Ailing U.s. Veteran Wins Payout Over Agent Orange Exposure In Okinawa

[Jumpmaster]

I apologize for duplication of any earlier postings-- but I believe many Viet Nam era veterans may miss Agent Orange exposure posts for areas they've served in without knowing that AO was used.

Many died waiting, leaving behind survivors suffering from their loss to reconsider if they should pursue the fight to obtain VA accrued benefits when their Veteran died from one of the presumptive diseases without SC toxic Agent Orange herbicide exposure.

Ailing U.S. veteran wins payout over Agent Orange exposure in Okinawa

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs has granted compensation to another former service member for exposure to Agent Orange while stationed on Okinawa during the Vietnam War era.

Dated October 2013, the award was made to a retired Marine Corps driver suffering from prostate cancer that, the presiding judge ruled, had been triggered by his transportation and usage of the toxic defoliant on the island between 1967 and 1968.

The decision to grant the claim comes in spite of repeated Pentagon denials that Agent Orange was ever present in Okinawa.

According to the ruling of the Board of Veterans’ Appeals (BVA), the unnamed marine alleges he came into contact with Agent Orange while transporting it in barrels and rubber bladders between U.S. military ports at Naha and White Beach — a navy installation on the island’s east coast — and a warehouse on Kadena Air Base

The former marine was able to identify the barrels he helped to transport as the infamous Vietnam War defoliant due to the tell-tale orange stripes painted around their middles.

The retired service member had first applied for compensation in 2004 but his claim was initially rejected. Following appeals by the veteran, Judge Mary Ellen Larkin ruled in his favor last October, stating,

“While neither the service department nor DOD confirms the presence of Agent Orange on Okinawa during 1967 and 1968, the veteran offers a highly credible, consistent account that he was directly exposed thereto during those years while performing his assigned military duties.”

According to U.S. government records and interviews conducted by The Japan Times, more than 250 former service members claim to have been sickened by exposure to Agent Orange on Okinawa, but only a handful have ever been given help by their government.

A 1971 U.S. Army report on Agent Orange — revealed by The Japan Times last year (‘71 Pentagon paper says Agent Orange was stored on Kadena Air Base,” Jan. 12, 2013) — cited a herbicide stockpile at Kadena, and it has been reported that the C-123 airplanes that sprayed defoliants over Vietnam were sent to the base for maintenance.

Keep in mind the VA is not your (BFF) all of us have lost family members and friends or know others affected by the extended delay of benefits for SC chemical exposure claims.

Please review full story at this link. http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/03/17/issues/ailing-u-s-veteran-wins-payout-over-agent-orange-exposure-in-okinawa/#.VcFy9pDbLIV

Jumpmaster

[Berta]

I picked this up from Colonel Dan's recent Veterans Issues email.,I think

I also think this case has already been mentioned here. I posted all other AO Okinawa awards , and AO outside Vietnam awards here too ,over the years. Plus the 2 or 3 CONUS AO awards.

They all prove that NOTHING IS IMPOSSIBLE.

Thanks for posting this