Alan Zarembo

The victims ranged from 26 to 60 years old. Many were health inspectors charged with making sure San Bernardino County's restaurants, pools and other gathering spots were clean and safe for the public.

Army Spc. James Christian Paquette walked into the benefits office at Fort Wainwright in Fairbanks with a question: Did his military life insurance policy pay in cases of suicide? He was assured that it did. Less than two weeks later, he shot and killed himself -- and his family collected $400,000.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans from the Vietnam era are filing for damages four decades after the war. They account for the largest share of the 865,000 veterans stuck in a growing and widely denounced backlog of compensation claims -- some 37 percent. The post 9-11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq account for 20 percent. The remainder are from the 1991 Gulf War, Korea, World War II and times of peace.