Connect

Stories

• Karen coe 59 SFC Extended Family Member

  Cutler, OH United States

  I am a wife of a veteran who suffered strokes while in uniform. Because it was on his off-duty time the Army says they are not responcible for the strokes. My husband has collectively served the military for over 37 years. He was active and stayed military by transferring to the National Guard. Before Iraq or Afghanistan our troops served the citizens of this nation when severe natural disasters would strike. My husband was on such duty when the over load of the job he was doing caused him to become stricken. The Army sent him home but they did not tell me it was because he was ill. I awoke to the realization the next morning that he could not speak. I immediately took him to the hospital near us and as he entered the Emergency Room doors he dropped dead. He had never failed to report for duty until that day, EVER !!! He was paralyzed on the right side, could not speak, and was totally blinded. I called him off for duty and waited for the "boots in the hallway" I thought and always was told would come if anything like this would ever happen. I am still waiting. It will be 10 years come April 17 th 2010. If I had known it was all lies I would not have stayed through all those years he served and missed the important stuff in our lives because he put his duty above all else, even his family.I have cared for him for the last 10 years 24/7. I sometimes think it would have been better if the doctors on duty in that ER had just let him go. He is physically healthy. He is just not the man he used to be. He has the health he had then. No high blood pressure, no found physical disease or any reason for the strokes except for the strain he was under at the time. I mean his personal health did NOT cause the strokes. Seven days straight in the field under full load did cause it. However, it is not classified as Service Connected brain injury.This also caused him to get Type I diabetes. But, I think it should be because after all it was for the military and local duty in a disaster that did it. That is what the Guard does in peasetime. And he had done these things times and times before. Tornados, hurricanes, floods. If Americans needed help he was there until lives began to look normal again. He was proud to do it. Now he is left with nothing. We lost our business and almost our home. Our American dream went when the strokes arrived and it will never be a reality. I do not know where we go from here but I get so tired of hearing the whinning and crying of the masses now that they are in our shoes and have it so damn hard!!! Wait 10 years and then let me know about how you did it. I have given up my life to an injury that most of the time can't stand me and sends me into another room because I am getting on his last nerve. I wish I were someone else or somewhere else. But this is what I signed on for when I stayed a military wife. I lost my husband, the kids lost their dad and the Army lost a great Sergeant. Today we fight on alone. I get nothing for the care I give him. I can get some of his retirement when he is gone. I feel however, it will never be enough to compensate me for the loss of my life due to the Unided States military.

Comments

• Ethel "Coe" Massey 6 months ago

  This is the most bold that I have ever read. When you wrote that we have lost our dad, it's the truth! To those on the outside looking in...I am the youngest of this Vet. When my dad had the strokes, it was exactly 10 days after my 16th birthday. I remember my mom calling the school telling me that she had to take dad to the hospital because he wasn't feeling very good. I had asked what was wrong and she told me that dad had a stroke in his sleep. I was so upset over the news that I had to call my oldest brother to come and get me out of school. My teachers, principal, and even guidance counselors had told me to take all the time I needed to cope with an illness as such. I never knew that I would have to live with it for the rest of my life. It's like my mom being married to someone that looks like my dad, sounds like my dad and even has the same cologne as my dad. BUT WHO IS THIS MAN??? Who is this guy that I had to learn all over again and help whenever I can? My mom and dad come to my house so mom can get a break from dad. I have a 9 month old baby girl that finally brings some sunlight on a somber day. She brings back the old dad from 10 years of the dead. I personally think that if it wasn't for the baby, dad would have been gone a long time ago. I know that my dad don't have much time left and he has been denied his back pay from 10 years ago and NO ONE wants to help him get it. If it wasn't for my parents, my husband, brand new daughter and I would have been homeless!! I am honored that my dad is still around but I'm afraid of the day when my mom calls me to come to the house and sign papers stating that he's gone. It's not much longer now.
  

• Karen Coe 6 months ago

  If you are military...Get out !!! If you are not...Don't join!!! It is a whole lot of B--- S---!!!