Underneath the war in Iraq, there's an unseen battle raging at home in the United States. It's the struggle of wounded veterans to pay their bills.

Between the time they're medically discharged, compensated for their injuries by the government, and re-integrated back into society, they're falling into a canyon of debt.

Some private organizations are valiantly trying to bridge the gap, but the future costs to both veterans and the nation haven't been dealt with.

Double dose

Nearly 30,000 veterans have been wounded in Iraq. The cases of SSGT Bradley Guertzner, 26, of Pasadena and SSGT Joe Reidger, 37, of Mineral Wells are examples of the double dose veterans have to cope with when they're hurt.

Guertzner was nearly killed when his Humvee was blown out from under him north of Baghdad on his second tour in Iraq. He lost his right hand and suffered burns over fifteen per cent of his body. Much of his abdomen was blown away. And when he was thrown from the passenger's seat, a crushing blow to his head left him with a traumatic brain injury.

"It's like I aged 50 years when I got blown up," Guertzner said. "I got the body of a 30-year-old, and (because of the traumatic brain injury) the brain of a 70- or 80-year-old, because I can't remember anything."

He was injured in November of 2006. Guertzner didn't come out of his coma until January of 2007.

As he spent the next 17 months recovering, his financial affairs spiraled into an abyss. His wife took leave from her job to watch over his recovery, the family's income plummeted, and his mortgage company threatened to foreclose on his house.

Joe Reidger is a 17-year Army veteran. He survived two improvised explosive device blasts over his two tours in Iraq.

It was the third that nearly killed him, crushing three vertebrae in his back.

Since Reidger left the service more than two years ago, he's been laboring to both live with his injury and to become a civilian. He suffers from Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder.

"The memories come back at you.," he says. "Flashbacks, mood swings.I can't go to Wal-Mart without my wife. I can't go somewhere where there's a lot of people."

Reidger landed a job as a truck driver, but because of a battery of medications he takes for back pain, he failed a drug test and lost the job.

His wife works, but does not make enough to support their family of three and make their mortgage payments by herself. Their mortgage company began threatening to take their modest house.

Reidger and Guerztner had to wait months before starting to receive money from the government. Like all veterans, their cases have to be evaluated by a medical review board. That can take from two months to two years.

According to the Veterans' Administration, there are 397,868 disability claims pending before the government.

Once a medical rating is determined, however, a vet's problems are not necessarily over. Government disability compensation may not be enough to live on.

Reidger is rated at 60 percent disabled, which gets him $901 a month from the government — hardly enough to survive on if he can't get a job. Guerzter is not rated yet, but expects $2,500 a month for a 100 percent disability — not enough to live on, either.

A Short Term Solution

"That is just something that's outrageous," said Rep. Ciro Rodriguez (D-San Antonio). "The number of delays that we've had soldiers that have to wait long before they either get disqualified or qualified."

Rep. Rodriguez has been on the House Veterans Affairs Committee for eight years, and only now sees progress with veterans' problems.

Both Guerztner and Reidger got financial help from a unique organization called Reserve Aid. Run by Polly Weidenkopf, who spent a career in the Marine Corps, Reserve Aid steps in to help vets make ends meet in an emergency. It was founded (and is still largely funded) by an anonymous reservist who worked on Wall Street and saw his colleagues suffering financially when they got called up.

Now the organization helps reservists, National Guard members and active duty personnel.

Reserve Aid paid Guertzner's mortgage for eight months. It helped Reidger with two months of house payments and other bills.

Weidenkopf guesses she's helped about 500 service members pay their bills.

She also doubles as a confidant and long distance friend to wounded vets wrestling with injuries.

"If it wasn't for Reserve Aid," Reidger said, "we wouldn't have been able to get the kids the clothes that they needed for school this year. And I'm not proud to say that."

Unfortunately, Reserve Aid, which has worked on mostly word-of-mouth so far, doesn't have the funds to help everybody.

As Rep. Rodriquez says, the long term costs of the Iraq war and its wounded vets have yet to be addressed by the nation.

E-mail bharris@wfaa.com