The dreams were like a movie without the rolling credits, and they came without warning.

He’d close his eyes at night and as the peace of sweet sleep began to overcome his body and mind, it would happen.

His senses were invaded by the smell of the rotting jungle that carpeted beneath his combat boots.

The stench of sweat that had flowed from his body, and those of his fellow soldiers overwhelmed him.

He was there again, in the jungles of Laos, Cambodia and Vietnam.

His muscles tensed as he clenched his fists over and over again without even realizing it.

Then the sounds of that long ago war came, too.

A snapping twig erupted into explosions from boobytraps that married with the rattle of machine gun fire and the shouts from long ago comrades.

But more than anything else, it was the screaming inside his head that haunted him.

Sadly, many times the screams were his own.

“I just thought I was crazy,” Delgado said.

What he had then, and still battles nearly 40 years later, is post traumatic stress disorder, a mental disorder that is common to military members who have served in battle situations.

It is also one of many hot-button issues involving the veteran population that Sen. Barack Obama and Sen. John McCain have addressed in their presidential platforms, and with two wars raging and the election less than 60 days away, many veterans are taking notice.

Theron Johnson, who heads up the Killeen Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, is a registered Democrat, but he’ll be voting for John McCain in November.

“He’s been there and done that,” Johnson said of the former prisoner of war. “He can walk the walk and he can talk the talk, and Obama can’t.”

McCain may have worn the uniform, but he has also played a vital role during his senatorial career in passing legislation to aid the veteran population.

Dr. Luke Nichter, assistant professor for social sciences at Tarleton State University-Central Texas in Killeen, teaches presidential history.

Nichter said a lot of what McCain has to say about veterans’ issues is really just old news.

“Their whole orientation of the program is different,” Nichter said. “Sen. McCain’s program is clearly oriented toward the past. He doesn’t really say a lot about what he’ll do in the future.”

In essence, according to Nichter, McCain’s plan isn’t really a plan at all.

“We are left to kind of assume that he’ll continue doing these sorts of things,” Nichter said. “A lot of his information is a decade old.”

Some of the highlights of McCain’s veterans platform include investing in enlistment and re-enlistment bonuses for soldiers as well as increasing the death gratuity for the families of those killed while serving their country and increasing pay for service members.

The McCain platform also talks about advocating more for Gulf War veterans and giving veterans living in rural or remote areas access to mobile health care centers.

By contrast, Obama’s plan, which Nichter referred to as fresher, is focused primarily on the health care aspect for veterans, specifically in the area of mental health, PTSD and traumatic brain injury - an injury common among veterans returning from the war in Iraq.

“He is looking completely forward,” Nichter said of Obama’s plan. “It focuses more on social issues and social challenges that both soldiers and veterans have.”

The Army is well aware of the issues that soldiers face returning from war, and almost since the war in Iraq began, steps have been taken to ensure the troops receive the best care possible.

Since 2003, the Army has taken steps to help soldiers deal with war’s aftermath by providing in-depth counseling services and mental health resources to soldiers and their families.

Now, soldiers who are leaving a theater of war are required to undergo a post deployment health reassessment that helps behavioral health professionals determine if the soldier is suffering from PTSD.

The Army then follows up again with the soldiers within 90 days of returning to ensure they are not suffering from symptoms of PTSD.

The Army has also taken steps to create more comprehensive health care programs for soldiers suffering from traumatic brain injury, an injury that is a trademark of the detonation of improvised explosive devices in Iraq and most recently in Afghanistan, and other injuries.

Just two years ago, in the wake of scandal at Walter Reed Hospital, new units for the injured soldier, called Warrior Transition Units, were created, with the largest one in the Army found at Fort Hood.

Still, there are those who didn’t have those types of services, such as veterans who served during World War II, Korea or Vietnam. Those are the people who Johnson, of the Killeen Chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, tries to help every day.

“Most of the emphasis is on the veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan and a lot of the people are forgetting the World War II, Korea and Vietnam vets. They deserve as much attention as the other veterans,” Johnson said. “They’ve all served this country.”

Johnson said all the issues that Obama and McCain talk about regarding the veteran population are important, but it depends on how old the veteran is.

And for those aging veterans, the most important issue is health care.

The Obama camp also has touted the expansion of VA centers to deal with the exodus of service members who separate from the military, which Obama referred to as a “seamless transition.”

“He wants to take on what he calls a broken benefits bureaucracy,” Nichter said. “Sen. McCain doesn’t give us a lot of new ideas.”

While McCain’s ideas may not be as new, they are more comprehensive than those presented by Obama, Nichter said.

Obama, he said, should concentrate on making his veterans plan more robust and comprehensive, especially when it comes to dealing with veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

At least that is what John Delgado is hoping for - not just for himself, but for his children.

Since 2003, two of his sons, Robert and Richard Delgado, have served in Iraq with Fort Hood’s 4th Infantry Division.

Robert, who has since been discharged, served a tour in 2003 and was wounded by small arms fire.

Richard Delgado served his first tour in 2004, and just completed his second tour.

He is home now at Fort Carson, Colo., where the 4th ID will be relocating in 2009.

John Delgado, who still goes for therapy session at the VA, hasn’t seen the effects of the war as much in his son Richard as he has in Robert, so he is hopeful Robert will get the help that is available, instead of suffering for years in silence.

“I can see the PTSD in him,” Delgado said.