How one veteran's persistence paid off

News Type: Event — Seeded on Sat Jul 26, 2008 7:39 PM EDT Mr. Weaver had sought treatment at US Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) facilities a few years earlier for what had been diagnosed as a serious illness as well as for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) from his Marine Corps deployment to Iraq in 2003, where he was a machine-gunner with the original invasion force. Now it was July 2007, and he wanted to leave the battle behind him – even if it meant giving up thousands of dollars a month in disability benefits. But his father, a retired senior chief petty officer with the Navy, wouldn't hear of it. "You can't just have a civilian tell you 'no,' " Paul Weaver Sr. told his son. "They owe you a day in... [read full story]