Tomorrow: VA delays mean many veterans give up on claims, or die waiting.
The benefit checks from the Department of Veterans Affairs were a lifeline for Charles and Dolores Cooley, as critical to their financial health as the oxygen tube Charles wears is to his physical health.
But that lifeline was severed last year when the VA determined that awarding Cooley benefits for exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War had been an error.
Having their benefits cut off has set the Cooleys down a slope to financial ruin. She is 66; he is 67. They live in a double-wide trailer on a grassy lot in the Drifting Ridge subdivision off Durkeetown Road in Fort Edward.
The original Agent Orange legislation, which passed in 1991, applied to any active military veterans - Army, Navy and Air Force - who "served in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era." (See full text of the Agent Orange Act online at poststar.com)
Veterans who had received the Vietnam Service Medal, as Cooley did, and had medical conditions linked to Agent Orange, qualified for benefits.
The Cooleys' benefits should have been safe, despite any change in legal interpretation.
Once compensation is awarded, it is not supposed to be taken away, even if rules are changed.
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