My husband and I have been in a state of uncertainty for about 7 months now. As I had posted in an earlier post "Remember when it Rained" we found out that after 13 years of service in the Army, my husband was being told he had to get out within two months. We had always planned on retiring from the military and we had sacrificed for years to achieve that goal.
Two weeks before we were going to be kicked out with nothing to show for it, no insurance, no retirement, and no job, my husband had an appointment with an ortho doc who said, "I have been looking at your MRI images on your knee...Have you ever considered Medically Retiring?" YES! He had been begging his command to let him medically retire, but they had all told him no. Now he was being allowed extend for a year to give him enough time to start and complete the medical retirement process. In the mean time, our pay and benefits continued. We were so relieved, now we would have a way to continue providing for our family of seven. It was also a relief to know that we would have continued insurance for our 3rd son who has Autism and has in home therapy 5 days a week.
About 10 days ago we got word that the Army and VA had decided his percentages. With anticipation we went down to meet with my husband's case manager and she laid out the paperwork and explained the decisions. The VA looks at everything that is wrong head to toe and they decide their percentages based on that. Because my husband has been blown up twice on deployments and has been in the Army for so many years, his body has taken a beating. They assessed everything and gave him a rating of 100%. This means that the VA will give him a check monthly for the rest of his life to compensate for all of his injuries. It will be more than his base pay, but less than we make now, because we won't have all the extras added to it (housing, food allowances, insurance etc.) It also means he will receive medical care for the rest of his life. Another benefit is that we will pay little or no property tax on a house (depending on the state we live in), it also means that as the spouse I qualify for free college education and so do all 5 of our children! That is HUGE! He also qualifies for free education though the GI Bill and because he joined after 9-11 we qualify for our housing to be paid while he is in school! That my friends is the great news in all of this.
Now for the bad news. The Army doesn't look at what is wrong with him head to toe. They look at what conditions prevent him from doing his job. So even though there is a lot wrong with him, they only said that his knee was preventing him from doing his job and they rated that as 10%. To medically retire you have to have at least 30%. That means, no retirement, no insurance, no pay check from the Army. He is just being "medically severed" from the Army instead. The good news is, because his knee is combat related we get a one time severance check that is non-taxable and does not have to be paid back.
We had the right to accept these terms or to fight them. The case manager said if we fight them, we could get more or we could get less. That the people in charge at the hearing would do everything they could to trick him, to make it seem like he wasn't broken or that he didn't deserve what they were offering. She told us we had a week to decide to accept or to fight it.
We left there feeling dumb founded. On the one hand the VA was offering us everything we had hoped for. On the other hand the Army was not offering us anything we had expected. Now we had to make a decision. I could not wrap my head around not having insurance. We have had full coverage insurance since I had our first baby. We have no premiums, no co-pays, no deductables. It has all been covered 100%. Now we were facing having to not only find insurance elsewhere, but also having to accept that it wasn't going to be paid for the same way, so we would have to make more money to make up for the money we would be putting out just to have it. If we fought it, we could gamble loosing the very large severance check they would be giving us.
Call me crazy, but I sat and pondered for a long time and within the first day, I felt that we should accept what they were offering us and not fight it. For my husband, he was not convinced. We continued to pray about it and the night before we had to make the decision my husband was able to get a priesthood blessing. In the blessing the very first thing that was said was, counsel with your wife. In that moment, I had the thought "what have I been feeling and telling him all along?" In that same moment, my husband had the same thought. In the blessing we were also told that the decision wouldn't be made clear to us until after we had taken that leap of faith and made our decision. Before that our judgement would be cloudy and we would feel confused. We discussed our feelings and thoughts after the blessing was over. The next day he went in to his case manager and we still weren't 100% sure which decision we would make. He stepped outside and we prayed together over the phone. As I prayed I started to cry as I said "Heavenly Father you know the needs of our family. Please help us to make the right decision." After the prayer he walked back into the case manager's office and accepted the offer.
We now have 90 days left until he is out of the Army for good. Now we have a timeline, he can look for other jobs. We also were successful in selling our house, so we are not tied to this area if a job or schooling takes us elsewhere. The Army is pretty much all we have ever known during our married life. It is scary to leave the path we know, the path we have become accustomed to, but it is also exciting to see where our path will lead now. Hopefully it leads to more years of being together and less of being apart. Being able to see our dreams fulfilled and being able to raise our children together. Even though we can't see the path ahead, God can. We have faith and trust that He will be there to continue to guide us with the big decisions in our life.
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