Update on Airman with ALL

Last week we featured the story of Joseph Weston, an airman at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas. Diagnosed in June with ALL just weeks after he began basic training, Airmen Weston is now facing an administrative discharge from the military. Administrative discharge disqualifies him from receiving a disability pension, and he will not receive the three years of chemotherapy that would be covered by the Veteran's Administration if his ALL had not been labelled as a pre-existing condition by the Air Force's medical board. Up until the 23rd of November, he was also housed in a holdover unit along with recruits who had failed drug tests.

After Weston's story was featured in a San Antonio paper, he was moved to Fisher House, a facility for airmen undergoing medical treatment. Weston was also assigned a mentor to help him get to and from appointments and treatment and to serve as a liason to Weston's family. I hope to hear in the next few months that the Air Force has decided to give Airman Weston an honorable discharge, and the medical benefits he has so far been denied.