Congresswoman Lois Frankel (FL-22) announced today that she will bring Jeff Colaiacovo, a South Florida Vietnam veteran as her guest to Tuesday’s State of the Union. Frankel met Colaiacovo when he contacted her office for assistance with a disability claim stuck in the VA backlog.

Jeff Colaiacovo [COLI-O-KOVO], 65, lives in Fort Lauderdale and earned two Purple Hearts for his service in the US Army in Vietnam. Jeff was rewarded with his first Purple Heart after a mine blew up in front of his tank and he temporarily lost his vision. Then he went back into combat and was driving a tank that got hit by a handheld rocket launcher. Jeff got trapped inside the tank which had caught on fire and he suffered second and third degree burns over one-third of his body. He spent five months in burn wards across the world. In addition, while he was in Vietnam he was exposed to Agent Orange.

After returning from the war, he got married and had a family. Over the years he has worked to be a productive member of our community, while battling medical issues and PTSD. In February 2013, a frustrated Jeff contacted Frankel’s office for help getting his VA benefits because he had not received a response from the VA since filing a claim in May 2011. Frankel’s office filed a congressional inquiry last February with the regional VA office in St. Petersburg, Florida and last May was notified he would get partial disability and retroactive backpay from the VA. Jeff worked with Frankel’s office to appeal the decision, seeking full disability. Earlier this month, the VA notified Jeff they had completed processing his appeal and rated him 100% disabled and that he would receive thousands in retro backpay.

“The honor of attending the State of the Union with Congresswoman Frankel is beyond words and a once in a lifetime opportunity,” said Jeff Colaiacovo. “Thanks to Congresswoman Frankel and her staff, I am no longer stuck in the VA backlog and now receiving the benefits I desperately needed. Sadly there are too many veterans who are still waiting for their benefits and I want to help bring attention to this so that no man or woman who served our country is ever left behind.”

Congresswoman Frankel, the mother of a Marine War veteran and representative of about 54,000 South Florida veterans said: “Bringing Jeff to the State of the Union is a way to say thank you to him and all our veterans for their sacrifices and shine a light on the fact that women and men like Jeff courageously served our country and have been waiting for months and even years to get the veterans benefits they need and deserve,” Frankel said. “There’s been progress, however there’s a lot more we must do to end the unacceptable VA backlog.”

In addition to talking about creating jobs, investing in infrastructure, innovation and education and addressing income inequality, Frankel hopes that President Obama talks about the importance of supporting our veterans and reducing the disability claims backlog during the State of the Union. As of January 21, more than 380,000 disability claims for veterans nationally are backlogged as they have been pending for at least 125 days. The VA in St. Petersburg has the most claims pending of any regional VA office in the country (more than 41,000) and highest number of backlogged claims (over 26,000).