Lawmakers want to avoid having troops disgracefully\u00a0forced from the ranks because of behavior related to post-traumatic stress or traumatic brain injuries, but\u00a0Pentagon officials may already be on the way to fixing the problem.
Defense officials appear to agree.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In a memo signed in February but released in recent days, Brad Carson, then acting principal deputy undersecretary of defense for personnel, expanded a 2014 decision by the department to ease the burden on veterans with PTSD and TBI seeking to upgrade unfavorable discharges.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the past, that decision covered only a select group of Vietnam veterans. The new memo would expand that to all veterans, and waive statutes of limitations for those appeals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Goldsmith, who was given a general discharge in 2007 after a failed suicide attempt stopped his second deployment to Iraq, praised that move but said legislative action is still needed to ensure the policy isn\u2019t changed in future administrations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n
The proposal was included in suicide prevention legislation passed by Congress last year\u00a0but was removed late in legislative\u00a0negotiations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Several supporters have dubbed the new measure an extension of the goal of that bill: to provide more care to veterans and stop them from taking their own lives.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Coffman also introduced separate legislation last week to require the Department of Veterans Affairs to provide initial mental health assessments and urgent health care services to all veterans at risk of suicide, regardless of their discharge status.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Congressional leaders have promised a veterans omnibus bill in coming weeks, to pull together a host of veteran program reform proposals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Leo Shane III covers Congress, Veterans Affairs and the White House for Military Times. He can be reached at<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n lshane@militarytimes.com<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n .<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Lawmakers want to avoid having service members given bad discharges because of treatable mental health injuries<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":104873,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-noindex":"","_yoast_wpseo_meta-robots-nofollow":"","_yoast_wpseo_canonical":"","_acf":"","_yoast_wpseo_primary_category":19,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","_smg_distribution_targets":[]},"categories":[19],"tags":[],"coauthors":[3222],"class_list":["post-70379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-veterans"],"acf":{"subheadline":"","legacy_arc_id":"WF56FXLCBFB37C5NXMQZS3PQOU","arc_canonical_url":"\/veterans\/2016\/03\/07\/legislation-would-halt-bad-military-discharges-due-to-ptsd-or-tbi\/","remove_feature_photo":false,"is_sponsored":false,"subtype":"","redirect_url":"","disable_inline_ads":false,"native_logo_pretext":"Presented By:"},"yoast_head":"\n