Disabled Vet Gets Reprieve

Team Infidel

Forum Spin Doctor
Buffalo News
May 16, 2008
Pg. D1
Won't be sent to Iraq after appeal to Army
By Lou Michel, News Staff Reporter
James Raymond is a free man.
"Thank God it is finally over," he said Thursday after receiving word from the Army he will not be going to Iraq after all.
The disabled Army veteran had come within weeks of having to put his college education on hold, but support from the local congressional delegation and the public, he said, allowed common sense to triumph.
"I would go back today in a heartbeat," Raymond said of his desire to defend the country, "but because of my injuries, I feel I'd be putting other lives in danger, and I don't want to have to live with that the rest of my life."
While fighting in Afghanistan in 2003, he lost most of the hearing in his left ear and underwent surgery on his left knee for a severe injury. He was honorably discharged, and the Department of Veterans Affairs declared him 10 percent disabled, awarding him a small monthly pension.
But his contract with the Army required him to remain a member of the Individual Readiness Reserve until 2009 in order to fulfill his eight-year obligation.
In early April, he received orders to report for duty this Sunday at Fort Benning, Ga., for training to serve in Iraq. It had caught him by surprise, given his disabilities.
Pressure from local members of Congress and the public, Raymond said, resulted in a temporary reprieve earlier this month that allowed him to finish the spring semester at the University at Buffalo, while he appealed his military orders.
That changed Thursday.
"I got a phone call from my military case manager. He said I've been placed on standby reserve for a year. I asked him the question -- that I only have a year left -- and he said, 'Yeah, you're good. You won't be going.' "
Standby reserve is considered nondeployable status, according to Rep. Brian Higgins, whom Raymond credited with taking the lead to reverse the call-up order.
"Without Higgins stepping up to the plate and helping me out, I think I probably would have been sent over to Iraq, but intelligence has prevailed," Raymond said.
Higgins applauded the Army for its decision.
"Thousands of veterans like Jamie have made significant, irreversible physical sacrifices to preserve this nation's freedoms and keep our country safe," said Higgins, D-Buffalo. "We appreciate that the Army took into consideration our request for a re-evaluation of Specialist Raymond's unique situation."
Reps. Thomas M. Reynolds, R-Clarence, and Louise M. Slaughter, D-Fairport, along with Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., also reached out to Army officials on Raymond's behalf.
With his reprieve now permanent, Raymond said he will be able to finish his last semester at UB in the fall and graduate with a degree in communications.
In the meantime, he says he hopes to find work. "I can finally start looking seriously for a summer job now that I know I'm not going," he said, adding that his career goal is to enter public relations in the Buffalo area upon graduation.
 
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