A World War II Medal of Honor recipient couldn’t believe it when he learned about a Marine who was severely disfigured by a suicide bomber in Iraq and then had to fight the Department of Veterans Affairs to get full disability benefits.
Ty Ziegel, a Marine, was badly wounded in Iraq. He battled the VA over disability benefits when he returned.
Hershel “Woody” Williams — who won the Medal of Honor for his valor on Iwo Jima in 1945 — was one of thousands of CNN viewers and CNN.com users to express outrage over the struggle of Marine Sgt. Ty Ziegel, 25, who lost part of his skull, half of his left arm and suffered multiple other injuries in the bombing just three days before Christmas 2004. His story was first broadcast on CNN three weeks ago.
The VA’s initial assessment of Ziegel’s disabilities shocked him — from facial disfigurement rated at 80 percent to a mere 10 percent for his head trauma.
On top of that, he got nothing for his left lobe brain injury, right eye blindness and jaw fracture. It was only after he pressed the office of then-VA Secretary Jim Nicholson that he got compensation for having a traumatic brain injury and other severe injuries. See full CNN story here:
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