5 Tour Iraq Veteran faces unemployment and cancer

Soldier faces most frightening fight of his life

by JASON WHITELY / WFAA-TV

Posted on March 7, 2010 at 10:00 PM

Updated today at 2:14 PM

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CARROLLTON - Sgt. Andrew Hampton parachuted into Panama in 1989 and survived five tours in Iraq but there's little the U.S. Army can do to prepare him for his next fight.

"I just want to see my son grow up," he struggled to say, while fighting back tears.

Last week, doctors at the Dallas VA Hospital diagnosed him with gastric cancer. It's Stage 2, they told him, in the back of his stomach.

"Before this cancer, I was doing well," the 43-year-old reserve soldier said.

Facing the unknown now is unnerving. For Sgt. Hampton, a modest man, asking for help is almost humiliating.

"I...," he paused and looked away, "I cannot repay anybody right now."

After serving as a military policeman up until 2008, Sgt. Hampton returned to Iraq as a security contractor, after he was unable to find a job in North Texas. But he collapsed there in January.

He was placed on an emergency medical flight back to North Texas and now doctors here won't let him return.

As if the medical problems he faces aren't worrisome enough, bill collectors haven't been very forgiving.

"The way I'm going to pay the bills is through prayer," the single father said. "That's all I can do."

Sgt. Hampton is awaiting unemployment benefits.
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Soldier faces most frightening fight of his life