For many veterans, the war can keep going long after the uniform is folded away. In Ocala, an 82-year-old Air Force veteran diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease has turned his search for answers into a monthly support group, part of a broader reckoning over toxic exposures and brain injuries tied to military service.
The issue received fresh attention Thursday through a Miami Herald report detailing the risks faced by veterans and the uneven pathways to care and compensation. The story focuses on Florida veterans, but the questions it raises stretch from Vietnam-era herbicides to contaminated military base water and combat-related head injuries.
Jack Roberts enlisted in the Air Force in 1965 and served at bases in South Vietnam, including Tan Son Nhut, Da Nang, Bien Hoa and Pleiku. As detailed by WUFT News, he was diagnosed in 2019 after years of stiffness, tremors and other symptoms, and now believes his exposure to Agent Orange played a role.
Veterans Are Overrepresented Among Parkinson’s Patients
The numbers help explain why the issue resonates so strongly in military communities. The Michael J. Fox Foundation says more than 110,000 U.S. military veterans live with Parkinson’s disease, while veterans account for about 6% of the nation’s population but roughly 11% of people with Parkinson’s.
That imbalance does not mean every veteran with Parkinson’s developed the disease because of military service. It does point to a population facing a mix of possible risk factors, including chemical exposure, blast injuries, traumatic brain injury and the long latency period that can separate service from diagnosis.
Agent Orange And Camp Lejeune Create Different Rules
For veterans who served in qualifying locations and periods, the Department of Veterans Affairs presumes exposure to Agent Orange and recognizes Parkinson’s as a related condition. The VA’s benefits guidance says eligible veterans generally do not have to prove the exposure itself or establish the usual direct medical connection required in other claims, though they still need a diagnosis and qualifying service evidence.
Veterans exposed to the industrial solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE, can face a more complicated process outside specific presumptive programs. A VA comparison of medical records from 172,000 Camp Lejeune veterans and 168,000 Camp Pendleton veterans found that those stationed at Camp Lejeune for at least three months between 1975 and 1985 had a 70% higher risk of developing Parkinson’s decades later, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs.
Brain Injuries Add Another Long-Term Concern
Chemicals are not the only suspected link. The VA says regulations allow certain veterans with service-connected traumatic brain injuries and Parkinson’s to pursue additional disability compensation, after a National Academies review found sufficient evidence connecting moderate or severe TBI with the disease.
For Roberts and his wife, Sue, the practical response has been less about settling every scientific question than making sure veterans and caregivers do not have to face the uncertainty alone. Their Ocala support group includes about 15 couples, and five of the veterans in the group were exposed to Agent Orange, according to WUFT News.
Benefits And Lawsuits Follow Different Paths
Camp Lejeune veterans may also have a separate legal avenue beyond VA benefits. In a 2023 announcement, the Department of Veterans Affairs said the Camp Lejeune Justice Act allows veterans and family members to sue the federal government for harm connected to the base’s contaminated water, while qualifying veterans can seek VA health care and other benefits for Parkinson’s.
The distinction matters because a medical benefit claim and a lawsuit involve different standards, deadlines and documentation. For veterans who spent decades assuming the symptoms were simply part of aging, the growing body of research is also forcing a harder question: what did their service leave behind?
