One Country United?

My father passed away December 2008. A friend and I were going through paper work about my father and his service in Viet Nam. Years of my time I had spent writing to our government about the fact that he had been exposed to Agent Orange. Years of tests, rejections and appeals.

When my father retired from the US Air Force in 1971 he had suffered severely with pain in his both legs and his skin actually pealing off. He spent a month in a Veterans Hospital. Since then until his death he had suffered with that problem.

With much research on the Internet, writing letters to VA Affairs and different Congressmen I had found many dead ends. First was the fact that he had served in Viet Nam. His records were missing. Then I asked that they explain where he was at that time. No answer at the moment. Then his records from the VA Hospital for the month he had stayed there were conveniently lost.

After further research I had found that when records were missing they had to take the word of the person in question. With all of this going on I was constantly given the run around. This from the government my father went to war for. This from the government my son serves for now. Our government that many of us in one way or the other gives our sacrifices, as it should be. The only problem is what our government is doing to in return.

Then we were told it was jungle rot. How did he get jungle rot if he was not there? Next point I had found. Doctors found it difficult to distinguish the difference between lesions of jungle rot and agent orange.

Speaking to different war vets from that period in time I had found this is very common. I was told to expect exactly what I had been going through. Many of these service people die before anything is actually accomplished. That just infuriated me more.

Today when I was going through the paperwork my friend pointed out so many contradictions. Many things I, myself overlooked. She found papers that my father had filed for disability when he was in the hospital in 1972. Therefore, we had a record of the hospital stay for 25 days. Things I should have seen but I guess letter after letter I missed.

In the beginning he had these problems but no proof he had touched ground in Viet Nam. Then later received medals from Viet Nam for his service. After that he had no proof of the problems he had. Why had I not seen that? So many contradictions I had missed. I feel I let my father down. Our government let him down. It was just wrong.

Before he had died, my father found a patch from Soc Trang, Viet Nam where he was based. I had sent a copy to VA Affair and did not hear from anyone for a couple months. Even when I tried to contact them.

My father then received a letter stating that he would receive a 10% increase in his pay due to this matter. In other words our government was admitting to the fact that everything that we had fought for was true. Somewhere they had discovered we were right.

How often doe this go on? Something must be done. It's time our government take care of our own. It's just not right. I am so angry!