‘The best of us’: Biden promises improved care for veterans

He refuses to make the same mistakes with those returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan

“When our troops came home, the fittest among them … too many of them were not the same,” suffering unexplained breathing problems and other issues, he said.

“We don’t know yet enough about the connection between burn pits” and the diseases veterans faced, Biden said, adding he was committed to finding out more, increasing funding to study the relationships.

“We’re following the science,” he said, but he urged vets to sign up for the VA burn pit registry, and make sure they know about benefits available to them.

Fort Worth City Councilmember Elizabeth Beck, deployed as a sergeant to Taji, Iraq, said she coughed every day, expelling black matter, and suspected it came from the burn pit that smoldered daily. It took her 17 years to apply for help because she couldn’t bear the red tape.

“We don’t want to ask for anything we don’t deserve,” she said of her fellow veterans. “We aren’t asking for something that we shouldn’t have. We are simply asking not to have to fight again.”

Biden, a Democrat, also called on Congress to send him a bill that protects veterans who face health consequences after burn pit exposure. He said he’d sign it immediately. The House last week passed a bill that would provide VA health care to millions of Iraq and Afghanistan veterans who meet that criteria.