Frustrated Vet Tries To Tell Army He’s Alive

A retired Army sergeant is trying to convince the military he is still alive after he was mistakenly declared dead.

“The Army says the VA killed me on the first of February,” said Norman Rogers, who has been trying to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Department of Defense to fix the problem.

Each agency blames the other for the mistake, he says, leaving him caught without his monthly retirement and disability checks.

“It started out as a joke,” said Rogers. “We all thought it was funny at first. But shoot, I’m missing two months’ pay now.”

He first learned of the problem about three weeks ago when his bank notified him that his checks were bouncing.

“My wife called the bank and said the Army requested the money back because he’s been declared dead,” Rogers said. “I’ve been calling and calling them, but they haven’t brought me back to life yet.”

Rogers said the problem may have occurred when his records were transferred from Fort Benjamin Harrison near Indianapolis to a service center in Cleveland.

Key Bank of Oregon provided him with a copy of a direct deposit form from the veterans office in Indianapolis notifying the bank Rogers had died and listing the date as Feb. 1, 1995.

On Friday, he received a letter from the Portland VA office dated Friday and addressed to the “Next of Kin of Norman E. Rogers.” The letter asked his family to provide his date of death because his benefit payments had been returned.

Rogers, 43, served 20 years in the Army before retiring in May 1991.