[sfshooter]

Not sure why but this has long been a pet peeve of mine. I think the PTSD fraud is rampant. Every damn yahoo that went to OIF or OEF gets considered from what I can tell, and from my experience 85 to 90 percent of deployed soldiers never left their base the whole time they were there.
If this is truly a real issue, and I know the suicide rate is astronomical for veterans, then maybe we need to make Basic Combat Training a little more harder. That is part of the purpose of that initial training in the first place is to make every soldier understand that they might be in a combat situation regardless of what your MOS is.
When I was a Drill Sergeant we had mental cases that we chaptered out because they couldn't hack basic training. From what I have heard over the years basic is so much easier now.
There were a whole shit load of WWII vets and I'll carry it on to Korea and Vietnam vets who seen an extreme amount of action and you don't hear anything about them crying and whining to the VA that they need a check.
Case in point: I became good friends with a Vietnam vet (82nd/11th ACR). He drank and was in fights all his life, divorced, etc.... He retired after working 38 years for the county and was then diagnosed with liver disease. He finally went to the VA (he was purple heart recipient and still had shrapnel in his leg). They immediately told him he had PTSD and gave him 100% disability. This man more than likely did have PTSD but he went his whole life without crying for the government to give him a handout. (He passed away almost five years ago now).
There are definitely soldiers who deserve to be treated for this and those POS's who claim this and don't have it are taking a lot away from the great people who do need the treatment!
I know of two individuals locally here who have committed suicide in the past five years or so. One I didn't know personally and one I did. Both were combat vets one in Afghanistan and one in Iraq. From talking to people who went to school with them, they all told me that those guys had always had problems mentally and were just kind of different. I cannot fault those guys for whatever drove them to make that decision. The military should be at fault for not making things hard enough for them in the initial training phase so those mental weaknesses show up.

Sorry for the long rant. I just know of at least one person who had played/plays the system and know of some others who tried to get my dad to play the system for money for his Vietnam service.