Marine who nearly lost sight on front-line island wins veterans' status only after appeal

A Marine Corps veteran who lost nearly all of his vision while serving on Daecheong Island in Ongjin-gun, Incheon, was finally granted a disability rating — but only after an appeal.

The veteran, identified by his surname Choi, 24, developed glaucoma during his service and lost most of his sight. The Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs initially rejected his application for recognition as a service-related injury, citing the possibility that his condition was genetic in origin.

Choi filed a freedom-of-information request and confirmed on his own that Baengnyeong Island, Daecheong Island and Socheong Island — front-line islands in the West Sea — had no ophthalmological equipment whatsoever. Armed with that finding, he filed an appeal, and roughly a year later, on July 14, the Gangwon Western Veterans Affairs Branch issued him a Grade 3 disability rating (code 1106) and registered him as a compensated veteran under the disaster-injured military personnel category.

According to a requirements-review notification from the Gangwon Western Veterans Affairs Branch obtained Thursday, Choi applied for registration as a person of national merit on May 16 last year, listing his injury as "primary open-angle glaucoma, unspecified."

The ministry, however, ruled that his condition did not meet the criteria for a service-related injury, which requires a direct link to national defense, security or the protection of citizens' lives and property.

Despite the condition having developed while Choi was stationed on a front-line island, the ministry declined to recognize a direct causal connection to his service. It instead found that he qualified under the comparatively less stringent category of disaster-injured military personnel, as defined under Article 2, Paragraph 1, Item 2 of the Act on Support for Persons Eligible for Veterans' Compensation.

Through his freedom-of-information request, Choi confirmed that Daecheong Island — where he was stationed — as well as Baengnyeong Island and Socheong Island had no ophthalmological diagnostic equipment at all. There was simply no medical infrastructure in place to detect or treat early symptoms on the spot.

On the basis of that evidence, Choi filed his appeal. After a physical examination at the Central Veterans Hospital and a review by the Veterans Benefits Review Committee, he received a Grade 3 disability rating under the disability classification table in the Enforcement Decree of the Act on the Honorable Treatment of and Support for Persons of National Merit, and was registered as a compensated veteran.

Even so, Choi — rated Grade 3 with a visual impairment — has no way to receive a nursing allowance, regardless of what the law's text suggests about eligibility, even though he needs assistance with daily life.

Ahn Jong-min, head of the National Veterans Administrative Office, said the appeal alone took nearly a year, during which Choi's vision continued to deteriorate. "The bigger problem is that even after going through all that to get recognized, there is no practical nursing or care support available," Ahn said.

Article 17 of the Act on Support for Persons Eligible for Veterans' Compensation stipulates that a nursing allowance shall be paid to disaster-injured military personnel whose injuries are severe enough that they cannot function without another person's assistance. The intent of the law is that anyone rated Grade 1 through Grade 5 who requires constant or periodic assistance should be eligible for the allowance.

In practice, however, the actual pool of recipients is far more restricted, as the enforcement decree's nursing allowance payment table published by the National Law Information Center makes clear.

The constant-care nursing allowance applies only to those rated Grade 1, Item 1; Grade 1, Item 2 with specific code 4116; or Grade 1, Item 3 with codes 4202 or 5102 — in other words, only the most severe disabilities, such as total blindness in both eyes or limb amputation.

The periodic-care nursing allowance is similarly limited to those with Grade 2 codes 4108, 4203 or 5103, or to individuals separately designated by the minister. While the statutory text appears to allow Grade 3 through Grade 5 recipients to receive a nursing allowance, the enforcement decree and ministerial notices effectively exclude single-disability recipients at those grades as a rule.

"In the end, unless you are rated Grade 1 for complete blindness in both eyes, the nursing allowance is nothing but a pipe dream," Ahn said.

According to the ministry, the monthly nursing allowance for disaster-injured military personnel stands at 3.375 million won ($2,330) for constant care and 2.25 million won for periodic care — but in effect, no one rated Grade 3 or below can receive it.

The gap in veterans' support coverage has also surfaced in the government's recent discussions on reforming the system.

The government amended the enforcement decree to allow veterans rated Grade 1 or 2 who are under 65 to choose, starting in September, between the nursing allowance and disability activity support services. The expanded options, however, apply only to Grades 1 and 2 — those rated Grade 3 or below were again left out of the reform.

The lack of medical infrastructure on front-line islands such as the five West Sea islands has also drawn criticism.

A Marine Corps official said the military is "continuously reinforcing medical personnel and thoroughly preparing to ensure that Marines' access to medical care can be guaranteed directly," adding that when treatment on the northwestern islands is not possible, emergency helicopters such as the Medion are used to transfer patients to higher-level hospitals for proper care.

The ministry operates a system under which veterans who submit detailed examination records or disability diagnosis certificates can bypass a physical examination at a veterans hospital and proceed directly to a disability rating review by the Veterans Benefits Review Committee. There is, however, no remedy in place for cases where a diagnosis was delayed in the first place because of inadequate medical facilities during service.

Even for those eventually recognized as compensated veterans after an appeal, the threshold for receiving practical nursing and care support remains high.

On this, a ministry official said the ministry "plans to review an expansion of the nursing allowance in tandem with any future revision of the disability rating system."