Left to think about suicide and the like, the Air Force and the Department of Defense (DOD) will leave one of them alone, and they just don’t care.
The Gateway Pundit spoke with Jeremy “Weed” Sorenson, a former Air Force fighter pilot and director of Guard and Reserve Affairs for the Uniformed Services Justice & Advocacy Group (USJAG) — an organization whose primary mission is “to ensure that injured service members are separated. with merit, glory, and glory intact.”
A few months ago, he learned about a case he considered “the most egregious.” The case involves Staff Sergeant Kyle Matthews, a nine-year Air Force veteran, who will be “unlawfully discharged from the military” on Tuesday, August 27.
Sgt. Matthews returned from a deployment to the Middle East last year. And according to his wife, he returned someone else. The father of six sought mental health treatment.
“Over the last 15 months,” Sorenson said, “(SSgt. Matthews) has participated in numerous inpatient and outpatient treatment programs (at the request of health officials from Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst in Wrightstown, New Jersey).
As a result, he was diagnosed with a variety of mental health conditions, including bipolar disorder, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), major depressive disorder, generalized anxiety disorder, and panic disorder.
Despite requiring further inpatient treatment, medical personnel began outpatient treatment at the New Jersey Air Force base. Sorenson was shocked to learn that “he denied that he had any prior diagnosis (and determined that) some off-base provider had been wrong.
Conveniently, the Air Force has diagnosed him with an adjustment disorder, and borderline personality disorder, both of which are not compensable under the Disability Evaluation System.
It is also interesting to note that one of SSgt’s drugs. Matthews has been prescribed lithium-which has been prescribed for over six months to treat bipolar disorder. “However, the Air Force refused to acknowledge the diagnosis (of bipolar disorder),” Sorenson said. “How can medicine be prescribed when the diagnosis is rejected?” he asked.
On the edge of SSgt. “Unlawful separation” Matthews, USJAG will not be silent on this issue, as it is considering the release of various documents and records to the public.
Sorenson said, “We have a lot of medical documentation, including some that shows that Department of Defense medical providers coordinated with the chain of command to make the diagnosis in order to administratively separate him without benefits.”
USJAG has documentation from SSgt. Matthew’s civilian provider, “documented conversations with military providers that indicated the same thing,” USJAG’s director of Guard and Reserve Affairs also announced.
Reluctantly, Sorenson also pointed out that SSgt. Matthews has attempted to pass on at least three occasions in the past 15 months. “And to compound what he has been dealing with, they are precluding disability benefits and trampling his rights,” Sorenson argued.
“I am appalled by the DOD’s efforts to deny him benefits while also denying him his right to due process under the Fifth Amendment. This is senior Air Force and DOD leadership violating the United States Constitution. It must stop!”
Troy McIntosh, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Reserve Affairs and Airman Readiness and Guardian, who is educated in the culinary arts, has been monitoring the case for at least the past two months.
According to Sorenson, he had denied SSgt. Matthews’ access to full medical records, which must be provided under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA.)
For Sorenson, “this is part of a coordinated effort to prevent (SSgt. Mathews) from accessing information that indicates Department of Defense malfeasance.”
In addition, he said, McIntosh had “lied several times” and “blatantly provided false information” related to the diagnosis and treatment of SSgt. Matthews.
In the fight for care and benefits that SSgt. Matthews has been in the service for almost a decade, Sorenson said, “It’s been an absolute circus with a lack of proper communication from the DOD.”
“I’ve personally been involved in (SSgt. Matthews’) chain of command, all the way up to the Secretary of the Air Force and I’ve been ignored, lied to, and misled,” Sorenson continued.
“This has been brought to the immediate attention of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, who has been at the bottom level, ignoring the issue, and taking no action.”
According to Sorenson, SecDef Austin has provided “everything necessary to make the right decision and bring the DOD into compliance with the law” – but has refused to do so. This tells Sorenson that “because the Air Force knows (SSgt. Matthews) has all these problems, and knows that there is a high risk of death, it seems to me that basically they just want to get people from the books that have gone wrong.
On Tuesday, without intervention from the DOD, SSgt. Matthews will be separated from the Air Force without benefits or health care. Unfortunately, he will be left alone to fight his suicidal thoughts and unable to provide for his wife and six children.
How was this allowed to happen under the watchful eye of the US Air Force and Department of Defense?