In an open letter to the VA published on Foreign Policy, Army Maj. Dennis “DJ” Skelton, also known by a moniker as the “most wounded commander in U.S. military history,” said he was told by the Department of Veterans Affairs that they wouldn’t be paying for his feeding tube liquid.

Skelton said he was told by the VA to go to his local hospital’s emergency room to get a feeding tube placed in his stomach due to his “shot-up palate deteriorating,” making it difficult for him to either eat or drink.

“I hear nothing afterwards about when you might be shipping cans of Ensure, Jevity or something […] to my house so I can have something to eat through said tube,” Skelton wrote to the VA. “But 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.”

Skelton said six days after the surgery, he received a letter from the VA saying that Diabetisource was not covered by the VA and that he would have to pay for it on his own.

“So when the Secretary of the VA’s front office called me last week to inquire if any of my current problems were in any way the fault of the VA — the answer is YES,” Skelton wrote.

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“I see this as a teaching moment for both the VA and my friends,” Skelton wrote. “But please, we don’t need to use my case to shed light on everything that is wrong with the system. Just throw one or two problems at me at a time, OK? Thank you.”

Army Maj. Dennis “DJ” Skelton graduated from the United States Military Academy in 2003 and became the leader of a Stryker platoon while stationed at Fort Lewis, Washington, which has since been renamed Joint Base Lewis-McChord.

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.

Skelton was critically wounded in the firefight, getting hit by a number of rounds and a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG).

One soldier helped keep him alive by “using a spent .50-caliber round as an airway” and performing a field tracheotomy, according to an Army release.

“I was hit in that firefight … I happened to be standing beside a cement pylon and the next thing I knew, it was pitch dark,” Skelton said. “I couldn’t see anything. I couldn’t feel anything. I felt like I was floating through space. One of the last things I remember was hearing one of my Soldiers say, ‘I think the lieutenant’s dead.’ At that time, a switch flipped, and I began to feel the most intense pain of my life.”

A round pierced Skelton’s face, went through his cheek, tumbled downwards into his mouth, destroying it as well as his soft palate. After that, it exited out of his left eye socket.

He had taken an AK-47 round through his upper left arm and was struck by an RPG.

“My left arm was destroyed. My hand was intact, but everything from the wrist to the elbow was destroyed,” Skelton said in the release. “The head of the RPG broke and went through my right leg. My ammunition belt got hot and began cooking off. Those rounds, along with various enemy AK-47 rounds, went through my right arm and left shoulder.”

Less than 10 minutes after getting hit, Skelton was at a nearby combat support hospital and was later taken to Walter Reed Army Medical Center, in Washington, D.C., spending months recovering from his injuries.

Skelton later worked to return to service after being subjected to a medical evaluation board. He later co-founded Paradox Sports, “a nonprofit organization that provides inspiration, opportunities, and adaptive equipment to the disabled community, empowering their pursuit of a life of excellence.”

According to Skelton’s biography on Paradox Sports: