VA NOW ACCEPTING CLAIMS FOR HYPERTENSION

VA begins taking claims related to Agent Orange exposure

By Chris Roberts
El Paso Times



Veterans Affairs has started taking claims for hypertension related to Agent Orange exposure, but it will determine at a later date whether the claims will be honored as being military "service-related," according to service organizations who received notices from VA.

A letter from the Texas Veterans Commission to its county service officers indicates that the claims are expected to be approved.

The claims won't be actively "worked" until the VA makes its decision.

Requests for comment made to local VA agencies were referred to Washington, D.C.

However, after two days, the public affairs office in Washington, D.C., still had no comment.


If the claims are approved, it could mean as much as $300 a month for Bob Snow, a retired soldier who worked as a forward observer directing artillery fire in the Vietnamese jungles.

Snow - who worked with special forces soldiers and Montagnards, a French name for the indigenous people of Vietnam's central highlands - operated in areas sprayed with Agent Orange, a defoliant that knocked down vegetation used as cover by the enemy.
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