Any Advantage To Registering As A Gulf War Vet?

[Sailing_Faith]

Hello all. I used to get the emails from the OSD group back before there was a Gulf War registry, but was on active duty at the time so I never registered. I was too busy avoiding being discharged, and did not want to draw any additional attention to myself. I have since retired, and been rated.... should I register now? Are there any advantages (for me, or the group as a whole?) Thank,

[jhilly]

Please let me know if you discover any advantages. I am also considering registering but I was released from active duty in 2004.

James

[carlie]

Sailing,

In my opinion, yes I would register as I feel it will

be beneficial to your group as a whole.

Kind of like the AO Registry for Nam vets.

jmho,

carlie

[halos2]

Get on the registry list. Numbers hold greater accountability. Symptoms common with GWV need to keep the registry active. Encourage anyone you know who is GWV to register too. Thanks for serving here too!

[john999]

When you get on the registry the VA should give you an exam. Some Gulf War syndromes may emerge. When I got on the AO registry two AO related conditions were exposed that put me on the track to gettting them SC'ed later. Without the exam I never would have claim these conditions because I did not know. Since then I have added two more conditions as secondary to DMII.

[Gridsmasher11]

It is very important to register...Within a month of my registration I was scheduled for an exam...It found 16 things wrong with me, some of which I knew about and others I did not.....Most of these can be traced to my Gulf War service....Even though you may not get an immediate rating for items found it will show and should be helpful for future claims....many GW1 vets do not start to manifest symptoms for several years....My symptoms have just starting getting bad in the last 5 years, but are getting progressively worse....Also they will send you the Registry updates when they publish them..Plus according to new Gulf War Study released this week by VA they will continue testing us and monitoring our health and list 9 presumptive illnesses that are Gulf War related should you be diagnosed with them....This can be very important...They are just now finding things that are associated with Agent Orange exposure from Vietnam Vets some of which they didn't recognize 10 years ago.....So if you are registered you are showing your service and hopefully they will keep in contact with you on changes and benefits that could affect you.........Grid