Talk of Benefit Squeeze Riles Vets--’Promises Were Made’ in Wartime : Entitlements: Nearly 2,500 gather in Anaheim for the annual Disabled American Veterans national convention. The undercurrent is gloomy.

Shooting hoops while warming up for a game of basketball at the annual Disabled American Veterans national convention, the vets joked and high-fived old buddies and reminisced with friends from another time.

But the frivolity on the court gave little hint of the gloomy undercurrent as nearly 2,500 vets gathered Saturday at the Anaheim Hilton and Towers.

Looming federal budget cuts, the vets say, are certain to chip away at veteran benefits.

“The main concern of veterans today is money,” said Jesse Brown, executive director of the 1.2-million-member organization. “I guess that’s everybody’s concern these days, but we’re running up against some problems we haven’t faced before.”

Brown, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Warrenton, Va., noted that in Washington there is talk that the $30-billion annual Veterans Administration budget will be trimmed by at least $1 billion in the next fiscal year. He said lawmakers are considering cutting money to veterans with lesser disabilities and also cuts in the vet health care system.

For older vets--those who served in World War II, many of whom are now in their 70s--that means worrying about the geriatric care that they always assumed would be covered. And vets in their late 30s and 40s are wondering whether care will be there when they get older.

“Promises were made--it’s hard to find those promises in writing, or a politician who’ll say that,” said Lyle Hunt, 52, a Vietnam vet from Nevada who must use a wheelchair. “There’s no more wars. And now that communism is going away, people want to forget about those wars. But the vets are still around.”

John Heilman, legislative director for Disabled American Veterans’ team of Washington lobbyists, was defensive about the stereotype of the Veterans Administration as a wasteful government organization and of vets as a group that often pleads for more money.

“We’re not ungrateful,” said Heilman, who also served in Vietnam. “America certainly has the best system for vets in the world. It’s been a godsend for people who served in the military.”

But he argued against cutting existing benefits and instead proposed cost-of-living cuts for the next fiscal year, if other agencies do the same.

“It’s a belt-tightening thing, but it doesn’t turn around the obligation to providing care,” he said.

The week’s agenda for the convention includes a range from legislative question sessions to presentations on new gear for amputees to job seminars.

With the historic signing last week of Americans With Disabilities Act at the White House, some veterans are cautiously optimistic that new doors will open for the disabled.

Ron Drach, national employment director for the group, cited the staggering figures on jobless Vietnam vets as a test for the legislation. In 1989, 75% of Vietnam vets who are 60% or more disabled--60% disabled amounts to the loss of one full leg--have “dropped out of the labor force and given up looking for work.”

Drach said he embraces the legislation as a step in the right direction but is leery of its impact: “Supporting the legislating and implementing the legislation are two different things.”

Philip Defrancisco, 68, a World War II vet and now a bus driver from New Jersey, said the disabilities act was a long time coming but is sure to help younger disabled vets find and keep jobs.

But for him, ensuring that U.S. aid to vets is not reduced is the bottom line of any legislative act.

“I’ve seen it coming for a long time,” he said about the budget cuts. “I get a little pension, and I’m thankful for our country, but you know what I fear most? They’re going to cut and cut and cut.”