To the editor:

I can attest to Elise Stefanik helping vets as she and her staff helped me get a letter to Congress about how the vets are really treated, and why do we have to prove through 50-plus years and never really get anywhere?

We need to change the way we vets get appointments, treatments, meds. I spent days in ICU for breathing problems in early June and can’t get a follow-up appointment until late November. Also, if we get taken to the hospital — like myself, I can’t breathe — because I did not go through the VA first, they won’t pay. Kind of hard, when you can’t breathe, to let them know. That’s not the proper way to treat any vet. Within a reasonal time, and all the crap we have to go through to try and prove that health problems do come from exposures of chemicals — most fight for 50-plus years, only to be denied, and then on our deathbed they admit it is Agent Orange. The VA has to combine and stop wasting our tax dollars.

She is the only elected official who got back to me more than once. I get updates from her all the time. She helped get the proper paperwork for me for the Agent Orange exposure, although I expect no help from Congress as I am nothing but a number to them. At least she did take my letter to Congress, and I do have four letters from her trying to help Congress change the whole VA health care. I give 100% for at least getting back to me and following up on my status. Hopefully Congress can stop their crap and start working for their citizens. For Stefanik, not helping vets is not true. She gets my vote.

I have been to a lot of politicians, and Betty Little wanted to know what party I was with. When I said none, she told me I cant help you. Billy Jones got back to me once but never got anywhere, so stop badmouthing Stefanik when you don’t even know the truth.

Thank you very much,

Stuart W. Burnett Sr.

Marine vet

Tupper Lake