TO FILE AGENT ORANGE CLAIMS
Veterans' advocate Jim Strickland provides regular columns for VA Watchdog dot Org.
In this column, Jim responds to the U.S. Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims "Blue Water Navy" decision and offers great advice for sailors who want to file Agent Orange claims with the VA.
Background and decision here... http://www.vawatchdog.org/old%20newsflashes%
20AUG%2006/newsflash08-18-2006-4.htm
If you would like to contact Jim about his columns, you can email him here...
The archive of Jim's articles is here...
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It wasn’t always orange stripes.
From 1961 to 1971 it also came dressed as a colorful display of candy colored purple, pink, blue, white and green. Colors reminiscent of M&Ms maybe, or Skittles.
It’s a national tragedy that at the end of the rainbow provided for us by the Monsanto and Dow Chemical companies, there was no pot of gold. While the industrial disaster of Bhopal, India in 1984 is often accepted as the world’s worst, the casualties from our misuse of Agent Orange continue to grow, both in the people of Viet Nam and in the Americans who served there.
It’s accepted as fact today that virtually any exposure, no matter how slight or brief, to Agent Orange poses a significant risk to your health. We’ve banned its production and use based on our Viet Nam experiences.
The only people left arguing against that statement are those who never sat in the rear of an Air Force C-123 “Provider” with a few dozen sloshing 55 gallon drums of the stuff and connected the pressurized hoses needed to spray it over friend and foe alike. The folks who were dispensing the stuff from the air were being shot at while this was occurring but as history has taught us, that was a relatively minor worry compared to the lethal liquids they handled.
It’s estimated that by the end of 1971 more than 19 million gallons of Agent Orange and its colorful cousins had been sprayed over Viet Nam in an unsuccessful attempt at “territory denial”, the military terminology of the day for hoping to get a visual on the enemy without their cover of ancient, lush jungle. Along with the C-123, Agent Orange was sprayed from helicopters, trucks and even home-garden style backpack sprayers carried by individual soldiers who wore little protection other than their soaking wet fatigues.
Today we know that dioxin, the core chemical of Agent Orange, is a human carcinogen and that any exposure to dioxin is related to a statistically increased incidence of non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma, soft tissue sarcoma, Hodgkin’s Disease, chronic lymphocytic leukemia, respiratory cancers, prostate cancer, renal cancer, testicular cancer, spontaneous abortion, spina bifida…and the list plays on and on.
There is a list of “presumptive” diseases established by Veterans Administration and these diseases are assumed (presumed) to be related to an individual’s exposure to dioxin if that individual served in Viet Nam during a prescribed period of time and “set foot” on the ground. “Set foot” is an important phrase, we’ll address that in a moment.
While this list is being debated and argued and expanded even today it’s safe to say that if you meet the criteria and are diagnosed with chloracne, Type 2 diabetes (also known as Type II diabetes mellitus or adult-onset diabetes), Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer…you will be approved for your disability benefits and given health care with a much faster process than other diseases or injuries. There’s also a special category for birth defects of Veteran’s children, most notably spina bifida kids.
Now, back to that phrase of “set foot” on the ground of the country of Viet Nam that would qualify you for benefits under the presumptive category of illnesses.
In the past, VA has denied such benefits to personnel, mostly Navy, who served in the Viet Nam war but never actually walked on the soil of Viet Nam. If you were Navy and your vessel came within rock-throwing distance of the shore but you never got off the boat, you weren’t qualified for these presumptive benefits no matter the number of Viet Nam service ribbons you’d earned.
On August 16th all that changed. In a complex proceeding the United States Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims ruled that a Veteran who served in the waters off the shores of Viet Nam may reasonably be presumed to have suffered exposure to dioxin and therefore is likely qualified to receive presumptive benefits for his disease.
This is a sensible and sound decision by the Court.
Those of you who served on a sea-going vessel know that the spraying of Agent Orange, particularly along the shorelines, was far from being an exact science. As hundreds of thousands of gallons were misted from the cargo holds of those C-123s, the winds often picked up a lot of Agent Orange and swept it hundreds of yards out over water onto your ship and into your face.
Beyond the implications obvious in this decision, this speaks volumes on behalf the tens of thousands of other soldiers, airmen, Marines and Navy who didn’t set foot in Viet Nam. Whether you served your time during those years in Korea or Kansas, Europe or Japan or even Hawaii, you were fighting the Viet Nam war. Maybe you didn’t get exposed to dioxin or have the North Vietnamese Army shooting at you from their jungle, you were all still affected by that war every minute of every day.
Now we have a favorable decision in an important issue, what do we do with it?
If you are in any category of Veteran who may be eligible, whether you have health issues or not today, you should participate in the Agent Orange Registry. You can contact any VA facility to find out how to register. You’ll answer questions and have a physical examination that’s very complete. “Why bother”, you ask? You help yourself and other Veterans by having your statistics entered into the database. Even if your health is good and you feel fine, the physical may unmask other issues you didn’t know you had and give you a head start to deal with them. It’s just the right thing to do.
If you are Navy or another military service category that may be affected by the August 16th 2006 Court decision and you believe you have a disease or condition related to your Viet Nam era service, you should immediately contact a trusted representative to assist you or contact VA directly and file your claim. I always recommend that you file any reasonable claim today, right now, rather than waiting until you’ve gathered all the evidence you’ll need to support your claim. Your benefits are dated to the day VA receives your claim and during the process you’ll have more than enough time to compile your evidentiary documents. Time lost initiating your claim equals benefits lost.
If you aren’t affected by this, spread the word to your comrades. You’ll do every one of them a favor by letting them know the good news and you can bet VA isn’t going to be shouting this from the rooftops. Your word of mouth network will be invaluable to helping other Veterans.
Finally, if you’ve filed before and been denied, do it again. If you’re within the one year period where you may routinely file a Notice of Disagreement (NOD) do so now. If it’s been more than a year it gets to be more challenging and you’re probably going to need some experienced help…contact that trusted representative to talk about “clear and unmistakable error” on the part of VA. With this Court’s decision, you may have a case.
As with all other things VA, never say never. It ain’t over even when that fat lady sings.
On a personal note…
My closest friend here at home is a Marine. He served in Viet Nam in 1968 & 1969 as a combat engineer. He dealt with ordinance; defusing booby traps, land mines, trip-wired explosives and such. He was 19 years old then, a home town boy who enlisted in the Marine Corps for a 4 year tour out of a sense of patriotism and adventure. He did well, made his E-5 rank quickly and even had time for one of the infamous Marine Med Cruises after his Viet Nam service (he recalls being seasick every day of the 6 months of the cruise). He did it all and never got a scratch. About 5 years ago he had some stomach pain, became very ill very quickly and was soon diagnosed with Agent Orange related non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Today he’s at our VAMC suffering his 3rd relapse. His life has become a merry-go-round of biopsies, chemotherapy, overwhelming pain and fear. He’s been in experimental treatments at the nearby state medical university and is now being worked up for a bone marrow transplant. Another good friend is ex-Navy and served in the Gulf of Tonkin. He receives Social Security Disability payments today for his crippling peripheral neuropathy but has been denied any service connection by VA; he had never set foot in Viet Nam. These fine Americans are still fighting the Viet Nam war.
It’s for these guys and all the others who have given so much that I write about VA benefits. I hope you’ll help them by being active in supporting positive legislation and driving favorable Court decisions for Veterans. Your voice counts. Use it.
Helpful Links
The Court’s Decision :
http://www.vawatchdog.org/CAVC%20-%202006%
20Jonathan%20L.%20Haas%20v%20N%20(Presumption%
20of%20AO%20exposure%20for%20blue%20water%20Navy).pdf
More Info:
http://www.vba.va.gov/bln/21/Benefits/Herbicide/AOno1.htm
The Agent Orange Registry:
Call 1-800-827-1000 for an application form or visit VA's Web site at: http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov.
The required disclaimer:
I'm not offering legal advice. The information provided herein may or may not apply to your particular circumstances and is provided for your general knowledge only. If you're in doubt, consult an attorney or other representative before you rely on the information offered here to make your decisions.
Contact Jim Strickland here...
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Larry Scott