With more than 180 veterans seeking transportation to medical appointments on O'ahu, the head of the Disabled American Veterans Transportation Network said he is having a difficult time servicing them because his program has just one van and three volunteer drivers.

Robert Kent said he can only provide transportation three days a week and he often has to tell disabled veterans to reschedule their appointments if they want to catch a free ride. The DAV's lone van also is not handicapped accessible, so veterans in wheelchairs or those who are not ambulatory have to find other ways to get to their appointments.

Kent said he could use at least five new vans and several more drivers, but he has just $7,000 and vans would cost him about $13,000 each. He said he often uses his own van to drive patients to and from appointments.

The 73-year-old Army veteran and retired city bus driver is pleading with car dealers to donate vans and residents to contribute whatever they can so he can adequately service the disabled veterans. He said he needs to raise between $150,000 and $200,000 for the vehicles and to cover administrative costs.

"With only one van and three drivers, I'm having a hard time doing it right now. I had to cut down to three days a week," Kent said. "I cannot do my administrative work and drive myself. I've been driving Mondays and Fridays and it makes it quite hard on me."

He added that having a handicapped-accessible van equipped with a wheelchair lift would be a dream come true.

"I'd like to have one here on the island," Kent said. "Other states have handicapped vans, but Hawai'i is so far away from the other states that we don't get the service like the other states do."

Along with more vehicles, Kent said he also needs more drivers so he can expand service to five days a week.

Kent said he hopes to meet with Tammy Duckworth when she is in town to participate in Memorial Day services. Duckworth, a McKinley High School graduate, is the Veterans Administration's assistant secretary for public and intergovernmental affairs.

"I'm a retired Vietnam veteran. We didn't have any kind of service when we came back from Vietnam and I want to make sure that the troops that are coming back now get this kind of service," Kent said.