Latest Va Ship List Nov 2014

[Chuck75]

latest VA Ship List attached

Ship List Nov25 2014.pdf

[Berta]

THANK YOU Chuck!

This list continues to grow,in great part, as Blue Water veterans try to prove their claims!!!!!

Many Blue Water vets have been able to prove Boots on the ground ,but others have pin pointed where their ships were in relation to the coast of Vietnam and how they were exposed to AO by other means, too.

This is something to be very Thankful for today!

[stinger]

THANK YOU Chuck!

This list continues to grow,in great part, as Blue Water veterans try to prove their claims!!!!!

Many Blue Water vets have been able to prove Boots on the ground ,but others have pin pointed where their ships were in relation to the coast of Vietnam and how they were exposed to AO by other means, too.

This is something to be very Thankful for today!

In my case, I was on a minesweeper, the USS Engage, MSO 433. We made several trips to Viet Nam, and docked in Cam Rahn Bay and other places. I sent in deck logs to prove my exposure and was granted my claim. That was over a year ago and the ship still is not on the list. Since my disability letter shows exposure, will I have to fight the battle every time my claim changes?

[Berta]

I sure doubt you would ever need to prove exposure again!

[Chuck75]

"Since my disability letter shows exposure, will I have to fight the battle every time my claim changes?"

Hopefully not! The deck logs and a presumptive award should suffice. The only thing that can cause problems

is that an awarded disability that is both presumptive and direct might be incorrectly looked at as a basis for a further presumptive

claim. I actually had this happen. Once everything went to the Nehmer review board, things did get straightened out.

A fellow crewman on one of the ships I was assigned to had a problem in proving presumptive status. It turned out

that the VA was relying on an incomplete ship's history entry in the historical records. We were able to obtain copies of the deck logs,

and get the history corrected. The ship in question is now on the list by name, type, and squadron/division.

I started my claim before the VA really understood the differences between brown water and blue water.

As a result, I used records from a USAF facility that proved "feet on ground" Such things as post cards from the veteran with in country

APO/FPO addresses were also acceptable to the VA.