As a Utah National Guard veteran with two deployments to Iraq, I’m furious at The Washington Post’s recent articles attacking veterans’ disability benefits. They framed it as though the VA is handing out “billions” for minor conditions — like veterans are gaming the system for snoring or bad backs. That narrative isn’t just wrong; it’s dangerous. It feeds the old stigma that if a wound isn’t visible, it isn’t real.

For veterans like me, that stigma becomes guilt. My VA rating isn’t for sleep apnea, though I’ve had more sleep studies than I can count because it’s the “easy answer” doctors check first (and sometimes second and third). My condition — a chronic lung disease that causes unpredictable oxygen drops — developed years after deployments where we lived beside massive burn operations

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