Agent Orange And The Navy

[bobbyq]

. I represent a Vietnam Navy vet with health issues A/O related. His ship docked in Da Nang and the Veterans Administration themselves gave us proof of this action THEMSELVES. Further the veteran provided a letter from a fellow seaman attesting to the fact they did dock in Da Nang. The VA has denied the claim and we are going on almost two years back and forth. They say, I quote: We have weighed the evience submitted in support of your claim and have determined that there is conflicting information in your letter submitted by R Cellille and the response from USASCRUR. You submitted a letter by RC stating that he served with you in the Navy on the USS POWER. Mr. RC stated that the USS POWER docked for refueling DA NANG Harbor and anchored so that all you had to do was disembark by the gangplank. This information conflicts with the information verified by USASCUR which states that the USS Power anchored in DA NANG Harbor for seven hours and motor whaleboat operations were conducted from the ship to the beach with the Commanding Officer and other personnel aboard for briefings ashore. The evidence submitted does not show that you have in-country Vietnam service. The veteran should not have to put with this and he should be granted service connection. The veteran was there and it is documented! He has the medical issues related to AO! There is at least a plausible causality of his exposure and the burden of proof is met.

[Berta]

I agree with you-

sometimes I think it is a well planned or pre determined lackadaisical attitude that perhaps someone higher than a rater controls.

My BVA award made a point that my file held evidence for 6 years at that point- that the VARO had never mentioned or considered at all.

I wonder if there is any BVA data base of the decisions that they see which defy basic VA regulations as to evidence.BVA knows who prepares these bad decisions.Those RO employees who skim over the good stuff and pick out the negative stuff should be canned.

The horrendous backlog is due in part to thousands of remands which are a "re do' of what they could have done right in the first place at the regional level.

Docking is better than anchoring in Danang.

Have you attempted to reach John Rossie ? (He is President of Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association?)

You made an excellent point.

COMMON Sense can help a claim succeed on the claimant's part.

I think it alludes the raters completely.I used some common sense in my FTCA case.Then again the lawyers at OGC who handled that case

can read.

[bobbyq]

i remember going to the "FILE ROOM" here in Phx and they had a fairly new building (this was way before Nehmer) yet they had underestimated the claims they would recieve, there was no room for them. They had stacks and stack of files (hundreds) just here and over there. Now with Nehmer they are sending them out to other VARO's but what I can not understand is why do they send some to Denver and Denver sends some to San Diego etc. Are they so specialized that only certain VARO's can work specific claims? The VA is very good at creating thier own problems. CAse in point had a vet with a Purple Heart and they had denied his claim because the sharpnel were not service connected. What the hey? Of course we went back and showed them the error of their ways, but the point is how does this happen?

They have coaches that oversee I assume all the decisions but you have decisions like that. I know a there are vets out there that will take advantage of the situation but overall I would say 90% at least are honorable and only looking for what they rightfully entitled to. To me it is a wonder that some vet has not gone down to the local VARO and punched someone in the face. I have two that I know of that had to be escorted out of the VARO, and as far as I know it was just prolong action on their claim and they are at the starvation point. I guess overall they do not SEE what financial crisis this country is in and they do not put a human touch to some of the claims that are filed as hardship, they really do not look at the overall time span a claim has been in, the personal touch is not there. I will get to it tomorrow, I have to go home and watch the game, see the movies, whatever.

All the problems the VA has were created by the VA, I do not care what any one else says. Look at Agent Orange.........how long was that denied? PTSD and the porgnosis of it? Now look at the attachment, more problems for VA. Who caused them? If you run a business and are constantly on the defensive you would be out of business.