It is because soldiers are soldiers. I say that, having come through the infantry throughout my career. It may sound macho, but when you're on a realistic training exercise, or you're jumping out of airplanes, or you're on the back of a carrier or a tank, or whatever, and you fall and have an injury, in a lot of cases it's called suck it up and catch up to the rest of them. Theoretically, a CF98 report of injuries should be written and witnessed and so forth. That's awkward to do in the middle of an exercise.
I'm not knocking the medics or the unit medical officers. When they do have a more serious injury and they get pushed out through the system, once again, theoretically, they should have a CF98 report of injuries. That document is one of the key documents for somebody going forward to receive some type of benefit or treatment as they move through Veterans Affairs. That document and the release medical...where the doctor indicates on the last page that these are the things that possibly could be attributed to military service, and lists them, bang, bang, bang. Doctors are human. For some of them it is a judgment call on their part.
You leap ahead x number of years and some of these things come back to haunt you. You go into Veterans Affairs and say you think you have a hearing problem, or a bit of a problem with your leg from that bad jump you had. At one time, if there wasn't a CF98, a report of injuries, your chances of having it moved forward were very slim.
We've come a long way in the last ten years with Veterans Affairs in regard to talking with people almost from an adversarial approach, to the benefit of the doubt going to the individual, to the extent that yes, that documentation is very important, but—
We've both experienced this when somebody has come forward: “Do you remember that accident where the vehicle rolled over and there were a couple of people killed? I was in the back of that truck and was banged up a little.” You say, “I remember it.” “Can you write me a statement to give to Veterans Affairs, because that left arm that's a little wonky is starting to bother me?”
Veterans Affairs will accept that. In other words, they need something to hang their hat on instead of an official document.
I've been a soldier all my life, so I can understand where they're coming from when there's not sufficient documentation.
I thank you for that question. I'm just going to carry on for a second. You have me on a roll here.