diabetes Agent Orange Question(S)

[CCC]

Hey, all. Not new here, but can't remember my log-in information, so I am ashamedly starting over. :)

I have a question or two related to Agent Orange exposure, disability, etc. If there's a place where I can read up on it, please direct me so I don't have to waste anyone's time, but y'all have been so helpful before.

OK, my husband is disabled. His paperwork says 50% but he's rated at 60%. I don't understand how that works, but he said it's a VA thing, and not supposed to make sense.

Reading here, and online, we got a little information regarding his exposure. He was never in Vietnam, but was Vietnam era. He was working at several Army bases as an MP, where AO was sprayed as a defoliant. Many of those Army bases are now considered "superfund" sites by the EPA because of the toxicity levels.

He has heart disease, type 2 diabetes, emphysema and a myriad of other conditions. The only one, at this time, considered service connected, is his heart. He had a heart attack when he was stationed in California, and this was about 10 years after his exposure to AO. This is all in his records, and he has no history of heart disease, himself or family.

We got notification yesterday of other documents needed, such as proving how AO resulted in heart disease, etc. I was wondering if anyone had any idea of how I would go about doing that? I'm not sure what my next step should be.

We are a little confused on how we are supposed to proceed. There were no tests done on him while he was in the military for anything - he said in the entire 20 years he was in the military, never once does he remember his finger being pricked or being checked for sugar. He remembers being in Ft. Carson, CO, and they were going to have to ship him to another base because he was having so much trouble breathing - he couldn't acclimate to the higher climate.

He was stationed at 5 different sites which are now considered EPA superfund sites, and especially remembers AO being sprayed along the fenceline, regularly, at Seneca Army Depot, also a superfund site. He said they sprayed it regularly, because it was a nuke depot, and they had to keep the weeds away from the fenceline.

Anyway, any help would be appreciated on how to proceed.

Thanks in advance. :)

[Bigred122]

OK guys and gals. I'm in the stage of my research that I have to place him at the contaminated bases. I was wondering if someone could take a look at this link and tell me if they think I could use this as proof that he was there during the time that contaminants were used and/or buried in landfills.

http://www.epa.gov/s...xt/e0904110.pdf

This is Fort Ord. He was stationed there from 1981 until he had his heart attack in 1984. There are several chemicals and toxins there that I found on the EPA website, that can be damaging to your heart, among other things.

The link in your post is for lead not AO. So unless your filing for lead poisoning that one won't help you and your hubby.Listen to the Cribbs interview to see what is needed to file a continental US claim for AO exposure. His job was spraying AO at Fort Gordon and it took about 13 nexus letters from Drs and a whole lotta BS to be the first person to win a claim outside of RVN,Korea, Thailand ,Johnston Island and acouple other countries.Almost impossible to win one within US Borders.Cribbs used Bill of Ladings to prove his claim.Listen to the recording, the link is on post #8 in this thread.I was amazed what he had to do.Mike

[boomer2]

CCC

I hope you realize that you are in a steep uphill battle on this. You are going to have to do some very detailed research and get IMO's from cardio docs to substantiate the nexus between where and when your husband was stationed and his exposure to any chemicals that caused his conditions. Also most doc.'s want money to write an IMO. You will need overwhelming evidence that those chemicals caused his IHD. I'm not suggesting you give up but, it will be hard to prove.

In the words of Sun Tzu "never attack up hill" In other words plan a different strategy.

[boomer2]

CCC

Go to the following link and then to subpart II, chapter 2, section B. http://www.benefits.va.gov/WARMS/M21_1MR4.asp

This explains what you have to do to establish service connection then you will know what you need to do.

[CCC]

Thanks, guys. I posted yesterday, but for some reason, it never showed up. Weird.

Mike, I have all but given up on the AO at this point. I am still going to scratch around to see if I can find anything, but it seems that everywhere I look, it's "close but no cigar." For instance, he was in Fort Gordon for MP training in January of 68 - AO was sprayed in October of 67. Would it still be around that long? I am still looking for the answer to that. He was stationed at 4 different sites, 7 different times, in S Korea, but the DMZ is the only place that they are saying it was used at, mainly Camp Casey, but he wasn't at Camp Casey. He was at Camp Carroll, Camp Ames, Camp Henry and ASCOM.

I am looking at other avenues, right now - other herbicides and pesticides, and toxins and contaminants in general, that were all over where he was stationed.

All they can say is no, right?

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Boomer, I'm headed to that link now. Thanks!

[Bigred122]

Thanks, guys. I posted yesterday, but for some reason, it never showed up. Weird.

Mike, I have all but given up on the AO at this point. I am still going to scratch around to see if I can find anything, but it seems that everywhere I look, it's "close but no cigar." For instance, he was in Fort Gordon for MP training in January of 68 - AO was sprayed in October of 67. Would it still be around that long? I am still looking for the answer to that. He was stationed at 4 different sites, 7 different times, in S Korea, but the DMZ is the only place that they are saying it was used at, mainly Camp Casey, but he wasn't at Camp Casey. He was at Camp Carroll, Camp Ames, Camp Henry and ASCOM.

I am looking at other avenues, right now - other herbicides and pesticides, and toxins and contaminants in general, that were all over where he was stationed.

All they can say is no, right?

I believe we have talked before about Ft Gordon. I was there in 71' and pulled Guard Duty at the Campground where the AO was sprayed down there.It is in my claim, but I focused on my South Korea duty. I was assigned to Camp Casey, but was with the Signal Corps so I was on the DMZ and all over the northern part of South Korea.Even sprayed some weed killer along roadway and fence lines in the Camp.The half life/life of the chemical seems to change depending on the report. Some go for a few years to 20 years, but I don't believe they really know. MPs did alot of patroling, so if he was at duty station where he did pretty much the same thing/same area over and over, I would start with those.Airports, Storage areas and High Security areas would be first places I would look and then search when it might be used. Your not looking for 1000's of drums,one 55 gal drum can be mixed to kill a large area.I don't expect to win my claim for a few years, just because that is the nature of the Beast I'm dealing with.You seem to have the fire in the gut for the journey! Good luck to You and your Hubby!! Mike

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Boomer, I'm headed to that link now. Thanks!

[CCC]

Mike,

He said that most of the rumors about Seneca are true. He still doesn't feel comfortable about saying what he guarded, but he did say that they were extremely high security, and there was nothing at all along the fenceline, because of the nature of what he was guarding. Said that the fencelines had to be completely clear to make sure that no one was able to get over and get inside the area that they were guarding.

He said the guys used to use ATVs to drive around the fenceline and spray, and they watched them do it. Even was told by one of the sprayers that it was AO.