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Victims of the “Feres Doctrine” Part 2, Chapter 4 – Vietnam Veteran sent to War with a Broken Neck
Victims of the “Feres Doctrine” Part 2, Chapter 4 – Vietnam Veteran sent to War with a Broken Neck
In the photo below taken in 1979 which was 9-years after Rusty broke his neck in a Tank accident at Fort Hood and 9-years after discharge from Service you can still see part of the damage to Rusty’s neck by the large lump in the throat are.
RUSTY IN D.C. April 2006 Lobbying Before several Members of Congress and their Assistants for Abolishment of the “Feres Doctrine” and for Full Mandatory VA Funding.
Writers Notes from Rusty
“We were on a firing exercise Dec 2, 1969 and were finished with a full day of 105mm target practice. The last job is to clean the bottom of the turret out by retrieving all the empty shell canisters. The main gun is put on lock as its raised so one man can get under the main gun and remove the shell canisters. The last think I know I was crushed by the main gun which came down on me and it had close to 55,000 pounds of hydrological pressure. My neck was crushed and broke, Veteran Without A Country was born.”
Writers Notes from Rusty
“I volunteered to go to Vietnam when I was physically & mentally fit for war. Once injured it was horrifying to know that Vietnam was where I would be sent to die. I could not protect myself or anyone else from warfare with a broken neck it was hard enough to just walk. Running and jumping to the ground to protect myself would paralyze me with a broken chip in my neck that is floating giving me nerve damage to my left arm.
The stress was magnified 100 times over because there was no medical care or rehab time while being sent to War with serious injuries. I never volunteered to go to Vietnam with a broken neck it was a criminal act that got me there.
It’s also horrifying to find-out years later that this criminal act is protected by the Feres Doctrine. To have to fly into Vietnam with handcuffs from a MP and a Medic as escorts to Vietnam was also horrifying because now I am a political prisoner with no medical care.
It was also very painful to be flying 5 1/2 hours to Hawaii in route to Vietnam with NO NECK BRACE with the Medic and MP sitting on both sides of me a real fucking nightmare. Knowing what danger I would suddenly be in if the plane had lost altitude and dropped 500 feet in a few seconds would finish my neck off.
Ask any Orthopedic Doctor how unstable cervical spines injuries can be and flying 18 hours to Vietnam with a broken neck the chances of being paralyzed in flight is real.”
Rusty’s Veterans Advocacy is based upon his own rehabilitation experiences and efforts of trying to get rid of the hate and anger “baggage” he was “carrying” leftover from his ordeal while in Military Service. So Rusty heard about and used the Department of Defense’s Morale, Welfare and Recreational (MWR) Facilities at Camp Pendleton, California to be a tranquil place to reduce PTSD Symptoms as a result of using these facilities from 1970 to 1990.
Rusty, having Motorcycles in his blood from growing-up in his Father’s Harley Davidson and Yamaha used and new Motorcycle and Dirt-Bike business which his Father started in 1950, after Discharge from Service Rusty went to owrk in the family business as both a Mechanic and Parts Manager. Then after Rusty’s Father died in 1983, Rusty took over the family business and diversified it by selling just Dirt-Bikes and Surfboards.
Unfortunately however, Rusty’s dreams and ambitions to Sail around-the-World to well-known Surfing destination to Surf on the super-large waves was thwarted by his lifetime rehabilitation of his broken neck.
Moreover, in 1990, after having 20 years of access to MWR’s, Rusty and other Veterans were “slammed again” by the Pentagon in that they were told they now had to be rated with a 100% VA service-connected disability in order to use the MWR Facilities. So Rusty and other Veterans whose VA service-connected disability ratings were less than 100% were banned and barred from using MWR’s. This is when Rusty Founded VOICE FOR VETERANS SERVICES VFVS.com. However, Rusty kept returning to the Camp Pendleton MWR anyway, and in May of 1998, in a Declaratory Judgment by U.S. Federal Court Judge Ruben Brooks Rusty was served with a Notice and Order to Vacate Camp Pendleton MWR Recreational Facilities, signed by General Hanlon Jr. who also served in Vietnam Rusty said.
Rusty believes that MWR Facilities should be the last duty station for Soldiers before separating from Service, so they can have fun surfing, fishing, using beaches, golf courses, craft and hobby shops, auto shops, as their first “adjustment” of returning to civilian life, and to also know that MWR’s will always there as a perk for serving their country. Unfortunately, however, they are no longer available to all disabled Veterans.
Rusty stated that “DOD should always have welcome signs up for our Veterans at MWR’s instead of Trespassing Signs. Veterans that have bad cases of PTSD can work out their feelings by being involved with the MWR programs which help keep them from making bad choices like suicide. Congressman Bob Filner Sponsored this Bill for a reason. House Bill HR1917 is truly a Mental Health Bill. When New Zealand’s Veterans return home from conflict, they give all that have served a free vacation to tour the country that they fought to preserve. And H.R. 1919 if enacted, it would again permit those Veterans with 50% or more service-connected disabilities to FLY ON MILITARY HOPS ON STAND BY. This entitlement would again change the disabled Veterans life for the better. Rusty further stated that he would like to see this legislation as part of the Mandatory VA Funding (“Assured Funding”) for the Veterans Health Care Administration (VHA) currently pending approval by Congress. Assured Funding along with HR 1918 would allow those service-connected disabled veterans rated at 30% or more access to Military Base PX’s.”
Rusty believes that Mandatory VA Funding for the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) should be a promise kept for all Veterans, especially service-connected disabled Veterans.
Rusty has also spend the last 40-years LOBBYING for THE ABOLISHMENT OF THE FERES DOCTRINE, and Rusty’s Synopsis Manuscript VETERAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY was also the inspiration for THE RUSTAN BILL to open DOD (Department of Defense) MWR’S (Morale, Welfare and Recreation) Centers to all service-connected Veterans not just Veterans with 100% ratings.
Because of all the abuses Rusty received while in service; his never-ending fight for new Veterans Benefits and to keep the ones they already have; and as just one of the survivors of over 150,000 Vietnam Veterans who have “committed suicide” since the end of the Vietnam War because they were ALL treated like “2nd Class Citizens” and forgotten by Our Government and some of the American People, Rusty truly feels that he is a “VETERAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY. “
Over the years Rusty applied for and eventually received 90% service-connected disability compensation for his broken neck. However, in 1998 Rusty applied for and was awarded in 2000 another 10% for PTSD, and therefore, Rusty is now rated for and receives VA compensation for Total Disability based upon Individual Unemployability (TDIU).
Rusty also was awarded Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI) in about 2006 and established “Case Law” for all Veterans by Appealing his denial for SSDI by the Social Security Administration (SSA) to the Social Security Appeals Court, and basing his Appeal on the fact that the VA Diagnosed him as Totally and Permanently Disabled by Awarding him TDIU, and THEREFORE, the SSA must accept the Diagnoses by a War Hospital over their own Physicians Diagnoses and Grant his claim. The Appeals Court agreed with Rusty’s basis for which Relief must be Granted, and Awarded Rusty SSDI retroactive to about 2000 when he first applied.
Rusty lives in Huntington Beach, California and his cell phone # is: 949-705-7009, and his e-mail is: rustysvilla@gmail.com.
Rusty also resides about 6-months of the year in his Villa he custom built in Mexico a couple of years ago and has secured a Resident Visa and a Business and Hotel License so he can rent out is Villa to Tourists. Rusty said he feels more at home and more welcome in Mexico than he does as a Vietnam Veteran in the United States. You can visit RUSTY’S SURF VILLA Website @: http://rustyssurfvilla.com/
****This story is to be continued in Chapter 5, the Final Chapter, which will contain all the documentary evidence Rusty has provided of the abuses he experienced by the Military after he broke his neck at Fort Hood in a Tank Training Exercise, letters his Mother wrote to Members of Congress and their responses, and How Congress can Override and Annul the Supreme Court’s “Feres Doctrine” Ruling so that Members of the Armed Forces can Sue the Military for Malpractice or other Negligence, and so that Surviving Family Members of Soldiers can Sue the Military for their Wrongful Death.
Click onto link below to go to: Part 1 – Introduction to the Series Victims of the Feres Doctrine, and Chapters 1 through 5 of Part 2 -Vietnam Veteran sent to War with a Broken Neck. http://www.veteranstoday.com/?s=victims+of+the+feres+doctrine
Short URL: http://www.veteranstoday.com/?p=40270
Posted by Terry Richards on Jul 15 2010, With 0 Reads, Filed under Military. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
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To loose the focus of the real crime, sending men and women to War with critical injuries or sending men and women back into War when they cannot defend themselves is the real crime here and the proof is on the table. The Officers in charge should all be in prison and the FERES Doctrine should be abolished today.
To focus on the purple heart award instead of the real story here “FERES Doctrine Abuses” tells me a lot about who wrote the comments at the end of this horrific story of being sent to War with a Broken Neck.
FERES Doctrine is the Cancer inside military hospitals and VA hospitals. How can Congress say that we are FREE when we have no rights to protect ourselves with the U.S. Constitution from redress of gross criminal negligence caused by the abuses of federal employees is the real story here. In my case the enemy fire is FERES Doctrine which allows Officers to murder those in critical care. When a Company Commander ignores human rights its all because FERES Doctrine protects Officers in charge from radical crimes like this and Congress looks the other way. No wonder why the moral is so low inside the military and suicides are off the rector scale. The very same rights that we all risked life and limb for and so many died for we do not have while we dawn the uniform. No men or women who are in the U.S. Military should have to sacrifice their Constitutional Rights to defend this Country of Ours!
Comments by one commenter were shallow, callous, remiss and stoic to say the least for not acknowledging Mister Rustan’s tragic tank training accident at Fort Hood in which he broke his neck and the Military’s failure to have immediately and honorably medically discharged Mister Rustan after it was determined that his neck was broken before they alluded to Mr. Rustan’s lack of evidence of his being eligible for the Purple Heart .
However, having said all that, and based on the information in this story, I can tell you as a former company clerk whose duties in part consisted of administrating orders for awards of military medals, that there is no way that Mr. Rustan could have been or would have been eligible for the Purple Heart under former or current military regulations as he was not injured directly or indirectly in any way as a result of enemy fire.
Also, Mr. Rustan’s stunning remarks that “in my case the enemy fire is Feres Doctrine which allows officers to murder those in critical care” implies that he believes he earned the Purple Heart because he was a “Victim of the Feres Doctrine” as his story details, rather than the requirement of being wounded in action as a result of enemy fire in order to be eligible for a Purple Heart is suspiciously eminent and symptomatic of the “Stolen Valor” syndrome (awarding oneself a medal of valor) plaguing our Nation today, and that Mr. Rustan somehow, someway, surreptitiously and fraudulently obtained his California Combat Veteran license plates. While I sympathize and empathize with Mr. Rustan’s horrific experience, I cannot condone what seems to be another self-awarded valor medal.
Thus, I intend to mail a copy of Mr. Rustan’s story including the comments to the Investigative Arm of the California DMV in Anaheim in the form of a complaint asking them to investigate the veracity of Mr. Rustan’s Purple Heart Award and eligibility in obtaining Combat Wounded Veterans license plates. And that if Mr. Rustan is unable or unwilling to prove that he was awarded the Purple Heart, that the DMV revoke those license plates and take any other legal action associated with fraudulently obtaining Purple Heart Combat Wounded Veteran license plates under California Law, because “The Purple Heart is awarded to members of the armed forces of the U.S. who are wounded by an instrument of war in the hands of the enemy and posthumously to the next of kin in the name of those who are killed in action or die of wounds received in action. It is specifically a combat decoration,” and Mr. Rustan was neither wounded in Vietnam nor did he participate in any combat operations during his two-weeks in Vietnam, he was strictly and specifically a patient at an Army field hospital.
Any one else who would like to file a written complaint can fax it to the Anaheim DMV Investigative Office at (714) 502-9755. Or you can mail it to 2450 East Lincoln Avenue, #120, Anaheim, CA 92806-4990. For other questions you can call them at (714) 780-0560.
You can use the the formal complaint form which you can find @: http://www.dmv.ca.gov/forms/inv/inv172a.pdf or just send your written complaint in your own words directing them to this story on veteranstoday.com or sending them a copy of the story.
Bruce D.