We really need to fix the broken VA
In an open letter to the VA published on Foreign Policy, Army Maj. Dennis “DJ” Skelton, also known by a moniker as the “most wounded commander in U.S. military history,” said he was told by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they wouldn’t be paying for his feeding tube liquid.
Skelton said he was told by the VA to go to his local hospital’s emergency room to get a feeding tube placed in his stomach due to his “shot-up palate deteriorating,” making it difficult for him to either eat or drink.
“So when the Secretary of the VA’s front office called me last week to inquire if any of my current problems were in any way the fault of the VA — the answer is YES,” Skelton wrote.
VA won’t pay for feeding tube liquid for Army’s ‘most wounded commander in history’ | American Military News
Skelton was critically wounded in the firefight, getting hit by a number of rounds and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
One soldier helped keep him alive by “using a spent .50-caliber round as an airway” and performing a field tracheotomy, according to an Army release.
“I was hit in that firefight … I happened to be standing beside a cement pylon and the next thing I knew, it was pitch dark,” Skelton said. “I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t feel anything. I felt like I was floating through space. One of the last things I remember was hearing one of my Soldiers say, ‘I think the lieutenant’s dead.’ At that time, a switch flipped, and I began to feel the most intense pain of my life.”
A round pierced Skelton’s face, went through his cheek, tumbled downwards into his mouth, destroying it as well as his soft palate. After that, it exited out of his left eye socket.
He had taken an AK-47 round through his upper left arm and was struck by an RPG.
“My left arm was destroyed. My hand was intact, but everything from the wrist to the elbow was destroyed,” Skelton said in the release. “The head of the RPG broke and went through my right leg. My ammunition belt got hot and began cooking off. Those rounds, along with various enemy AK-47 rounds, went through my right arm and left shoulder.”
In an open letter to the VA published on Foreign Policy, Army Maj. Dennis “DJ” Skelton, also known by a moniker as the “most wounded commander in U.S. military history,” said he was told by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they wouldn’t be paying for his feeding tube liquid.
Skelton said he was told by the VA to go to his local hospital’s emergency room to get a feeding tube placed in his stomach due to his “shot-up palate deteriorating,” making it difficult for him to either eat or drink.
“So when the Secretary of the VA’s front office called me last week to inquire if any of my current problems were in any way the fault of the VA — the answer is YES,” Skelton wrote.
VA won’t pay for feeding tube liquid for Army’s ‘most wounded commander in history’ | American Military News
Skelton was critically wounded in the firefight, getting hit by a number of rounds and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).
One soldier helped keep him alive by “using a spent .50-caliber round as an airway” and performing a field tracheotomy, according to an Army release.
“I was hit in that firefight … I happened to be standing beside a cement pylon and the next thing I knew, it was pitch dark,” Skelton said. “I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t feel anything. I felt like I was floating through space. One of the last things I remember was hearing one of my Soldiers say, ‘I think the lieutenant’s dead.’ At that time, a switch flipped, and I began to feel the most intense pain of my life.”
A round pierced Skelton’s face, went through his cheek, tumbled downwards into his mouth, destroying it as well as his soft palate. After that, it exited out of his left eye socket.
He had taken an AK-47 round through his upper left arm and was struck by an RPG.
“My left arm was destroyed. My hand was intact, but everything from the wrist to the elbow was destroyed,” Skelton said in the release. “The head of the RPG broke and went through my right leg. My ammunition belt got hot and began cooking off. Those rounds, along with various enemy AK-47 rounds, went through my right arm and left shoulder.”
