WUFT | News and public media for north central Florida
The Longest War
By Nicole Borman
April 29, 2026 at 11:50 PM EDT
Exposure to toxic chemicals like Agent Orange and TCE, traumatic brain injuries and other hazards of military service put veterans at higher risk of Parkinson’s disease.
OCALA, Fla. — Jack and Sue Roberts love to go on long walks.
They’ve been married for over 53 years and know each other inside and out. One day, Sue noticed something was different: The hand that fit in hers like a puzzle piece didn’t feel the same. She noticed Jack’s arm wasn’t swinging. It resembled a piece of wood—stiff. People who saw them stroll by in their tidy Ocala neighborhood, Stone Creek, would even ask if everything was OK, since it was so unusual for the couple to not be holding hands. The symptoms intensified over time. Jack couldn’t sleep, he dealt with constipation and his hand began to tremble.
“I had minor symptoms before,” said Jack, who is now 82. “But I didn't really put it all together” until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.
“I said, ‘Well, what the heck is Parkinson’s?”
Jack and more than 110,000 U.S. military veterans have come to learn what the heck it is, and to understand the likelihood that their Parkinson’s is tied to their service. While veterans make up about 6% of the U.S. population, they make up about 11% of people with Parkinson’s disease, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Jack’s diagnosis brought him back to 1965. He was 19 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned to Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon, a focal point for the military’s buildup in South Vietnam. He also served at the Da Nang, Bien Hoa and Pleiku air bases.
In the skies over Vietnam, Jack watched Agent Orange sprayed from low-altitude planes. Tan Son Nhut was the primary base for Operation Ranch Hand, the U.S. Air Force unit that sprayed the chemical herbicide to destroy thick vegetation and crops that could help the Viet Cong hide or survive. The name came from the orange stripe painted across the 55-gallon drums where the chemical mix was stored.
The Can Tho defoliation mission sprays Agent Orange along the Mekong Delta in July 1969. (Courtesy Bryan Grigsby Collection, Vietnam Center and Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University.) (1443x1173, AR: 1.2301790281329923)
Giant fans at the air bases would blow the pale particles around, Jack said, putting him directly in the path of the chemical. It didn’t feel harmful. To the contrary, he remembers it as a welcome source of cooling in the intensely hot, tropical days. But now, he began reading about fellow Vietnam veterans with tremors, stiffness and slow movement.
“They had the same symptoms as I had,” Jack said. “The common denominator was Agent Orange.”
At first, Jack felt angry to know his Parkinson’s was likely linked to service to his country. But soon, his anger turned to determination to learn everything he could—and then, to figure out ways to help others who are learning to live with Parkinson’s.
Jack and Sue Roberts hold hands. (Nicole Borman/WUFT News) (6264x4180, AR: 1.4985645933014353)
Vietnam veterans like Jack who link their Parkinson’s to Agent Orange can get help more easily than those with other chemical exposures. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grants VA health care and disability benefits for Parkinson’s without having to prove a connection if the veteran served in Vietnam, the Korean demilitarized zone and other areas where Agent Orange was sprayed.
Yet other veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during military service, such as the industrial solvent trichloroethylene or TCE, have a tougher time because they must prove a direct service connection to their Parkinson’s. But even the most advanced Parkinson’s research cannot tie the disease to a specific chemical exposure.
Congress granted veterans who served at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune an exception because of severe groundwater contamination that sickened thousands of veterans and their families who served and lived on the base between 1953 and 1987. Veterans and their families can also sue the government for the harm under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022.
But American soldiers were exposed to TCE at military bases across the country and around the world. (Read: “She helped clean up Antarctica. Now, she was wants Congress to stop the chemical she believes made her sick.”)
Veterans also face greater Parkinson’s risks given combat-related neurological traumas including brain injuries and blast injuries. The VA expanded benefits for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) after a National Academies report found “sufficient evidence” to link moderate to severe TBI to Parkinson’s later in life.
“At least we were able to get it out”
At a Parkinson’s exercise class in Ocala, Jack and Sue Roberts met Sue Lassiter, a Parkinson’s fitness specialist who works with the Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson's. They got to talking about the need for emotional support for veterans and others with Parkinson’s—and their partners. With Lassiter’s help, Jack and Sue Roberts started a support group for Parkinson’s patients and their spouses. They meet once a month at On Top of the World, the large retirement community in Ocala.
Sue meets with the care partners, teaching them new ways to assist their loved ones with the disease. Jack gathers with those who have Parkinson’s to talk through issues and feelings. It reassured him to know he wasn’t the only one angered by his diagnosis, and understanding how he likely got Parkinson’s. It made him feel less alone.
About 15 couples are in the support group. Five of those with Parkinson’s were exposed to Agent Orange.
“Not that we were able to cure anything,” Jack said. “But at least we were able to get (our feelings) out.”
This story is part of Poisoned Pathways, an investigation into chemical exposure and Parkinson’s disease supported by the Pulitzer Center and reported by the WUFT Environment & Ag Desk at the UF College of Journalism and Communications.
(3125x313, AR: 9.984025559105431)
They’ve been married for over 53 years and know each other inside and out. One day, Sue noticed something was different: The hand that fit in hers like a puzzle piece didn’t feel the same. She noticed Jack’s arm wasn’t swinging. It resembled a piece of wood—stiff. People who saw them stroll by in their tidy Ocala neighborhood, Stone Creek, would even ask if everything was OK, since it was so unusual for the couple to not be holding hands. The symptoms intensified over time. Jack couldn’t sleep, he dealt with constipation and his hand began to tremble.
“I had minor symptoms before,” said Jack, who is now 82. “But I didn't really put it all together” until he was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease in 2019.
“I said, ‘Well, what the heck is Parkinson’s?”
Jack and more than 110,000 U.S. military veterans have come to learn what the heck it is, and to understand the likelihood that their Parkinson’s is tied to their service. While veterans make up about 6% of the U.S. population, they make up about 11% of people with Parkinson’s disease, according to the Michael J. Fox Foundation.
Jack’s diagnosis brought him back to 1965. He was 19 years old when he enlisted in the U.S. Air Force. He was assigned to Tan Son Nhut Air Base near Saigon, a focal point for the military’s buildup in South Vietnam. He also served at the Da Nang, Bien Hoa and Pleiku air bases.
In the skies over Vietnam, Jack watched Agent Orange sprayed from low-altitude planes. Tan Son Nhut was the primary base for Operation Ranch Hand, the U.S. Air Force unit that sprayed the chemical herbicide to destroy thick vegetation and crops that could help the Viet Cong hide or survive. The name came from the orange stripe painted across the 55-gallon drums where the chemical mix was stored.
The Can Tho defoliation mission sprays Agent Orange along the Mekong Delta in July 1969. (Courtesy Bryan Grigsby Collection, Vietnam Center and Vietnam Archive, Texas Tech University.) (1443x1173, AR: 1.2301790281329923)
Giant fans at the air bases would blow the pale particles around, Jack said, putting him directly in the path of the chemical. It didn’t feel harmful. To the contrary, he remembers it as a welcome source of cooling in the intensely hot, tropical days. But now, he began reading about fellow Vietnam veterans with tremors, stiffness and slow movement.
“They had the same symptoms as I had,” Jack said. “The common denominator was Agent Orange.”
At first, Jack felt angry to know his Parkinson’s was likely linked to service to his country. But soon, his anger turned to determination to learn everything he could—and then, to figure out ways to help others who are learning to live with Parkinson’s.
Jack and Sue Roberts hold hands. (Nicole Borman/WUFT News) (6264x4180, AR: 1.4985645933014353)
Vietnam veterans like Jack who link their Parkinson’s to Agent Orange can get help more easily than those with other chemical exposures. The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs grants VA health care and disability benefits for Parkinson’s without having to prove a connection if the veteran served in Vietnam, the Korean demilitarized zone and other areas where Agent Orange was sprayed.
Yet other veterans exposed to toxic chemicals during military service, such as the industrial solvent trichloroethylene or TCE, have a tougher time because they must prove a direct service connection to their Parkinson’s. But even the most advanced Parkinson’s research cannot tie the disease to a specific chemical exposure.
Congress granted veterans who served at the Marine Corps Base Camp Lejeune an exception because of severe groundwater contamination that sickened thousands of veterans and their families who served and lived on the base between 1953 and 1987. Veterans and their families can also sue the government for the harm under the Camp Lejeune Justice Act of 2022.
But American soldiers were exposed to TCE at military bases across the country and around the world. (Read: “She helped clean up Antarctica. Now, she was wants Congress to stop the chemical she believes made her sick.”)
Veterans also face greater Parkinson’s risks given combat-related neurological traumas including brain injuries and blast injuries. The VA expanded benefits for traumatic brain injuries (TBI) after a National Academies report found “sufficient evidence” to link moderate to severe TBI to Parkinson’s later in life.
“At least we were able to get it out”
At a Parkinson’s exercise class in Ocala, Jack and Sue Roberts met Sue Lassiter, a Parkinson’s fitness specialist who works with the Neuro Challenge Foundation for Parkinson's. They got to talking about the need for emotional support for veterans and others with Parkinson’s—and their partners. With Lassiter’s help, Jack and Sue Roberts started a support group for Parkinson’s patients and their spouses. They meet once a month at On Top of the World, the large retirement community in Ocala.
Sue meets with the care partners, teaching them new ways to assist their loved ones with the disease. Jack gathers with those who have Parkinson’s to talk through issues and feelings. It reassured him to know he wasn’t the only one angered by his diagnosis, and understanding how he likely got Parkinson’s. It made him feel less alone.
About 15 couples are in the support group. Five of those with Parkinson’s were exposed to Agent Orange.
“Not that we were able to cure anything,” Jack said. “But at least we were able to get (our feelings) out.”
This story is part of Poisoned Pathways, an investigation into chemical exposure and Parkinson’s disease supported by the Pulitzer Center and reported by the WUFT Environment & Ag Desk at the UF College of Journalism and Communications.
(3125x313, AR: 9.984025559105431)