Thailand Vet Agent Orange Denial

[Roadrunner]

Hello my fellow Vets.  Today I received my B.B.E. from the V.A.  It contained my Denial for my claim submitted 2/15 for Prostrate Cancer as a result of Agent Orange exposure. After submitting my claim I found this forum, and learned that I should not have used the words Agent Orange.  I am a Thailand Vet stationed at Udorn R.T.A.F.B. from 4/69 till 2/70 at which time I was discharged at Travis A.F.B. Calif.  My hooch was about 100 ft. from the Base perimeter fence line & Kill zone.  So after reading some of the post from this forum, I will be claiming "BOOTS ON  THE GROUND" in my N.O.D. along with other items that I have found on the forum.  So fellow Vets. move over, 1 more hamster reporting for duty on that Wheel.  I would appreciate any and all ideas and suggestions, leading to a better decision on my claim.  Thank you.  And THANK ALL OF YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE.   I hope this is the correct forum for this.  If not please move to the right one.

[Berta]

The Thailand directive was developed by a hadit member, who relentlessly pursued his claim and many Thailand vets have proven exposure to AO since then, due in great part to his work..

Chris Attig has the regulations as well as some good advice for any Thailand veteran who believes they were exposed to AO and have any of the AO presumptives:

http://www.veteranslawblog.org/agent-orange-thailand-exposure/

We have many discussions here in the AO forum on Thailand and we interviewed the above veteran, Kurt Priessman here many times, and those shows are in the SVR and radio blog archives.

Claiming "Boots on ground" only involves being on Vietnam's soil.And it only involves One boot...(I had a claim like that years ago,from a veteran  and only one boot on ground but that boot did the trick...the vet had received a proposed reduction of his 100% P & T  due to AO because VA said their award was in error) and he had 2 children set for college under Chapter 35,so you can imagine how stressful this all was for him. Upon receipt of our evidence, the VA canceled his hearing and restored his benefits.

It just shows how we all must aggressively fight our claims and seek any evidence we can.

 

 

[Roadrunner]

Thank you Berta for you reply. I will put the info. you sent me to good use.  I am honored to receive a reply from one of the many legends of this forum. Thank you again for All you do for us Vets.

[Berta]

This member here received an AO Thailand award and made a point about having a USAF MOS that probably had to be explained to the VA.:

Others here have succeeded.

Is it possible you could have had a brief stop over in Vietnam going  to or from Thailand?

Have you acquired your military personnel record from NARA?

Can you scan and attach here the denial? (cover c file # and name,address  prior to scanning it)

 

[Berta]

"My hooch was about 100 ft. from the Base perimeter fence line & Kill zone. "

Have you attempted to get buddy statements to support that?

Do you have any photos of how close that hootch was to the perimeter?

The internet has made it easier than ever to find buddies and your unit surely has a web site.

And easy to find EVIDENCE:

Matthew Hill is a veteran’s attorney as well as a member here at hadit.

This is part of a transcript at the link below.I hope the link to the Maps works, if not they can be googled.

 

“Matthew:  Right. The way the VA says it is that the veteran had to have some kind of military occupational specialty that kept them on the perimeter. The one they refer to as MP dog handler.

If you look at maps of these bases – Korat, Udorn, Ubon – they’re so small that the veterans were housed by the perimeter.

Carol:  The bathroom was by the perimeter. Where they ate was by the perimeter. You can prove this. We’ve gotten all the maps. We have layouts of them. We’ve collected quite a bit of data from our veterans that we are able to use in proving service connection for other veterans.”

https://www.hillandponton.com/widow-thailand-vet-get-va-benefits/

 

[Berta]

Here is Udorn RTAF:

http://www.preservingourhistory.com/MapUdorn3-D1969.pdf

 

[Buck52]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Udorn_Royal_Thai_Air_Force_Base

 

some more infomation at udorn

 

...........Buck