HOUSTON -- Note: The following story is a verbatim transcript of an Investigators story that aired on Thursday, July 12, 2007, on KPRC Local 2 at 10 p.m.

To serve, honor and protect. Incentives are few for the soldiers who put their lives on the line. And now, Local 2 investigates why some Houston veterans say they're losing one more.

Investigative reporter Amy Davis is here now to show us why the one place created to care for our veterans is accused tonight of taking their benefits away.

Houston's VA Medical Center is revered as one of the biggest and best veteran hospitals in the country. It treats more than 100,000 veterans a year.

But tonight, some Houston veterans say administrators there are reserving some rehab areas and equipment not for vets, but for its own employees.

Eighty-year-old Aaron Adams is no athlete but walking keeps him fit.

And these days, walking outside in Houston's heat is his only option for exercise.

"Don't seem like they care," Adams said.

"They" are administrators at the Houston VA Medical Center where this World War II vet is treated and where he used to work out.

"Ride the treadmill mostly," Adams said.

But our hidden camera found this VA fitness center empty on a Monday afternoon.

Rows of equipment sat motionless.

That's because Adams and about a dozen other vets say VA administrators nixed the open door policy here, telling veterans this equipment is now only available with a doctor's prescription. And then, it's only open for vets between the hours of 2 - 4 p.m. three days a week.

"I thought the gym was for the veterans but evidently not," veteran Basil Morehead said.

So, who does work out here?

We found this flier that shows VA employees can exercise here Monday through Friday more than 12 hours a day.

"This is a veterans hospital. Why do you need an employee's wellness center?" veteran Harry Lyons, Jr. said.

"It's not enough for things to be right. They must also look right and this does not look right to some veterans," U.S. Rep Al Green said.

Congressman Al Green stepped in when Adams called him last year.

"I did go over and I did review the circumstances," Green said.

The same circumstances we caught on hidden camera -- administrative offices are now set up in the gymnasium where veterans used to play dominoes and shuffleboard.

"I'm thinking the whole big complex is for veterans. That's my thinking," Adams said.

But the VA says it's short on space since the New Orleans VA shut down after Hurricane Katrina.

Many of those patients transferred here.

"No one from the VA Medical Center would talk to us on camera. But in an e-mail, a spokesperson told me VA employees pay dues to work out at the fitness center. Veterans we spoke with say they paid their dues serving our country," Davis reported.

"What about the veterans?" Davis asked.

"Throwed away, I guess, kicked to the curb," Adams said.

The medical center's director did send a letter to Rep. Green, writing "all veterans are encouraged to avail themselves on recreation activities and physical fitness resources within their local communities."

Unfortunately, that alternative leaves veterans like Adams on the outside looking in.

By the way, Adams says he did get a prescription from his doctor to use that fitness center. But when he took it up to the medical center, he still wasn't able to use the facility.