Paying the price

[Guest guest]

http://www.beaufortgazette.com/local_news/story/3735108p-3338945c.html

 

Paying the price

 

Published " Sunday

By MICHAEL KERR

Gazette staff writer

 

Gabe Black still wears his Army T-shirt with pride.

 

But more than two years after bullets and mortar

shrapnel tore through his right leg as he waged war in

the mountains of Afghanistan, Black is trying to

understand why the government he proudly served isn't

taking care of him the way he thought it would.

 

Medically discharged, the 24-year-old former infantry

soldier is working 70-hour weeks at Steadfast Marine

Services on St. Helena Island as he struggles to cope

with a benefits package nowhere near what he said he

was promised.

 

" They told me, 'You don't have anything to worry

about. You're going to be taken care of for life,' "

Black said of the Army officials and doctors who set

up camp beside his Walter Reed Army Medical Center bed

in Washington, D.C., upon his return to the United

States in early 2002. " They said you'll get at least

80 percent (disability). "

 

A soldier's disability rating, based on the

seriousness of an injury, is decided on by the

military's Medical Evaluation Board and sets the

amount of a service member's monthly disability check.

 

Black was originally given a 40 percent rating, which

would have meant a $454 check every month, according

to a Department of Veterans Affairs' Web site. But he

appealed the decision only to find out six months

later his rating had been reduced to 20 percent.

 

A soldier's disability rating must be at least 30

percent to qualify for any federal benefits, and a

disability rating of 80 percent, which is what Black

had expected, would have meant $1,195 per month.

 

" I didn't know what to do, " Black said on Thursday,

shaking his head as he sat on the couch of the

Beaufort home he shares with his brother.

 

Black said he was told another appeal would keep him

in the hospital for three to five more years, and that

he was better off just accepting the military's

decision and getting out of the Army. His service had

already been extended by more than a year beyond the

normal four-year term as he underwent physical therapy

and waited on an answer to the first appeal.

 

" You spend five years in the Army doing what you're

told to do, " Black said. " Maybe I should have just

stayed (in the hospital) for years and not gotten out.

Maybe they would have gotten sick of me and said,

'We'll give you some damn benefits.' "

 

But the real shock came just a few weeks ago when he

received a bill in the mail from the Army telling him

he'd been overpaid when he received his $15,000

severance check, and that he owed the government

$6,500.

 

Gabe said he's tried to find out why he owes the

money, but never received an answer.

 

" That's pretty much not gonna get paid, " he said,

shaking his head and looking down on the bill as it

sat on his coffee table. " That right there was just a

slap in the face. "

 

Calls to the Army's deputy public affairs officer for

human services and the Medical Evaluation Board from

The Gazette for an explanation of the disability

rating and benefits process weren't returned last

week.

 

Operation Anaconda

 

On March 2, 2002, Army Sgt. Gabe Black and 42 other

soldiers jammed into a Chinook helicopter and landed

in the Shahi Khot region of eastern Afghanistan as

part of Operation Anaconda, at the time, the largest

offensive of Operation Enduring Freedom.

 

The objective of Operation Anaconda was to choke off

the last bit of Taliban resistance in the region, said

Black, who was serving with the 10th Mountain Division

out of Fort Drum, N.Y., in support of the Army's 5th

Special Forces group.

 

" We basically got sold out by the Northern Alliance, "

he said. " The Northern Alliance were the so-called

friendly Afghanis. They sold us out to the Taliban.

They sold our plan out. "

 

Anticipating minimal resistance, the U.S. forces found

themselves bombarded by heavy mortar, rocket-propelled

grenade and machine gun fire. At first the unit's

soldiers thought they were in an especially hot

landing zone, Black said, but it soon became clear

they were heavily outnumbered by Taliban and al-Qaida

forces.

 

" There were more than 1,000 of them and 40 of us, " he

said. " There wasn't a whole lot you could do. They had

the high ground ... They had us surrounded. "

 

An enemy mortar took out three of Black's fellow

soldiers as rounds flew just above their heads and the

" firefight went on and on, " he said.

 

" I ended up taking a couple of stray bullets, " Black

said. " Their mortars were just dead on. We were

basically just in a defensive position, trying to hold

our ground and calling in air strikes. "

 

Marine Corps fighter jets would eventually come in to

slow the enemy forces, but not before an 82 millimeter

mortar exploded about five feet from Black, spitting

out shrapnel that ripped through him and several other

soldiers.

 

" I took the majority of it because I was the closest

to it, " Black said.

 

His belt tied around his thigh as a makeshift

tourniquet, the wounded warrior tried to crawl toward

safety when another bullet struck his right thigh,

severing his femoral artery.

 

" When the bullet hit, I just went into shock, " he

said. " I passed out after that. "

 

Black woke up just once for a few seconds on the

medivac helicopter, and lost consciousness again until

he found himself in a German hospital.

 

Trey Black's voice exudes pride when he talks about

what his little brother went through that day.

 

" He, literally after he was wounded, continued to

fight for 18 hours ... He ended up coming out of it

highly decorated, " Trey said.

 

Gabe Black received the Purple Heart and Bronze Star

for his actions that day, and would spend almost all

of the next 18 months in Walter Reed Army Medical

Center.

 

" He is a hero, " Trey Black said of Gabe. " Everybody

who serves does great things, but he went above and

beyond. He's awesome, and I'm not just saying that

because he's my brother. He's just a good-hearted

person. He loves his country and busted his ass over

there. He came back and now he has nothing. "

 

Reaching out

 

When Gabe first returned from war, he received the

hero's treatment. Gabe had lunch with President George

W. Bush, spent time with Secretary of Defense Donald

Rumsfeld and threw out the first pitch at a Baltimore

Orioles baseball game. His face was all over CNN and

he shared his physical therapist with former U.S.

senator and fellow war hero Bob Dole, who, Gabe said,

often brought him candy.

 

" Then nobody knew who I was, " he said. " CNN wasn't

there with a camera no more, so they didn't care. "

 

Looking out for his little brother and angered by

treatment he calls at least " morally wrong, " Trey

Black did the only thing he could think of; he told

Gabe's story, hoping someone would hear it and lend a

hand.

 

" It's about the only thing I can do, " Trey Black said.

" (Gabe) hates to call and ask for anybody to help him.

I'm a combat veteran myself. You hate to ask for

help. "

 

Trey, a 27-year-old Kosovo veteran with three combat

tours under his belt, works with his brother at

Steadfast Marine Services.

 

Although doctors saved Gabe's leg, they removed about

two-thirds of his calf muscle, which had been damaged

beyond repair. He suffers from chronic pain, has to

wear a compression stocking and boots whenever he

leaves the house, and can only move his three biggest

toes.

 

At least once an hour Gabe is forced to elevate his

right leg as it swells with blood.

 

A stubbed toe could quickly turn into a trip to the

hospital for Gabe as his leg is likely to fill with

blood.

 

" He'll still yet probably end up having to lose his

leg later in life, " Trey said.

 

Helping hands

 

The best thing Gabe Black could do now is affiliate

himself with a veterans' service group, said Candler

Rhodes, the national service officer for the Military

Order of the Purple Heart.

 

A group like the Purple Heart organization, The

American Legion, Veterans of Foreign Wars and others

could help guide him through the oftentimes confusing

world of disability benefits and veteran's care.

 

" I do help veterans do it. They just don't necessarily

know how to get started, " said Rhodes, who serves as a

liaison between members of the Purple Heart

organization and the Department of Veterans Affairs.

" A lot of times dealing with the VA can be very

frustrating. Veterans have told me it is helpful to

have someone up here that they can call up. "

 

A veterans group could also help Gabe appeal for a

higher disability rating, she said.

 

Word of Gabe's struggle late last week also struck an

immediate nerve with his congressmen.

 

Ted Felder, who works in U.S. Rep. Joe Wilson's

Beaufort office, was on the phone with Trey Black

within an hour of hearing Gabe's story, helping him

craft a letter to send to the Republican South

Carolina congressman.

 

" We're going to get to work on it right away and find

out what help we can give them, " said Wilson spokesman

Wesley Denton, who grew up in Beaufort with the Black

brothers. " We're going to do that as soon as possible.

We're going to get to work on that right away. "

 

Wilson, who retired as a colonel from the South

Carolina Army National Guard in 2003 has a son serving

with a Guard unit in Iraq.

 

Kevin Bishop, a spokesman for U.S. Sen. Lindsey

Graham, R-S.C., said the senator's office would do

whatever it could to ensure Gabe's case is handled

fairly.

 

" We help lots of veterans, " Bishop said. " This is what

we do. "

 

Al Salvino, the National Commander of the Military

Order of the Purple Heart and a Beaufort resident,

said he wanted to meet with Black so he could hear the

entire story and figure out exactly what's going on.

 

" There's too many unanswered questions in my mind, "

Salvino said.

 

He said the organization would stand beside Black as

those questions were answered.

 

" If he's a Purple Heart recipient, I'd like to see him

come on our side, " he said. " We do carry some

prestige. We need to take care of those that shed the

blood. "

 

Gabe's future, right now, is up in the air. He'd like

to go to college, but he didn't sign up for the G.I.

Bill upon enlistment because he had planned on making

a career out of the military.

 

Trey admits he's not especially well-versed in Army

regulations, but said he can't believe this is how a

war hero is supposed to be treated.

 

" If it is, I still want to say I think it sucks, " he

said.

 

Gabe has an appointment at the Ralph H. Johnson VA

Medical Center in Charleston at the end of the month,

and hopes to get a new compression stocking after his

visit, since he's been wearing the one he has for

about six months too long.

 

Gabe Black still loves his Army and his government. He

doesn't blame the military or President Bush, and

still recommends military service to friends who

aren't sure what they want to do with their lives.

 

But the way his disability is being handled has left

the war hero disappointed and let down by the Army he

so proudly served.

 

" I thought I did a pretty good job for them, " he said.

Copyright 2004 The Beaufort Gazette • May not be

republished in any form without the express written

permission of the publisher.