Joshua Kors
The Nation

Citation
In a two-part series in The Nation, Joshua Kors revealed how U.S. soldiers wounded in Iraq were being denied medical benefits when they returned home because they supposedly had pre-existing personality disorders before they joined the Army. Kors told the story through the experiences of Army Specialist Jon Town, who was knocked unconscious by a rocket in Iraq and suffered severe hearing loss and memory failure. After returning to the States for medical care, Town was diagnosed as having a pre-existing personality disorder, discharged, denied benefits, and ordered to refund the Army part of his signing bonus. Kors's series caused the government to reverse its diagnosis of Town and sparked bipartisan action in Congress to address other cases like Town's that Kors unearthed.

Excerpt
How Specialist Town Lost His Benefits
April 9, 2007
Jon Town has spent the last few years fighting two battles, one against his body, the other against the US Army. Both began in October 2004 in Ramadi, Iraq. He was standing in the doorway of his battalion's headquarters when a 107-millimeter rocket struck two feet above his head. The impact punched a piano-sized hole in the concrete facade, sparked a huge fireball and tossed the 25-year-old Army specialist to the floor, where he lay blacked out among the rubble.
"The next thing I remember is waking up on the ground." Men from his unit had gathered around his body and were screaming his name. "They started shaking me. But I was numb all over," he says. "And it's weird because… because for a few minutes you feel like you're not really there. I could see them, but I couldn't hear them. I couldn't hear anything. I started shaking because I thought I was dead."
Eventually the rocket shrapnel was removed from Town's neck and his ears stopped leaking blood. But his hearing never really recovered, and in many ways, neither has his life. A soldier honored twelve times during his seven years in uniform, Town has spent the last three struggling with deafness, memory failure and depression. By September 2006 he and the Army agreed he was no longer combat-ready.
But instead of sending Town to a medical board and discharging him because of his injuries, doctors at Fort Carson, Colorado, did something strange: They claimed Town's wounds were actually caused by a "personality disorder." Town was then booted from the Army and told that under a personality disorder discharge, he would never receive disability or medical benefits.
Town is not alone. A six-month investigation has uncovered multiple cases in which soldiers wounded in Iraq are suspiciously diagnosed as having a personality disorder, then prevented from collecting benefits. The conditions of their discharge have infuriated many in the military community, including the injured soldiers and their families, veterans' rights groups, even military officials required to process these dismissals. They say the military is purposely misdiagnosing soldiers like Town and that it's doing so for one reason: to cheat them out of a lifetime of disability and medical benefits, thereby saving billions in expenses.
In the Army's separations manual it's called Regulation 635-200, Chapter 5-13: "Separation Because of Personality Disorder." It's an alluring choice for a cash-strapped military because enacting it is quick and cheap. The Department of Veterans Affairs doesn't have to provide medical care to soldiers dismissed with personality disorder. That's because under Chapter 5-13, personality disorder is a pre-existing condition. The VA is only required to treat wounds sustained during service.
Soldiers discharged under 5-13 can't collect disability pay either. To receive those benefits, a soldier must be evaluated by a medical board, which must confirm that he is wounded and that his wounds stem from combat. The process takes several months, in contrast with a 5-13 discharge, which can be wrapped up in a few days.

Biography
Joshua Kors is an investigative reporter for The Nation magazine, where he covers military and veterans' issues. Kors' reporting has earned him the George Polk Award and National Headliner Award, as well as qualification as a finalist for both the National Magazine Award and Harvard's Goldsmith Prize for Investigative Reporting. From 2004 to 2005 he worked at Northern California's top-rated news station, KCBS-AM in San Francisco, while reporting on politics and education for Knight Ridder's Contra Costa Times. Kors graduated magna cum laude from Amherst College and earned his master's degree in 2003 from the Columbia School of Journalism in New York. In his spare time, Kors writes for a kids' magazine, Current Science, and studies ballroom dancing.