U.S. government should give vets better treatment

Editor,

My heart goes out to my fellow veterans who have received such horrible care at the Walter Reed Hospital, the premier site of health care for those who have served and been severely injured.

What happened at Walter Reed is the tip of the iceberg. The Department of Veterans Affairs appears to be rushing to address this before other serious problems emerge. For example, the VA is denying Agent Orange benefits to thousands of us Vietnam veterans who are eligible. We can't even get in the door because of a paperwork trick they have invented.

In the Vietnam War, many of us were assigned to bases outside of Vietnam - in Thailand, in my case - or on ships. We operated in the war zone on a routine basis, but we were never paid combat pay. The VA administration now says that, because we were not assigned to a base in the war zone, we were not in the war zone and thus are not eligible for Agent Orange-related benefits. Of course, this saves the government a lot of money for the current war, but it is a crime against the thousands who served.

I have prostate cancer, which I believe is likely due to being in the war, but the VA says my records are not in order, so I'm not entitled to compensation. I was in Saigon the morning of the start of the 1968 Tet Offensive, but because the paperwork has been lost, I was as good as never there as far as the VA is concerned.

I hope this current disaster with the VA blows the lid off all the anti-veteran policies in the VA headquarters in Washington, D.C. I say that because the small amount of care I do receive at the local VA medical center has been pretty good, except for the continual cutbacks and overloaded staff.

Bob Anderson

Daily Lobo reader