The Army Botched His Surgery. He Refused to Let It Define Him. | Cameron Cushman

The VA is always what you take financially, right? Like there's the gray areas where people confuse like a medical retirement with a retirement where you can get both.

The medical is not like that, right? And so I drive my ass to this VA clinic.

It went on post.

I drive my ass.

I'm in uniform.

uh, after I got that letter, I walked right past the front desk, right to that ladies, that ladies office.

She wasn't there.

And the front desk ladies that followed me, like, what are you doing? What are you doing? And, you know, in the lobby is like some full bird, some Sergeant major first Sergeant, you know, and it was, it was mostly like, you know, career guys, I'm the C5, uh, my name's out there for the world.

And she chases me, you know, in there.

And I, I, I'm cause I'm looking for that lady.

I don't know what I was going to do.

You know, like I was

going to say, what if you'd found her?

Yeah.

I, I, I wasn't going to like hit this woman or anything, but I would have just, you know, I was going to confront her.

Right.

And

so I just give it now to the secretary back at the front of, I walked back out to the front and I'm like, this is why fucking people are killing themselves in the damn parking lot.

And like, I'm like, this is be a scream and, And I'm looking around me and I'm seeing, I'm seeing this full bird looking at me and he's looking at the, you know, like he's looking at the first sergeant and the sergeant major.

And I like pause for a brief second.

And I like after I've now let all this out, like, Well, I'm fucked.

That 80, that 60 is gone.

You know, like these dudes are about to, you know, well, I don't know what's going to happen.

And the sergeant major and the first sergeant look at each other and the first sergeant's like, name of the fucking game, dude.

Name of the fucking game.