Earned Benefits
Veterans Shouldn’t Have to Fight Twice
I didn’t begin the VA disability process until 2024.
Not because I didn’t have health issues. Not because I thought I wasn’t eligible. I simply didn’t know where to start. Every time I considered filing a claim, the process felt overwhelming, so I did what I had been doing for more than twenty years—I convinced myself I was fine and moved on.
It wasn’t until another Air Force veteran encouraged me to file, and my wife pushed me to be honest with my doctors, that I finally took the first step.
Looking back, I realize how much staying silent cost me. But I also learned something else: receiving help can change a person’s life.
Although I was diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea nearly two years ago, it wasn’t until about a month ago that I finally received my CPAP machine through the VA. For the first time in years, I’m sleeping better—and so is my wife.
It hasn’t solved every problem, but it reminded me of something important: these benefits aren’t just numbers on a government spreadsheet. They’re healthcare. They’re treatment. They’re an opportunity for veterans to reclaim parts of their lives they thought were gone.
That’s why I’ve been paying close attention to proposals like the Take Care of America’s Veterans Act. This bill includes several provisions that many veterans have supported for years, including the long-fought-for Major Richard Star Act and expanded support for caregivers.
However, Section 108 raises significant concerns for me. It would remove tinnitus as a standalone disability rating and fundamentally change how sleep apnea is rated. Additionally, the version of the Major Richard Star Act included in this bill is not the same as the original proposal. It contains changes that, in my view, significantly alter the impact of what many veterans originally supported.
As someone currently navigating a sleep apnea appeal and someone with a service-connected tinnitus rating, this isn’t an abstract policy debate. These changes have the potential to affect my family and thousands of veterans like me.
I understand that reasonable people can disagree about how the VA should operate. I believe the system should be improved. It should be easier to file a claim, easier to access care, and easier to receive timely decisions.
No veteran should spend years appealing decisions or struggling to prove conditions connected to their military service.
I’ve experienced that frustration myself.
I’m currently appealing my sleep apnea claim, which I believe is connected to my service-connected chronic rhinitis caused by toxic exposure during my deployment to Prince Sultan Air Base. When I lay down at night, the swelling in my nasal passages makes it difficult to breathe through my nose, which impacts my sleep.
I’m also appealing my Chronic Fatigue Syndrome claim, a process that has stretched on for more than a year and a half. My diagnosis was mislabeled during the process, and I believe my examination did not fully evaluate my condition or the evidence supporting my claim.
I’ve also heard from many veterans who describe years of appeals, confusing paperwork, repeated examinations, and the exhaustion of having to prove conditions they have lived with every day.
Those are problems that deserve attention.
These are issues that should be addressed and fixed.
But I don’t believe the solution is to ask one group of disabled veterans to sacrifice for another.
Doing so doesn’t solve the underlying problems. It simply fractures a community that should be standing together.
A veteran with tinnitus isn’t the reason another veteran is waiting on a claim.
A veteran with sleep apnea isn’t responsible for delays in the system.
A veteran exposed to toxic chemicals isn’t competing against a veteran with PTSD.
We’re not the problem.
The problem is a system that is often difficult to navigate and a nation that too often treats promises to veterans as budget items instead of lasting commitments.
What concerns me most isn’t only the details of this bill. It’s the precedent it could establish.
If we begin treating earned disability compensation as a source of funding for other priorities, where does that end? If it’s acceptable today to reduce one category of earned benefits, what prevents future lawmakers from looking at other categories of earned benefits when facing similar budget pressures?
That isn’t a prediction. It’s a question I believe every veteran—and every American—should ask.
When I enlisted in the Air Force in 1997, I accepted the possibility that military service could permanently change my life.
Like every service member, I trusted that if I came home carrying the physical or psychological costs of that service, my country would keep its promise to care for me.
That promise shouldn’t depend on which party is in power.
It shouldn’t depend on whether a disability is visible.
And it shouldn’t require disabled veterans to compete with one another for support.
If the VA needs reform, let’s reform it.
If veterans need better access to healthcare, let’s improve it.
If more funding is required, then let’s have an honest conversation about how to provide it.
But let’s not solve those problems by taking away benefits that other disabled veterans have already earned.
Keeping one promise shouldn’t require breaking another.
I’ve spent more than twenty years learning that saying “I’m fine” doesn’t make problems disappear.
It only delays dealing with them.
I hope we don’t make the same mistake as a nation.
Supporting veterans shouldn’t be a zero-sum game.
We sent our service members into harm’s way with the promise that if they came home changed, we would stand beside them.
A promise isn’t a promise if it can be rewritten whenever the budget gets tight.
A note on discussion:
At MyAnthologyOfThoughts, I believe growth comes from being willing to listen, learn, and examine our own perspectives.
I welcome respectful disagreement and different perspectives. In fact, I value hearing from people who see these issues differently than I do. None of us have all the answers, and I know I can miss information or overlook something important.
The conversations I find most valuable are the ones where people explain why they believe something—not just what side they are on. Thoughtful disagreement can help all of us better understand an issue, even when we don’t reach the same conclusion. I believe better conversations start when we understand what we mean by the words we use.
My goal with this post is not to dismiss those who disagree with me. It is to share my experience as a veteran navigating the VA disability system and explain why this issue matters to me.
I ask that comments focus on ideas, evidence, and experiences rather than personal attacks.
