Veterans with PTSD sue Navy over claims of biased discharges

[EuTuCroquet?]

Veterans with PTSD sue Navy over claims of biased discharges

https://www.stripes.com/news/veterans-with-ptsd-sue-navy-over-claims-of-biased-discharges-1.514751

By the age of 21, Marine Corps Cpl. Tyson Manker led infantrymen into battle in the 2003 invasion of Iraq. His actions as a Marine garnered him the Presidential Unit Citation and other awards, yet the military doesn’t consider his service as honorable.

Manker endured intense combat, saw civilians killed and witnessed the death of a close friend – experiences that caused nightmares and other symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that only worsened when he returned home.

“It’s a national disgrace for the federal government to say someone doesn’t have honor because they didn’t handle the stresses of war the way some bureaucrat back stateside thinks they should’ve,” said Manker, now 36 and an attorney in Illinois.

Having tried and failed to get an upgrade, Manker is now the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit filed Friday against the Navy in the U.S. District Court in Connecticut. The suit claims the Navy has an institutional bias against veterans with PTSD.

It’s estimated that tens of thousands of servicemembers suffering from PTSD or other mental health conditions caused by their wartime experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan have been kicked out of the military with other-than-honorable discharges, known as “bad paper.”

The Navy Discharge Review Board, responsible for discharges of sailors and Marines, has granted upgrades in only 15 percent of cases since 2016 in which PTSD was a contributing factor, according to the suit. In comparison, the Army granted upgrades in 45 percent of the same kind of cases and the Air Force granted 37 percent.