Скачать или смотреть 'I have days when I have meltdowns' | Veteran fighting VA for disability benefits

E-4 Specialist Leroy Perry served in the U.S. Army from 1989 until his honorable discharge in 1993. His service included eight months in Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. After serving, he's spent more than a decade fighting the Department of Veterans' Affairs for disability benefits for everything from a knee injury to post-traumatic stress disorder. Below is a transcript of his heartbreaking story:

Leroy Perry: I'm happy, definitely happy, with in my situation. I'm happy with my my wife, my kids, but I have days when I have meltdowns and they hard. But I mean, VA has on, they have helped me with counseling and stuff like that. And I can ... talk to them. But you still, you can talk all day all night, but when you have a meltdown is nothing nobody can do.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: Is the meltdown, is it emotion? Is it anger? Is it depression?

Leroy Perry: Little bit a little bit of everything?

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: That's unfair.

Leroy Perry: Yes, definitely. And it leads into you thinking: "Am I being overdramatic? Am I overthinking things? I don't think so.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: So what's the source of the meltdown? Like? Is it just a trigger of some kind?

Leroy Perry: Yes, like, right now, like, dealing with the VA situation. My 19 years at the Postal Service, fighting with them. And it wasn't, like, stuff that I had to go through, it was my disabilities was affecting my job. My management didn't understand, or they didn't care. And they just nitpick. So and it just a lot to have to deal with.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: To me, like, based on all of your experience. Tell me if I'm wrong from your perspective, it has to feel insulting.

Leroy Perry: Yes. Very, very. And when, like I said, when you got people that don't respect or not, you don't have to respect me, as if you don't like me, but respect me as the person that given you the freedom that you have. I put my life on the line for you. So, that's the stuff that troops shouldn't have to go through.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: And we're not even at the point where you're saying your appeal is a yes or no.

Leroy Perry: No.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: It's just pending.

Leroy Perry: It's just sitting out there. And you can I can go now, I get a call or email from my lawyer every month, giving me an update. And she'll tell me: "What's the period of form nine, so I'm still sitting there. We don't know what's gonna happen when it's gonna happen. And but you got your 100% is permanent and total. They can't take that away. But we tried to get these form nines closed out."

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: And it's great moving forward. You're getting your money.

Leroy Perry: Yes.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: You deserve it. Clearly.

Leroy Perry: Exactly.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: Your argument is the last decade before you deserve it, too.

Leroy Perry: Yes. Exactly.

WCNC Charlotte Reporter Nate Morabito: Do you have any faith in the system?

Leroy Perry: No.

Full story here: https://www.wcnc.com/article/money/va...

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