Vet organization focus of veterans’ ire

Thursday, Sept. 28, 2000 | 5:46 a.m.

Veterans in Clark County are feuding over whether Ed Gobel, president of the Council of Nevada Veterans Organizations and a Republican candidate for the Assembly, represents the 29,000 veterans and 60 groups that he has said he does.

Questions have been raised about the nonprofit veterans group and about whether Gobel's injuries and use of a wheelchair are related to combat in the Vietnam War.

Gobel said he has a 1997 letter from a Department of Veterans Affairs physician, Joseph Chinn, that said Gobel has been confined to a wheelchair because of "a Vietnam combat injury."

Gobel said he had shrapnel wounds in both knees and legs and illnesses, including diabetes, from Agent Orange exposure.

For years some have speculated that Gobel's injuries were from a car accident, not combat. As his political profile grew, first as a Democrat and now as a Republican, questions were raised more frequently.

Gobel is running as a Republican for the Assembly District 1 seat held by Democrat Tom Collins.