Lyle Allen and Chad Rogers, like thousands of other disabled veterans across the U.S., feel like they’re getting the shaft.
Rogers and Allen are hoping a proposed bill, the Major Richard Star Act, receives congressional approval and is passed into law this year, providing them with the military benefits they say they’ve rightfully earned.
Both Army veterans, and members of the Wounded Warrior Project, Allen and Rogers are 100 percent disabled. They said the Major Richard Star Act would help disabled veterans, eliminating a policy that limits combat veterans from accessing military retirement benefits.
Richard Star, a former Army major, battled lung cancer for years before dying from the disease in 2021. Star, like Rogers and Allen, was deployed to Iraq where his lungs were exposed to toxic burn pits. As if Star didn’t have enough on his mind, during chemotherapy, he was told by the Department of Defense that he could not receive retirement pay, along with disability funds.
Rogers and Allen, both combat veterans, said they received the same cold shoulder from the government when they requested similar disability payments. As high-ranking sergeants, they had worked their way up and planned to build a career in the military. However, injuries forced Allen and Rogers to shift course and leave the Army. Now they’re battling a policy they say is unfair.
“We are eligible for all the benefits except our retirement,” Rogers told WATE in Knoxville, Tennessee. “So, we are retired without retirement.”
Allen agreed, calling the retirement package – or lack thereof – disheartening.
“In the military, it’s just a disability; you can’t collect workman’s comp or your retirement after you get injured,” he said.
Life-Changing Injuries
Allen spent 14 years in the Army, serving mostly as a combat engineer. His life was forever altered on a deployment to Iraq. Allen’s unit was clearing a roadway when suddenly there was a blast. Everything turned black.
“I was driving a five-ton vehicle, we got hit by an improvised explosive device,” Allen said. “I don’t remember too much. I remember the medics coming up to me, making sure I’m alright. I am 100 disabled, service connected.”
Allen also has a “total and permanent” rating, meaning his traumatic brain injury will likely never improve, according to a disability ratings system from the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Rogers also didn’t make it through Iraq unscathed, breathing in hazardous chemicals without fully knowing what he was inhaling.
“It ended up being chemical exposure while I was in theater,” Rogers said. “Somewhere along the way, we don’t know where. There were places that I would go into, and the air would taste weird, or the air would burn your skin.”
Military Dreams Curtailed
For Allen and Rogers, dreams of spending decades in the Army turned into painful nightmares.
Both came from military backgrounds with grandfathers serving in World War II. They were excited to enlist, honorably serve, and move steadily through the ranks.
“When I enlisted, I had every ambition of serving at least 20 years; the goal was 30 years,” Rogers said.
The former sergeants said the current benefits policy puts them in a precarious position. Is it more beneficial to only receive retirement earnings or VA disability payments? If the Major Richard Star Act gets passed, it would give medically retired veterans with less than 20 years of service, who suffered injuries in combat, an opportunity to receive both options simultaneously.
“This just doesn’t affect myself personally; this affects our future generation as well,” Allen said.
Fortunately for Allen and Rogers, the bill has wide-spread bipartisan approval from both parties in the House and Senate. Of course, cost is always a factor and veterans groups admit the bill’s price tag could be the biggest hurdle for approval. Versions of the bill have been presented to lawmakers in the past but were voted down due to lack of information about how the funding will be paid for.
While there’s still work to be done to see the Major Richard Star Act come to fruition, supporters believe it’s a fair and long-overdue solution to help ailing veterans.
