Do our veterans deserve this?

Recently, my husband went and signed up for veterans benefits at the VA Hospital just opposite the Washington Hospital Center. A Vietnam vet with the medals to show it, he had heard that all vets who had served in the Vietnam theater of operations were now eligible for medical assistance, due to presumed exposure to Agent Orange. Grand! He had gotten no benefits before, so this seemed like a step in the right direction.

His positive feeling turned into a lump in the stomach when the doctor giving him a physical asked him why he had applied for benefits. My husband said it was because he had been exposed to Agent Orange and was worried about it (apparently, no less than twelve diseases are related to Agent Orange in some way). The physician looked blank and asked my husband, "What IS Agent Orange?" H wasn't kidding, folks! He really didn't know. What kind of a health system do our vets have, anyway?