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. “

[carlie]

In the long run they will prevail - but will they still be here to get the benefit,

that's the main question for me.

[stillhere]

I agree with you Berta but I also agree with Carlie! Remember it took over 40 years for agent orange to prevail!

Now if I do the math I would doubt very much that any of us would be alive. Also looking at how they say the served on board ships or in country. I wear my Vietnam veteran hat proudly now because we will all be gone soon.

Stillhere (I think)

[Chuck75]

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

And, the VA would likely deny anyway, saying that the statistical evidence is not enough, much as they did with many A/O related cases for decades. Remember that it was congress that started the process to get the VA going on A/O. It's gonna take congress again to make much further progress. The current economic situation is less than favorable. It's also worthy of mentioning that Mideast veterans have and are having similar VA problems, just with slightly different pollutants and environmental conditions. We will be lucky to get some of the newer benefits granted to them to apply to older/all veterans.

Edited August 5, 2013 by Chuck75

[harleyman]

I still believe blue water veterans need to stick together and file their claims. Whether Blue water vets get recognized as Veterans who were exposed to AO or not, the numbers of claims speak for themselves. To me, not filing a claim for AO conditions if you have them , is like the person who complains about the elected official but they did not Vote. No vote = no voice. If you file your claim you are speaking to those who will ultimately make the decision.- JMO

Edited August 5, 2013 by harleyman

[john999]

It might be wise for all vets who were in RVN to file now for all conditions that have a shred of evidence of connection to AO. You get denied today but if you are still alive in ten years who knows? This would be for benefit of survivors mostly. There may be more Nehmers down the road. Of course, the road is getting shorter, but there are RVN vets who are 60 years old and could live another 30 years.

[stillhere]

I still believe blue water veterans need to stick together and file their claims. Whether Blue water vets get recognized as Veterans who were exposed to AO or not, the numbers of claims speak for themselves. To me, not filing a claim for AO conditions if you have them , is like the person who complains about the elected official but they did not Vote. No vote = no voice. If you file your claim you are speaking to those who will ultimately make the decision.- JMO

Harleyman, Are not these claims adding to the back up and causing Veterans of today with legit claims suffering even longer to get their deserved benefits.

If BW vets want to go on record as having made a claim then fine but to actually have the VA working them is a waste of time!

These claims of throw it on the wall and see if it sticks hurts all of us! Almost like being an investor in stock market future!

Stillhere