87,000 Vietnam Veterans May Qualify for $844 Million in Benefits. How Come Nobody Told Them?

In the span of just a few weeks, Marc McCabe traveled this summer to Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, California, and Texas. But the 74-year-old wasn’t on an epic retirement trip.

As a pro bono veterans advocate, he was searching for Vietnam veterans and surviving family members who may be eligible for disability compensation.

McCabe, a former combat corpsman attached to Marine Corps units during the Vietnam War, has survived two bouts of cancer himself. He has been a veteran’s advocate for two decades, but his job has gotten a lot busier thanks to a spate of new legislation that has expanded benefits for millions of veterans exposed to toxic chemicals in war.

Technically, the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs should be the ones notifying veterans when they may be eligible for new benefits—but McCabe says they often don’t.