DISMISSED NO MORE: DAV Helps to Bring Justice to Navy Veteran and MST Survivor - The DV Walking Wounded:
By Elizabeth DePompei (Reprinted by permission of the DAV. Original story here.)
When Navy veteran Jennifer Williams started working with DAV benefits advocate Don Inns, she suggested he put a note in her file.
“I said, ‘You can put a little note on there that I will be 105 years old on my deathbed signing another appeal. I’m not giving up,’” Williams said.
Williams had applied for disability benefits for post-traumatic stress disorder related to military sexual trauma, or MST, and been denied multiple times. Having silently lived with the trauma for three decades, she was determined to get the validation and benefits she deserved.
A night out for dinner proved serendipitous. She met someone who worked for DAV and referred her to Mr. Inns, now the national service office supervisor based at DAV National Headquarters in Erlanger, Kentucky. “
And that man was phenomenal,” Williams said. “He just listened to my story and said …‘You’re not going to get denied again.’
DISMISSED INTO SILENCE
Williams was 18 when she enlisted in the Navy, inspired by her father’s military service and following in the footsteps of her brother. Growing up in rural Alexandria, Kentucky, she was also eager to spread her wings.
Ultimately, Williams served three years on active duty and four years in the reserves, spending most of that time between San Diego, California and Virginia Beach, Virginia. As a yeoman, Williams worked for the admiral of the U.S. Pacific Fleet, providing administrative support and soaking up everything she could.
“It was very exciting,” she said of the opportunities shehad in service. “I’m so grateful that I did it.”
But before her service truly began, Williams experienced the lowest point of her military career. After basic training, she was sent to Meridian, Mississippi, for occupational training.
“It was our first little bit of freedom that we had had in a long time,” she said. “On the weekends, my friends would get a hotel room so we could stay off-base.”
It was during one of those weekends when Williams was violently sexually assaulted by a man who identified himself as a fellow service member. Williams said she was scared to death, but she immediately left the hotel with a friend and saw a nurse to get physically examined.
“I told her what happened … and she said, ‘You seem like a smart, strong young woman, and I think you are going to be OK,’” Williams said, adding that she was covered in bruises from the assault. The nurse told her togo back to class.
The outright dismissal and lack of care left Williams questioning whether she was to blame. So for the next 30 years, she kept what happened to herself.
SHE NEVER GAVE UP
Over the years, Williams struggled with depression and other PTSD symptoms, including hypervigilance, and found herself in abusive relationships. At times, she was unable to work, debilitated by unaddressed trauma.
Around 2015, after the end of another toxic relationship, Williams was ready to break the cycle. She sought out a counselor through the Department of Veterans Affairs and, for the first time, was asked if she had been sexually assaulted while enlisted.
For the next few years, Williams fought to get her PTSD service-connected so that she could access necessary benefits. She learned to advocate for herself, refusing to accept anything less than what she deserved. When she met Inns, she found someone willing to fight just as hard.
“He kept in such great contact with me,” Williams said, adding that Inns was proactive, often checking on the status of her claim and updating her.
Williams still gets emotional when she remembers the day Inns told her that her claim was finally approved.
“I wasn’t being dismissed anymore,” Williams said.
But Inns wasn’t finished. He pushed back against an error and had Williams’ rating increased to the appropriate level.
“Ms. Williams’ tenacity stands out to me. She never gave up,” Inns said.
Today, Williams continues counseling and credits it with helping her cope with her PTSD symptoms.
“I did it for myself, yes,” Williams said of seeking her earned benefits. “But I became very tenacious and determined because there were so many other women that I had met that the same thing had happened to, and they just said, ‘It’s just too much.’ I also fight for them.”
According to the VA, 1 in 3 women and 1 in 50 men report experiencing MST. Williams said she refers other veterans to DAV for claims assistance and regularly shares her story in hopes of encouraging other MST survivors to advocate for themselves.
“You are not alone,” Inns added. “Follow Ms. Williams’ example and let a DAV benefits advocate fight the good fight for and with you.”
If you’d like to talk to a DAV benefits advocate about filing for VA disability benefits, visit benefitsquestions.org to find the nearest office.
