MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Forty years ago, Saigon fell, ending the Vietnam War.
Vets didn’t get a hero’s welcome as in other wars.
They felt mistreated, and now some told us they’re being disrespected again.
Paul Hines did two 6-month tours with a Navy SEAL team in Vietnam.
He believed what he did there, and exposure to Agent Orange caused his long list of health problems including emphysema, congestive heart failure, kidney disease and diabetes.
The government however only gave him benefits for his diabetes.
He said he was too sick to see a doctor at the VA Hospital for a new round of tests.
“Anything from dismantling bombs to just whatever they wanted me to do. I didn’t ask whether it was right or not. I just did it,” said Hines.
The military used Agent Orange to kill off vegetation, bring the Viet-Cong out of hiding and destroy that country’s food supply.
Years later, the U.S. government admitted the herbicide causes cancer and a myriad of other health issues.
“I didn’t know I was sick,” Hines said. “When I started to get sick was when my lungs started erupting.”
As these vets continued to get older, claims began to mount, and for some it was going to take an act of Congress to get the benefits they earned.
Take the so-called “Blue Water” Navy vets.
They served off the coast of Vietnam, carried materials and equipment laced with Agent Orange, and even drank and showered with water from the area.
All that, yet were denied benefits because they technically weren’t what’s known as “boots on the ground.”
“The country has deserted our Vietnam vets,” Hines’ wife, Marie, said. “Their spouses too, their families.”
To make matters worse, the place where these veterans turned to for help needs help of its own.
Across the country, the Veterans Affairs system was battered after a series of deaths, mistakes, corruption and complaints about wait times.
Some veterans said they were also forced to wait too long for disability claims.
“During WWII when they did the claims when the guys came home, they did it on a manual typewriter and got it to them just like that. Today they got all this technology behind them, but they can’t move any faster,” said Phil Nelson, Tipton Co. Veterans Service Officer.
The agency told WREG it hired more processors and encouraged vets to file online.
Their plan was to answer those newer claims, many from Iraq and Afghanistan vets first then focus on appeals like those from Hines.
“They’re talking Iraq and all that. I understand that. It’s a horrible thing too but don’t forget the guys from before,” said Marie Hines.
About 450,000 vets nationwide were listed as waiting for claims decisions.
More than 10,500 of them lived in Tennessee.
“What’s the holdup? ” asked Nelson. “The same thing I always feel in my heart. They’re out to hold out the amount of compensation to our veterans and the only way to do that is finding excuses to deny it.”
The day after WREG contacted the VA about Hines, it awarded him 60% disability.
The VA claimed to be sending paperwork for the possibility of upping that to 100%.
Hines said he hoped to live to see that happen.
“One set of CT Scans at the hospital told me I was dying. So, do you want to die at home or do you want to die at the hospital. That’s why I’m here. I’m here to die,” weeped Hines.
Hines said those disability pension payments to his wife will help with the tens of thousands of dollars in doctor bills he’s accumulated.
Agent Orange affected not only those who served in Vietnam, but their children and grandchildren.
