Hello Friends,
Please Can You Help?!
A lot of conversation has been circulating in regards to Rep. Bob Filner's (D-CA) "Agent Orange Equity Act of 2008," H.R. 6562.
Some think this will resolve the exposure to Agent Orange issues because it includes those exposed in "the inland waterways of such Republic Vietnam, the waters offshore of such Republic, and the airspace above such Republic." While this solves the problems of the "Blue Water Navy" veterans...the fact is it leaves others out such as those exposed in nearby countries such as Laos, Cambodia, Thailand, Korea, Okinawa, the Phillipines. It also doesn't include other areas through which large quantities of Agent Orange were shipped (and used) such as Guam & even right here on military bases in the U.S.
I think the saddest part about herbicide issues/exposures is the fact
that so many years has gone by, too many lives lost & so little has
changed. The cases are presented, the facts are there to back them
up, but no justice prevails. Somehow, together we must find a way to
change that!
Please Can You Help?!
HELPPP!, the Herbicide Exposure Legislative Proposal & Promotion Program, is a Yahoo Group created with the purpose and mission of establishing a forum to support and advance the passage of legislation submitted by Blue Water Navy veterans and introduced in the Congress by the Chairman, House Committee on Veterans Affairs.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/AgentOrange-DioxinExposureBill-HELPP/
The Group includes all those exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides: While serving in the Military or as a civilian, in combat or in direct support of combat, from any service, including but not limited to Blue and Brown Water Navy, Thailand, Laos, Cambodia, Okinawa, Guam, Korea, and the Philippines or other places from the Lane Evan's list and/updates from 'The History of the US Department of Defense Programs for the Testing, Evaluation, and Storage of Tactical Herbicides by Alvin Young', between 1962 and 1975, during the period known as the Vietnam War, the War in Indochina, or the War in Southeast Asia.
The Group does not segment, discriminate, or differentiate between services, categories of service, countries, MOS, or rank and will not discuss political parties, candidates, or other subjects other than to determine legislative sponsors, co-sponsors, and strategies to ensure passage of this legislation submitted to clarify the service-connection of veterans as it applies to P.L. 102-4, the Agent Orange Act of 1991.
Thursday, July 31, 2008
"Agent Orange Equity Act of 2008," H.R. 6562 needs tweaking
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I was exposed to agent orange at Fort Gordon Ga. while serving as a game warden in 1967-1969. I was ordered to spray herbicides as part of my military duty to control unwanted vegetation around a chain of fourteen fishing lakes. My evidence of record more than serves to substantiate that fact. I have also proven that agents orange, blue, and white were used and tested at Fort Gordon. Those tactical herbicides were used before my tenure in 1966 and during my tenure in 1967. The information supplied in the documents generated by Alvin Young and by the DoD as a result of Congressman Lane Evans inquiry in 2006 testify to the hundreds of gallons used on that post in 1966-1967.
ReplyDeleteThe real kicker in my case is that I have an acneform disease noted on my service separation examination record. That examination was preformed five months before my actual discharge date. The acneform disease also happened to have been noted within the required one year limit from my last exposure date at Fort Gordon. That same acneform disease was diagnosed as Chloracne on my 2006 Agent Orange Exam. Since that time more than fourteen doctors have diagnosed the disease as being Chloracne. VA’s own doctors, as well as my private doctors have written nexus letters. The disease is both active and chronic and has been for more than thirty eight years now.
The only way to get the disease of Chloracne is to be exposed to an herbicide agent such as those used in Vietnam or to have been involved in an industrial accident. I have never lived or worked in an industrial setting.
I also have type 2 diabetes, along with the residuals of that disease. I filed my claim for direct herbicide exposure in October 2005, even before the DoD released the documentation of the spraying at Fort Gordon. My claim was denied in 2006 in the original decision and twice since in DRO reconsiderations. The claim was not denied because of lack of evidence, but rather the lack of consideration of the evidence. I have a BVA hearing coming up September 12, 2008.
My hope is that all AO exposure cases, including the ones that took place on the installations as outlined by the DOD and documented by Alvin Young be given consideration in the Agent Orange Equity act of 2008. Agent Orange is Agent Orange no matter where the exposure took place, and the devastation has the same outcome.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r9qRuHyn03I
There are many people who were exposed stateside. All of you need to be taken care of.
ReplyDeleteWhat you may not see is that as you fight for yourself, you are fighting for others as well.
If we continue to fail the older generations of veterans, the new generation does not stand a chance. What will happen to them when the media spotlight goes dark? Vietnam veterans still suffer from Agent Orange, Gulf War veterans suffer from depleted uranium and now we see illnesses in the newer veterans. Who is to say that five years from now we won't see history repeated again? We need to get this right for all of you.
If an individual was exposed then he or she should be able to prove it. Unless and until then they should be denied compensation.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous,
ReplyDeleteIn a perfect world all that sounds good but this is not a perfect world. Mistakes happen in the VA and when they do, people do suffer. A friend of mine has Agent Orange illnesses and PTSD. She's been in a fight with the VA for five years trying to "prove" her claim. Nothing is perfect and some of them do not have honorable claims approved until someone who gets the claim in their hands knows what they are looking at. There are times when denials do not make sense to the veteran either. The VA asks for more information but it is not clear what information they are looking for. Then there are cases that get denied no matter what the veteran does. This is why a lot of veterans have to turn to lawyers to have their claims approved.
It still falls to the veteran to prove the exposure, whether it be direct or presumed. The stance taken by the VA may seem hard but given the number of questionable and sometimes outright false claims received on a continuing basis, how else would you expect them to respond. They are still required to be good stewards of the public funds.
ReplyDeleteThis effort will torpedo HR 6562 as it is the incorrect way to go about adding those groups from outside Vietnam who were exposed. As designed, HR 6562 will restore benefits to Blue Water NAvy Veterans who lost those benefits in 2002, and Blue Sky Air Force Veterans who were stripped from the Agent Orange Act of 1991 by the VA in 1993. It will also add for the first time veterans who served in Thailand, Laos, and Cmabodia. All of these Veterans received the Vietnam Service Medal, which will be restored as the proof of presumptive exposure to AO. Adding groups from outside the ones mentioned above will weigh the bill down with so many problem area, disfferences in time frames, different locations, different levels of exposure, and so on, resulting in a cumbersome bill that Congress will perceive as prohibitively expensive. By so doing the people who are doing this will likely cause the bill to fail, and that will be a defeat not just to the Blue Water Navy, Blue Sky Air Force, and TLC Veterans, but to the very constituancy they are trying to help.
ReplyDeleteNo matter how you cut it, we need to take more than one bite of the apple to get justice for all those who were exposed to herbicides. No single bite will do it.
Your support for these "one bite" advocates will help bury the hopes and legacies of all those exposed to AO who are not receiving benefits now.
The groups who were exposed in Korea, Guam, Okinanwa, and so on need to realize they must file a request for a different bill more suited to their situation than HR 6562. This will allow HR 6562 to go through and will kick open the door to the rest.
This is common sense stuff.
It needs to be made clear to those who would risk the future legacies of so many.
By the way, they will not allow anyone on their group who offers dissent.
I agree that levels of exposure are important. Lets see I served honorably and meritoriously for over twenty years. I prepared, mixed and sprayed Agent Orange, Agent White and other herbicides while assigned to the 43rd Supply Sq Fuels Division at Anderson AFB Guam. We refueled B52 D's G's and H's for the onslaught of Vietnam twenty four hours aday. I contracted chloracne all over my body, severe heart disease, spinal stenosis and degenerative joint disease, edema, severe high cholesterol that wont go down with any kind of meds or diet, and yet they deny my exposure to those Agents and it is on my Airman Performance Reports...Vegetation control....very nice,,,very nice... dont you just love justice
ReplyDeleteThere are far too many of you suffering and being ignored. I just did another post on this yesterday about Blue Water Veterans. They have no problem sending you to serve but when you need illnesses and wounds taken care of after, they just don't have the time or the money or the interst to take care of you.
ReplyDeleteCripps has been whining around the web for quite some time now. He claims he was exposed while assigned as a game warden on an army base. Talk about lack of credibility! It just seems that when there are so many who might legitimately benefit, these creeps come out of the woodwork trying to snag a freebie.
ReplyDeleteGee, Anonymous, it doesn't take much courage at all to hide behind that and then attack someone who is suffering. "Talk about lack of credibility!"
ReplyDeleteFor your information, in case you care at all, there are a lot of veterans who are still trying to have their claims approved thru no fault of their own.
What about the veterans out there who are still trying to find someone to help them? The VA workers are up to their eyeballs.
They have their hands full and while there have been some higher ups in the VA getting caught feeding shredders, the bulk of the VA workers do a damn good job.
As for Agent Orange, keep this in mind. The VA did not cover it at first until Vietnam Veterans fought long and hard to have it approved. To this day, they are still finding illnesses linked to it. They are still finding veterans exposed to it who never even set foot in Vietnam because obviously it had to come from somewhere and the equipment used to drop it, from the planes in the air to the ground crews servicing them, they came into contact, and yes, even the ones who loaded it.
I just found this site and am glad to see some one is working on the stateside issue. Unfortunately, it comes too late for my husband who passed away in 2006. He was exposed to Agent Orange at Eglin AFB in 1962. We would talk about it on occasion but never linked his lymphoma or undiagnosed lung disease to the exposure until after he passed away. I filed the paperwork with the VA but they denied that he was exposed because "he wasn't in vietnam" It's too late for me and mine, but hopefully getting the word out might help someone else.
ReplyDeleteBJ Fletcher
Hi BJ
ReplyDeleteDon't take no for an answer. Keep fighting them. Go to the DAV and get them to help you and if you end up in an area where they are not helpful enough, go to the National Office for help. Most of the time they are great but I've heard some problems in some areas. They know all the rules and they know how to talk to the VA to get justice. They are not part of the VA but operate on donations.
There were a lot of men and women like your husband that didn't go to Vietnam but were exposed all the same. I am so sorry you have to go thru any of this. It would be great if the VA just did the right thing instead of letting veterans suffer.
NY Mike: I was exposed to ao at Eglin AFB in 1974. I'm with you guys all the way-always was-and always will be.
ReplyDelete