‘Blue Water’ Navy Veterans’ Long Waits Often End In Denials At Va

[justrluk]

McClatchy Newspapers (mcclatchydc.com)
March 26, 2013

‘Blue Water’ Navy Veterans’ Long Waits Often End In Denials At VA

http://mcclatchydc.com/2013/03/26/186962/blue-water-navy-veterans-long.html#storylink=misearch

By Beena Raghavendran, McClatchy Newspapers

[stillhere]

But Berta don't you feel that these types of claims by veterans that only saw Vietnam on the news reels! Is part of the wasted time that bogs our VA down?

Someone once said and I wish I could remember who " if all veteran's claims were well grounded there would not be a backlog"!

It is having to deal with these throw something on the wall and see what sticks claims that are just ridiculous!

[Berta]

"It is having to deal with these throw something on the wall and see what sticks claims that are just ridiculous! "

I agree with you 100% stillhere!!!!!!, that is what I meant by 'frustrating' stuff..

I have seen some 'AO" claims that are absurd in my opinion and they do, as this claim is doing, take up the time of the ROs ,the BVA,the CAVC, and any vet reps or lawyers on the brief.

Only some veterans like Kurt Priessman ( first AO Thailand win) and James Cripps (First AO Conus award0 did the extensive leg wortk to prove they wereexposed to Agent Orange.

Agent Orange was and still is the most important Vietnam vets Issue I have ever dealt with.

Long before I even had a leg in the fight ( AO award posthumously for my husband 2009 BVA and recentlu AO IHD death award 2010)

I became interested when the news of the original AO settlement fund hit the media and my husband as well as I , as his survoivor got some AO settlement money from that.

The criteria was proof of a total disability and proof of service in Vietnam.My husband was doused with AO from the air while on maneuvers in Ashau Valley.

He said they had to wear the same utilities (no cameos then for USMC 65-66 Danang) for many weeks during these combat maneuvers,without a shower ort change of clothing.

They actually denied my husband's claim at first and I appealed for him the same day he got the denial and I wrote in the appeal, to Judge Weinstein I think it was,here in NY ,from the AO Settlement Fund,

asking him to give me a clear documented signed statement that, beyond any doubt, my husband would never get a disability directly from the AO nor die from it.

Within three weeks he reversed his decision and sent the cash.

I often wonder how many AO settlement fund vets were denied erroneously.I began to think the AO Settlement fund got their ideas from the VA on how to deny and hope the vet didn't appeal.

Actually I am, appalled on some of the AO cl;aims I have seen over the years.

DOD is not going to radically revise their list of locations where AO was stored or used (the list is here at hadit and at the VA web site.)

And I saw one AO award from AMC that is so ridiculous, in my opinion, that I feel it will come back to bite the veteran in the rear end.

I believe the VA will SC AO ,regardless however of where the vet was exposed, if the veteran can rove exposure and that the exposure was,in fact, AO itself,or any tactical herbicide that a medical doctor has stated has caused the veteran to have a disability that is presumptive.

I could gripe about the AO issue all day but better then that , if the vet has no proof of exposure, nor cannot possibly fit into the Thailand directive or any of the places on the VA lists of 'herbicides stored and used outside of Vietnam" , I just ignore those claims questions.

Many Blue Water Navys ,like Brown Water Navy, have proved they did step one foot in Vietnam.Some were part of the COD planes ,some had a brief stopover ,going elsewhere like to Thailand,Cambodia or Laos, and some ,like a vet here fairly recently, found orders that showed he had been in Vietnam but he had forgotten all about actually being there.

There are a few famous photos on the internet, AO barrels etc etc, and one is a guy in cameos holding up an old wooden carved road sign ,next to what appears to be a dense tropical jungle . The sign says "Vietnam" and he tried to use this photo to prove he was incountry Vietnam.

I sure had a good laugh over that one.

I have even seen old road signs , men in cameos are holding , denoting a specific Vil in Vietnam they were at. yeah right

My daughter was a Vietnamese Linquist. The Vil signs did not reflect at all, the unique way the Vietnamese write,with amulets and other unusual characters over certain words.

It is disgusting to me that anyone would attempt to pull the wool over the eyes of VA.

Too many Honorable men and women suffer the long wait, with legitimate claims that can be proven, while these AO wannabees waste the VA's time.

Edited March 28, 2013 by Berta

[jbasser]

Every west coast sailor stopped at Subic Bay back then. Don't you think more than one would have taken a picture of striped barrels on the pier?

We have 10100 members here and a lot of Navy Vets, Do you folks remember seeing any barrels like that on the pier at Subic. We were usually motor whale boated to the pier.

A Smoking gun is needed to prove this and if there was barrels there there should some photographic evicence.

J

[Chuck75]

"Oil based products"

The Treasure Island Navy base used "waste" fuel, and fuel that was considered unusable elsewhere for whatever reasons.

This resulted in TI's Fire fighting school making the Superfund site list for dioxin contamination.

PCB's were also a common contaminant (from electrical and electronic equipment) and found in not a few base waste locations.

In 1968, one of the ships I served on stopped briefly at Subic Bay. We seldom loaded cargo there, although a small amount was occasionally unloaded. Most cargo was loaded in Japan or Okinawa, and was destined for Vietnam. On return trips, we occasionally carried unserviceable

equipment and vehicles back to Japan for rebuild/overhaul.

Our OBD often consisted of a wet "T" shirt. (1967)

[jbasser]

Thats right Chuck. Also keep in mind that the Firefighting school used scenarios for the 4 classes of fires. They would add items to simulate the actual conditions for the fires. The main fire aboard a ship is a lube oil leak causing a fire. They would gather wood from any source that contained PCB's. The Area would have been badly contaminated after years of use.

These PCB's were in so many products from electrical equipment to plastic, mostly the insulation on wires. It was used in wood treatment also to prevent decay.

J

[stillhere]

I can remember quite a bit of things that went own while I was in Nam, more at night! But I'll be damned if I remember any barrels per say. Orange green or blue stripped. Whoever can do that I turn a deaf ear (my right one)to and consider the source.

I was in the central highlands on rt.1 and made many trips down to Da Nang airport and there about and still can't visualize a barrel with a stripe! Maybe I was just to busy?

I do remember a little mamma son but that is another story!

I can also see areas around us that were sprayed and seeing it being done!

Stillhere