TAMPA, Fla. (WFLA) — Gary Davis insists the pain he feels from arthritis is not caused solely by his age and instead related to a “volunteer” assignment during the Vietnam War.
Davis, 76, was just a teenager when he was stationed at an Iceland Air Force Base during the height of the war. While he was never deployed into combat, he lost friends who were.
He traces the current pain in his body to the time he was “volunteered” to help load weapons on fighter jets headed to Vietnam.
“I didn’t have a choice,” Davis recalled. “They asked for volunteers but it was really an order.”
Davis said the wind chill brought the temperature down to well below 0 degrees while he was loading the weapons.
The conditions were made worse because he said he was not allowed to wear his Air Force-issued winter coat.
“If you wore a parka it would set off static electricity and blow up the world,” Davis said. “I had arthritis by the time I was 33.”
Davis said that was a unique condition for someone his age in his family.
As Davis got older, the pain got worse.
“Everywhere,” Davis said when asked where it hurts. “I can’t shake your hand without pain. The VA replaced my knees for arthritis. So, if I don’t have arthritis, why did I get my knees replaced.”
Five years ago, Davis filed a claim with the VA insisting his arthritis is service-related. That is when he found out his “volunteer” stint on the frozen flight line never made it on his record.
“What they said is, you weren’t in a situation where you could get it,” Davis said. “No one recorded that I became an augmentee loader. It’s not in my records.”
That has led to repeated denials from the VA.
“Every three months,” Davis said. “Every three months I get a denial letter.”
8 On Your Side filed paperwork with the VA, allowing the agency to comment on Davis’s case. A Public Affairs officer said, “We are reviewing Mr. Davis’s file and will get back to you.”
Davis said he appreciates many services the VA has provided him over the years, but he added little has come easy.
“Everything is a fight,” Davis said. “I’m tired of fighting for it.”