Negligence Has Consequences—Except If You Serve in Uniform

Something to Think About: The Hidden Cost of Service

Picture this: You work your everyday job, following safety guidelines, clocking in and out, doing your part. If something goes wrong—say, your employer cut corners, ignored OSHA standards, exposed you to toxic chemicals, or created unsafe working conditions—you have rights. You can file a lawsuit. You can hold them accountable. In some cases, negligent employers can even face criminal charges.

Now compare that to what happens when a servicemember becomes disabled or dies due to negligence or systemic failure during their time in uniform.

There’s no court to file in. No lawsuit to pursue. No criminal complaint to be made.

Once an individual signs a military contract, they surrender the legal protections that most Americans take for granted. They can’t refuse dangerous work assignments. They can’t “quit” when their workplace becomes unsafe. They can be stationed anywhere, exposed to toxic substances, live and work in hazardous environments, and operate machinery or weaponry under extreme conditions—all while following orders they must obey.

They are not protected by OSHA, EPA enforcement, or modern workplace safety laws. And if something goes wrong—if a faulty burn pit, contaminated water supply, or ignored medical warning destroys their health or ends their life—the government takes no responsibility for those decisions in a way that the law allows employees in every other industry to demand.

This isn’t an abstract debate. Thousands of veterans have been permanently harmed by toxic exposure. Many died long before their time—leaving devastations in their wake: families without parents, spouses without partners, children without guidance, and survivors without meaningful recourse.

Yet unlike civilians, these families can’t sue. They can’t demand accountability through traditional legal means. In most cases, their only hope is navigating an overburdened, sluggish system of benefits and bureaucratic red tape.

This double standard should give us all pause: Why do the people who protect our rights have so few of their own?

Even now, widows and survivors fight for basic benefits that should have been automatic. Veterans themselves spend years proving their injuries, illnesses, or exposures were service-connected—often while fighting the very disabilities inflicted on them by that service.

We can’t keep calling military service “honorable” while ignoring the dishonorable way we treat those who come home broken—or don’t come home at all.

It’s time we start demanding the same legal protections for our servicemembers that everyone else expects in a workplace. Because service shouldn’t come with a legal blind spot. Accountability should not end at the Pentagon doors.

If a civilian company exposed its employees to burn pits, toxic drinking water, or medical malpractice, we’d see headlines and lawsuits.

When it happens to our troops, we bury the bodies under paperwork and press releases.

That’s something we should all think about—and do something about.