ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½

FREDERICKTOWN, Mo. — To say that Jason Mathias was born into the military is hardly an exaggeration.

His parents both retired as master sergeants in the U.S. Air Force after more than 20 years of service. One grandfather served in the Air Force, another in the Army. Even a great-grandfather fought in World War II.

Mathias, now 43, was born in 1981 in the hospital at , where his parents worked. He grew up in Shiloh and in January 2001, a high school dropout with a GED certificate in hand, he enlisted in the Army. The recruiter in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ sold him on the infantry.

“I just wanted to do something with my life, and see the world,� Mathias said. Nine months later, terrorists attacked on Sept. 11. Soon, America was at war. By 2003, he was at Camp Ramadi in Iraq, and later supported the Marines who battled in Fallujah. During his deployment in 2003 and 2004, he suffered traumatic brain injury from the explosion of improvised explosive devices (IEDs), and, years later, he would be diagnosed with combat-related post-traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, along with other various medical conditions.

Mathias came back to the ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ area, and he bounced around a bit. After his stint in the Army, he later reenlisted in the Air Force Reserves. In 2007, he moved to Pennsylvania and enlisted there in the Army National Guard. His various health problems started to stack upon each other in around 2010. In 2016, Mathias was medically retired from military service.

It wasn’t long after that that Mathias found out he was among about 50,000 veterans who fell into a regulatory hole that limited them from receiving all the various benefits they had earned from the government through their commitment to serve the country. There are two main pots of federal money that compensate veterans who are injured in combat or combat-training. One, from the Veterans Administration, is disability pay, tied to the injuries received, and the overall percentage of disability, up to 100%.

The other is the Department of Defense pension, which most veterans who are medically retired will need to live on. Folks like Mathias, who served about 15 years, won’t get the benefit of a full pension, like those who serve 20 or more, but it’s still a hefty amount, based on their rank and years of service.

Mathias, though, doesn’t receive his pension. Instead, he receives a statement every month that shows his retirement account has been offset by his disability pay.

“It was kind of shocking,� the first time he noticed that, he told me. “It’s like a little more salt in the wound.�

Mathias lives now in Madison County, deep in the Ozarks in Missouri, along the St. Francis River. He has a small farm where he trains service dogs, like Cotton, the German short-hair pointer that has served him so well. He also has ducks, chickens, and even a few goats.

For several years now, various veterans’ organizations, including the , the , and most major veterans organizations in the country, have been trying to fix this problem, by passing the Major Richard Star Act, named for a veteran who was medically retired after he got lung cancer from a burn pit. The proposal would allow such veterans to collect the money they earned, just as those veterans who are medically retired after 20 years do. The bill has bipartisan support, but seems to get caught up in political infighting every year, either because of its cost — about $10 billion over 10 years — or because Republicans don’t want to see Democrats get any credit.

Sen. Josh Hawley, a Republican, is a co-sponsor. Democrat Lucas Kunce, a Marine veteran who is running against Hawley for Senate, also said he supports the act and wants to see it passed this year.

What about Missouri’s other U.S. senator? Eric Schmitt’s nowhere to be found, says Ryan Jokerst. He’s a veteran who grew up in ÃÛÑ¿´«Ã½ on the south side, graduating from Bishop DuBourg High School. He enlisted in the Army even after his mother encouraged him not to. He enlisted against her wishes in 2007. “I just felt it was my duty,â€� he says.

Jokerst lives in Colorado with his family now, after he was medically retired while serving at Fort Carson. He doesn’t understand why more representatives and senators haven’t signed on to this common-sense bill to get veterans injured in combat or combat training the benefits they’ve earned. Sen. Jon Tester, a Democrat from Montana, is the .

“Guys are getting financially punished for serving their country,� Jokerst says. “We have to be able to take care of the veterans who went to war for the country.�

The quirk in federal law costs Mathias nearly $2,000 a month. The average among veterans who are affected by this is about $1,900 a month. “That’s my mortgage and car insurance right there,� Mathias says.

In an ideal world, he’d like to turn his farm into a retreat for veterans who need a place to get away, to enjoy nature, some day. For now, he enjoys his solitude, and his dogs, and his various farm animals. “You can just sit here for hours and be lost in nature,� he says.

His grand plans would be helped if the politicians who claim to stand with veterans would actually vote like they mean what they say. “The money is there,� Mathias says. “But every year, it gets dropped to the wayside, or swept under a rug. It’s really disheartening.�