Veterans continuing their fight for benefits

Fighting for your country is considered an honorable duty, when done with dignity.

Veterans have long been held in high esteem by their countrymen. But for some veterans, the honor and dignity are coupled with frustration and desperation.

Three Teche Area veterans are long since removed from combat but continue to wage an everyday battle against Veterans Affairs for their benefits. Luckily, their cause has been picked up by a New Iberia native seeking to help veterans meet the challenges they may face for benefits.

Paul Labbe’s time these days are spent working on behalf of the veterans like himself who have been denied benefits and the fight has already taken him all the way to Washington and continue in the New Orleans region this month.

The Lake Charles resident is the registered agent of Louisiana Veterans Advocacy Group, a grassroots group that is determined to help disabled veterans see their benefits while reforming what Labbe calls “corruption” in the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

“Louisiana Veterans’ Advocacy group was created to help veterans who were wrongfully denied,” Labbe said.

Labbe held a news conference in Washington D.C. in June on the front of the Veterans Affairs Court of Appeals. He is planning another at the end of this month in Gretna at the Louisiana Department of Veterans Affairs.

At the conferences, he goes through his stack of files, each documenting the problems experienced by the veterans he represents.

Labbe himself has experienced what his counterparts are going through.

“I was denied from 1976 to 1997. I won my disability back to ’76 at 70 percent and 100 percent back to 1980,” he said.

Labbe documented the statutes and regulations that were given to him that

ere used to explain why his benefits were denied. He said he learned to use the information to his advantage and became an advocate for others.

His experiences are not different from what St. Martinville residents Harvey Pelafigue, 59, and Ludger Cormier, 60 have experienced.

“I’ve been going round and round since the turn of the century,” Pelafigue said.

The Vietnam veteran has been diagnosed with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and has shrapnel in his neck, spine and arm. He said he has received 80 percent of his benefits and is waiting on the remainder, which would be about $1,000 more a month.

“A lot of us veterans come back from Vietnam and we’re already carrying enough guilt. We have our friends getting killed over there. That’s the hardest part, living with yourself because you come back and you’re alive and your friends didn’t come back,” Pelafigue said.

“If your government is going to do this to you, it’s a hard pill to take,” he said. “Unless you walk in a man’s shoes, you can’t judge him. They’re refusing us monetarily. I guess they think they’ll make the country broke.”

Cormier was also diagnosed with PTSD since serving in the Vietnam war. He said his fight with Veterans Affairs began in the 1970s.

“I’m at 80 percent and I’m in the Appeals Court now. It’s been over three years,” Cormier said. “It makes me feel like I done something wrong.”

In addition to the Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, Cormier said he has diabetes and neuropathy in his arms and legs. He is still hoping for 100 percent benefits.

Cormier said in the years since fighting for his benefits, he has seen it all. He said he was even thrown out of a VA office in Breaux Bridge. He said it’s because he enlisted the help of Labbe.

“We’re the forgotten ones. They forgot about us,” Cormier said. “Why don’t they work at a pace and let everything go and stop holding it up and bottle-necking it.”

While Pelafigue and Cormier are still battling for their complete benefits, New Iberia resident Adrian Richard is battling for anything. After serving in the demilitarized zone in South Korea from 1980 to 1981 and suffering from PTSD, Richard has received no benefits.

Richard said he has had mental disturbances such as flashbacks and nightmares, with one resulting in a severe laceration on his arm. Things took a turn for even worse when in 1981, he shot himself in the head.

“Three months after discharge, I placed a .357 magnum to my right temple and pulled the trigger leaving me unable to function as a whole person,” Richard said.

He has sought the help of U.S. Congressman Charlie Melancon, who wrote a letter to no avail in February 2006 requesting that his case be expedited and benefits be awarded.

“The continued horror is too unbearable for any veteran to go through this long term continuous battle against the Veterans Administration for service related disability compensation,” Richard said. “Justice delayed is justice denied.”

With the news conference in Gretna coming up soon, Labbe’s work will pay off when fellow veterans get the benefits they seek.

“I couldn’t turn my back on my brothers,” Labbe said.