Mr. Chairman and members of the committee, thank you for allowing me to be here today to discuss Congressman Braley’s bill, The Compensation for Combat Veterans Act.  I am the Director of Veterans Affairs of Scott County in Iowa.  I am also a Vietnam combat Veteran.  I have been awarded the C. I. B., the Purple Heart and the Silver Star from being wounded June 12th of 1970 in Nam.   So I have a feeling for just what our Veterans are going through.

My job as a Veterans Service Officer for Scott County is to listen to these Veterans, get them the medical help and compensation which is due them.  I also help them through the Veterans Administration tangle of paperwork and to make sure that they understand what they are entitled to.   Having witnessed my combat experiences, I understand and am able to talk and relate to what these Veterans are going through.  They will tell me things that they have told nobody else, not even their wives or family.

I have had Veterans come into my office asking him where, when, and what unit were you with, who was wounded or killed near you.  He just stared at me and replied that he had no idea what the date was or maybe they were working with a different unit than his own, so he had no idea who the guy was that got wounded, but the Veteran was there. 

Now, how about our Vietnam Veterans who have been trying to forget his time in Vietnam, the cases of P T S D are rising since the start of the Iraq, Afghanistan Wars.  After 40 years, have him try to remember when he was attacked or even the name of a buddy who was injured.  I know that when most of us were in combat we did not have calendars with us and as to where we might have been, we just followed our leader’s orders.  Asking these questions sometimes just brings back bad memories, memories which we were trying to forget.

For our Iraq, Afghanistan Veterans, there are times when that M P or engineer or even a cook might be pulled from his job and be sent on convoy duty.  Many times when that change happens, it is not documented for the files.  Then when he is sent on that job, he might not be working with his own unit or his combat buddies.  If they receive incoming rounds it is not documented; it’s just an everyday occurrence. 

I have had National Guard Veterans whom had been activated, come into my office for compensation claims, which we filed.  The Veterans Administration has turned down these claims because part of the units were still on duty and all of the units’ records were still over with the rest of the unit.  Then we had to track down a buddy that might have witnessed what had happened to the Veteran.  Now with the Guard you have to remember that they might not see that certain buddy until drill weekend, if they drill together in the same unit.  Also their days also ran together and they had no idea when they were fired on.  When they were in a certain village or city they at least knew that much. 

I have had an Iraqi Veteran with T.B.I. (Traumatic Brain Injury) file for compensation but because he had no C B I or Purple Heart or other combat medal, he was turned down by the VA for his compensation.  His DD 214 showed that he was in Iraq listing the date and unit, but nothing else.  When we filed the compensation claim, that Veteran was tested and treated at the Iowa City VA Medical Center.  He was found to have T. B. I. and he was awarded his compensation claim. 

If you were to ask a combat medic just what his job was, you would be told that he was to keep that injured soldier alive and to let the people in the background do the paperwork.  If you were to look at my medical report, it says that I was injured in the left arm and the neck.  Neither happened to me when I was hit.  That medic did not carry a file for each of us to report every little wound or knock to us.  It was not possible and it’s still not possible to keep track of these records. 

Case in point, I had a W. W. II Veteran come into my office wanting to get his Purple Heart which he had never gotten.  His records were burned up in St. Louis and he really wanted it for his family. He was injured in Germany and sent to France for his medical treatment. While in the hospital in France he was told that his Purple Heart would be given to him when he got back to his combat unit.  On returning to that unit he was informed that he should have received it while in France.  He just wanted to get home so he forgot about it until his kids asked about his awards. While talking to him I found out what unit he was with and when and where he was injured.  I sent a message to the Unit Records section in St. Louis; when we got the response with his name on the records, it said that he was in the hospital for illness not an injury.  Since the other tank members were all deceased, he was dead in the water for his Purple Heart.   Just another show of great military records keeping for the Veteran.

I had a Vietnam Veteran come into my office to apply for Compensation for Agent Orange Type II Diabetes.  This Veteran was a Navy deep water Veteran and when he applied for his compensation, the VA turned him down stating the “Hass vs. Nickelsen case that he was never in Vietnam.  I asked the Veteran if he had contact with any of his shipmates and the very next day he had e-mail addresses for two of his shipmates.  I contacted one of the two, and it turned out that he was the third officer on the ship. His letter back to me was a statement telling that it was common knowledge that the replacements would fly into Vietnam, truck two days down to the tip of  Nam, and then be boated out to the ship.  Then to add insult to injury to the VA and the records keeping, he mentioned that every two or three months they would all land on an island beach off of Vietnam for volleyball and R & R.   We are still waiting to hear from the VA on that case.

These are just a fraction of the Compensation Claims which we are fighting with the VA.  These last wars are not like W. W. I and not like W. W. II where you knew whom the enemy was or where the front lines were.  Now we have no lines or enemies in  a certain uniform.  There are not many “safe areas” when the Veterans of today can actually relax.  It doesn’t take much incoming to put stress and pressure on our Veterans and that is what we are finding out today.

Thank you for letting me speak to you today.