BUTTE COUNTY, Calif. – A Butte County veteran says he has not been receiving reimbursements for travel since June. Action News Now spoke to the Vietnam veteran about how this is impacting him.
“When you are paying gas and spending all that time and not getting your reimbursements for some people it is probably food on their plate you know… Do I not go see the doctor or do I not eat?” asked Robin Toney.
He served in the military from 1970 to 1974.
“I spent a year at Vietnam and as a result, I have a lot of vascular problems,” he said. “I just recently had a vascular bypass on my leg which is a result of Agent Orange,” Toney added.
Toney says the last payment he received was in June. But says he has made plenty of trips to Sacramento and Redding for medical help since then.
“And I have had many visits a couple of angioplasty surgeries on my legs and all the testing involved with it. This has been going on almost seven months now,” said Toney.
Toney says he called down to Mather Air Force Base and said they informed him that they are currently in the process of changing how they reimburse veterans.
“The guy who I talked to about six weeks ago… said, ‘I don’t know they didn’t train us on this and I don’t know when they are going to go out.’ I talked to the women in Redding who does travel benefits and she has been very helpful in the past and she said her hands were tied,” explained Toney.
He said he also has been in touch with Congressmember Doug LaMalfa’s office.
Toney added that all of the help and care he has received before this has been efficient, and he says that he is thankful.
Action News Now did reach out to the Veteran Affairs Office in Redding and went by the office in Chico, but it was already closed for the day. The Redding office staff did not call back. We recognize it was late on a Friday afternoon, so we hope to hear back on Monday.