Monk, 66, and four other Vietnam War veterans with Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) were granted upgrades by the Pentagon after filing a federal lawsuit in March 2014 against the Armed Forces. The veterans had received Other Than Honorable (OTH) discharges, which they contend were based on behaviors later attributed to PTSD.

PTSD was not designated as a medical condition until 1980. The five veterans were given General Under Honorable Conditions discharges.

“I didn’t think this day would come,” Monk said Monday at a news conference. A Marine Corps veteran, he received a high proficiency rating in 1969 for his conduct and performance in the Marines.

Conley Monk, a Vietnam veteran.

Monk said because of his discharge status, he was unable to get benefits from the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for his medical care, education, and to buy a house. A West Haven resident, he said he worked two jobs to pay for college and still hopes to get help through the GI bill to buy a house. He had a stroke 10 years ago and has diabetes, which, he said, has been attributed to Agent Orange exposure.

The Yale Law School Veterans Legal Clinic, which represented the men, didn’t declare a total victory because “very few” veterans have sought status upgrades, said Virginia McCalmont, a law student working on the case.

The clinic estimates that at least 80,000 Vietnam veterans with OTH discharges have received military-connected PTSD diagnoses. The upgrades were granted to the five veterans after a Pentagon guideline was issued last fall calling for “liberal consideration” for Vietnam War veterans with PTSD. The upgrades are determined by boards, representing the service branches.

Michael Wishnie, a Yale Law professor who supervises the clinic, said VA officials have written confirming that the veterans are now eligible for medical and disability benefits.

But Wishnie noted some veterans have been denied upgrades “even under the new policy.”

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., expressed concern that veterans may not know about the guideline, which took effect last October. A member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, he has asked the Pentagon to report by the end of August about its method and progress in informing veterans.

“We have yet to see” an effective outreach program about the guideline, Blumenthal said.

He said that the lack of a PTSD diagnosis before 1980 is “no excuse to fail to upgrade status in the decades that followed.”

He called the issue “a matter of simple justice.” The United States has “failed to recognize post traumatic stress and give these men and women the justice they deserve, not to mention the medical treatment they need,” he said.

The five successful veterans were plaintiffs in a federal lawsuit against the Armed Forces brought by the Yale clinic. Federal Senior Judge Warren W. Eginton dismissed the suit without prejudice in November, meaning it can be filed again. The judge wanted to see if the new guideline would be effective, said Wishnie, the law professor. He said the clinic hasn’t decided whether it will go back to court.

McCalmont said the clinic has received “hundreds and hundreds” of calls from veterans around the country about the issue. Prior to the new guidelines, five percent of requested upgrades were granted, she said.

PTSD was not designated as a medical condition until 1980. Some 70,000 Vietnam veterans who suffered from undiagnosed PTSD were given less-than-honorable discharges for their behaviors and many were denied medical, educational and other federal benefits and had trouble securing employment.

Conley Monk of West Haven.

“I’m a fighter. I won’t quit,” said Monk, who left the military in 1971. “I pray that this makes a difference. I’ve been waiting for 43 years for my discharge to be changed,” he said.

After lobbying by U. S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., and others, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel this week issued guidelines which Hagel said would ease the process for Vietnam veterans who apply to upgrade their discharges and “ensure fair and consistent results across the military services.”

Tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans could be affected by the new guidelines that take effect in late October.

Blumenthal said at a news conference that 860,000 Vietnam veterans suffered from undiagnosed PTSD and more than 70,000 of those received a discharge status called “other than honorable.” The war ended five years before PTSD received medical recognition.

Monk, now a West Haven resident and Marine Corps veteran, said he applied for upgrade status 40 years ago and then again a month ago. He was rejected both times. He said he would reapply when the new procedures are implemented.

Monk said as a result of his other than honorable discharge he couldn’t get VA medical benefits or GI education or housing loans.

Blumenthal said that the National Defense Authorization Act of 2015, which is still on the floor of the Senate, includes specific actions for the military to take when considering these cases, including informing veterans of the new guidelines and seeking advice from mental health professionals.

Blumenthal said if the new process works, it would erase “an undeserved stigma” which has resulted in such consequences as joblessness and homelessness.

He said he would monitor the appeal program to insure there is sufficient advice and outreach to veterans so they know about the procedural changes, and there is participation by clinical psychologists and psychiatrists.

Earlier this year, the Yale Law School Veterans Legal Clinic filed a federal lawsuit suing the Armed Forces on behalf of Vietnam veterans with PTSD to help them gain their benefits.

The Yale clinic is not withdrawing the suit in the wake of the new procedures, instead waiting “to make sure this translates into real concrete action for veterans,’’ said Thomas Brown, a law student working on the case.

Brown said the language in Hager’s guidelines “isn’t sufficiently clear to determine if they will result in significant changes for Vietnam veterans with PTSD.”

“We hope this will be the foundation for real reform. That remains to be seen,” he said. Brown said there aren’t specific details of how the policy will be implemented.

In its suit, the Yale clinic is representing five Vietnam War veterans, including Monk, as well as Vietnam Veterans of America and its Connecticut State Council, and the New Haven-based National Veterans Council for Legal Redress.

The clinic has asked the U.S. District Court to designate the suit as a class action on behalf of tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans and is awaiting a decision.

Brown said if the new process results in “real reform,” then the clinic would consider dropping the case. “We’re not at that point right now,” he said.

They asked the U.S. District Court in New Haven to designate the suit as a class action on behalf of tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans in the country in similar circumstances.  PTSD wasn’t designated a medical condition until 1980, five years after the Vietnam War ended. Many Vietnam veterans with undiagnosed PTSD contend they received other than honorable discharges due to behaviors connected with that illness.

Vietnam Veterans of America and its Connecticut State Council, and the New Haven-based National Veterans Council for Legal Redress are also plaintiffs in the suit. They are being represented by the Yale Law School  Veterans Legal Services Clinic.

U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal, a Democrat, said he will ask U.S. Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel to take action now, without waiting for the outcome of the lawsuit, and give “recognition to post-traumatic stress as a wound of war” in evaluating Vietnam War veterans’ requests to have their discharges upgraded.  He said he will also ask Congressional colleagues to join the suit as friends of the court.

“These veterans were wounded in war and wounded again by their country that denied them medical benefits,” Blumenthal said. “The height of outrage is to put our men and women in uniform at risk as we have done, then put them at risk again when they come home,” he said, adding that untreated PTSD sufferers are susceptible to a range of problems, including homelessness, joblessness and drug addiction.

Conley Monk of New Haven.

Plaintiffs and their lawyers said that if they served today in Iraq and Afghanistan, they would have received medical discharges.

“My discharge status has been a lifetime scar,” said Conley Monk, of New Haven, a plaintiff.  “If I were discharged today, my PTSD would be recognized and treated, and I wouldn’t be punished for having a service-connected medical condition.”

Other than honorable (OTH) discharges are a gray area which often result in either denial of veterans’ benefits because of their discharge status or veterans’ incorrectly assuming that all veterans with that status are not entitled to benefits and don’t apply for them, according to veterans’ advocates.  The five plaintiffs in the lawsuit all applied for discharge upgrades and have been denied.

Monk, 65, said he couldn’t get VA medical benefits or GI education or housing loans because of his status. He said he unsuccessfully tried to have his status changed some 40 years ago. He said he applied again for VA medical benefits two weeks ago and has an appointment.

A Marine Corps veteran, Monk said he left Vietnam in 1970, but still has resultant nightmares and night sweats.  In the war, he transported supplies and troops to the demilitarized zone (DMZ).  “Every time I came back, my truck was full of holes.” He received an OTH discharge in connection with morphine use, which he said he took to “escape the nightmares.”

“I wake up every morning in a cold sweat.  I have to bring two tee shirts to bed with me, I get so wet,” said Monk who with his brother, Garry, formed the National Veterans Council for Legal Redress. After completing a drug rehabilitation program at the Connecticut Mental Health Center, Monk worked as a drug counselor at Yale-New Haven Hospital, and the Columbus House and ATP Foundation, both in New Haven. He said he paid for his own education at the University of New Haven.

The stigma associated with OTH discharges on top of the negative treatment Vietnam veterans received when they returned home prevented many veterans from seeking medical help, said Pattie Dumin, president of Vietnam Veterans of America Connecticut State Council.  “Nobody liked us when we came home,” she said in an interview, explaining other military veterans criticized them for losing the war, while opponents of the war chastised them for serving in it.

V Prentice, a law school student working on the case, said that the exact number of veterans nationwide and in Connecticut that could be affected by this lawsuit is not yet known. He said the law school clinic knows there are tens of thousands because of statistics related to veterans with PTSD and other than honorable discharges. He said that part of the purpose of the litigation is to “bring this issue to the fore” so that veterans will come forward and identify themselves.

Virginia McCalmont, a law student working on the case, said that the lawsuit seeks to require the Pentagon to use “medically appropriate standards in reviewing Vietnam veterans’ requests to upgrade their discharges.” She said the stigma associated with their discharges has “prevented them from receiving recognition and respect.”

She said now, the Vietnam veterans with PTSD are elderly and often “in poor health and indigent” and haven’t had the financial wherewithal to take legal action. The Yale clinic represents its clients for free.

Blumenthal said a reason this lawsuit is being initiated nearly 40 years after the war ended is that even though PTSD received recognition from the medical community in 1980, it took until the last decade for the military and Federal government to take aggressive steps to treat and help military people and veterans diagnosed with it.