Groton ― Their service might have ended decades ago, but many of New London County’s Navy veterans still deal with the lingering effects from their time in the military.

While serving on a submarine in waters off of Guam in 1971, Master Chief Petty Officer Lenny Robbins of Gales Ferry was exposed to the herbicide defoliant known as Agent Orange.

From the defoliant, he sustained diabetic peripheral neuropathy, a type of nerve damage that affected his legs, and prostate cancer.

Robbins had to jump through hoops in order to finally get compensation from the Connecticut State Department of Veterans Affairs (VA).

“I submitted a 38-page claim, which got thrown in the trash barrel some place…,” he said. “The administrative part of the VA is absolutely horrible. My wife says, ‘Delay, deny, until they die.’”

Steve Ricard, the base commander of United States Submarine Veterans Incorporated in Groton, who was on active duty with the Navy from 1971 to 1975, has been in the VA health care system since around 2016.

While being treated for tinnitus as well as an enlarged prostate, like Robbins, Ricard has dealt with the department’s administrative woes.

“The administrative side of it, it can be a nightmare,” Ricard said.

Ricard would like to see the VA reach out to veterans who are approaching retirement who will soon be in need of new health care providers.

“If I had one thing to point to and say this is what the VA administrative side needs to focus in on, it would be tied to the outreach, but as soon as that individual either gets ready to go on Medicare or needs to be on some other medical plan, the VA needs to step in and not make it a nightmare to get yourself into the VA health care program,” he said.

“Because right now, anybody that’s still working, the first thing that the VA looks at is how much money you make. And so in doing that, you’re eliminating probably 85% of the veterans that want to apply for a medical health care program, whether they have a disability or not. So the only way that people are getting into the VA health care program that are still working is because they have a disability.”

Ricard would also like to see additional doctors hired at the New London community-based outpatient clinic, or CBOC. Specifically, he would like to see ophthalmologists added so that veterans seeking eye care do not have to travel to the VA medical centers in Newington and West Haven.

Several members of Connecticut’s congressional delegation have been working to fix Navy veterans’ health care gaps.

After hearing from veterans several years ago about the inadequate service and capabilities at CBOC, U.S. Rep. Joe Courtney (D-2nd District) spent several years pushing the VA to increase the size of the facility and increase services provided.

“My office had direct involvement in this process every step of the way, working with the VA to get the approvals needed in Washington to lease a new space and closely monitoring every stage of the project’s construction,” he said. “The new CBOC, which accepted its first patient in November 2021 and was publicly dedicated in April 2022, is now 15,000 square feet — three times larger than the old one — and provides a broader range of services and support for veterans’ health care needs.”

According to Courtney, eastern Connecticut is home to more veterans than any other part of the state. One of the most direct ways his office works to support veterans is through day-to-day casework and support for veterans with issues accessing benefits.

“Our full-time veteran’s caseworker, retired Navy Master Chief Manny Meneses, helps fellow veterans access their benefits, deal with backlogged applications and connect through veterans’ coffee houses across the region,” Courtney said. “He also works with our veteran’s advisory council to make sure we’re hearing directly from the area’s veteran advocates about the needs of veterans in our region and how we can help.”

Courtney also led bipartisan efforts to pass the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, which for the first time extended VA coverage for Agent Orange exposure to Navy veterans who served on ships in the waters around Vietnam.

On Aug. 9, outside the Newington VA Medical Center, U.S. Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) highlighted the one-year anniversary of the PACT Act, historic legislation signed into law last year by President Joe Biden that expands and extends eligibility for VA health care for veterans with toxic exposures and veterans of the Vietnam, Gulf War and post 9/11 eras.

Both Courtney and Blumenthal supported the passage of the bill and are working locally to make sure that as many eligible veterans get signed up as possible.

“Most recently, I joined the VA in hosting a PACT Act enrollment event at the Easter Seals Veterans Rally Point in Norwich, which saw over 200 signups for appointments and 75 PACT Act claims,” Courtney said. “I also joined CT Veterans Affairs Commissioner Ron Welch ― an eastern Connecticut veteran himself ― on WINY radio to get the word out on how veterans can enroll quickly and easily and get access to these powerful benefits.”

Blumenthal said Aug. 9 that almost 400,000 veterans had applied for PACT Act-related benefits, only a tiny fraction of those eligible to apply. He encouraged those who meet the criteria to take advantage of the program’s benefits.

“Get screened, get applications into the VA for benefits. Take advantage of this program,” he said. “It is not a handout, it’s not a gift. You’ve earned it.”