![\"VA](\"http:\/\/americanmilitarynews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Skelton.jpg\")
Army Capt. D.J. Skelton, commander of Company E, 229th Military Intelligence Battalion, stands in front of his company with his first sergeant, Sgt. 1st Class James O. Bishop. (DoD photo by Fred W. Baker III)<\/small><\/p>\n
In an open letter to the VA published on\u00a0Foreign Policy<\/a>,\u00a0Army Maj. Dennis \u201cDJ\u201d Skelton, also known by a moniker as the \u201cmost wounded commander in U.S. military history,\u201d said he was told by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they wouldn\u2019t be paying for his feeding tube liquid.<\/p>\n Skelton said he was told by the VA to go to his local hospital\u2019s emergency room to get a feeding tube placed in his stomach due to his \u201cshot-up palate deteriorating,\u201d making it difficult for him to either eat or drink.<\/p>\n \u201cI hear nothing afterwards about when you might be shipping cans of Ensure, Jevity or something [\u2026] to my house so I can have something to eat through said tube,\u201d Skelton wrote to the VA. \u201cBut it is the same system as last time and the same process as we discussed right before going into surgery. Except this time you have decided that there is a better brand of feeding tube liquid than Jevity (from last time) and you persuaded me to switch to Diabetisource brand.\u201d<\/p>\n Skelton said six days after the surgery, he received a letter from the VA saying that\u00a0Diabetisource was not covered by the VA and that he would have to pay for it on his own.<\/p>\n \u201cSo when the Secretary of the VA\u2019s front office called me last week to inquire if any of my current problems were in any way the fault of the VA \u2014 the answer is YES,\u201d Skelton wrote.<\/p>\n \u201cI see this as a teaching moment for both the VA and my friends,\u201d Skelton wrote. \u201cBut please, we don\u2019t need to use my case to shed light on\u00a0everything\u00a0that is wrong with the system. Just throw one or two problems at me at a time, OK? Thank you.\u201d<\/p>\n Army Maj. Dennis \u201cDJ\u201d Skelton graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2003 and\u00a0became the leader of a Stryker platoon while stationed at\u00a0Fort Lewis, Washington, which has since been renamed Joint Base Lewis-McChord.<\/p>\n In Sept. 2004, Skelton deployed to Iraq and took part in the Second Battle of Fallujah. On Nov. 6, 2004, while at an intersection, Skelton and his fellow soldiers engaged the enemy located on the other side of a freeway.<\/p>\n Skelton was critically wounded in the firefight, getting hit by a number of rounds and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).<\/p>\n