Drexel Hill vet receives VA letter claiming he's dead

DREXEL HILL, Pa. (WPVI) -- Sergeant Russell Jones served his country for six years, fighting in the Gulf War, and serving his country in peacetime.

However when he returned home to Drexel Hill, he says he was shunned by the agency that was supposed to provide him care back on American soil.

Not only did they deny his disability claim, the VA straight out denied he was even alive.

Sgt. Jones says he returned from the Gulf War with physical and emotional scars from serving on the front lines for the army in Iraq.

"It hurts, I am constantly in pain," said Sgt. Jones.

From knee surgery, to a hernia, to infected toes that he says were caused by the hours of walking in combat boots with a heavy equipment on his back.

"We had a perimeter - a certain area we had to cover so we would camouflage our vehicle and we would stand outside for hours at a time. We had to walk back and forth, around and around," he said.

After having three surgeries on his knee, two on his stomach, and five on his feet, he turned to the Department of Veteran's Affairs to file a disability compensation claim.

A pile of letters shows the red tape he says he had to wade through to get any medical benefits at all.

"It was because of the boot, the way it was shaped, it was bending my toe nails in," said Sgt. Jones.

The VA acknowledged some of his injuries were service related, even his ingrown toe nails, but wrote back to him saying they would not be compensating him for that injury.

He received a letter from them.

"The veteran died on and an original death claim was received on July 12th," said Sgt. Jones, reading the letter aloud.

Sgt. Jones, who was very much alive, received a letter claiming he is dead.

"I don't even think it was an error. I think they don't care. I think they tried to push this out, or push out these claims as fast as they could and they just overlooked the simple fact," he said.

Sgt. Jones said he wrote to and called everyone with no response and says the VA's 1-800 number was busy every time he called.

"We took an oath to support and defend our constitution. We took an oath to support and oath to defend this country but the VA, those workers, took the same oath. And if they can't do this for us, why are they there?" said Sgt. Jones.

Sgt. Jones has been receiving some benefits from the VA, and says mysteriously those claims have continued to get paid.

"It is almost laughable that they treat their veterans like this. I would just hate if they came back trying to recoup the money saying, 'Hey you are dead, you got to pay the money back.' I don't know. Right now I can't really tell what these guys are doing. It is that bad there," he said.

Action News reached out to the VA for answers. They admit there was a mistake and called Sgt. Jones to apologize.

In a written statement they said:

"The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) wants to ensure that all Veterans received the benefits to which they are entitled under law. We directly apologized to Mr. Jones for the error in the rating letter he received."

Sgt. Jones was honorably discharged from the Army. He says he is still upset, even after the apology, because he feels that if the VA could mistake he was dead, they could be making another mistake in how they have handled his claim.

The VA tells Action News they reviewed Sgt. Jones' records and have still decided to deny the compensation claim, but said he can appeal.