Blue Water Vet Succeeds At Bva Under

[Berta]

Haas was law of the land for a limited period of time.Advocates were urged to network all vet orgs to make sure Blue Water veterans had filed claims in this time frame- as they had to be adjudicated under Haas.

Haas also was to cover- as law- even though a temporary law- all pending claims.

This claim is a GREAT example of how that is supposed to work:

http://www.va.gov/vetapp07/files2/0714786.txt

Blue Water vet in receipt of the VSM-no 'boots on Nam' ground-

service connected granted July 2007- due to Agent Orange exposure.

The decision in part states:

"The central issue to this claim is whether or not the

conditions of the veteran's service constituted service in

the Republic of Vietnam as contemplated by the regulations

concerning herbicide exposure. According to Haas, for

claims such as this one [filed prior to the February 27, 2002

changes in VA M21-1, Part III, paragraph 4.08(k)(1)]

"'service in Vietnam' will be conceded" if a veteran's

records include receipt of the Vietnam Service Medal. See

Haas, 20 Vet. App. at 260-261"

It is very gratifying to me to see that the BVA is actually fulfilling these BWV claims under the Haas regs.

All of this could change if the VA successfully reversed Haas.

It would be terrible but those claims filed already that fit into the above Haas criteria should succeed.

Edited September 3, 2007 by Berta

[Stretch]

Finally.

Additional comments

The Board notes in passing that the veteran has also alleged

that he actually set foot in Vietnam. Because, according to

Haas, the veteran's Vietnam service for the purpose of the

Agent Orange presumptions is be shown via receipt of the

Vietnam Service Medal, and because the benefit sought on

appeal is being granted, the Board need not address this

alternative argument.

[Stretch]

This is an explanation of why Blue-Water Vets were excluded from class-action suit for AO conditions.

Further Class-Action for Navy Vets in reference to hearing diseases was halted because of the CAVC addition in 1988. Page down to Blue-Water example of lost class-action rights.

http://veterans.house.gov/hearings/schedul...7stichman.shtml