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Disabled Veteran
likarock4435
Posts: 2 ✭ Freshman
in General
I am a disabled veteran of The Army and spent three years in the Iraq war. I had to get to the GDay game 3 hours ahead of game time to get tickets. Pretty crappy that the would not let me in the gate 30 mins early to be able to sit down or even bring me a chair to sit down on!! Saddening!! No respect for this country's veterans or what they have sacrificed for them ex. The simple ability to play football in a free country.
Comments
Sorry to hear that. Thank you for your service and sacrifice.
@likarock4435 Nice to meeting you Soldier. I too am a Military Veteran of the Desert Shield/Desert Storm era. I was active duty USMC from 24 Sep 1982 thru 24 Sep 1993, & I was in VMFA-323 & my unit was attached to the ACE of the 31st MEU in WestPAC and unfortunately our unit missed it all. We were stuck in Japan. I am in no way disabled, so I ache for Veterans who are so challenged. However, I would like to take this time for me to personally thank you for your service to our Great Nation as a Soldier of The Army & wish that our Almighty God bless you & yours Sir. I am very sorry to hear that the mostly really good folks that are there at UGA associated with today's proceedings did not make reasonable accommodations to take into account assisting ANY person with a disability, much less a Combat Veteran like yourself. That truly is sad to hear. Perhaps you might later on follow this action up there in Athens, & I would be willing to bet that someone in the administration / organization would want to "make things right" going forward. If it were me? I would. That sounds like it could be an "easy fix." Lastly, I disagree with you that they do not care about our veterans there, as I now live in California. I would "give them a chance." As I was born and raised in Georgia, & a large part (nearly all) of my entire family still resides there in Georgia. It has been my own personal experience that the vast majority of most all Georgians generally have a much greater regard and feeling towards our Nation's Veterans. Particularly Combat Veterans. Semper Fi.
Contacting the school about this might be the better route. Maybe you can help them put something in place for future g-days or games in general.
@Teddy amen sir. Agree 110%
Yea this is definitely the better route, there isn't much we can do about it on here except sympathize with you
As an active duty member of the military I would greatly appreciate it if you didn’t disparage the entire university because you had one bad experience. As others have stated, venting on forum will not accomplish anything.
I am a veteran as well. US Army, but not disabled. Sorry for the skepticism but that is how we live. Per the reference below, the gates open at 1 PM today. Your post date is consistent with that. Rather than 3 hours in advance of the game, you were there (presumably) 4 hours in advance of the game. Also, I do not understand the '30 minutes early' remark. You wanted to get in at 12:30 for a 4 PM kick off or wanted to come at 3:30 for the kick off? Most disabled I have seen are prepared for their environment and wouldn't expect a 'chair' at a stadium locale. I doubt the university owes you anything. If you simply expressed your situation poorly then my apologies but I doubt that is the case here. Sounds like a twisted stolen valor ploy, in which case I am offended. (pour in your down votes)
georgiadogs.com/gameday/football-vs-g-day-red-and-black-game/football/21
As a 22 year veteran who is also disable, i have never had problem with getting into the stadium. Also, unless I am mistaken, were they not giving out tickets as you entered, based on where you entered the stadium?
Remember this is coming from one disabled vet to another, you didnt say what your disability was. I say this because there are numerous levels of disability. I have friends whose disability isnt even noticeable and you were never know it if they didnt say anything. Is your disability at the level where you need special assistance? Understand that you dont have to respond if you dont want to.
Lastly, I have to say this. This being your 1st post, it is actually coming off as kind of trollish. If this causes me some down votes, so be it.
I don't recall asking for anything on here? Just a simple dissatisfaction in the staff not caring enough to provide a chair. If you must know I left my house at 7am got there at 10am got tickets at 1130am went and had lunch. By then the 3 hour ride to Athens along with all the walking espically of the stairs (multiple times trying to figure out where to drop off can goods) had taken its told on my knees and back. I have ratings on my knees, back, ankles and shoulder at totaling 180%, 90% compensation. Hope that's enough to be disabled. So, when I am limping and can't stand up staring and ask for a chair to sit on it should not be so hard to provide for the 30mins I have to wait for the gate to open espically since there were chairs 30ft inside the gate. I also do not recall mentioning anything about the university specifically. As far as stolen valor goes, I appreciate your honesty but, I assure you that is not the case!
Not disparaging? Ok.
“No respect for this country's veterans or what they have sacrificed for them ex. The simple ability to play football in a free country.”
the university has no respect for veterans. Your words man. I could have made a reasonable guess that G day would entail a great deal of walking and even more waiting in line. maybe next time you’ll learn from this experience.
Veteran here, not disabled but I absolutely could get a rating if I chose to do so...
Your disability sounds like a bunch of musculoskeletal problems...So with that being said, please exit stage left with this BS.
My friend,
I can understand that your irritation. A lot of people dont understand that most disablities do not manifest themselves into obvious visual ID features (i.e.. wheelchairs, cane, braces, and so forth). Therefore a lot of people are not prepared to provide immediate help. I want to commend you on your support for our Dawgs. Based on your timeline your grpup had a very long day. Where your post went south was the comment about "no respect for this country's veterans." If you had not gone there, I assure you it would have went over 10x better.
@polynikes. I voted your comment down based on the fact that you seem to think that musculoskeletal disabilities are irrelevant. I had both knees operated on, and broke my back, while in the military and most of my disability is based on those. Trust me when I say that I havent had a morning in 20 years when I am not reminded of it.
Go DAWGS
I specialize in musculoskeletal and spine injuries. I am very familiar with this topic, especially as it pertains to veterans. You're aware that practically every human on Earth has these same problems right? Just bc you are in the military doesn't mean it was having been in the military that caused your bad back. That's why vets with back pain shouldn't be treated any differently than a civilian with back pain. The thread starter mentioned spending time in Iraq as an appeal to emotion that was supposed to strengthen his argument. I too went to Iraq. That aspect does nothing to bring validity to his point of view.
Edit - Also a "broken back" means nothing. You can fracture your vertebra, the transverse process, etc and never even know it. I'm not disputing that you don't have real problems btw. One of good buddies did "break his back" on active duty, and he is now a paraplegic. I have friends who had limbs blown off as well...I have friends who died.
Just don't gripe about UGA not giving you a chair to sit on bc you have a bunch of bad joints. Please...
I'm not going to argue with you about the OP trying to draw sympathy due to the Iraq comment. I was there three times myself. As for everyone on earth having the same problems as vets, bull ****. My mom was a teacher and my dad work in the coal mines and neither of them ever had any back or knees problems until they were well into thier 60s. I have friends in thier mid to late 40s that can't go to walmart for more than 30 minutes because thier knees or backs wont allow it and they refuse to ride in those motorized cart, mainly out of pride. Those injuries aren't from genetics. They are from carry an 80 pound ruck 6 miles once a week, running God knows how many miles every week, or like me jumping out of airplanes over 200 times throughout thier career. How many civilians are exposed to that kind of mandatory bodily stress everyday of thier working life? I have no doubt that there are civilian jobs out there that require just as much as the military, but don't make it sound as though everyone goes through it.
I apologize for not explaining my back problem further. On 12 Dec 2003, I incurred a burst fracture of my L1 while exiting a helicopter in a way that NORMAL people don't, in an area that NORMAL people wouldn't. While I don't specialize in these types of injuries like you do, I can tell you that with my 15 1/2 years of having to deal with it, it constantly hurts. Since you are a hardened veteran I will spare you all the sappy details about playing with the grandkids or taking a long walk on the beach with my wife. I mean since you are a specialist, you already know.
I'm sorry to tell you that there is no shortage of young adults out there with egregious medical problems.
Like I said, I'm not disputing that you don't have a legit back injury...but please don't say there aren't an equal number of mechanics, roofers, carpenters, manual labor types whose injuries can't compare to military men and women.
Civilians get shot all the time too, and you may be surprised to hear that more civilians are shot than vets.
Look man, I'm a vet and I'm from a family of vets, and I love the military.
Movie is starting. I'll continue later...
@polynikes First let me thank you for your family's military heritage (no sarcasm). I know the difficulties involved.
Also,I never said the general population didn't have thier share of medical problems. My argument is that percentage wise, when it comes to job related injuries, the military's is greater. While I didn't do an extensive search, this article popped up immediately (https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4939-2984-9_1). The physical requirements on just the basic troop (I can only speak for the Army) is overwhelmingly higher than your average job. This doesn't even not take into account the combat arms, or special forces, section of the military.
As for civilians getting shot, that is a **** analogy. First there are more civilians than military (about 100x more), sojust based on that, there are going to be more of them getting shot. Second, very few jobs in the civilan world run the risk that the military does (with the exception of first responders). You stated that you have friends that have had limbs blown off and even friends that have died (I'm sorry about both), where those civilan friends or military friends? I was EOD in the military and I too have had friends lose body parts and die. However, since I retired in 2005, I have never had a civilian friend blown up, lose a limb, get shot down, or even be shot at. As a matter of fact, I can't think of a civilian friend that happened to even when I was in the military.
Lastly, I agree that the OP was wrong trying to elicit sympathy for his combat time and he was also wrong to imply that UGA didn't care about vets.
Hope you enjoyed the movie.
Go Dawgs
For every military guy who fell out of a helicopter, got shot (civilians are shot every day in America), or suffered any other type of catastrophic injury, there is are NUMBER of civilians who can at least equal the severity of that service member's injury.
The gun shot wound thing is NOT a bad analogy. My point with it is that anything that happens to a member of the armed service likewise happens to civilians.
Roofers fall off the roof and break their neck all the time, guys laying brick develop the same overuse injuries as members of the military, guys and gals who hang sheet rock blow out their shoulders and back every day, and elevator repairmen fall all the time.
Injuries in the military are extremely more common outside of combat than inside of combat, and those injuries are largely musculoskeletal and of the overuse type. You're just as likely to find those same problems in your local policeman, who wears a bullet bouncer daily.
I have a bad back. I was in special operations as well. If you want to know specifics I'll tell you via PM and not here in the open forum. My back problem is much more likely to be from the years of mixed martial arts after the military than during the military. Yes, I humped (very) heavy rucks often, I jumped out of planes with heavy rucks, and I ran with heavy rucks. In no way can I ABSOLUTELY blame the military for my back pain that is daily, and yes it makes it hard to sleep.
I am just as likely to have the same back issue had I never been in the military. Explain to me why there is no shortage of ppl with desk jobs who have bad backs at 40? Why is that if they're not humping a heavy ruck?
This is the internet, and it is difficult to really have a decent discussion about anything bc it is done without tone, emphasis, etc, but don't get me wrong - I am 100% for the military, I support aid for servicemen and women who need help, and I don't think that just bc someone has a musculoskeletal condition that he or she isn't legit...
Oh...I 100% DO know civilians who have lost limbs at work doing civilian jobs. Again, I take care of these ppl.
You may be shocked to know that amputations still happen at work, and they happen all the time. Amputations also happen from car wrecks and diabetes, and you know the most common reason for amputation is diabetes right?
If you're saying that civilians don't lose their limbs as frequently as military members by way of a vehicle-born IED, I agree...The fact remains that even more civilians lose limbs than military members so if you come into contact with an amputee at any mall in America, that person is more likely than not to be a civilian.
..by the way, my overall point in even responding to this topic was to say that this guy has injuries that anyone in America could have, and his having been in the military is completely irrelevant.
Whether someone is a veteran or not, if he or she is disabled they should get assistance as they need it.
Just bc someone is a veteran doesn't mean he or she has more worth or intrinsic value to our country than someone who is disabled after being hit by a drunk driver.
If you're disabled you're disabled and you deserve assistance, but don't ever bring that veteran victim BS up in front of me bc I've come to know a lot of wonderful ppl with disabilities who deserve the same help and same benefits.
This is well said and reflects how I feel as well. I’ll add if you are a DV with with bad knees you should prolly not try and draw attention to fact as most of who have served in GWAT have bad joints ourselves and know plenty of good dudes who would trade anything to only have bad knees, yet you would NEVER hear them complain about it.