Ricardo Saldana and the VA
OIF’08 sends us a link to this story about Ricardo Saldana who claims that he joined the Army when he was 16 years old and after three years, he accidentally went AWOL for 86 days.
Saldana served for three years but was placed on emergency leave when his grandmother, his heart and soul, passed away, he said.
“After we buried her I didn’t know how many weeks I had left and when I called they told me, ‘You’re already AWOL Mr. Saldana,’ and I said I was on emergency leave. I didn’t know the days passed so quick,” Saldana said, adding he was gone for 86 days.
The mistake he made as a young man has haunted him ever since.
He was given an other than dishonorable discharge and has been denied medical assistance from the VA.
So now, he claims that he is sick and he needs the VA to help him out;
Saldana lost his job a few years ago after being diagnosed with a number of diseases, including cancer and Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease.
“They found out I had a chronic disease for my kidneys, and I also have anxiety and asthma, and they also found out I have arthritis in my back,” Saldana said.
Well, he’s wearing a Vietnam Veteran cap. Saldana claims to be 57 years old, even if he joined at 16 (which I seriously doubt) that means he enlisted in 1974 – the war in Vietnam had effectively ended. The last combat troops left in August 1973. So, although he doesn’t claim to have served there, the hat implies that he’s a veteran of the war. The cutoff date for the National Defense Service Medal for the Vietnam Era was in August 1974.
I don’t know how someone accidentally goes AWOL for nearly three months. Regardless, there are tons of social programs that could help Saldana which are outside the VA, his AWOL ass doesn’t need to be clogging up the VA system designed for people who don’t go AWOL. But, yeah, the VA is in the news, so let’s beat up the VA for not giving relief to this one.
Category: Dumbass Bullshit
Another phony POS liar.
Another Vet with another excuse….a reminder: excuses are like a$$holes, everyone has one!
And yet the comments under the article are rife with folks who live in his area and are going to help him out. Enablers.
I like the part where he calls in to find out how much time he has left and they inform him, “You are already AWOL Mr. Saldana.” Sounds like they had already bounced his ass out by the time he made the call. Must have been some good drugs.
You got that right! to hell with the phony!!
So, I accidently and chronically hereby and hither to say, “GFY Ricardo”!
1) No way he is a Vietnam veteran.
2) Nobody goes awol accidentally. DA30 clearly specify when is your report back to duty date.
This dude is a shitbag. Drop the full weight of the law on him.
In order to elicit sympathy, he wears his Viet Nam Veteran hat….from the link above:
“He walks to a nearby restaurant almost daily, asking for money to pay his food and rent.”
Like I said, POS liar!
Give that man a service dog!!
I hear there’s an organization that runs from a pay phone at a Holiday Inn in Texas that might be right up his alley…
Maybe a Service Hog.
Woo-Pig….
Looking at the sty he lives in I don’t think a pig would want to live there.
Its so filthy the cockroaches have to ride dirt bikes.
I’ve had quite a few legal cases where someone “accidentally” went AWOL. Most involved individuals who came home on leave from Iraq and immediately went shopping for a doctor who could say they had PTSD. This, of course, took at least a month–with most of the time hanging out, more often than not smoking dope. And when the chickens finally came home to roost (ie a doctor finally wrote a letter saying he likely had PTSD), the guy would always claim that he thought it was ok to not report back to his unit. The creative ones said someone on rear d, never sure who and never in writing, told them it was ok. Incidentally, the stories seemed to always involve “stepping over dead bodies.”
I’ll confess to an accidental 24 hour AWOL, and as an E7 too. Due to a recto-cranial inversion, and a failure to check my DA-30, I forgot to sign back in on the appointed day. 1SG called me about noon, and my response (OH FUCK!) cracked him up and they charged me an extra day.
I thought I was the only one that got that case of the dumb ass. My 1SG thought it was funny as hell. He gave me shit forever with gems like on a Friday he would say things like “SFC remember you have to be back on MONDAY”.
He’s what we used to call a bum. Nobody uses that term any longer. Well, I just did so that’s not true. Anyway, he’s a bum. Questions?
The proper term on any given Saturday night is “Wino”.
Well, “bum” is a mild British euphamism for “butt” or “arse”. So yeah – however you look at it, he’s definitely a “bum”.
Me me me I have a question..l
Shitbaggis Extremis, and a liar and phony to boot…
Perhaps PTS from walking past a recruiting station.
Fraudulent Enlistment.
No benefits due.
Sounds like Ricardo stole the script from Too Young the Hero (1988).
Another lyin’-assed moldy creampuff of a con gamer playing the “Oh, poor me!” game on peoples’ sympathies and emotions, SCREW HIM!!!
Just curious, but were there a lot of people joining in the 60s and 70s for Viet Nam and lying about their age to get in? By the time I joined in the 90s, you had to give your high school diploma, your original birth certificate, your SSN card, and be registered for selective service.
Once he hit 30 days from the end of that return date on his DA31 he was dropped from rolls. So, even if he was only on emergency leave for 14 days, that means he was gone about 3 and a half months, if not longer adding the leave in as well.
Even still, I doubt the VA would do anything about what he’s claiming is disabling him because it wasn’t service-related. (not even mentioning the fact that he’s got an OTH which removes some VA benefits)
Not to mention, when did he get the arthritis, the asthma, the COPD, the kidney problems? What percentage of likelihood is there in him getting hit with any of that in 3 years of service? Did he catch it from the troops coming back from the ‘Nam? Along with the PTSD, which I hear is contagious too.
Google “PTSD watching TV” to see just how contagious the disease has become.
That’s why I wear safety goggles when I watch TV.
Oh God, right beneath “PTSD watching tv”, was “PTSD watching war movies”
What in the fuck?
Ricardo got “the PTSD” from slurping down all of that Cream of Sum Yung Guy while over “in the shit”. His platoon sergeant was “Rice Paddy Daddy” and the kid who did up his uniforms was Lon Duc Dong.
100% certifiable bag of ass…
Why doesn’t he contact an 0bamacare navigator and get on the free healthcare gravy train. Mess kit repairmen are no longer in demand.
Did he really serve ? Has a DD-214 been shown and veriftied by a VSO. Why isn’t he using one of the service VSOs to push his claims. To me these answers lead me to believe he is one phony SOB. As said above a BUM. Joe
It was destroyed in the National Archives Records fire. Granted, that was before he was even in the Army, but that’s what happened….Honest.
Eric: The fire was so bad it took over a year to put out, don’t you know? Oh, and they kept putting new records in there after the fire started, only to then watch them burn. Makes sense, right?
Also, is it just me, or does this guy look like Leonard Nimoy from a distance?
Reply to; D Eric and Joe Williams,
Yeah, I also think he is full of shit about even having ever been in the military.
What a boring birdbrained bum.
he looks like the typical standing at the red light with the “veteran please help” sign
You forgot the “God Bless” phrase they put below that about 99% of the time.
Of course he’s legit. He has the cap that says so.
Haven’t you seen the photo of the Air America helicopter on top of the hotel? That’s him on the skid helping people enter the bird./sarc
Just another bum-ass deserter who’s playing the sympathy card for all it’s worth.
Worthless as tits on a boar hog.
Apartment building, actually – 22 Gia Long Street, Saigon. CIA Station Chief Saigon and AID personnel were reportedly housed there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/22_Gia_Long_Street
But at least you didn’t call it the AMEMB building. (smile)
Yep, thanks for the clarification Hondo. I knew it was some type of a housing unit and not the Embassy.
By the time that all went down over there, I was still half a world away at Bitburg AB in FRG and our newsfeed came from AFN/AFRTS and the Stars & Stripes.
But you would be surprised by the number of people (who think have a little knowledge of history) who say that the war in Vietnam ended in 1975 for the US in the same manner that Desert Storm ended in 1991, with half a million troops still in country and the war still going on full bore until the cease fire was ordered.
I try to explain to them the actual way Vietnam was phased out, but they go by what happened in their life span, so sometimes it’s like talking to a brick wall.
Suggest you refer them to this chart:
http://www.americanwarlibrary.com/vietnam/vwatl.htm
By the end of 1973, US forces in Vietnam numbered 50 – as in “five times ten”, not 50k. Not sure if that included the USMC guards and attaches at the AMEMB or not.
In truth, US involvement in Vietnam (as measured by troop strength) declined every year after LBJ was no longer calling the shots. Nixon may have had many faults, but he followed through on his promise to get us out of Vietnam.
Whether or not it was “Peace With Honor” – and if not, who’s responsible for the lack of honor – is another question entirely.
Roger.
I won’t get into the “Peace with Honor” discussion, either. That subject is way out of my lane and I was just a little bitty piece of the war.
After reading the article can someone explain to me what an “other than dishonorable” discharge is. I’ve heard of “other than honorable” and “dishonorable” and there’s a bit of a difference between the two. Is “other than dishonorable” what they give you when you go AWOL from the secret time travel black ops unit he must have been in to wear that hat?
Depends on whether the term is being used generically or specifically..
Used generically, an “other than honorable” discharge could refer to an General-Under Other than Honorable Conditions (UOTHC). Those are commonly offered to personnel in lieu of court-martial, and if I recall correctly can also be awarded by an admin discharge board. The other possibilities would be the two punitive discharges: Bad Conduct and Dishonorable.
Used specifically, the term would most likely refer to a General-UOTHC discharge. That would make sense if the Army apprehended him and offered him a way to avoid court-martial by accepting a General-UOTHC discharge in lieu of court-martial. Much quicker, and much less trouble for all concerned if the guy just wants out (and knows the Army has him dead to rights).
Hondo, read the news article and CA_SGT’s question again. The news article said that he he received an “other than dishonorable discharge”, not a Dishonorable Discharge, nor Other ThanHonorable Discharge.
Of course, in the news article he is quoted as saying “Right now, I don’t have no money, and I have no food, and the little food I don’t have it.” So, does the double negative mean that he does have money? As to (see what I just did there?) the comment about food, I have no friggin’ clue what he is trying to say.
There’s already too many phony shitbird hobos clogging up the VA system. They don’t need another one. Take your happy ass, other than honorable discharge down the road. Shut the fuck up and get bent.
Thanks for posting this article Jon. None of this when I read it passed the smell test. I would comment on the story o. The news page but you have to have Facebook to comment. I don’t have Facebook but I was hoping some of my fellow readers would comment on the story to educate people about shitbirds like Mr. Saldana
He is a true SUPER SHIT BIRD With Turd Sauce all over in healthy amounts…
Standing offer: for a FOIA, I need Firstname/Middle Name/Lastname, DOB, POB, and approx dates of service (we already know what service he claims to have joined). SSN also works in place of DOB/POB combo.
Just another sorry ass Shitbird, who wants to claim what he did not earn! I especially like the Vietnam veteran hat. He probably has a CIB floating around somewhere. We sure could have used the manpower back in the day!
I like the part in the story where he tells us that his father “enrolled” him in the Army. The recruiting office and high school must have next door to each other and poor old pops got confused.
Another interesting point is that he was given emergency leave for a grandparent. That isn’t usually the case unless the grandparents were the ones that raised you or had legal custody – which is not the case if dad “enrolled” him into the Army.
He’s going to make out quite nicely though as people are gullible and stuuuupid….They bitch about a price tag being 10 cents off at Wal*Mart but give all kinds of dough to a lying POS with a sob story.
“Right now, I don’t have no money, and I have no food, and the little food I don’t have it. ”
….What the fuck did he say?
I looking for sympathy for the guy… its there but not out of the VA’s pocket.
We got kids coming back minus body parts who have to wait up to two years for pensions and this shitbird from 40 years back with an OTH and non service related conditions thinks he can cut he line?
He doesnt look to be the brightest candle on the cake.
If he had worked all those years he could and should apply for SSDI.
Me thinks he may not be as sick as he lets on.
Anyone else notice that for all those conditions (bad heart, Bad Kidneys., bad back,, etc.. He has a whopping total of three medications, one of them being acetamicodene a pain killer.
Can you say drug seeking?
Incredible.
Thanks for reminding me to notice further evidence of the shit bag
The hat, the hat, the hat. Dead give away for insinuating a make-believe service record without saying a word. That way you can always blame it on the hat being misinterpreted for having served in RVN. BTW, just another important reason to join the Viet Nam Veteran’s Association.
The story is incomplete as it does not specify which day of the 86 days of AWOL he called to check on his status. As for not knowing days “pass so quick”, wake up Bubba. We all have and can read an important piece of equipment….it’s called a clock. If too difficult, when the sun rises, it is morning. When the sun sets it is evening. Follow that by a period of darkness, and presto, there you have it you damned time-challenged Dufis! That is what we commonly refer to as one day. Two periods in succession and there you have two days. On and on it goes. Simple inability to count, Mr. Sardene….happens to all of us.
And now you claim it was the worst mistake you ever made. Obviously you were never married to my ex-wife Mr. Sardene. Pok sallet ____ was surely written about her. She made an alligator look nice. Wretched, straight razor totin’ she-devil she was. Mr. Sardene, I do not care to hear you complain like this again until you can justify it. If you haven’t already, you SHOULD marry her tomorrow and realize the life you are whining about was not really that bad after all! You might deserve to be sodomized by my dog Roofis. He got a boner looking at your picture for some strange reason.
He can’t even reach his own testicles to lick them any more. But does he complain? Not no, but hell no! So what is really your problem? We are all ears.
He’s fucked up to the point that I would wish MY ex-wife on him (YES, the EX-MONSTER!!).
As long as you guys are looking to be matchmakers for the ex-flames, I know a guy down in Texas looking for wife #7, or is it #8 at this point? This could be a profitable off shoot for TAH.
“How did you two meet?”
“We met on This Ain’t Hell dot US.”
I thought Mickey Rooney had passed some time back. Would be really funny if two Posers met on this site and married to mentally support each other. Imagine the title, “I’m Mrs Poser Poser. Do you have some time for my war stories? I enlisted when I was 12, fought every war since Korea, and earned every award possible. My husband is another hero like myself. His favorite record is “I’m Poser The 8th I am!”