Ricardo Saldana, revisited
We talked a bit about Ricardo Saldana earlier this month when he was featured in a story about how being a deserter keeps him from getting treatment from the VA. He doesn’t come right out and say that he’s a Vietnam veteran, but, you know, he is wearing that hat for the interview. So he shouldn’t mind if we make his records public;
He was barely out of AIT when the South Vietnamese government collapsed, so he wasn’t in Vietnam during the war there.
Believe it or not, he also wasn’t 16 years old when he joined the Army, either – he was 18, born in 1957.
Category: Politics
Ray Charles could have seen that coming.
3 awards on that hat he never earned, and I just now read his bullshit story of going awol. 3 years as a QM and achieving PV1 (with a marksmanship badge with rifle bar) is no small accomplishment, don’t get me wrong. However, at what point does this piece of shit think he deserves VA treatment? I feel like a piece of shit going to get VA treatment, and I don’t have the outstanding career that Ricardo does. This guy has done Eric Cartman mental backflips to convince himself he deserves anything that an actual Veteran is entitled to, how does a persons mind become this diluted? Whiskey in the tango foxtrot?
Ah, if only black marker blocks could talk.
I have carefully measured one of the redacted lines and compared it to the font spacing (an old Hondo trick). The words “Stupid Motherfucker returned AWOL and was awarded blanket party” exactly fits in that next to the last line.
His original claim was that he was discharged for “unknowing desertion”. I’m guessing at least the desertion part was true, and that’s what’s shown in the entries above.
If this “stellar individual” was discharged for desertion, he’s SOL under Federal law. Federal law appears to bar all VA benefits for someone discharged or released due to desertion (38 USC 5303).
http://www.benefits.va.gov/BENEFITS/docs/COD_Factsheet.pdf
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/38/5303
UNLESS he claims PTSD (or the latest gem, MST) for any reason brought about by, or during, military service. Then he can “justify” his actions and you guessed it – be entitled to VA services AND potentially compensation.
Don’t think so. While that will work in some circumstances and for some reasons for discharge, a less-than-honorable discharge resulting from desertion (plus a few other offenses) appears to be an absolute statutory bar to receipt of any VA benefits under 38 USC 5303(a). The only way around that appears to be if the VA determines the individual was insane at the time the offense leading to discharge was committed.
This is a good thing, given that Bergdahl may well end up getting discharged for desertion.
I enlisted Feb 20, 1975 and certainly don’t consider myself Vietnam anything. In fact, the NDSM cutoff for that era is 1974. Although, I was born in 1957 and was 17 at the time so I guess the bozo could have been THAT age. Spent my 18th birthday in October at NOLA when it was still a fun place and no one got carded…
Damnit, he missed the cut-off for the NDSM by six months.
Six Months !! If only his Grandma (who was his heart and soul) would have signed him in at 17 1/2 years old, he could have had the highly coveted and much sought after NDSM and his life would not have spiraled out of control.
But no sweat, I guess 86 days AWOL and Desertion can just be written off by a ball cap and a Boo-Hoo story to a sympathetic reporter.
They say bad shit just happens sometimes to good people. This is not one of those cases. Shit happens to people because they’re stupid and make bad decisions.
Another festering boil on the ass of humanity.
Word.
All that shit he saw. Never gonna forget it, ever.
And still not gonna get over Macho Grande. Those scars run pretty deep.
Nobody gets over Macho Grande. Ever.
Maybe he deserted because all those second- and third-hand war stories from Vietnam vets stationed at Hood just got SEARED into his body and mind and soul…
Sympathetic PTSD no doubt.
I can tell him where to look in the dictionary to find “sympathetic PTSD” . . . .
Oooooh, he’ll just have to EXCUSE the shiteatingmudda-fuck outta me for not giving two hoots of a flying moldy rat shit about his “Boo-hoo, poor me!” sob story. The sad thing is that he’ll very likely get much faster service at his local welfare office, SCREW that little queef of a freeloading roach turd!
No NDSM? PFFFFFtttttttt!
Straight Up ^^^^^^^^^