Trying to make a life
After a battlefield injury, endless challenges
As with many of the wounded soldiers returning from Iraq, Adams's future is uncertain. He, too, is still on med hold, taking home about $3,500 a month--a substantial increase from the $1,600 a month he used to earn cutting lawns. Even though he's been home for more than a year, he hasn't gone through the med board process yet. But VA counselors have told Summer his disability most likely will be rated at 100 percent, for which the VA will pay him $2,239 tax free. He may get extra amounts for Summer and the boys.
As for Adams, he hopes to go to college and perhaps work with computers someday, unless he can somehow realize his fondest aspiration: "If I could and if they wanted me, I'd go back to Iraq."
Lives Altered By Injury
When a soldier is injured or becomes ill during active duty, he or she may apply to the VA for disability compensation; the agency then decides on a monthly payment by considering the type of injury and calculating the loss of earnings capacity. The VA uses a 0 to 100 percent disability rating scale with set dollar amounts.
Disability Dollar Example of disability
Percentage amount
10 $106 Mild mental symptoms decreasing
work efficiency
20 205 Deep scars more than 12 inches,
not on head, face, or neck
30 316 Loss of one ear
40 454 Amputated foot
50 646 Loss of both ears
60 817 Amputation of leg at middle or
lower thigh
70 1,029 Amputation of five fingers of
dominant hand
80 1,195 Loss of part of skull with brain
90 1,344 Amputation of leg with loss of
pelvic girdle muscle
100 2,239 Total work and social impairment
due to mental disorders
Source: VA and Code of Federal Regulations
Contributors to the entire 16-page report are Angie Cannon, Nancy Shute, Susan Brink, Elizabeth Querna, Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, Dan Gilgoff, Carol Hook, Jennifer L. Jack, Nancy L. Bentrup, Allegra Moothart, Ann M. Wakefield, Jill Konieczko, and Monica M. Ekman
With Elizabeth Querna, Susan Brink, Nancy E. Shute, Marianne Szegedy-Maszak, Daniel Gilgoff, Carol Susan Hook, Jennifer L. Jack, Nancy L. Bentrup, Allegra Moothart, Ann M. Wakefield, Jill Konieczko and Monica M. Ekman
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