Returning veterans always have a hard time adjusting to life at home, and their loved ones have a hard time adjusting as well. William Wyler’s classic The Best Years of Our Lives effectively portrays both stories. In this tense reunion, disabled veteran Homer Parrish does not seem too happy to be home. His family and girlfriend do not seem too happy about it either.
Incidentally, this movie was semi-autobiographical for Wyler, who was himself a disabled veteran. He lost his hearing while flying in a B-29 over Italy due to engine and flak noise. Most of his hearing returned, but he remained partially deaf for the rest of his life. During a 1981 interview, Wyler said his return home and recovery were “the worst weeks of my life.” Ironic, huh?
Returning private military contractors often have additional baggage. Many feel they were basically war profiteers. That is not true, but the sentiment is certainly understandable. The Iraq and Afghanistan Wars are distant memories for most people, but former PMCs still feel the effects of these wars like they ended yesterday.
Keep reading to learn more about the issues a friend or loved one who was injured overseas may be facing. Injured contractors can also learn more about some key coping skills and how a Defense Base Act lawyer eases the transition.
Relating to People
VFW posts and other “war buddy” groups are very popular among veterans. Birds of a feather flock together. These organizations definitely have a place elsewhere as well, such as lobbying efforts.
However, returning contractors should take care not to become dependent on them. If Bill spends two or three nights a week at the VFW, his family and friends may believe it’s because Bill is hiding from them, and they may be right. If Bill has been a contractor for two or three years, he would be used to difficult challenges. He should not take the easy way out when his contract expires, and he returns home.
Usually, balance is key. Spend as much time and energy connecting (or reconnecting) with friends and family as you spend connecting (or reconnecting) with combat associates. Also, consider leading a therapy group, perhaps at the office of a local Defense Base Act lawyer, instead of attending one. Put those combat skills to use.
Finding Comparable Employment
Another character in TBYOOL, returning airman Captain Fred Derry, went from earning $350 a month in the Army Air Corps to earning $35 a month at a local drug store. High-paid contractors often have the same issue, albeit on a smaller scale. It is tough for everyone when the primary wage-earner goes from making about $75 an hour to earning perhaps a third of that.
That’s assuming they can find work at all. Some of our law school classmates became JAG lawyers. When they left three or four years later, they knew the UCMJ backward and forwards. But they knew little about mergers and acquisitions, insurance defense, and other in-demand civilian lawyer jobs.
Contractors have it a little easier. Many contractors had careers as law enforcement officers, engineers, and so forth before they went overseas. Furthermore, contractors often have transferable skills, like instruction and training skills.
A Defense Base Act lawyer probably can’t help much in the job-finding department. But if you were injured overseas, a Defense Base Act lawyer can obtain lost wage replacement benefits. These benefits are often related to an occupational disease. We mentioned the JAG above. President Joe Biden’s son, Beau, was a JAG officer in Iraq. He died about five years after he came home, most likely from burn pit-induced brain cancer.
Identity Issues
Many people, especially men, find their identities in their occupations. When their occupations change, they must find new identities. It’s the Gilligan’s Island syndrome (a skipper without a ship, a professor without a class, a millionaire and his wife without money, etc.). When they return from overseas, private military contractors are no longer specialists or master chiefs. They are Alice and Tony.
Identity issues may be the most serious issue on this list. When people are comfortable in their own skins, other problems do not loom as large. Those Gilligan’s Island castaways faced numerous issues. But because they were more or less content with their situations, they found ways to overcome those challenges.
Health/Benefits Issues
Now, we are in our wheelhouse. Benefits are available to partially or totally disabled contractors, and only a Defense Base Act lawyer can obtain them.
Many times, disabling injuries lurk below the surface. Brain injuries are a good example. Because transitioning to civilian life is so difficult when they experience anxiety and other issues, former contractors often blame the issue on adjustment. Much more likely, however, a brain injury is the cause. As many as a third of all Southwest Asia veterans, not just a third of disabled veterans, have brain injuries.
Primarily, that is because trauma does not always cause a TBI (traumatic brain injury). Sudden loud noises, like explosive blasts, cause shock waves that disrupt brain functions, much like an EMP disrupts electrical devices. So, if you are a former contractor and you have brain injury symptoms, like anxiety, depression, sleeplessness, and mood swings, you probably have a TBI.
A Defense Base Act lawyer starts the recovery process by connecting victims with doctors who accurately diagnose TBIs and other latent injuries.
If the victim has a deployment-related injury, possible compensation includes lost wage replacement and reasonable medical bill payment. The lost wage benefit is usually based on the average weekly wage (AWW) while the victim is deployed. Furthermore, a DBA lawyer helps ensure that reasonably necessary medical treatment is just that, and it does not mean the cheapest available or settling for less.
The Defense Base Act is a 1941 law that sets up a federal workers’ compensation program that is available exclusively to injured overseas contractors, whether they were combat or non-combat contractors.
To learn more about these benefits, contact Barnett, Lerner, Karsen, Frankel & Castro, P.A.