I remember getting my retirement briefings. I remember the volunteer from the VFW and others talking about VA disability with a wink and a nod. And there were no end if people who were willing to "represent" you to the VA , sometimes for money, sometimes because they thought they were being helpful to "coach you" on "how to maximize your VA disability ENTITLEMENT."
https://taskandpurpose.com/8-steps-w...ability-claim/
https://www.veteranslawblog.org/va-disability-ratings/
https://ptsdlawyers.com/increase-vet...lity-benefits/
Now some of these people - mainly the volunteers - are simply trying to help people navigate a screwed up system. A lot of them however, especially the play for pay ones - essentially coach you on the things to say to get a disability. Psych disabilities are the easiest. Most of them, like PTSD and depression, have no real objective findings and require none to make the diagnosis. Get enough right answers on your DSM-5 criteria and you have it made. Anyone coached properly is almost certain to get the diagnosis and the VA compensation. Basically anyone separating or retiring can defraud the system - if they are willing to perjure themselves. And there are plenty of shysters out there willing to encourage you to do it.
The fact is, anyone with PTSD or a Major Depressive disorder severe enough to warrant CURRENT significant disability probably wouldn't be separating and retiring at all, they'd be TDRL'd until recovered or medically retired. So either this gentleman had it and got over it - in which case he probably ought to have gotten a 0% disability as a placeholder in case the situation worsened, or he never had it at all. Yeah, that's cold, but if he was willing to lie to the FAA there is no good reason to believe he wouldn't have been willing to lie to the VA.
And this is just dumb as dirt, particularly for retiring people because for them it doesn't so much affect the amount of retirement you get as it does the tax status of retirement income you were already going to get.
The fact of the matter is that if this guy put in his twenty and had a standard (not medical) retirement, he is almost certainly not at serious risk for significant problems flying. Even if he had a history of major depressive disorder, they almost certainly would have waived it, albeit perhaps making him jump through a few certufication hoops perhaps, but most likely just accepting the military work up and medical waiver which he would have had to have had if the episode was at all serious - ESPECIALLY SINCE HE WAS A FLYER and even if he was not actively flying because he was in a non flying billet and had met his gates.
So this really ISN'T someone concealing a disqualifying defect in a desperate attempt to continue flying, it was someone trying to game the system for a few hundred bucks a month in tax benefits.
And yeah, he's going to pay an awful price for that, but as the old John Wayne meme goes: