle of the (ocean)\u2026.Didn\u2019t you find that exciting?\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n McMurray tells the reporter;<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s tormented me since that day,\u201d said the Navy veteran, 44, \u201cHe took my dignity away. I wasn\u2019t proud to be a veteran.\u201d<\/p>\n […]<\/p>\n McMurray said the exchange \u201churt me so bad. \u2026 He just slammed all of us. What judge in his right mind would tell a veteran that? He\u2019s very biased and discriminating against the Navy.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Veterans, like all Americans have to stiffen up and realize that just because you’re a veteran, that doesn’t shield you from criticism. Especially if you expect that shield just because you served in the military once.<\/p>\n Of course, the VSOs line up to defend McMurray;<\/p>\n [Anthony Hardie, spokesman with the advocacy group Veterans for Common Sense] said those aboard carriers endured \u201cthe sheer terror of incoming missile attacks, any of which might have been laden with chemical or biological warfare agents.\u201d Navy vessels in the Persian Gulf also confronted the threat of underwater mines and environmental hazards like smoke from oilfield fires.<\/p>\n \u201cFueler is a high stress job in itself,\u201d [Jim Bunker, executive director of the National Gulf War Resource Center] said. \u201cIt\u2019s extremely long hours in an extremely dangerous position. He\u2019s being told people\u2019s lives depend on him. Things can happen on those decks that we have no clue about, mishaps. You\u2019re told you could die out there at any time. In most deployments you don\u2019t have that kind of stress going.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n McMurray claims that he once witnessed a crash on the deck of the America and the pilot ejected into the sea.<\/p>\n Now, I’m no expert on post traumatic stress, and I know that stressful situations affect people differently, but it seems to me that if the VA can’t point to a reason to connect McMurray’s PTS to his Navy service, the judge probably couldn’t either. I have no doubt that this will go McMurray’s way because the Social Security Administration has apologized to him for the judge’s comments. For the judge’s part though, he denied McMurray’s claim which is probably why we’re reading about the hearing room exchange now.<\/p>\n The article goes on into the VA guidelines being expanded in 2010 to include events \u201crelated to fear of hostile military or terrorist activity.\u201d But, you know what? I doubt very much there was much danger of either of those things on the decks of the USS America during the Gulf War. Then the VSOs go into the old “forgotten Gulf War veterans” canard. I haven’t felt forgotten, not even for a minute, but then, I don’t make up ailments and injuries related to my military service.<\/p>\n It all reminds me of another fellow we all know who claims false maladies from his service on the decks of another carrier in another war related to duties that he never performed.<\/p>\n Did the Duffel Blog <\/a>see this coming?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"