I work on a military base and can attest to this. Many prior enlisted (veterans) feel that they get shafted (screwed or taken advantage of) by the contract between themselves and USG during their service. Their pay is low and transitioning back to a civilian lifestyle is incredibly difficult, despite their compulsory, Congress-mandated transition assistance training. Maximizing their disability claims is one way of getting what they deserve.
The VA has a disability rating system that goes from 0% to 100%. Obtaining a 100% disability rating guarantees a certain amount of monthly income for life. The step increase in pay from 80% disability to 100% disability is large. There’s also a logarithmic function that makes it increasingly difficult to raise your disability rating after each disability claim. Hypothetically, losing your left leg might qualify for 50% disability, losing a second leg might qualify for 75%, and then losing an arm might qualify for 87.5%. Pretty horrendous.
That being said, many service members aim to hack the system by making disability claims for everything under the sun. Service members often collect disabilities such as arthritis, lumbar disc degradation, knee injuries, sleep apnea, and depression. Like Pokémon - gotta catch ‘em all.