National Guard and Reserves are Being Mistreated by our Military

National Guard and Reserve in the United States are being denied benefits when injured serving our country full time.

This petition is to get the word out that it is common practice for the Veteran's Association to deny claims from National Guard and Reservists whom are injured in the line of duty. Sgt. 1st Class Sean Robert Carlson is my husband. In September of 2005, his convoy was hit by an IED (Roadside Bomb). The bomb went off 5 feet from where my husband was sitting. There are documents to back up this statement that this incident really happened.

My husband suffered permanent hearing loss (documented by a hearing test both overseas and through the VA), permanent knee damage to his left knee and nerve damage from his back down his right leg. All of these conditions have a paper trail, which was submitted, as instructed, to all the correct locations.

In civilian life, my husband is a mail carrier. He did try to go back to his civilian job with the post office but after 3 days, he could not even walk up stairs. They placed him on light duty, but his supervisor at the post office constantly made him feel guilty into performing jobs that his pain could not handle. He works for the Hingham Post Office in Massachusetts.

The post office has my husband on Leave Without Pay right now because he is forbidden to return to his postal job, even on light duty, until his doctor says he is 100\% cleared of all medical conditions (we have this in writing from the Postmaster). Seans postmaster is J.J. Donovan and Mr. Donovan spoke face to face with my husband, telling him that this was not their problem and the post office does not want the liability if my husband gets hurt again. This is why they will not even place him on light duty so that he can AT LEAST bring home a paycheck to take care of our mortgage. My husband will never in his lifetime be 100\% physically sound. Mr. Donovan never knew Sean as a civilian carrier and has no idea that my husband NEVER called in sick before being deployed. He worked hard; they called him a runner because he completed his route so fast. He is a decent and hard working man that takes pride in what he does. Now, our family will be on the streets soon if the politicians are not made fully aware of this huge problem.

We are not alone. National Guard and Reserve make up over 40\% of the troops in Iraq. Our country could not fight this war without them. Yet, upon returning, the attitude here is "Part Time care for Part Time Soldiers." We have spoken to over 15 individual soldiers with similar problems. Post Traumatic Stress Disorder forced one man I know to never leave his room now. The VA pushed him to the side. Another soldier we know received brain damage when sustaining an injury as a gunner in a HUMVEE and his commander said that he was faking it, he even put that on paper, then they performed a MRI and this Civilian Soldier has permanent brain damage.

I need your help to make sure that our "Part Time Soldiers" whom were called up to proudly serve our country, get the same treatment as our full time soldiers. My husband has almost 20 years in the service (full time and Reserve/Guard). He never complained once, he always Sucked it up. He saved a man's life overseas by pulling him out of a truck that was to be bombed. They did not even give him the proper medal for this deed, yet it too is documented.

THIS DOES NOT LOOK GOOD for politics before an election.

My name is Renee Carlson and my email address are [email protected] and [email protected] Thanks for reading.