A Veteran Died Today, I Thought You Should Know

by Wayne
(GA)

A veteran died today. His name was William Chant. He was in the Navy and his job took him below deck in the boiler room and the engine room. The ships of his day were subject to the understanding of the day. All of the piping throughout his ship was wrapped in asbestos. When things broke on his ship, he and his mates would tear away at the asbestos that had been wrapped around the pipes and it would break away like a layer of clay. As it came off, it would turn into a kind of flake and fill the air with a snowstorm-like vision.

Of course, the idea of a breathing suit hadn't even been thought of. Their noses and lungs would fill up with the white powder as the machinist mates would go about the business of repair. They had no idea that their futures were already being set into place.

William came down with COPD (Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease), caused by the asbestos fibers reaching the lung and causing the lungs to fail.

When I first met William, he and his beautiful wife had come into my Veterans Service office to request compensation from the VA for the illness. He looked worn and tired as he sat in front of me wearing the oxygen mask and struggled to breath. His wife looked determined to support her husband and listened intently as we planned on how to approach the goal of getting the compensation.

After the gathering of papers and being seen by a host of doctors combined with the filling in of many government papers, William's compensation came to be. He had been given a 100% disability rating and received a sizable amount of money. William and his wife would be taken care of monetarily and William's medical care was now covered.

William was a good man and his wife loved him so, even when William was acting like a butt-head. She knew him well and realized the pain he was facing. In the end, no amount of VA money and no amount of medical care would save William. He passed.

The world has an empty place in it now. I pray for his wife and those left behind and accept that William is in good hands.

Years after the war ended his wound killed him. The death was at the hands of his own people. It wasn't a bullet from the enemy's gun or some newly imagined death machine designed from some dark place in the human soul that got him.

I just thought that you all should know. A veteran died today.

Response from Dr. DeFoore

Thanks, Wayne. All too often, veterans die and no one knows. At least this time, you are making an effort to let people know. And telling the story of William here means that hundreds--maybe thousands as the years pass by--of people will read his story and silently honor him in their hearts.

Here's to William and all of the unsung heroes like him.