FORT WORTH, Texas — In the days before President Joe Biden’s visit to Fort Worth, Gary Whitfield couldn’t help but tune into the news closer and look deeper at the topics the president was discussing.

As a retired Air Force senior master sergeant, Whitfield said a presidential visit to his hometown is an occasion to pay extra attention because the focus of the visit hits close to him.

President Biden is discussing expanding military health care, specifically for veterans who experienced toxic environmental exposures during their service. At the State of the Union address this month, the president cited his late son Beau’s 2015 death being potentially linked to exposures to toxic burn pits. 

“We don’t know for sure if a burn pit was the cause of his brain cancer, or the diseases of so many of our troops, but I’m committed to finding out everything we can,” Biden said during the State of the Union.

Burn pits were used in conflicts in the Middle East to dispose of various items and are linked to several illnesses.

Whitfield started his service during the Vietnam War. He said potential toxic exposures were a concern even during his time. He recalled taking special care around certain ammunitions as he helped train members across the Air Force in weapons use, and entering areas in other missions that required special gear for safety against exposures.

“You had to be careful and had to have your face covered in certain areas of things that you were messing with,” said Whitfield.

Biden’s efforts to expand health care benefits for those exposures could move quickly as the Senate has already passed a bill on the topic this year, and the calls for change seem to find support on both sides of the political aisle.

While those benefits would mostly target those widespread burn pit exposures, Whitfield said the action would be a hopeful one for him and many of the veterans he spends time with regularly as it continues to show support for the country’s growing veteran population.

“That’s great, that’s what’s needed,” he said.