Ao Blue Waters Sue Secretary Shinseki

[Berta]

http://www.salem-news.com/articles/august032013/blue-water-suit-jpr.php

The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Association, (BWNVVA) (our president John Rossie has done many SVR shows here as well as Commander Wells too, I think , who is the attorney quoted below) and Military-Veterans Advocacy (MVA) , have sued Eric Shinseki.

Blue Water Navy Veterans Sue Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki for Failure to Grant Disability Benefits

In part:

“Attorney John Wells, who brought the suit, is a retired Navy Commander and served as Chief Engineer on three Navy ships. “I am very familiar with the naval operations at the time and the distillation equipment that enriched the dioxin.” Wells said. “We have taken this evidence to two separate committees of the Institute of Medicine, and they agree that the distillation process, based on Henry’s law of thermodynamics, would have co-distilled and enriched the dioxin. This confirmed an earlier study by the University of Queensland.” Wells is the Executive Director of MVA and previously serves as Director of Legal and Legislative Affairs for the BWNVVA. After retiring as a surface warfare officer he opened a law practice in Slidell Louisiana with emphasis on military and veterans law. “

[harleyman]

This will be the NEXT NEHMER, for blue water Veterans. All blue water Veterans should file a claim for any conditions you currently have a diagnosis for all presumptive conditions having to do with Agent Orange exposure. You will be denied for now but when the legislation goes through it will be another Nehmer and the retroactive date will most likely be based on the date the origianl claim was reevied. Or one year prior to date the legislation goes into effect if the Veteran had a diagnosis of the condition and did not file a claim. Or the date of claim based on a new diagnosis.

Berta, is well versed in NEHMER action and she knows it will be a while before this goes through. In my opinion, I think it will based on the studies they are referencing. The problem is it could take years for this to pass, and many Veterans could pass away from AO related inllnesses before this happens, BUT, file your claims now anyway and consider it safe keeping for your wife, children or decedents. Alot of Nehmer funds were send to wife and children of deceased Veterans.

I know this is not a pleasant topic, but it needs to be addressed, Blue Water Vets file your claims! and think of it as a long term investment for your family.- jmo

Ps- VA keeps adding more and more ships to the AO exposure list. The list is updated monthly as Veterans provide research material and their own personal military records to support the fact they suffer from AO exposure. This happens because Vets are helping Vets and they are not giving up. Fight the good fight, you will previal in , if not for yourself then for others, keep pushing on.

Edited August 4, 2013 by harleyman

[Stretch]

I have filed claims for blue water ao in 2005. I was on an A/C carrier. These guys don't want to give benefits to men that were on A/C carriers regardless of wheather they were exposed or not. There are 5000 men on each Carrier that was in the Gulf of Tonkin. I have seen many of my buddies die of cancer. The rest of us are filled with vascular stents. They don't seem to care at all.

We will see what Commander Wells can do. I have listened to him many times in congressional hearings. I hope that John Rossi can hang in there.

[Chuck75]

I have filed claims for blue water ao in 2005. I was on an A/C carrier. These guys don't want to give benefits to men that were on A/C carriers regardless of wheather they were exposed or not. There are 5000 men on each Carrier that was in the Gulf of Tonkin. I have seen many of my buddies die of cancer. The rest of us are filled with vascular stents. They don't seem to care at all.

We will see what Commander Wells can do. I have listened to him many times in congressional hearings. I hope that John Rossi can hang in there.

We all know that the VA cares more about the VA than veterans. The reasons are legion.

A "brown water" ship that I was assigned to had veteran's claims denied, due to an incorrect statement in the Navy's ships history web site. The error was a statement that the particular ship was not in Vietnam waters during a period that it made several inshore trips, and docking at various ports in Vietnam. We had to get copies of the deck logs, convince the Navy to change the web site history, and get the VA to change it's decisions. Each veteran had to refile. The ship is now on the presumptive list, by name, by type, and by the whole squadron, including administrative REMFs that seldom went to sea, let alone Vietnam. I guess the VA doesn't want to go through that again! The sad part was that the deck logs were and are available to the VA if and when they bother to request them. The real driver for the correction effort was a particular veteran's claim. Seems he had almost the full gamut of A/O exposure symptoms and diseases that were disabling and likely to be terminal in just a few years.

Carriers had search and rescue teams and choppers. It's my understanding that the chopper pilots were considered to have presumptive A/O exposure, and not the crewmen, including the rescue specialist that went down the cable to collect the downed airman. Wish someone can clarify or correct this, as I only have hearsay, and cannot currently find any specific written information on this.

To add insult to injury - - Treasure Island Navy Base was/is a "Superfund Site" with Dioxin as one of the contaminants. The Fire Fighting School was the primary location. A great number of junior enlisted sailors were sent to T.I. for outfitting, training, and transfer to the far east, including Vietnam and other countries, as well as ships operating in the far east. Part of the "refresher training" involved fighting fires and exposure to smoke and fumes from a fire in enclosed areas that simulated compartments on a ship. The fuel for the fires seems to be the source of the dioxin contamination. It was basically fuel that was not considered suitable for shipboard or other use. So thousands of sailors were likely exposed to Dioxin before they ever left the US.

The VA is likely to say that the presumptive bit applies only to A/O, not the contaminants in A/O.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Chuck75

[Stretch]

I went through several fire fighting schools. The one in San Diego was a room filled with (on fire) smoking oil, and we were pushed into the room and would sweep the oil back and forth to flush fire out the other portals. These schools are all in my records.

In Viet Nam our A/C flew over Vietnam and brought back AO. We did not have water to clean the aircraft so we had to use waterless cleaner. We used our hands and rags to clean the entire A/C many times during VN. I had several growths cut off of my hands and these were entered into my SMC. I didn't have any strange growths before service. They just don't give a crap.

That is why Commander Wells and John Rossi must win.

[stillhere]

I personally don't see this going anywhere or IF ever very far down the road when there a few left to benefit. The supposed numbers just do not show that Navy personal have an out of whack to the general public in cases of DBll, and heart disease or cancer. He is going to have to use that they do and that is going to be very hard when the numbers are not there.

We all know that the Army and Marine boots on ground had supporting evidence by the numbers to show that DBll and a lot of the presumptive were more prevalent in the boots on ground veterans that served in Vietnam than the Vietnam era vets that did not serve in country.

Brings in mind that old saying numbers don't lie.

Stillhere

[Berta]

The gear used in many of the older Fire Fighting schools contained asbestos.

The older ships contained asbestos. A vet I tried to help ( he died with no dependents) had a disability that could have been strongly associated with asbestos and he had spent years on board ships.

Not only is the AO situation for BWVs serious, I bet many might have asbestos related disabilities too.

I researched the above vet's ship and found it had been sent to Iran long ago as salvage. It contained too much asbestos to even consider refurbishing it.

John Wells was on Fox news briefly a few weeks ago...he appears on Fox from time to time, and didn't mention this suit because I guess it had not officially been filed yet.

The AO ships list grew in great part,as Harleyman said, due to the efforts of BW veterans themselves,researching and presenting probative evidence to the VA.

Nehmer arose from the case of one widow ,Beverly Nehmer.

The AO Thailand vets now have AO regulations due to one hadit member, Kurt Priessman.

Precedent setting CAVC decisions always arise from the case of only one veteran or widow.

Blue Water vets have made a strong collective effort to continue to alter the AO Ships list , which used to be non existent.

Sometimes it takes a village.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Berta