Lawsuit Seeks to Speed Veterans’ Disability Compensation Appeals

NEW HAVEN — More than four decades after he first showed symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, Vietnam War veteran Conley Monk Jr. still is waiting for approval of medical coverage and, more recently, disability benefits, from the Veterans Administration.

“We are literally in the military’s latest Catch-22,” U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal said Monday at a press conference announcing a class-action lawsuit to help rectify one of the multiple issues still in play for Monk and thousands like him.

The suit was brought against Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert A. McDonald and the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

It asks that the VA promptly decide disability compensation appeals that have been pending more than a year, when the case involves a veteran facing medical or financial hardship.

A longtime New Haven resident, Conley was given an other than honorable military discharge 45 years ago tied to his use of morphine, which he said was a way to ease the symptoms of PTSD. After his discharge, Conley worked for decades as a counselor at Addiction Prevention Treatment (APT) and counseled the homeless at Columbus House.

PTSD wasn’t recognized as a medical disorder until 1980, long after Conley had left the Marine Corps in 1970.

Also, a statute requiring a physical examination, if a vet can reasonably claim to have PTSD prior to an administrative discharge, didn’t go into effect until a few years ago.

“He is the victim of an unfair less than honorable discharge, which in turn is the basis for the denial of disability benefits and they are also denying him a prompt review of that unfair erroneous denial of benefits by inordinate delay,” Blumenthal said.

A call was placed with the Department of Veterans Affairs seeking comment.

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