A Vietnam War veteran from Fort Lauderdale who suffered severe burns in combat and financial hardship back home will be watching from the House gallery Tuesday night when President Barack Obama delivers his State of the Union address.

Jeff Colaiacovo will represent all American service members, but especially the hundreds of thousands who endure bureaucratic snags and delays when seeking disability benefits.

His saga began 46 years ago with a mine explosion in Vietnam that left him temporarily blinded. A firefight a few months later burned a third of his body. After nearly a half-century of health problems, he began receiving $3,014 a month in disability payments this year with a boost from U.S. Rep. Lois Frankel and her staff.

Colaiacovo said he "almost fell to the floor" when Frankel, a Democrat from West Palm Beach, invited him to the Capitol to attend the president's address as her guest. "I feel so blessed," he said. "I will do whatever I can to help any vet."

For Frankel, the mother of a retired Marine, it's a chance to showcase service to constituents, especially veterans. For Colaiacovo, it's a way to signify that veterans can and should get what they deserve.

For Obama, the 9 p.m. speech to a national television audience is an opportunity to salute those who serve their country while rallying public support for an agenda that includes immigration reform, a proposed raise in the minimum wage, extended unemployment benefits and Obamacare.

Last year, Frankel invited the mother of a shooting victim in Newtown, Conn., to make the case for gun control. This year she invited Colaiacovo, partly to call attention to a backlog of 381,834 veterans who have waited more than 125 days for the Department of Veterans Affairs to process their disability claims.

A total of 26,320 Florida veterans have backlogged claims, averaging 311 days, according to VA statistics released last week.

About 38 percent of the backlogged veterans nationwide served in Vietnam, before medical records were compiled electronically and could be transferred via the Internet.

"The president recognizes this problem, and steps are being taken," Frankel said, noting efforts to transfer old records from the Pentagon to the VA. "It's not that the VA intentionally delays these cases or doesn't care. It's the combination of a lot of claims and a lot of old paperwork."

Colaiacovo, 65, still suffers from losing layers of skin on his hands, which bleed easily, and from post-traumatic stress disorder, herniated discs and exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.

He was driving a tank in Vietnam in 1967 when it struck a mine, setting off an explosion that briefly blinded him with shrapnel. After recovering a few months later, he was driving another tank that was struck by a hand-held rocket launcher, setting it afire and scalding a third of his body with second- and third-degree burns. After five months of treatment, the Army specialist – a self-described "grunt" – left the service with two Purple Hearts but did not seek benefits.

"I was raised to stand on your own two feet and make your own way in life, and that's what I did," he said. But about 2011, he became ill, his auto-parts business in Fort Lauderdale faltered and his wife lost her property-management job.

"Quite frankly, we ran out of money," he said. "A friend told me, 'Hey, you are a Vietnam vet. You have been in and out of care with doctors throughout your civilian life. Why don't you go to the VA?' So I walked into the VA for first time in May 2011."

That set off what he calls a merry-go-round of doctor appointments and paperwork that lasted nearly two years. Frustrated by the delays, he contacted Frankel last March, finding sympathy from a freshman House member intent on aiding veterans.

Her staff assigned a caseworker to help him navigate the system, filed a congressional inquiry with the VA and contacted a congressional liaison at the department to speed the process. Frankel sent a letter to the VA secretary asking for an "expedited review" of his disability claim.

By May last year, he was awarded $2,200 a month. Appeals raised it to $3,014.

"We need to have a process that does not require a member of Congress to look into it," Frankel said.

She helped push legislation through the House to accelerate the claims process by creating one electronic records system for the VA and the Department of Defense. Another bill would help veterans with multiple disability claims get paid as each one is processed rather than having to wait for all to be decided.

VA officials say they are gradually reducing the backlog and are on track to eliminate it by 2015.

Frankel plans to introduce Colaiacovo to other members of Congress this week. He hopes his example will encourage other veterans to press their claims and inspire speedier processing.

"To me it's like hitting the Lotto," he said. "I hope other veterans can experience what I experienced. Hopefully I won't be the last vet to be asked to the State of the Union address."