VA AO Ships List updated 2019

[Berta]

https://www.va.gov/shiplist-agent-orange.pdf

This is the most recent VA AO ships list.

If your ship is not on the list , you can still be covered by the Blue Water Navy (HR 299) Act, if you fall into the 12 mile sea co-ordinates.

Edited June 27, 2019 by Berta

[Craig N. Buchanan]

I have searched many ships list for operating ships near the Vietnam coast and had exposure to Agent Orange.   I could not find the ship I was serving on on any list.  The name of the ship was the USS Bausell DD-845.  Can you locate this ship and note its service time during the Vietnam Period?

 

Thank 

Craig N. Buchanan

[Tbird]

does this help https://www.hullnumber.com/DD-845

[Berta]

Your ship is on the most recent AO ship's list- I updated that above link as soon as I got the newer list -October 2019.

USS Bausell DD 845 -Motorized whaleboats ashore Danang Vietnam, Nov. 27, 1968.

Page 29 of 40 in the above  link.

If you were on this ship after the exposure date, and have an AO presumptive disability, you should file a claim ASAP , and hopefully you have your deck logs, to use as evidence.

 

 

 

[Berta]

I just found, in mere  seconds, more info on your ship:

https://www.va.gov/vetapp19/files5/19139772.txt

This is a recent BVA award of AO comp due to Procopio and HR 299 because:

 

"Here, private treatment records show that the Veteran had a diagnosis of adenocarcinoma, status-post left upper lobectomy. Therefore, the first element of service connection is established. Turning to the second element, in-service incurrence of a disease or injury, the Veteran does not report, nor do his service treatment records identify, any complaints, treatment for, or diagnosis of lung cancer or symptoms indicative of lung problems. However, the Veteran’s military personnel records indicate that he served aboard the USS Bausell (DD-845) in May 1966. Furthermore, the March 2017 response from the Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC) reflects a determination that the USS Bausell’s deck logs place the vessel “in the coastal waters of Vietnam” on May 31, 1966. On that day, according to JSRRC, deck logs show that the ship was steaming in the area of Quang Ngai, South Vietnam, and “maneuvered close to the beach to 1,500 yards then commenced small arms fire at two Viet Cong swimmers about 500 yards from the shore.” The Board takes judicial notice that this response from JSRRC places the Veteran within the 12 nautical mile territorial sea of Vietnam during active duty. Monzingo v. Shinseki, 26 Vet. App. 97, 103 (2012) (allowing for taking of judicial notice of facts of universal notoriety that are not subject to reasonable dispute); Smith (Brady) v. Derwinski, 1 Vet. App. 235, 238 (1991) (citing Fed. R. Evid. 201(b)). Thus, the Board finds that the Veteran meets the criteria for having service in the Republic of Vietnam, and he is therefore presumed to have been exposed to herbicide agents during service. Accordingly, as all of the elements for presumptive service connection for adenocarcinoma, status-post left upper lobectomy, as due to exposure to herbicide agent are met, the benefit sought on appeal is granted. 38 C.F.R. §§ 3.307, 3.309."

As the BVA has started to state on the bottom of it's decisions:

"The Board’s decision in this case is binding only with respect to the instant matter decided. This decision is not precedential, and does not establish VA policies or interpretations of general applicability. 38 C.F.R. § 20.1303."

However ,regardless of the VA Ships list date of exposure, obviously your deck logs, and even the 'legal' statement of JSRRC in this case should help you.

 

 

[Berta]

There are a few other BVA decision regarding the USS Bausell:

This vet was denied for AO in a 2013 BVA decision, but has a chance now , if he is aware of the new BWN AO regulations, to succeed:

https://www.va.gov/vetapp13/files4/1331614.txt

These are the past type of cases the VA is supposed to have gone through, to see if a BWN vet, denied in the past for AO exposure, could be considered as AO exposed, now, due to the new law.

Hopefully this veteran has become aware of HR 299 and Procopio.

I do not believe the VA really does a stringent check of past denied, but now potential ,AO claims due to new regulations, such as the AO IHD claims in 2010.

There has been little info available from VA to publicize the new BWN AO issue. I hope BWN vets and/or their survivors find out about it. It is slowly making it's way in small on line newspapers and nothing as far as I know on TV since Sec Wilkie mentioned it at FOX news this past summer.

When you file your claim, make sure -if you were denied in the past for AO exposure, yet had a denial and rating on an AO presumptive,- that VA knows of that denial so that you can obtain the best and earliest Effective date possible.