International Conference of War Veteran Ministers

Separations Based on Pre-Existing Personality Disorders

A Peace and Justice Statement
October 31, 2007

The International Conference of War Veteran Ministers, meeting in Lantana, Florida, October 29 to November 2, 2007, and after prayerful reflection, adopted the following resolution concerning Separations Based on Pre-Existing Personality Disorders.

We are deeply troubled by instances of war veterans being separated from their military and being denied health care and other benefits required by their physical and psychological wounds on the ground that they were suffering from pre-existing personality disorders. In the United States, this results from Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13, "Separation Because of Personality Disorder." In other nations' services there may be parallel regulations. The underlying concept is that the military should treat only wounds sustained in war; personality disorders which existed prior to military service should not be their responsibility.

In fact, it is very likely military service under combat conditions will lead to post-traumatic stress disorder and other diagnoses, some of whose symptoms may be similar to the symptoms of personality disorders. Furthermore, combat stress may aggravate other conditions. Distinguishing what results from military service and what results from pre-existing conditions is largely impossible. This is especially so given that a person accepted into active military service has already received a thorough examination and been determined by competent authority to have no conditions that would interfere with military service.

Simple justice demands that governments recognize the logical impossibility of pre-existing conditions among those who have been certified fit to fight. We call upon governments to cease all discharges attributed to pre-existing conditions, and cease denying benefits to combat veterans based on such logic. In the United States, we call for cessation of Chapter 5-13 separations retroactive to the start of the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts and provision of benefits to veterans so affected.

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