I saw your show tonight and found it to be informative and revealing about the struggles that we face as a disabled individual in America (actually the world as a whole).
I am a disabled Veteran, I spent eighteen years in the US Navy and was put out of the military because i could no longer do what I had been trained to do. I was a medic (Hospital Corpsman) and worked in aviation medicine, was trained as a EMT-P (Paramedic), flew Search and Rescue and was involved in research projects. I also was a Navy Survival School Instructor for 4.5 years, was attached to a US Marine Corps Helicopter squadron, and was an instructor at the US Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (teaching Mountain Climbing and Skiing as well as High Altitude and Cold Weather Medicine and Mountain and high altitude helicopter operations.
I accept my disability as "paying for the sins of my youth" I actually am wheelchair bound today and rated by the VA as 100% disabled due to severe degenerative joint disease (I have no cartilage remaining in my hips or knees). It was a difficult thing to come to grips with at first, however, I receive great health care from the VA here in Boise, Idaho.
I was fortunate that I went back to school and got a degree in electrical engineering and then a MBA with emphasis in Project Management and a Masters of Science degree in Information Technology (cybersecurity) and completed two years of work on a PhD. in cybersecurity as well. I have experienced job discrimination with the state of Idaho, where I applied for IT positions (everything from help desk to Chief Information Security Officer for the Idaho Transportation Department. I always scored in the upper percentiles due to education and 20 plus years of IT experience, at least until I would arrive for an interview and in some cases even follow on interviews in my wheelchair. I would then receive notification that someone better qualified had been selected for the position. After years of being unable to obtain further employment, I chose to take social security disability and to be "retired".
I am still looking for ways to be a participating member of our society. I taught college for almost twenty years, but without a PhD I cannot get a teaching position with Boise State or the University of Idaho. But again, Thank You and Bravo for this episode of United Shades of America. Great job... Bravo!
Steve
I am a disabled Veteran, I spent eighteen years in the US Navy and was put out of the military because i could no longer do what I had been trained to do. I was a medic (Hospital Corpsman) and worked in aviation medicine, was trained as a EMT-P (Paramedic), flew Search and Rescue and was involved in research projects. I also was a Navy Survival School Instructor for 4.5 years, was attached to a US Marine Corps Helicopter squadron, and was an instructor at the US Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center (teaching Mountain Climbing and Skiing as well as High Altitude and Cold Weather Medicine and Mountain and high altitude helicopter operations.
I accept my disability as "paying for the sins of my youth" I actually am wheelchair bound today and rated by the VA as 100% disabled due to severe degenerative joint disease (I have no cartilage remaining in my hips or knees). It was a difficult thing to come to grips with at first, however, I receive great health care from the VA here in Boise, Idaho.
I was fortunate that I went back to school and got a degree in electrical engineering and then a MBA with emphasis in Project Management and a Masters of Science degree in Information Technology (cybersecurity) and completed two years of work on a PhD. in cybersecurity as well. I have experienced job discrimination with the state of Idaho, where I applied for IT positions (everything from help desk to Chief Information Security Officer for the Idaho Transportation Department. I always scored in the upper percentiles due to education and 20 plus years of IT experience, at least until I would arrive for an interview and in some cases even follow on interviews in my wheelchair. I would then receive notification that someone better qualified had been selected for the position. After years of being unable to obtain further employment, I chose to take social security disability and to be "retired".
I am still looking for ways to be a participating member of our society. I taught college for almost twenty years, but without a PhD I cannot get a teaching position with Boise State or the University of Idaho. But again, Thank You and Bravo for this episode of United Shades of America. Great job... Bravo!
Steve
