Army veteran from Texas who survived MST is among those who received benefits assistance, support and hope during the three-day clinic.
Army veteran Tammy Roberts is a nurse who prides herself on helping others.
Roberts, who served from 1986 to 1989, buried her service-connected ailments for admittedly far too long. She worked in a communications center, where she was tasked with shredding classified documents in a loud disintegrator/pulverizer machine ground the documents into a fine dust.
“I was exposed to a lot of really loud noises,” she recalled. “We had no hearing protection. We had no eye protection. We breathed that in. We coughed and gagged while we did it, pulled our T-shirts up over our face, trying to keep some of the dust out. We actually looked like 9/11 survivors when we came out every day. Were just covered with dust that would be in our eyes, in our eyelashes, up our nose, in our ears. We’d have to just go straight home and shower and wash your uniform.”
Roberts was among the 263 veterans who received help during the second annual American Legion claims clinic during its 107th National Convention in Louisville, Ky. The free clinic, which was held from Aug. 28-30, was conducted in partnership with the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).
Accredited American Legion Veterans Service Officers, staff from the Louisville VA Regional Office, and VA compensation and pension (C&P) exam contractors assisted veterans, submitted claims and conducted C&P exams. They saw veterans from 21 states and one who came from Norway.
In addition to the exposure to the loud noises and unrelenting dust, Roberts is also a survivor of Military Sexual Trauma (MST) shortly after she joined the Army at age 17.
Roberts did not report the MST for nearly 40 years.
“I just was humiliated, scared and embarrassed,” she said about the MST. “I thought my daddy was not going to think I was a good girl anymore. I couldn’t let him know. I couldn’t let anybody know. I couldn’t tell anybody. I just pushed it down and tried to ignore it. I tried to pretend it didn’t happen, that it didn’t matter. But it did affect me and it did matter. It really affected my life when my daughter started getting about the age that I was when that happened.”
And the MST still affects her today in her job at Highland Lakes Hospital, a 25-bed acute care hospital in Burnet, Texas, about 50 miles northwest of Austin.
“I’m still trying to serve people and do things for people,” she explained. “I’m a nurse and I want to help people, but it’s so traumatic sometimes because a lot of the people that I see triggers memories from there, especially young servicemen that come in.”
Two years ago, Roberts went to a veterans service officer to file a PTSD claim for her MST.
“He scanned the paperwork into the system,” she said. “Then I never heard from anybody until they scheduled my exam, and that took quite a while. It’s nerve-wracking knowing that you don’t know who you’re going to have to go see, who you’re going to talk to, what you’re going to tell.”
Roberts traveled from Austin to Louisville for one purpose: receive assistance at the Legion claims clinic.
“It’s been very helpful,” she said. “Everybody’s been very understanding. It’s amazing because they’re not trying to question. They’re not automatically skeptical, which I’ve experienced in the past. Knowing this now, it’s the only thing I’d recommend to other veterans: come to an American Legion claims clinic.”
Thanks to the work of accredited American Legion service officers, Roberts is on her way to fulfilling her goal.
“I love what I do. I want to be able to work. I want to be able to volunteer. I want to be able to keep my nursing license. I want to be able to maybe go on mission trips in a way that still helps people.”
- Veterans Benefits