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Johnathan
L. Abbinett
is a U.S. Army, 22 year, Honorably Discharged, Combat Disabled Veteran that
served on Active Duty, in the Individual Ready Reserves, the National Guard,
Army Reserves and the Active Guard / Reserve (every component of the U. S.
Army). He was first trained as a Heavy Weapons / Anti-Tank Gunner and
served with the First Cavalry Division (“The First Team”), Task Force Garry
Owen, during the Spring Offensive of 1972 in the (former) Republic of
Vietnam. He used his G.I. Bill education to double-major in World Religions
& Philosophy with minor emphasis on Interpersonal and Mass Communications.
He re-entered military service in the National Guard briefly and was quickly
recruited to transfer to the Army Reserves. He was selected, as a Junior
NCO, to serve his staff time at the ARCOM (Army Reserve Command) level in
the DCST/DCSOI (Deputy Chief of Staff offices for Training and Operations,
Intelligence and Security) where he assisted in conducting analysis and
inspection of units preparedness – and he competed on the USAR Marksmanship
Team.
Later in
his military career he re-trained and became a Combat Trauma Medical NCO and
served as an Ambulance Platoon Sergeant (and Company Training and Operations
NCO), then was selected to serve with the elite USAR 26th Infantry
(Pathfinder/Airborne) Platoon a SOCOM (Special Operations Command) unit as their
Platoon Medic. During this time he competed and won the coveted NCO of the Year
Award.
 Johnathan was called back to voluntary duty, for another 3 year stint, to serve
in the 82nd Division as a Medical Detachment Field First Sergeant
during the first Persian Gulf War (Operations Desert Shield / Storm and Provide
Comfort).
He then
returned to the Army Reserve as a Medical Group Operations NCO until he was
selected to serve as a Medical Observer/Controller (OC) for the 75th
Division (Training).
The wear
and tear of soldiering, old wounds and a training accident ended his military
career short of the 30 year goal he had set for himself – he left the Army in
1998. That’s when he began his battle for benefits from the Veteran’
Administration and learned of the dreaded Veteran’s Benefit Administration (VBA)
and the imbedded bureaucracy of the C & P (Claims & Processing) administrative
obstacle course (which many of our Disabled Veterans have loathing labeled
“Crimes in Progress”).
It took
nearly three years, the loss of his marriage, the exhausting of all his savings
and assets, becoming disenfranchised from his daughter, becoming a Homeless Vet
– and a premature heart-attack (caused by the V.A. mismanaging his case
erroneously prescribing two deadly contradicted medications simultaneously) that
resulted in an emergency quadruple heart by-pass operation (thankfully performed
by local civilian doctors) before his V.A. claim and rating was finally
approved. Upon rehabilitating (at home on his own), Johnathan became
politically active in Nevada helping Disabled and Homeless Veterans and in
founding the Nevada Democratic Veterans & Military Families Corps Caucus, first
at the Clark County, then, at the Nevada State level. His column, “A
Veteran’s Voice” is a regular monthly feature in “The Nevada
Military Veteran’s Reporter” (a specialty newspaper that goes out,
state-wide, to all V.A. Clinics, National Veteran’s Organizations and local
public libraries) – and he also writes on-line regularly at
www.vegascommunityonline.com – he can be reached at
jlabbinett@cox.net for further commentary on Military matters and especially
V.A. and Disabled Vets Issues.
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