President Biden was in Utah marking the one-year anniversary of a law that boosts health benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits. The bipartisan pact act speeds up the qualification process and creates regular screenings. It also adds facilities, research, and healthcare workers.
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00:00 Never met a stranger. Always met them where they were at and everybody was
00:04 immediately his friend. Gene Danley was a Navy electrician serving in Vietnam and
00:09 working on airplanes during the war. He was still in the Navy when I was born
00:13 and I think the first 10 years of my life he was in the Navy. Wendy Davis, his
00:17 daughter, remembers her father as a kind man who was beloved by his fellow
00:21 service member. I reached out to some of some of his friends and they said your
00:25 dad was larger than life. He was our hero. Anybody really who was in country was
00:29 exposed to Agent Orange. As you know, it was a very harsh chemical. But later in
00:33 his life, he developed Alzheimer's and seven years ago to the day that
00:38 President Joe Biden arrived, her father died of complications related to
00:42 Alzheimer's and Agent Orange exposure. Dad didn't really know that that there
00:47 was a cause and effect until it was pointed out to him by medical
00:50 professionals. But he developed prostate cancer and his later stages of life. And
00:54 that was the connection. A fight to get benefits that because of the Pact Act,
00:59 other veterans exposed to Agent Orange burn pits and other toxins don't ever
01:04 have to fight again. He had to fight to prove that it wasn't always assumed
01:08 that if you were in country that you had that exposure and that was really his
01:12 experience. Started a Wyoming guard right after September 11th veterans
01:16 like Thor Fiedler right around 2004. They were getting revving up to deploy
01:21 out. So I got on that hop and we got attached with the second of the 506
01:26 from 101st. Well, you might not know him from his voice. If you watch Fox 13,
01:31 you know his work. Thor is one of our photographers working hard behind the
01:35 camera to tell stories. This is the army combination. But he's also a
01:40 veteran and a recipient of the benefits from the pact. I just happen to know
01:44 about it because I was up at the V. A. Doing an appointment and I ran into
01:48 somebody that's like, hey, this is going on tomorrow, making it his mission
01:52 to tell all vets who don't know. Do you know about this? A lot of them don't,
01:57 which is why the V. A. Is holding events all over the state to get more people
02:01 to apply. We've done more events this year than we've probably been the last
02:04 two years. Pact Act is the largest expansion of veterans benefits and
02:07 survivor benefits in a generation. Chris Hawley is the executive director
02:11 of the Salt Lake office for the Veterans Benefits Administration. Well,
02:15 I'm pretty passionate about. I'm a 24 year army combat veteran. So these are
02:18 my brothers and sisters. And so we need to make sure that they are served and
02:22 they get all the benefits that they are. Now vets can apply and start
02:25 earning benefits that they deserve. We want to make sure that they have these
02:29 benefits available to them that they and their families are supported during
02:32 this stage in their lives. We raised our hands. What you don't see is you
02:36 the family members that are standing behind him that were affected by this.
02:40 And for Wendy, a president taking notice of families and vets like her
02:44 dad is a great honor. I think it's really impactful that President Biden
02:48 is speaking about this act and honoring our veterans with this act and then
02:53 speaking about it. It's a really big deal.