Claim At Court Appeals-Ship Added To Presumptive List Nov 25,2014

[derenick52]

Hey All,I have been Helping the Widow of my Best friend from Navy with his Agent Orange claim since he died in 2012,He filed for Both Presumptive and Direct Service connection-Exposure to Contaminated equipment taken aboard at several ports,The Regional office and Bva would NOT address the Direct service connection,the Bva denied the claim about a year ago-Our ship was in the Category 3 list since January 2012.We went on to Court of Appeals-they are arguing ERROR in neglecting the Direct service connection claim. This last week bluewaternavy.org posted a VA Update list Nov 25,2014-our ship was NOW put In Category 2 ALSO-Entered Inland Qui Nhon Bay/Harbor,The Category 3 list included Da Nang,Vung Tau and,Cam Rahn bay.The attorney at Court of Appeals told me that Our ship was NOT on CATEGORY 2 List at time of BVA ruling,Therefore there is a PROBLEM,the Court of Appeals only deals with VA Errors-Our ship should have been PUT on Category 2 list 3 yrs ago-as the Deck logs for the Category 3 dates cross over with Category 2 dates-enroute from Da Nang to Qui Nhon same date-WOULD THIS BE A ERROR-? The Attorney said he is going to ask the VA To settle but to not get hopes up yet,POSSIBLY A CUE CLAIM IF ALL DENIED-??? Any input appreciated,Thanks

[Berta]

Sorry the CAVC dockets are 2 numbers (year) followed by 4 docket numbers. I couldn't find it at all at the CAVC and could not find the BVA case either.

[Berta]

Is this the same widow:

[derenick52]

Hey Berta,THANKS SO MUCH,Yes that is the same Widow,the Cava # 14-0686-The secondary page omitted the 0,sorry,just got home,listened to the broadcast,going to pass on the info to her attorney,Feeling better now after your help,will keep updated as to what happens,Take care,George 100% Total and Pernament US Navy 1970-1974

[Chuck75]

I just remembered Carol is in DC this week and I think JR is too (fighting for Blue Water Navy Veterans)

CUE is like the Watergate Question...what did they know and when did they know it....

And 38 CFR 3.156 is the opposite ...they knew or should have known,,, etc...regarding newly discover service records....

I am not sure how the attorney will handle this....a Very unique situation....

I assume the widow substituted herself as the claimant when he died? and also filed for DIC ????

There are some similarities to a situation that occurred several years ago. In that case the VA relied upon false information in a ship's history at the Navy historical facility web site.

A request to the same facility citing dates and so forth resulted in the researchers looking at the ship's deck logs, and then the author of the history was contacted to correct the errors.

Copies of the log entries were filed with the VA. The end result was that a very sick (and almost broke) veteran's denial was reversed. There was and is an ongoing debacle concerning documents in

government archives, and if the VA is or is not responsible and required to obtain them. Naturally, the burden usually falls on the veteran when everything else fails. Yet, how is the veteran to find many documents that are in various government repositories?

After 9/11, one data base I remember was only accessible via .gov addresses. It contained the records of ordinance used, when and where, and by who.

An example might be that a ship or aircraft fired shells or rockets, usually a wartime or training event. These records might be useful in determining

"combat veteran" status if no combat award is shown on the original DD214. (I ended up having to get a DD215 to show my combat related awards, since they became a matter of record

after my DD214 was issued.)

(The VA addresses are .gov addresses)

Edited January 6, 2015 by Chuck75

[derenick52]

Hey Berta,the Court of Appeals ruled on this Claim today- it was there when the Vancouver was moved to Category 2 ship list for inland waterways in November-Granted service connection for Diabetes and Coronary artery disease and Remanded the Secondary claims to Bva for further processing-this Claim would will be 7 yrs old in May, his Widow will now have some relief from her financial hardship,SEE POST,THANK YOU All for your input

[Berta]

WOW!!!!!! This is absolutely wonderful news!!!!