Are these actual “major health issues”, or is this standard level anxiety/depression? The article doesn’t really clarify, and I get the feeling that’s on purpose. Bringing the hammer down on people with mental health problems doesn’t make them go away, it just makes people go undiagnosed and untreated.

“There are people out there who I think are trying to play both sides of the game,” said Jerome Limoge, an aviation medical examiner in Colorado Springs who gives physicals to hundreds of pilots a year. “They’re being encouraged by VA to claim everything. Some of it is almost stolen valor.”

If they get put through the meat grinder that is the US military complex, maybe they should be able to claim the benefits they deserve. This is just “welfare queen” rhetoric, aimed at literally veterans and truly essential workers.