thedrifter
11-25-05, 04:35 AM
HELP AT LAST
Vietnam vet gets his due
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
Jennifer Maloney is a freelance writer.
November 24, 2005
Pfc. Victor Noce was 19 in July 1966 when he jumped off a chopper into the largest U.S. Marines operation the Vietnam War had seen yet.
Noce doesn't recall many details about the day he has relived every day for 39 years, but what he does remember he struggles to put into words. He knows he was evacuated from the battlefield and came back to the States with an illness then known as shell-shock. It left him unable to work.
This week, after petitioning the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for more than three decades, Noce, of Islip, learned that he will receive $85,721 in back payments for post-traumatic stress disorder. The government will now pay him $2,300 a month.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), whose office helped Noce petition the VA, announced the decision yesterday in Hauppauge. Noce choked back tears when Israel handed him an American flag and thanked him for his service.
Noce began experiencing symptoms of the disorder in 1968 and made his first claim. But the VA told him his combat records had been lost. "Since I didn't remember much about that day, it was difficult to fight for myself," he said.
In 2004, he attended a veterans workshop at Israel's office. Israel said he's helped more than 35 veterans make successful disability claims, with payments totalling more than $2 million.
The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study estimated in 1988 that 30 percent of Vietnam veterans had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder.
About 218,000 veterans were being compensated last year for the disorder; 161,000 of them fought in Vietnam, according to the VA.
The average processing time for disability claims is 171 days, according to the VA Web site.
Six months ago, Noce began receiving $300 a month for partial post-traumatic stress disorder. On Monday, Israel called to tell him he had won full disability. "What will help me is the recognition that what I went through was not for nothing," Noce said.
Noce tried yesterday to describe Operation Hastings, a battle in which Marine and South Vietnamese forces pushed against the North Vietnamese in Quang Tri province.
"The last thing I remember ... " he said, grimacing and hugging his flag. "I can't."
Ellie
Vietnam vet gets his due
BY JENNIFER MALONEY
Jennifer Maloney is a freelance writer.
November 24, 2005
Pfc. Victor Noce was 19 in July 1966 when he jumped off a chopper into the largest U.S. Marines operation the Vietnam War had seen yet.
Noce doesn't recall many details about the day he has relived every day for 39 years, but what he does remember he struggles to put into words. He knows he was evacuated from the battlefield and came back to the States with an illness then known as shell-shock. It left him unable to work.
This week, after petitioning the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs for more than three decades, Noce, of Islip, learned that he will receive $85,721 in back payments for post-traumatic stress disorder. The government will now pay him $2,300 a month.
Rep. Steve Israel (D-Huntington), whose office helped Noce petition the VA, announced the decision yesterday in Hauppauge. Noce choked back tears when Israel handed him an American flag and thanked him for his service.
Noce began experiencing symptoms of the disorder in 1968 and made his first claim. But the VA told him his combat records had been lost. "Since I didn't remember much about that day, it was difficult to fight for myself," he said.
In 2004, he attended a veterans workshop at Israel's office. Israel said he's helped more than 35 veterans make successful disability claims, with payments totalling more than $2 million.
The National Vietnam Veterans Readjustment Study estimated in 1988 that 30 percent of Vietnam veterans had experienced post-traumatic stress disorder.
About 218,000 veterans were being compensated last year for the disorder; 161,000 of them fought in Vietnam, according to the VA.
The average processing time for disability claims is 171 days, according to the VA Web site.
Six months ago, Noce began receiving $300 a month for partial post-traumatic stress disorder. On Monday, Israel called to tell him he had won full disability. "What will help me is the recognition that what I went through was not for nothing," Noce said.
Noce tried yesterday to describe Operation Hastings, a battle in which Marine and South Vietnamese forces pushed against the North Vietnamese in Quang Tri province.
"The last thing I remember ... " he said, grimacing and hugging his flag. "I can't."
Ellie