Twice-wounded Vietnam veteran receives VA claims assistance

Carefully prodding the sand with a bayonet, Army infantryman Dennis Burckhard found a fake mine to disarm. He was training at Fort Lewis, Washington, preparing for scenarios he might encounter in Vietnam. After carefully lifting the explosive device under darkness, he placed a pin, as instructed, and carried the mine to a sergeant for inspection.

“He looked down at me and said, ‘You sure you put this pin in?’” Burckhard recalled.

The noncommissioned officer then carelessly withdrew the pin, which had kept the training charge from exploding. In a flash, wood and metal debris flew into Burckhard’s right eye.

Doctors removed debris from his cornea and treated his eye. After just a few short days, Burckhard returned to training.

Decades after being injured and forever changed by service, he finally received the necessary support and benefits he earned, thanks to DAV.

It wasn’t the last time metal pieces struck his head, however.

Burckhard deployed to Vietnam and served with the 101st Airborne Division. His second injury came as his platoon was heading to the bottom of a valley on a seek-and-destroy mission. Soldiers hacked away at the thick jungle vegetation with machetes when they crossed paths with another platoon in the company.

Confused, the soldier walking ahead of the formation saw movement and opened fire. Chaos ensued.

“Me and my squad leader were sharing a can of peaches when he was killed,” Burckhard said. “He got hit five times through the chest with a full burst of M-16.”

Through the screams and friendly fire, pieces of broken bullet and gear fragments peppered Burckhard’s head and neck. The shrapnel ultimately settled behind his carotid artery, and Burckhard carries it with him to this day.

The injury also blew out his ear and rocked his physical stability.

“I couldn’t stand up. I couldn’t balance,” he said.

Following the incident, he was airlifted from the jungle.

Burckhard was in Vietnam just 60 days when the Army swapped his grenade launcher for a typewriter. He finished his time in uniform as a company clerk at Fort Hood, Texas.

After that, Burckhard’s conditions were left unattended and worsened. The wounds on his face left a painful scar and numbness in his right cheek. The dizziness he encountered on the battlefield developed into vertigo. However, his recurring post-traumatic stress disorder is what remains particularly pernicious.

“I wake up in the middle of the night and can still hear my buddy screaming,” Burckhard said. “It was just absolutely miserable.”

So when he saw a newspaper ad for a DAV information seminar, he thought, “What the heck,” and attended. There, he met Rafael Sierra, a DAV benefits advocate from the national service office in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

“At information seminars, we conduct a morning session where we provide information on VA benefits,” Sierra said. “Then, we provide one-on-one assistance and conduct interviews with veterans.”

Assisted by fellow National Service Officer Felix Nunez, Sierra confidently submitted new claims to the Department of Veterans Affairs.

Burckhard was proactive in the process, gathering evidence, including an old dental X-ray that shows the metal in his neck. When he received the news that his claims had been approved, Burckhard was stunned. “This is your lucky day,” his wife told him after checking their bank account.

His claims had all been approved, and VA backpay was sitting in his account. Overall, DAV assistance helped Burckhard receive a VA rating, which unlocked health care and other veterans benefits. Today, he remains a vocal advocate of DAV and is touched by the level of care he received.

“It just gives you a good feeling, somebody that really cared,” Burckhard said. “I could tell Rafael really likes his job.”

Sierra said it was an honor to give back to a fellow soldier who endured so much.

“Everyone in our office was involved in either calling the veteran back, answering a question or responding to an inquiry,” Sierra said. “We here at the Winston-Salem regional office came together to assist the veteran, and we were successful.”