Want to Help Combat Wounded Veterans? Support the Major Star Act Now

by Capt. David Mcraney, USA (Ret.)

Recently I asked a retired Army officer if they had heard of the Major Star Act, a proposed piece of legislation that would affect over 50,000 medically retired service members. With 27 years of service, working at a service academy, and being a tireless supporter of service members, they were surprised to have never heard of the Major Star Act or how severally wounded service members are discriminated against based on their years of service.

Prior to 2003 a military retiree’s DOD retirement pay was offset by their VA disability compensation. Simply put, for every dollar in disability pay received from the VA, one dollar was deducted from the service members DOD retirement. In the early 2000s, as combat wounded warriors started coming home, with severe physical and mental injuries, Congress recognized that The United States was not meeting its sacred promise of caring for its wounded troops. The VA offset created a system that punishes a service member for being injured in serves too their country. No other profession confused disability pay with retirement pay in this way.

In 2003, Congress took the first step in fixing this injustice by removing the offset penalty for all Active Duty Retires with 20­-years of service with the creation of the Combat Related Special Compensation program (CRSC). It restored all pay to 20-year Retirees that was deducted by the VA offset for injuries sustained in or training for combat. The following year medically retired veterans were added to the program, with the goal that the United States provide for its combat wounded service members by insuring that all Retirees receive both their DOD retirement and their VA Disability.

In practice, it has fallen far short of that goal. To understand how it failed, we must first understand how it was implemented. First, a medical retiree must apply for CRSC with the DoD, this takes place after the VA has rated a soldier’s disabilities, started payment, and the DoD has started withholding the VA offset. The retirees’ service records and injuries are then evaluated by the DoD and if there is a link between the injury and service related to combat, the retiree qualifies for CRSC. The VA offset should then be restored, and medical retirees’ full pay would be restored. The mission to provide for our wounded veterans would be accomplished and that should be the end of the story. Unfortunately, this is not the case, which I learned firsthand.

In 2012 when I went through the medical retirement process for injuries received in combat, it was explained to me and my fellow Wounded Warriors by support staff at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda that I would get back most, if not all of the VA offset through the CRSC program. The fear, anxiety, and stress of not knowing how we would provide for our families was crushing, but the message was: “Do not worry, you will be ok.”

This helped to assuage my family’s fears as I, like many Medical Retirees cannot go back into the work force or find themselves with limited job opportunities. Jobs that are often at lower pay and with less benefits than what the service member enjoyed before their injuries. Wounded Warriors could look at DoD retirement pay scales and VA disability pay charts and have an idea of what they would contribute to their families finances after leaving the service.

The DoD uses the following formula to calculate the percentage of a Retirees DoD pay to be restored under CRSC:

(1) Subtract each disability percent from 100% to obtain the remaining efficiencies

(2) Multiply the remaining efficiencies together

(3) Subtract the result from 100%

(4) Round to the nearest 10% (round up for 5% or above, down for 4% and below) to determine the combined disability rating.

(5) That is the percentage of pay withheld by the VA offset to restored to the retiree

https://myarmybenefits.us.army.mil/Benefit-Library/Federal-Benefits/Combat-Related-Special-Compensation

Simple right? Under this formula I would qualify for 80% of my offset being restored. In 2012 this would have meant I would bring home almost $7,000 a month. After the offset, having less than 20 years, I brought home $4,200.00. That is before deductions for life insurance and paying to insure survivor benefits. To be clear, I am one of the lucky ones because I still bring home some of my DoD pay, for most medical retirees the VA offset completely wiped out there DoD retirement.

The Major Star Act is legislation advancing through Congress, albeit slowly, would fix CRSC’s failings. The act is named after Major Richard Star a Reserve Officer who was diagnosed with stage four cancer attributed to environmental and burn pit exposure in Iraq and Afghanistan. He worked to get this legislation passed and fix CRSC until his passing in February 2021. If inacted it would remove the VA offset for all medically retired service members regardless of time in service. In today’s hyper polarized political environment this is a piece of legislation that enjoys broad bipartisan support.

At present there are more than 300 co-sponsors in the House of Representatives and 70 in the Senate. Yet in the most recent opportunity for Congress to advance the bill it did not even make it out of committee. The House Rules Committee did not approve amendments to the Major Star Act that would have included it in this years National Defense Authorization Act. The vote was nine to four against the Star Act. Of the nine no votes, four are co-sponsors of the Major Star Act. The reason it has failed to come advance out of committee to a floor vote four years after being introduced is cost. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that it will cost the US taxpayer $9.57 billion over the next 10 years. Congress has not worked the problem to find the necessary funding, worse they show no willingness to try.

The pay benefits our military retires receive is considered by some to be overly generous or to expensive. In 1986 President Ronald Reagan’s Budget Director David Stockman said: ″The institutional forces in the military are more concerned about protecting their retirement benefits than they are about protecting the security of the American people. When push comes to shove, they’ll give up on security before they give up on retirement.″ 

After fighting Americas longest war, Veterans can put that insane idea to bed and it is no longer a sentiment vocally expressed by politicians. Yet, despite publicly supporting the Major Star Act, Congress seems disinterested and unwilling to solve the funding issue. The only “capital” our men and women in uniform have to is their limbs, sight, hearing, and brains. This is capital, the price, that service members know we may be charged. We are willing to pay it to defend Americas citizens, further our counties goals and defend freedom around the world. It is shameful that the only time Congress readily finds money to spend on veterans is when they are spending the service members own “capital”.

At the Beijing Winter Games a Gold Medalist born in the USA, but competing for China was asked if they were still a US Citizen. They did not answer, instead they said “I am just trying to live my best life.” It angered me that someone could not answer that question while taking million dollar endorsements, knowing our Combat Wounded gave so much for so little in return. I could not help but think about Americas Wounded Warriors who “lived their best life” defending our country. The Wounded Warriors who Congress fails every year to fully support. America cannot buy its Combat Wounded “their best lives”, but we could budget our way to provide greater comfort and peace of mind for them and their families.

The last chance to have this considered for inclusion in the current NDAA is when the Senate comes back into session in September. Please reach out to your Senators and Representatives, asking them to support the Major Richard Star Act being added to the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act.

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As the Voice of the Veteran Community, The Havok Journal seeks to publish a variety of perspectives on a number of sensitive subjects. Unless specifically noted otherwise, nothing we publish is an official point of view of The Havok Journal or any part of the U.S. government.