Veteran care

I never met Will Thompson face to face. We both testified before the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee on March 10, 2021, in support of the Honoring Our PACT Act currently awaiting a second cloture vote Monday. I was called to discuss the portions of that bill dealing with the remaining conditions caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

I was blown away that Will, a veteran of Iraq deployments, had been forced to endure a long bureaucratic journey to get the care and compensation that he and his family deserved. During his deployments, he had served in locations where open fires burned constantly. When his fibrosis developed, it was determined that his lungs had jet fuel residue in them. His struggle to get the toxicity recognized is now ours, yours and mine. He succumbed to the combined effects of pulmonary fibrosis, skin cancers and the debilitating effects of the anti-rejection protocols required for his two lung transplants.

Thompson, 50, of Princeton, W.Wa., is survived by his wife, Suzanne, and his two children, Ethan and Anna.

The bill that we spoke for was voted on and passed, in a genuinely bipartisan fashion earlier this summer. In the Senate, under the sponsorship of Sens. Jon Tester, D-Mont., and Jerry Moran, R-Kan., the bill passed with 84 votes. A technical issue required the bill to return to the House, which quickly corrected an error, and returned it.

Then, Sen. Patrick Toomey, R-Pa., an opponent of the bill, raised an issue and began demanding amendments. He further wanted the amendments included without the required 60-vote threshold. Despite the prior level of support, and for their own reasons, GOP senators blocked cloture.

There is no brotherhood like service. I still communicate with 10 to 15 of my Vietnam comrades, 53 years later. I feel the same for the huge cohort of once young men and women who answered our call … yours and mine. We expected danger and risk, and you expected to stand behind us when we came home, if we did. I know that you would do the right thing if it were you in the Senate. But, how to make your senators, Ted Cruz and John Cornyn, rethink the no votes they cast that pushed dying veterans’ care and compensation down the road?

If you don’t want soldiers and their families to struggle under a burden that we put on them any longer than they have, call one of the local offices of the Texas senators and ask them to remember the vets and to vote for cloture and for the bill.

Jeffrey O’Malley, Houston

If we do not place a higher priority on caring for veterans, how can we adequately recruit for our volunteer military? A veteran exposed to toxins and awaiting assistance might inquire of Congress: “Have you no decency?” Marines are taught to honor “God, Country, and the Corps” — in that order. Why can’t Congress at least respect “Country and Party,” in that order?

Does not their oath of office require such a priority of allegiance?

David Nelson, Houston