And I bet ya 20 bucks the undisclosed mental condition they can't ascertain in the article, is PTSD. Ah the stories I could tell y'all about PTSD in the pilot ranks. Embarrassing.
The # of airline guys who are beginning to worry is phenomenal....
Wanna see a polar opposite?
Every penny in my account is from working with what's left of my body at a full-time private sector job and working a bit freelance.
I've also lost about 60% of my hearing from the same event as my feet and hand.
The military's disability policies are insane.
I wonder if our airlines would be that much less safe if we had no oversight from the Feds on the one hand (FAA) and the Feds on the other hand (VA) threatening to take a bunch of sorely needed pilots out of commission. Make no mistake I'm not advocating lying on the form, I am wondering if those who were encouraged by the VA branch of our Feds to take PTSD disability are actually a danger. It seems to me a lot of meddling from both ends by the Feds; if they were totally out of the picture, would planes be falling out of the sky daily?
In the meantime, the amount of tax dollars spent to 1.) pay out these PTSD disabilities and 2.) pay the FAA to horse around trying to catch them... are we getting anything like our money's worth?
I understand your general point, but at least for the Navy, a lot of fixed wing pilots, Submariners and Surface guys have done plenty of boots on the ground time in the ‘Stan.I’d like to know how a fixed wing guy in the military gets PTSD in the past 20 years???
I understand your general point, but at least for the Navy, a lot of fixed wing pilots, Submariners and Surface guys have done plenty of boots on the ground time in the ‘Stan.
I understand your general point, but at least for the Navy, a lot of fixed wing pilots, Submariners and Surface guys have done plenty of boots on the ground time in the ‘Stan.
We’ve had plenty of people come under fire and even get killed in base camps over there. You don’t have to be a door kicker to get PTSD.Yeah but there’s a huge difference between their ground duties and someone kicking down doors for a living every day. Unless they were in an ANGLICO unit, they weren’t exactly “in the chit” over there. Most of the pilots I flew around were in liaison or in charge of Seabee projects. Not really PTSD type of work.
We’ve had plenty of people come under fire and even get killed in base camps over there. You don’t have to be a door kicker to get PTSD.
...And I have a hell of a bone to pick with that mismanagement of our Forces; bordering on willful negligence on the part of senior leadership imo. But that's not on the individual service members, to be clear. The manning in Navy Reserve outfits is testament to how well that force management gem of a decision is working out for the Plantation Masters at the Dept of the Navy.
The most egregious claims for PTSD I've heard from came one from an ARMY female clerical REMF, the other from a C-5 pilot (strat airlift...really?) in his primary duty code no less. A lot of maligning in the veteran ranks I'm afraid. This is a shame, but the 90/10 rule is valid in all facets of life, it seems.
Operation Safe Pilot. Actually, I lost on a technicality in a 3 to 5 decision. The Court's opinion was written by Justice Alito, joined by Chief Justice Roberts, Justice Scalia, Justice Kennedy, and Justice Thomas. The opinion of the court was that the privacy act was insufficiently clear about whether mental and emotional distress resulting from willful and intentional public disclosure of highly confidential medical information met the "actual damage" phrase in the privacy act. Law dictionaries define "actual damage" as proven, not presumed with no mention of pecuniary loss as a requirement. Justice Sotomayor wrote a scathing dissent and was joined by Justices Breyer and Ginsburg.
The chief judge of the district court found that the government agencies (FAA, DOT, and SSA) had violated the privacy act multiple times in conducting the Operation Safe Pilot investigation, and this was never challenged by the 9th Circuit or the Supreme Court. I have thousands of pages of government documents (internal memos, emails, depositions, sworn declarations, project plan for OSP, testimony before Congress, etc.) from discovery as the case moved through the courts, and there is abundant evidence of the privacy act violations, then government lawyers committing perjury to conceal the violations.
I'm writing a book about the experience which should be published by late next year.
The SCOTUS case number is 10-1024.
I should also point out that the Wikipedia article linked by Velocity173 is in error about the date my new airman certificate was issued after the revocation. The March 1, 2008 issuance was for "English Proficient"... The actual date of issuance of my new certificate was September 11, 2006.
I hope every one of them gets caught. They are all senior to meThe # of airline guys who are beginning to worry is phenomenal....
I’d like to know how a fixed wing guy in the military gets PTSD in the past 20 years???
I get the "fixed wing guys have it easy" thing, but this is just a bit ignorant to categorically disregard it. Although the majority of the air war in Kosovo, Iraq, and Afghanistan has been low-intensity, that certainly isn't the case for everyone. There have been plenty of occasions over the last 20 years for legitimate and up-close combat action for fixed wing guys.
Don't forget there were shoot-downs, POWs, and plenty of close AAA and SAMs just during March, April, and May 2003 in Iraq, not to mention the non-flying stuff outside the wire in all that other time since in the other theaters.
I have two squadronmates I flew F-15Es with who both had lasting PTSD effects following the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003, one of whom fortunately survived a suicide attempt as a result of struggling with PTSD for years afterward. He'd had two very close calls with SAMs and a harrowing experience providing CAS during the fight for Haditha Dam. This guy was an experienced O-4 wh'd been around the block plenty of times, not some disability-collection-hound faking it for the VA.
The other, unfortunately, was involved in a well-known fratricide incident, and has had a very difficult time living with that.
100% agree with every word of that.
Except the part about "Viper Pilot". I nearly broke my eyes rolling them at much of what he wrote in there.
What?! I love that book. A bit arrogant but hey, he’s a fighter pilot. Never even knew you all towed decoys til I read that book.
“STRIKE EAGLE Flying the F-15E in the Gulf War” is another excellent book. Got it on my coffee table right now. Speaking F-15Es, our CEO is an old F-15E guy that flew in Desert Storm. Haven’t met him yet but everyone said he’s an awesome guy.
What?! I love that book. A bit arrogant but hey, he’s a fighter pilot. Never even knew you all towed decoys til I read that book.
When I read it, I was wondering if we'd participated in the same war or not...since he seemed to have single-handedly won it with HARM shots.
Bill Smallwood, the author of the Strike Eagle book, is a good dude. Had a chance to meet him several times during my time flying the dark gray jet.
Many of the individuals featured in the Smallwood book were either squadronmates or leaders of mine, and it was fun to know and work with them after having read their exploits before joining the Strike Eagle community. Steep Turner's "Blow Me!" story is one of my favorites.
Very well said sir!! Especially about the gate guardIt is pretty dishonorable behavior to witness, and it is rampant even among officers. I can see the allure of maligning (if I had a penny for every fibromyalgia betty getting her medical pension check for life after 90 days of checking IDs at the gate and never lifting an additional finger the entire 4 years waiting on that MEB dispensation) if you're junior enlisted with little in the way of income potential on the outside. But to see full up major airline pilots snagging 90 pct ratings while still holding a class I, as part of the top 20 percentile of earners in this country already, while some poor army double amputee is lucky to grab 30 points per leg and a divorce because his dependa tech school wife don't wanna f--- him anymore, is especially bothersome to me.
In Texas, the scam is exacerbated due to incredibly deferent stance of the state towards military veterans. Everybody familiar with Texas knows property taxes are sky high due to the nature of no income tax. Disabled veterans get property tax relief at graduated rates as a function of their vs rating, all the way to full tax exemption. That's easily 10s of thousands in property taxes, entire home purchase class upgrades by virtue of that perverse incentive. The va system is broken.
I would venture to say not just airline guys but any pilot not honest in the application processThe # of airline guys who are beginning to worry is phenomenal....
Just for the record, I was on SSA disability for one year (June, 1995 - June,1996) when I was at death's door. After the protease inhibitors were approved in late 1995 by the FDA and combined with other classes of anti-retrovirals like nucleoside and non-nucleoside reverse transcriptase inhibitors, my HIV viral load plummeted, my CD4+ cell (the immune system cells attacked by HIV) count quickly returned to normal, I gained weight and my energy level returned to normal. By the time the SSA disability-FAA medical certificate database match for Operation Safe Pilot was done in 2004, I had been off of disability and back at work for eight years, yet the FAA thought I was still on disability; some "investigation." It's 2018, I'm healthy at 76, and my viral load has been undetectable and my CD4+ cell count normal for 20 years. My renal and liver functions are normal, and blood pressure and cholesterol are normal, and there are no side effects of the anti-retrovirals I'm on.
Life is good.
Then again he could've just not lied on his medical application in the first place. Or the second. Or the third. Or the fourth. Or the fifth. Or the sixth.Im sure dealing with this was a nightmare, but having your case deliberated on by the Supreme Court is pretty friggen cool! Few people would stand up for their rights to this extent.
Gary
Actually, the scandal is about the contract psychiatrists who do six evaluations per hour for the award....I wonder if our airlines would be that much less safe if we had no oversight from the Feds on the one hand (FAA) and the Feds on the other hand (VA) threatening to take a bunch of sorely needed pilots out of commission. Make no mistake I'm not advocating lying on the form, I am wondering if those who were encouraged by the VA branch of our Feds to take PTSD disability are actually a danger. It seems to me a lot of meddling from both ends by the Feds; if they were totally out of the picture, would planes be falling out of the sky daily?
In the meantime, the amount of tax dollars spent to 1.) pay out these PTSD disabilities and 2.) pay the FAA to horse around trying to catch them... are we getting anything like our money's worth?
Actually, the scandal is about the contract psychiatrists who do six evaluations per hour for the award....
DISCLOSEI would venture to say not just airline guys but any pilot not honest in the application process