Service connection and 100% rating for PTSD as a result of sexual assault (MST)
This Veteran was in the United States Army during the Vietnam Era from December 1968 to July 1970. He was stationed in Korea as a Driver and a Night Guard.
One night in 1969 the Veteran was out at a bar with a friend while stationed in Korea. His friend left to meet someone, and after consuming two drinks the Veteran exited the bar to return to base. He was attacked by four young male Korean nationals, beaten, dragged into an alley and sexually assaulted. The Veteran got himself back to the base where he showered and “passed out”. The Veteran was embarrassed and ashamed and hid the fact of his assault for thirty-five years. He never mentioned it during service and as a result there was no record of anything in his service medical records or personnel file. Instead, he coped by abusing alcohol and drugs. Upon his return home his wife, niece, longtime friends and fellow church members noticed a drastic difference in the Veteran’s demeanor and behavior. He would have nightmares, night sweats, be afraid to leave the house, become violent in his sleep, have violent outbursts, be depressed and anxious and have anger issues. He had confided in his wife that he had been sexually assaulted in Korea and she pleaded with him to get help. He refused for many years because of the temperature of society at the time and his embarrassment that if he acknowledged this it made him “less than a man.” Unfortunately, his refusal to seek help led to his divorce. His employer and fellow employees found him impossible to work with because of his anger and mood swings and he eventually lost his job. People that knew him before Korea were shocked at the person he had become. He filed his claim for service connection for PTSD in July 2004 and began mental health treatment at the VAMC.
Accordingly, the VA has acknowledged that because personal sexual assault “is an extremely personal and sensitive issue many incidents of personal assault are not officially reported, and victims of this type of in-service trauma may find it difficult to produce evidence to support the occurrence of the stressor.” And so, it began, the cycle of denials and appeals since there was “no evidence.” Frustrated, the Veteran hired our veterans disability law firm in September 2010 to represent him in an appeal of an October 2009 Board decision, which again denied service connection.
We were able to get his claim overturned and remanded at the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims. Once the case was back at the Board of Veterans Appeals we realized that we had to find a way to verify the stressor. But there was very little evidence to work with. We had statements from friends and family testifying to a drastic change in his behavior from before service until after. We also had the report of a treating mental health professional who gave the opinion that the Veteran presented with the typical presentation of someone who was the victim of sexual assault. We combined the two pieces of evidence, the lay statements of friends and family and their observations, with the professional opinion of a mental health professional stating that the Veteran’s behavior matches the behavior of someone who had been sexually assaulted, to successfully convince the VA to grant benefits for the MST.
Eventually, after many C & P mental examinations and continued legal advocacy we were able to obtain service connection with a 50% rating for the Veteran. This was not good enough. After five years of advocating on behalf of the Veteran, obtaining many lay statements from friends and relatives who knew him before Korea (even his ex-wife), and many psychological exams, letters and opinions supporting the claim, the Veteran was granted a 100% rating and service connection in an August 2015 rating decision.