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Veteran,
Gilbert Wyatt,
still suffers
trauma of war
Veterans History Project
U of M School of Journalism
Gilbert Wyatt has not been able to sleep in a bed since 1988. He sleeps in short bursts on his couch now for perhaps two hours at a time.
Wyatt, joined the Navy in 1941 at 16, right after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He left behind a troubled home and an abusive father and spent his formative years growing up on the forefront of World War II. By the time the war ended in 1945, Wyatt had served as a Navy Signalman in both European and Pacific theaters and participated in some of the most storied invasions of U.S. military history.
Wyatt has plenty of stories to tell, but has told only a few.
The effects of his military service, a struggle with alcohol and a continuing struggle with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome fill his life today. He sees similarities in what he went through almost 60 years ago with what today’s troops are facing in the battlefields of Iraq.
Wyatt’s first taste of combat came with the United States’ entry into the war. His transport was torpedoed out from under him during the invasion of French Morocco. He was just going over the side to his boat when the torpedoes struck
“Luckily, I had a boat assigned to me, and in that boat I went!” he said. With the destruction of his transport, Wyatt was stationed in a signal tower in Casablanca. The German bombers used this tower as a marker. They left the tower alone, and Wyatt had a ringside view of the bombings of the city.
He would spend the rest of the war aboard ships. Aboard the minesweeper YMS-29, he helped lead the invasions of Salerno, Palermo, and southern France. In the Pacific, he helped land U.S. Marines behind enemy lines at Okinawa while aboard the destroyer the USS Kinzer.
In both theaters, he would see firsthand the horrible carnage that would claim the lives of more than 400,000 U.S. personnel before it ended. In the invasions of Italy, Allied forces would first attack Palermo on the island of Sicily and then Salerno on the Italian mainland.
Wyatt’s wartime memories are painful. He remembers his ship steaming through waters filled with bodies after the invasion of Salerno. As he talked about it, his voice cracked and his eyes watered.
“It still affects me,” he said. “Driving through those bodies — you can’t do anything about it.”
He remembers, too, the death of U.S. paratroopers at Palermo caused by their own Navy.
“Paratroopers were jumping out and all the ships in the harbor opened up on those paratroopers,” he said. “It turned out to be our own guys.”He struggles to regain his composure: “I still feel guilty about that.” Wyatt had his own close calls in the Mediterranean when a German plane dropped five bombs alongside his ship.
“I wasn’t at the time very much of a religious believer, but there are no atheists in combat,” he said.
Wyatt watched his best friend die when his minesweeper hit a mine and exploded. But tragedy struck closest to home in the Pacific.
Gilbert (left) and brother Donald, at home on leave before Donald was killed by a kamikaze attack in 1945.
He was stationed aboard the destroyer USS Kinzer; the mission was to drop Marines at night into Okinawa. The Japanese held the island, and the battle to take it would be one of the deadliest of the war. The Marines from Wyatt’s ship captured prisoners and scouted in advance of the invasion. While re-supplying at sea, his ship pulled alongside his younger brother’s vessel. It was Wyatt’s birthday, and his captain let him cross over to his brother’s ship and spend the day with him.
Later, the Marines on Wyatt’s ship were ordered to conduct raids behind enemy lines. His brother’s ship sailed in front to protect them from the increasing suicide flights that the Japanese were launching.
“The Japs sent a 200-plane raid down,” he said. “My brother’s ship opened fire and I watched this Jap plane follow the tracers down and hit his ship. There was a big explosion and then everything got real quiet.”
Several days later, when Wyatt’s ship pulled into port, his brother’s ship was docked there, anchored by the stern.
“The whole bow was gone all the way up to the bridge,” he said. His brother had lived for three days and had died the day they pulled into port.
“The captain said that he would give me a boat, a crewman and a ship’s camera to take pictures of where my brother was buried, so I did,” Wyatt said.
Wyatt’s ship faced several kamikaze attacks as well. One of them he remembers in particular.
“He had us dead on” he said of the Japanese plane. “We all lay down on the deck. We thought we had had it.” Just before the plane struck, a shell from the ship exploded underneath it and lifted it up just enough. The plane went between the stack and the radio antennas and splashed into the water on the other side.
After the atomic bomb ended the war in 1945, Wyatt tried to find a life outside of the military. He struggled to hold down a civilian job but ended up returning to the military, this time with the U.S. Coast Guard. He would stay with the Coast Guard for another 17 and a half years.
He battled alcohol throughout his time in the Coast Guard. It was his way, he said, of coping with the battle stress. During the war, he once had a 60-day leave home. He stayed drunk the entire time and spent $3,000 doing it, he said
“I didn’t realize how sick I was,” he said. “I was covering up what was bothering me with booze.”
He stopped drinking in 1988 and has been sober ever since. That’s when he began attending AA meetings and was diagnosed with Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, also known as shell shock. When he sobered up in 1988, he found sleeping in a bed was impossible.
“I couldn’t sleep with covers, I couldn’t sleep horizontal, and I had to have something going on in the room,” Wyatt said. The couch is now his bed, with the lights and television as his companion.
Today, he attends meetings with other combat veterans to help heal the scars inflicted so long ago. He worries about the soldiers in Iraq.
“They’re going to have a lot of trouble when these guys from Iraq come home, a lot of trouble,” he said. “I feel sorry for them.”
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VETERANS Q&A with JIM STRICKLAND, #25 for 2009
jim;
I am a wife of a Vietnam veteran. My husband passed away March 2009.
Before he passed away he received a 100% disability rating due to complications of Lou Gehrig’s disease. We applied in Sept of 2008 and waited for 5 m onths just to hear he was approved for 100%. It gets more interesting. I had to sign a claim of statement saying I would take over his financial affairs in Feb. 2009. Basically I was told that this was to get a change of name so the checks would come to me to cash. I have not seen check one.
I called VA in Washington and the clerk on the phone tells me there are four steps I have to go through before I can “qualify” for survivor benefits! Of course I told her that that was redundant and ridiculous since David got his rating not even two months ago. She said they will need a death certificate (which they already have), and the medical information he originally submitted from Doctors locally and at John Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore (which was a nightmare out of hell). Then she said the team of whoevers makes a decision on the info submitted. THEN it goes to a group of clerks who make sure the dots and t’s are dotted and teed.
I argued that that has already been done and it took six months to accomplish. She argued back saying that this new submission is for you not the deceased. But I am not a vet nor do I have ALS. They said this process will take six months again. I am flabbergasted at the incompetence of this VA administration. May I could get a job there and draw a paycheck and sit on my laurels and do scratch.
What I need is for someone to help me understand this BS so I can have some peace. I saw your site and thought you could point me in the right direction.
Reply;
My condolences for your loss.
This is standard operating procedure for the VA. Yes, I'm serious. You aren't receiving any less courtesy and help than all the others. The VA is the most broken machine in our federal government and it won't be fixed anytime soon.
I advise my clients and veterans who I work with that no matter what, plan on a 2 year wait to see any results.
However...I'm advising you a bit differently.
I suggest that you sort out just who your Congressional Representative is. Each Congressperson has a "Military & Veterans Liaison" or someone with a similar title in their offices. You should spend a bit of research time to figure out just who this is. Sometimes the job descriptions blur across different functions so it's worth taking a bit of time to focus on just the right person.
Call and make an appointment to see whoever you determine that person to be. You aren't likely to see the Representative...the staff handles these details. A personal visit from you to meet and greet these folks may be important. They get a lot of calls like yours so you don't want to be lost in the shuffle.
Tell your story and provide as much documentation as you can. They'll ask you to sign some papers for information release and so on.
That office will begin a "Congressional Inquiry". The Congressperson will write a letter on your behalf to VA explaining the issue as they know it and ask the VA, "Hey...what's up with this?"
The VA then has 45 days to respond. During that 45 days you should stay in touch with the liaison who you've gotten to know. Don't let them forget you.
This approach often has results that are quick and positive. There is an assigned team at the VA Regional Office who responds to Congressional Inquiries. If they see where they have totally dropped the ball, they want to fix it prior to responding to the Congressperson.
Please go forward with this and let me know how it goes. If you run into other barriers, we'll go to Plan B.
-------------------------
Jim;
My dad who is a WW11 Vet and is 83 has been rerated to 100% service related. I was wondering how this will come into play if he enters a VA nursing home and if there are any other VA benefits that he may be entitled to.
Reply;
This http://www1.va.gov/health/index.asp will give you a lot of info...any specific questions, please write back to me and I'll see what I can do for you.
-------------------------
Jim;
The following is a letter I sent to Bill Oreilly at Fox News in the hope of generating some interest about the problems at Manila VARO. I'm not certain if it will do much good but I do want to continue trying. I'll seek out other news possibilites as well.
I wonder if you can stand to hear one more story about the Veterans Affairs Department. Here's mine: I, along with hundreds of other American veterans, live in the Philippines, some of us by choice and others because our inadequate veteran compensation does not allow us to live with dignity in our own country. I am in the latter group; if I were still in the USA I'd probably be homeless now.
As you know, VA does have an Outpatient Clinic and a Regional Office here, the only ones outside the United States. That in itself appears to be part of the problem since veterans back home have advocates, such as local congressmen and veteran advocacy groups, helping to monitor VA activities. We here cannot as easily take advantage of those resources, with the result that the local VA often acts with impunity. They have in fact shown themselves capable of deciding in advance that they will deny our petitions and then manufacturing data and events to fit those scenarios.
The worst case I've yet heard of is that of a wheelchair-bound veteran who has suffered continual harassment from the local VA office. A Filipino investigator working for the VA falsified neighbors' statements to say that the veteran rode a motorcycle and even jogged, this done apparently to deny him his proper benefits. The veteran then had to hire his own private investigator to go back and interview those neighbors and get true statements from them. In another instance the veteran was sitting in his van (although wheelchair bound he is still able to drive) outside the VA clinic when a janitor from the clinic came outside to walk around the car and photograph him there, an apparent act of intimidation and harassment.
I cannot speak for that veteran but if you are interested in his story I'll be glad to put you in contact with him.
My own story is similar. I'm a Vietnam veteran who was (injured) by shrapnel from a nearby rocket explosion.
In 2002, due to high anxiety and stress I could no longer work in the US and so came to live here only on my VA compensation of about $640 a month, with which I managed to survive for four years.
In 2006 I met some veteran advocates here and they helped me petition the VA for a classification for PTSD, which was subsequently awarded but only at the 70% level, which did add a bit to my monthly income. However, that 70% rating assumes that I'm still employable, which I am clearly not.
So the veteran advocates helped me re-petition the VA for the full 100% rating so that I'd also be recognized as unemployable. That's when my problems really began with the local VA office.
In October of 2008 the VA sent a letter stating that my petition was denied because I'd failed to appear at a scheduled clinic appointment. However, I had received no appointment letter nor did my veteran representatives, who have power of attorney, and are supposed to get copies of all VA correspondence.
The letter was simply not sent out. This was apparently the VA's way of reducing their caseload, by arbitrarily declaring me at fault, and then hoping I'd become weary of this process and abandon the petition. I might add here that this VA office refuses to use email for correspondence while other VA offices in the US routinely do so.
I then sent them an angry letter in which I deny their assertion and in which I also list many past negative experiences I've had with the VA.
They then did reschedule the appointment but it was a humiliating and stressful interrogation which no mental patient should ever have to endure. It was in fact illegal and unethical behavior on the part of the psychiatrist. I wrote a report about it and demanded it be placed in my record. It seems that this VA office decides beforehand that they will deny veteran petitions and then they manipulate events to make it appear we, the veterans, are at fault. That happened to the wheelchair-bound veteran with the falsified investigation, and it happened to me two times, first with the non-sending of the appointment letter, and second, with the verbal attack by the psychiatrist.
In response to my letter I received a reply from the director of the local VA Regional Office in which he not only denies his staff psychiatrist behaved inappropriately but he defends his behavior as “standard”. I then followed up with my own rebuttal of his statements, in which I cite some of the VA rules with which he should be familiar.
I'm just so weary of this process of continually fighting the local VA that I've finally given up. I've written Congressman Bob Filner of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs asking his help in getting my file transferred to a more veteran-friendly VA office in the USA. Yes, I do know that's a bit selfish on my part because I should be working for all vets but I simply have no more fight left in me. They, the local VA folks, have won this round.
But perhaps you could have your staff look further into this egregious violation of ethics and the law. Those VA employees should be working to serve the veteran community! How can they get by with this behavior year after year?
Thanks so much for reading this.
Reply;
While I sympathize with you, I'm afraid you've made numerous factual and tactical errors as you've been dealing with the VA.
As an advocate for veterans I have a fairly good success rate in winning cases. That's because I work within the system, broken as it is. When you have gone outside the system (writing letters to pseudo-news reporters for example) it's a sure sign that you don't understand what you're up against.
Many things you list as facts, aren't, for example; "VA does have an Outpatient Clinic and a Regional Office here, the only ones outside the United States".
That's incorrect. There are Regional Offices, vet centers and CBOCs in Saint Croix and St. Thomas, Virgin Islands; San Juan, Mayaguez, Ponce, Arecibo, Guayama and San Juan, Puerto Rico (there's also a national cemetery there); Pago Pago, American Samoa; Agana, Agana Heights and Hagatna, Guam.
The State Department acts as representatives for VA anywhere there is an American Embassy. I work with veterans world wide and I currently assist vets in places like Australia, Bangkok and all over Europe. The VA provides traveling representatives to American military bases to lecture to and prepare troops who are about to ETS as to how to approach VA as they transition to their veteran status.
You go on to say, "this VA office refuses to use email for correspondence while other VA offices in the US routinely do so". That is so wrong as to be laughable. I deal with all VA offices and getting them to use email is as impossible a task as there is. You may believe that the IRIS system is the same as using email and it is similar. You too can use IRIS by clicking here http://tinyurl.com/cdulzd
You can see that you've started off with misstatements of the facts and that doesn't help your case. Your credibility is dropping every time you write something that isn't true.
But you continue to perpetuate myth. The story of the veteran and the wheelchair and a janitor snapping photos of him is at a point of being an urban legend. I've heard it before. To my knowledge and belief, that never happened. On the surface of it, it makes little sense for VA to bother with a tactic like that. Beyond that, there is no proof it happened so it shouldn't be repeated as you plea for help. It simply isn't relevant to your case. (Show me the pictures, name the janitor, name the veteran, give the date it happened...then you have something.)
You seem to believe that you are at a unique disadvantage because in the states there are, "local congressmen and veteran advocacy groups, helping to monitor VA activities". Nothing could be farther from the truth. The VA is out of control everywhere and is a badly broken machine. Writing to a Congressional Representative is mostly a waste of time unless one has some very narrow and exceptional circumstances. Those "advocacy groups" are impotent and often are staunchly on the side of the VA and taking federal funding.
I accept that you didn't get a letter notifying you of a scheduled appointment for C & P. That happens all the time. The process of mailing those letters is so sloppy it's a miracle anyone ever gets their letter at all. The VA mail room system is a disaster, no two ways about it.
However, when that mistake is uncovered (usually by a denial of a claim) the only thing to do is a timely appeal. You appeal because of the miscommunication by the VA and as you proceed, you get it right.
Then, "I then sent them an angry letter". That is always a mistake as it further damages your already damaged credibility. The VA is only a machine, a huge bureaucracy and nobody there bothers reading angry letters. Expressing anger to the VA is like arguing with a stop sign. You just aren't going to win and you look silly doing it.
You had your exam eventually and you didn't like it and you bitched about it. The reply from the administration that oversees all that was, "he not only denies his staff psychiatrist behaved inappropriately but he defends his behavior as 'standard'". OK, guess who won that round? Hint; It wasn't you. You're taking on people who have advanced medical degrees and who are in positions of power and authority. You've gone to a gunfight armed with a knife. You can't win.
"I've written Congressman Bob Filner of the House Committee on Veteran Affairs asking his help in getting my file transferred to a more veteran-friendly VA office in the USA" is another example of how you don't understand how the system works. Congressman Filner has no authority to tell the VA to transfer your case. He is a legislator serving in the Congress. He isn't a part of the VA system. The people in the VA system do not report to him in any way.
"I've finally given up". If that's true, it's too bad. You would very likely win if you would back up and take a moment to learn how to use the system to your advantage. Most of the problems you have with VA have been created by you. I see this every day, dozens of times.
The bottom line is that your Regional Office is conducting its business as it usually does...poorly. I'm no fan of how the process works...or doesn't work.
However, I also know that most of what goes on inside that RO isn't evil and nobody there has singled you out for punishment. There isn't a giant conspiracy and most VA employees are good people who are as frustrated as you are with how broken down the process is.
I know that many veterans pile on to their own problems when they allow anger to control them. From what little you shared in your letter, it sounds as if you deserve 100% IU benefits and had you played the game correctly, you'd probably have them by now.
Playing the game correctly requires patience and a good understanding of what they want so that they can award you what you deserve. Once you deviate from their rules and their ways of doing it, you lose.
It isn't fair, it isn't equitable and none of it is right. It should be a lot better.
But that's what we have to work with. Complaining about it is a waste of time that could be spent writing effective appeals that win benefits. You can work on getting your deserved benefits or waste your time writing to "other news possibilites" who don't care about your circumstances.
If you'd like to, tell me more about the last denial you had (when and why) and I'll be happy to assist you to get this started again...the right way.
VETERANS Q&A with JIM STRICKLAND, #24 for 2009
Jim;
what priority group would I be in if I have a combined rating of 20% Diabetes, 10% Lower right foot Neurophy, 10% Lower Left foot Neurophy and 10% chronic pain left hand ? does combined %'s equal total 50% or does it equal 42% arounded down to 40% for Healthcare proiority groups as it does for comp ? ( sorry for my confusion )
Reply;
That's a great question! This stuff is very confusing.
Whatever your compensation rating is will be how your PG is set. If you're 40%, that's 40% across the board.
Click
and
-------------------------
Jim;
Is the hypertension claims a dead issue or are they still looking at this issue,I'am a veitnam vet and just started to file some claims. I have type 2 diabetis and am receiving comp for this.
Reply;
Hypertension as a presumptive condition secondary to exposure to herbicides isn't being pursued in any strong legislation that I'm aware of. You can always try the direct route. To prevail, you will need an expert physician to review your record and agree that your hypertensive condition is more likely than not caused by your exposure to dioxin.
-------------------------
Jim;
I'm a Viet Nam Vet and I'm now in the process of appealling my claim and have asked for a DRO.My biggest problem is that my medical records were destroyed when my base was destroyed in April 1968,so I have nothing to show my medical problems.I was taken into the Marine Corp with a Heart defect which is noted on my dental record and I had a heart valve replacement and aortor repair at 48 in 1998 I have had hypertension since1970 when I was discharged.
I've been diagnosed by VA medical personal with PTSD and hearing loss.I was told to file claimes which I did.I received a letter back denying all claims because my ( Medical records did not back up my claims) there are no records. I have paperwork signed buy my CO that states our base was destroyed that all medical,company records were destroyed and in the statement of the case they make no mention of my medical record from my heart surgeon which had lots of information about my heart condition.I don't have much else to say except that I feel that they are jerking me around.I appreciate any information you can share with me Thank you
Reply;
I'd advise you to lawyer up. You're currently eligible to do that at no up-front cost to you.
I suggest a lawyer earlier for you than I would some others as you have some very complex issues going on.
I've referred you to an attorney and trust you'll do well under his guidance.
-------------------------
Jim;
Hello I am a vetnam vet sgt. test positive for possible sinus infection for agent orange . so i put in a claim I have a AMVET REP . I have been also tested positive for PTSD. so I wrote a stressor letter. Looked like a 4yr old wrote it my mind wont work worth a dam. sence i put in for service conection on these problems after they turn me down is there any way to rewrite the letter? as time goes along things come back to me today that was not there a year ago. Messed up mind is a sad thing. to try to remember detail. thanks for your consern.
Reply;
We've exchanged a couple of messages and I now understand that your case is still in the process of an appeal. Your AMVET VSO seems to have a handle on it for now. You've promised me that you'll stay in touch and we won't do anything else until this appeal is finished.
-------------------------
Jim;
First, thank you for providing all of the useful information on your web site. It has been extremely helpful. I wish I would have found it sooner. I'll get straight to the point, I want your opinion on if I have any hope of winning my claim against the VA. I feel like I have already been defeated but I'm not ready to give up.
Here is a summary of everything:
Denied for Service Connection for back problems June 19, 2000 because there was not enough evidence of actual disability. I did not appeal this decision. I was young and didn’t understand how the VA works at the time.
Denied for Service Connection for upper and lower back pain on February 28, 2008. The VA said my condition was identified as scoliosis of the lumbar and thoracic spine and is considered a congenital or developmental defect which is unrelated to military service and not subject to service connection.
Reply;
Your original email was quite long. I've abbreviated it down to the few sentences you see here. In that email you described in great detail all of the history of your condition.
While that's relevant and important to know, for our purposes here it isn't that important. What is important is that VA didn't tell you everything they should have. That's interesting because from my perspective they've completely ignored the law and the obvious response they should have offered you.
If a preexisting condition is aggravated by military service, that condition may be compensated as service connected. VA has verified you had a preexisting condition. They didn't complete the thought process as they should have.
Read the regulation;
Title 38: Pensions, Bonuses, and Veterans' Relief, PART 3—ADJUDICATION
Subpart A—Pension, Compensation, and Dependency and Indemnity
Compensation Ratings and Evaluations; Service Connection
§ 3.306 Aggravation of preservice disability.
(a) General. A preexisting injury or disease will be considered to
have been aggravated by active military, naval, or air service, where
there is an increase in disability during such service, unless there
is a specific finding that the increase in disability is due to the
natural progress of the disease.
You and I have talked about how to handle your appeal and we've concluded you will be best served by asking an experienced lawyer to handle your case for you. I've made a referral to an experienced attorney.
Gilbert "Gene" Wyatt at his home in Missoula, Mont. Wyatt still suffers from PTSD
photo by Thais Boise
Wyatt at age 17, seaman first class, taken at Signal School in Indianapolis. Photo courtesy of Gilbert Wyatt
Gilbert (left) and brother Donald, at home on leave before Donald was killed by a kamikaze attack in 1945.
Photo courtesy of Gilbert Wyatt
photo by Thais Boise
"War is hell," says Wyatt.
The message from his brother's shipmates.
photo courtesy of Gilbert Wyatt
