NorthPoleJeff

I am a disabled veteran and have served six years in the US Navy on the USS Kitty Hawk. My job was working on Avionics - Aviation Electronics - After the Navy I worked for a Cessna Dealer again on Avionics Equipment, Next I worked for the Department of the Army on Avionics and then on Automated Test designing both the hardware and software to automatically test highly complex electronics systems.

Going back to the US Navy, in 1977 I fell 180 feet and landed on rocks. I was transported to the Navy Hospital by a Navy SAR team. Two days later I was put back to work on light duty.

Ever since this time I did not feel good. I crushed my heels, broke my back, tore my diaphragm, damaged my elbow, had 32 stitches in my head and suffered brain damage.

Nevertheless, I still worked for eleven years afterwards using all of my annual leave, sick leave and about thirty days a year on leave without pay just because I was sick. The doctor in the Navy hospital said that I only broke my back and that was all. I've been to more than thirty doctors trying to find out why I was always very sick, but it didn't feel like any disease.

Most Doctors only spent fifteen seconds on the actual exam, excluding paperwork, and then gave me drugs for problems that I did not have. The drugs were many times very hard on me making me only sicker and caused me to miss more work.

In 1989 My boss said, "Sign this paper, your disabled retired" This was under the CSRS FERS system of the federal government. I went home expecting to receive a paycheck the next month. Instead, it took nine months before I received a single check which was a little over six hundred dollars.

It's interesting that the CSRS Civil Service Retirement System was there so that if I became disabled, I would not have to suffer financial hardships. I ended up with an old van and my good friend, Boone Dog. That's all I had left.

C. Jeff Dyrek