Agent helps vets, honors Purple Hearts

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They come to Leo Parent with their problems.

Some lost limbs in combat. Nearly all found nightmares that won't let them sleep. Others aren't getting the benefits the government owes them. Many can't find their way back to who they were before war took them from home.

For the past 22 years, Parent has been their informal social worker, bureaucratic navigator and indispensable ally.

He is one of about 250 veterans' agents in Massachusetts, and is assigned to 24 Franklin County towns and the hundreds of veterans from World War II through Iraq who live there. The oldest is in his 90s. The youngest is 22.

Along with getting veterans the medical care, psychiatric help and money they're owed from the federal government, he's given them something beyond what the law says they're entitled to: public recognition.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070527/ap_on_re_us/veterans__agent