Nicole Cogswell’s dreams unraveled three years ago in a sick hall in Fort Lee, Virginia.
You’re done, she recalled an Army doctor telling her. Her military career was over. She should be discharged.
The doctor’s pronouncement came as a shock. When she enlisted in December 2013 at 18, she pictured decades of promotions, traveling the world, and a career as an explosives-disposal expert. But she had sustained hip, knee and small neck fractures during training and despite medication and weeks of physical therapy the pain remained, she said.
Without the Army, who would she be?
Cogswell returned to Southwest Florida after the 2015 honorable discharge for disability, according to her paperwork, and found two jobs. And, in 2016, she applied for disability but was denied compensation. She received a zero percent rating from the VA, though she said the Army found her to be 20 percent disabled.
“At first, I was like, this cannot be right,” said Cogswell, now 22 and of Cape Coral. “I was medically discharged so how can you give me zero percent for something that I got medically discharged for?”
Nearly 13,000 people in Lee and Collier counties receive VA disability or pension benefits, 2017 data shows, but most veterans fall into a zero to 20 percent disability rating. The zero percent rating means “a service-connected condition exists, but it does not affect his or her ability to function to a compensable degree,” wrote Bruce Clisby, a VA spokesman, in an email.
“Although a zero percent rating does not provide disability compensation, it may establish priority in other VA programs, such as health care eligibility.”
Cogswell’s circumstance does not seem to be the norm.
It is more typical for someone who is medically and honorably discharged to eventually receive VA disability benefits, said Bart Stichman, a lawyer and executive director of the nonprofit National Veterans Legal Services Program.
For Cogswell, the rating means learning to live with chronic pain. Along with working full-time and double-majoring at Hodges, she is mother and sole provider to 8-month-old Elijah. In certain positions, her legs go numb.
"I can only be on the floor playing for a few minutes, which is hard, emotionally, because I want to do everything I possibly can with my son and I'm not able to do that,” she said. “Regardless of what I'm doing, I still feel pain.”
Cogswell did not seek out media attention. News-Press visual journalist Kinfay Moroti learned about her situation at a south Fort Myers Starbucks where she used to work. Moroti, an Air Force veteran, noticed the stitching on her apron designating her as a veteran and how coworkers helped her with tasks like refilling the ice machine.
She has since started a less physically-demanding full-time job as a care coordinator for a therapy provider. In applying for disability, Cogswell said her goal was to receive help for therapies or chiropractic care.
"I want to be able to go to work and manage the pain,” she said. “There are people out there that are extremely worse than I am but I do feel like comparing myself to another 22-year-old, I feel very behind the curve."
In fall of 2013, Cogswell had been so certain about her military future. One evening at an event in Naples, where she was raised, she spotted an Army recruiter and an answer to her worries materialized: This is an option for me.
She knew about the Army through her time in JROTC. She knew she could get free schooling she couldn't afford otherwise. She could be independent while also being supported by the Army.
“I want to join and I want to leave as soon as possible," she remembered telling the recruiter. Within about a month, she left for basic training, where she fractured her hip and spent the last six weeks on crutches.
Her knee and neck injuries occurred, she believes, during her professional explosive ordnance disposal training, which required 8 to 10 miles of running twice a week with 60 to 80 pounds in a pack due to the heavy uniform required for the job. "Long term it just wore and wore on my neck, shoulders, and back."
The Army switched her to supply and logistics.
Cogswell said she received a lump sum Army disability payout of about $11,000. In her VA disability claim, she listed 10 disabilities including: “lower back pain, chronic pain and muscle spasms in neck, left hip pain secondary to right hip fracture, right hip fracture and continued pain, fractured right knee continued pain.”
Another source of aggravation: Cogswell said she couldn’t get answers for nearly two years about the rating despite repeated calls, emails, and visits to the local VA center until The News-Press contacted the VA.
“It’s kind of frustrating for me that it took all of this, article written and a call from The News-Press, for them to call me.”
For its part, the VA spokesman said the agency sent a letter that included its rationale for the rating to her home of record in June 2016 and has been in contact with Cogswell after The News-Press notified them about her concerns. The agency said it would send the 2016 letter to her current address. Cogswell said she still has not received the original letter.
Clisby said a veteran can file to increase rating if injuries worsen over time.
There may be therapeutic help through non-governmental resources, said Cliff Smith, head of the Lee County-based United Way, which offers Mission United, a program through its 211 phone number that helps veterans, active military, and families navigate the complicated systems. “One of the reasons we created Mission United is so that people didn’t fall through the cracks."
A VA representative reached out to Cogswell after The News-Press contacted the agency. "The representative reviewed the conditions submitted within her February 2016 claim, as well as the basis for the decision on each condition. The representative explained the claim process and the benefits of engaging a Veteran Service Organization for further assistance," wrote Clisby in an email.
Lee County Human & Veterans Services helps veterans apply for service-related benefits.
Cogswell said a VA representative pledged to guide her through an appeal, but she’s skeptical of slogging through the process. Her new job will eventually provide health insurance. Veterans have reported waiting decades for the VA to handle appeals.
Last year, the New York Times featured a Coast Guard veteran who had invested 34 years in filing and appealing for disability for a story about more than 470,000 veterans with pending appeals. A March 2017 government oversight report estimated that veterans may have to wait an average of more than eight years for answers without changes, such as staffing increases, to have their appeals resolved.
In August, in response to the claims backlog, President Donald Trump signed a bill that would enable veterans to file “express” appeals if they waive their right to a hearing or ability to submit new evidence, according to the Associated Press.
Cogswell does not regret her time in the military but suggests to those who ask her about enlisting to research specific branches before signing up.
“I encourage people to take part in the military and be involved and to honor everybody who has sacrificed, but I’m very biased because of what I’ve been through and I tell people to be extremely careful and prepare for the worst.”