Dennis Becker, 66, wears the medals he earned throughout his time with the military in his home in Medicine
Hat. Becker joined the military when he was 18 and worked in many places within and outside Alberta.--PHOTO JALYCE THOMPSON
Medicine Hat’s Dennis Becker says he’s fighting for change within the Veterans Affair Canada system after developing PTSD and being released from the military with inappropriate compensation or recognition.
Becker joined the military at 18 years of age in 1973. He was an honours student, joining the military in May of his graduation year. He served in Southern Alberta Light Horse for three years where he spent the summers in Germany. He studied integral systems in Ontario, which educated him on flight computers and instrumentation, and afterwards worked throughout Canada while his family grew at home.
“I’m not doing this to attempt to get my name in the limelight, but rather to point out the overall VAC bureaucracy was bad,” says Becker. “What I want to see is that the veterans are looked after. That’s why I brought this to attention.”
Becker was recommended to see an ear and nose specialist for sleep apnea in March 1999. He accepted the referral from a military doctor and underwent the septoplasty surgery, where cartilage was removed from his nose, among other things.
It was during this procedure that Becker says he experienced anaesthesia awareness – feeling the work as it happened but unable to move his body or make sound – and in the aftermath developed PTSD.
After the surgery, military doctors wrote symptoms that resembled PTSD on Becker’s medical records, such as poor sleep, nightmares about surgery, fatigue, depression, sleep issues and anxiety – some as far as two years later. These symptoms were written on his medical records, but at the time he wasn’t officially diagnosed with the illness.
But when he was released from the military in 2006, rather than being released for PTSD, Becker says he was released as “undeployable,” making it difficult for him to access the appropriate pension.
“If I would have been released by the military for post-traumatic stress, I would have been instantly given whatever the pension was at the time,” says Becker.
Becker travelled from Cold Lake to Edmonton to attend treatments, group meetings and appointments with his psychologist. He says he was forced to cover costs involved in treating the very symptoms he says were originally noticed by military doctors.
“I ended up paying all this money out of my own pocket for travelling and all that,” says Becker. “It was very costly to me.”
Throughout the years, Becker has lived with his illness, writing several letters to officials asking them to recognize PTSD.
He wrote that it has “presented me with challenges that have and continues to be a factor in significantly lowering my quality of life.” He mentions in the letter that his family has also been affected.
In 2015, Becker protested in front of then-MP LaVar Payne’s office. Upon witnessing Becker’s protest, Payne invited him inside to hear his story.
While listening to the account, Payne says he noticed the man needed help. He wrote a letter to the Minister of VAC on behalf of Becker, and then suggested to Becker he get in touch with the ombudsman.
“After that there wasn’t a whole lot of anything. I don’t think he got any help from anybody,” says Payne. “If they (Veterans Affairs) don’t do anything, as an MP you don’t have the ability to do a whole lot more.”
Payne says Canada’s veterans should be taken care of, which is why he was eager to help Becker.
“They serve us, they put their life on the line for us – for all Canadians – and they deserve to be looked after if they have any medical or health issues,” says Payne.
Neither Becker nor Payne got much for answers from Veterans Affairs.
A response letter signed by then minister of veterans affairs Erin O’Toole thanked Becker for his correspondence regarding his application for disability benefits for PTSD. It proceeded to reassure that the VAC “is committed to providing veterans and their families with all the benefits and services to which they are entitled.”
O’Toole’s letter then stated, “I should mention that this quasi-judicial tribunal is separate from, and independent of, the Minister and Veterans Affairs Canada,” and suggested Becker write to the chair of the board about his concerns.
However, Becker says he doesn’t believe veterans are being taken care of properly, and there are others out there who would agree with his accusation that the VAC’s priority is not to serve the needs of veterans.
“Veterans shouldn’t have to and I won’t, commit suicide to get the attention they require,” Becker once stated in a letter to LaVar Payne.
Current MP for Medicine Hat-Cardston-Warner Glen Motz declined to comment on this story, while the offices of Veterans Affairs Minister Lawrence MacAulay and O’Toole did not respond to requests for comment.
Becker says he fights to change the VAC system so veterans can live with some sort of normalcy from the support they receive.
“That change would look to me as the government getting rid of the bureaucracy. They’re giving money to big businesses, and they’re giving money to people, and they’re not looking after their veterans,” says Becker.
Becker received his basic training in Nova Scotia and afterwards attended a three-month Practical Orientated Electronic Training course, which gave him the base education for electronics. From there, he went to Ontario to take a trades course, which educated him on integral systems, like flight computers and instrumentation.
He was posted to Edmonton for five years in 1975, working for an aircraft field maintenance squadron, when Edmonton still had an Air Force base. Here, he was the first Air Force ground technician to be accelerated and promoted to the rank of corporal, meaning he was above private first class and below sergeant. When the Air Force base in Edmonton was looking to close in 1980, Becker was asked to go to Burbank, Calif.
In between the time passed, he married.
After 18 months, Becker travelled back to Nova Scotia to bring in the Aurora aircraft. They had developed lesson plans for instructing and manuals for the aircraft in their own particular field.
“When I got to Greenwood, N.S., I found out I was promoted to Master Corporal early,” he says. “I spent about five years in Greenwood and that’s where my sons were born.”
He taught complex computer systems on the Aurora aircraft, and while he was there, he was promoted to sergeant. Becker was then posted to Cold Lake, where he was presented with warrant officer status by his commanding officer.
“It blew everyone’s mind, because now I was one of the youngest warrant officers in our trade,” he says.
After a variety of postings between Winnipeg and Cold Lake, while being a single father, Becker settled in Cold Lake with his family, where he trained as the warrant officer in charge of the automatic tests and CFIs.
As time went on, his children attended and graduate high school, and Becker was asked to go to Bosnia.
“I went to Bosnia with my CO and we scouted out what the conditions were for our people, then later on that year, I went to Bosnia and was the chief warrant officer looking after our people,” says Becker.
Becker underwent his surgery in 1999. While living in the barracks, he had someone rush into his room in a panic.
“I reported him and he said all he heard was a bunch of screaming and hollering in my room,” says Becker. “That was because I was having nightmares from my surgery.”
The year was 2003.
