Although I don't doubt there are a handful who do this I personally have never heard or seen this. In fact it is usually the physician who tells them they are FOS.
The encouragement to file every and anything is given at TAPS class and by lore passed down from their own peers and people before them. Direct example is the number of people who at their separation physical told me they had sleep apnea (hence my quote from above). When I eventually inquired I was told they were told in TAPS to claim OSA no matter what. The number who suddenly didn't have any symptoms when I told them their seperation from service would be held up, possibly for a few months, for the appropriate testing was not inconsequential.
I think the system works in most cases. There are a few areas on both sides (too loose and too tight) but it works okay. Could it be improved, sure.
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Boy o Boy, I would love for you to be at my unit. These guys come back TAPS and their separation physicals as experts. None of them have been held up for retirement (the disability comes after they are out of service).
Example:
One guy was told put your arm at your side-if you move it this high you get blank%, this high blank% and so on until it was vertical above his head.
I'm obviously not in the room but they have stated that the Dr.s and PA's have put them in for it(don't know how it works but that's what they said). They were told that they can also increase their % as time goes on (I know 2 guys that have gotten an increase) some of the individual believe that the system is trying to get them up to 100% since they only recieve 50%+(20yr+ retirement) to make up the difference in pay from active duty. These individuals have no physical issues we can see9oh sure they has a resp mask to sleep with at night) and are doing pretty much the job they were doing when on active duty.
I see it as a real broke system---- very, very loose and disgusting!
One young petty officer(a few yrs in) asked a guy who was getting a disability recently if he could get one because he hurt his foot playing(some game) on the sports field.
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