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Sec. Wilkie yesterday on BWN AO vets

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Berta

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The Secretary was on Fox news, briefly yesterday, and stated that there are potentially 560,000 Blue Water Navy veterans, to include those who are deceased and their dependents-that  have a potential for a AO disability award. I checked this AM with some news outlets on line and they too have that figure-much higher than the 90,000 initially expected.

Secretary Wilkie also said that the VA is trying to find and contact those vets.It would be easier if this was National News, and posted at every VA lobby, but much of this will come from word of mouth, so we all have have to ask any Navy vet we know-who might be affected by this news, if their ship was within the 12 mile limit from Vietnam , during the war and if they have any AO disability.

As you all might recall, the VA ,when the 2010 AO presumptives were , VA;s were supposed to go through their records to find any veteran or their survivor who would be eligible for AO disability, based on past rating sheets.VA was supposed to contact them. A few here never got that contact, and I sure didnt.

Blue Waters can file their claims now-but there is a stay until 2020 on adjudicating them.

But the most important thing any Blue Water or their survivor, who has or had in their lifetime a AO presumptive, can do now, is to review all past rating sheets the veteran had to see if any disability on the AO presumptive list is rated and also deemed as NSC in the past decision.

It appears Footnote One Nehmer will kick in....it should if these veterans get true AO equity....and that older rating decision will provide the best Earliest entitlement date they can get.

This is why spouses should be PC literate. The American Legion opened an article on HR 299 for comment and so far there have been 87 posts.

I found some sailors there had been on the VA  AO ships list for quite some time and didnt even know it, as well as one  BWN  widow.

I asked them to join us here but so far no one has.....but I expect that discussion to grow and I am willing to be there to help. 

Maybe once the regulations are prepared, there will be more public news on this.

I certainly have no faith in the ROs in trying to find Blue Water Navy vets who might have a potential claim.

It would be great if the VSOs out there went through all of their files as well- but they probably won't.

As you know we have a new member here with a new AO IHD claim potential and I bet there are many more vets or their survivors who never filed for AO comp but could have.

And still can.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by Berta
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  • HadIt.com Elder

I hope member stretch WIDOW reads this and I certainly hope she gets what is due to stretch and herself.

I think maybe hadit  member hadit Mod and radio show host J, John Basser knows her email addy? I hope she gets word of this.

Edited by Buck52
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Buck, thank you for that post---------

I will contact Jerrol and John right away-----

Maybe I should contact her lawyer as well- she filed a FTCA case against them when Stretch ( Mike Sasser) died.

I firmly believe he is one of these 12 dead veterans:

https://arktimes.com/arkansas-blog/2019/01/28/pathologists-errors-may-have-figured-in-12-deaths-at-va-in-northwest-arkansas

 

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Buck, they are contacting Mike's wife.

He was 100% P & T when he died so she does get DIC, but Mike was considering a 1151 claim when he died.

He discussed it with me briefly, by phone, but I had no solid information from him and hoped he would state the situation here. His death cam so fast after that, it was a shock.

One does not get stage 4 lung cancer overnight-but I believe I mentioned it to the wife's lawyer- and mentioned it to Jerrel Cook who had direct contact with her.

It would be an accrued claim but accrue claims MUST be filed within one year of the veteran's death- UNLESS- they fall under Nehmer.

And if so, this would fall under the same OGC Pres Op I am using for my CUE claims.

General Counsel Precedent Opinions are binding on the VA.38 CFR 2.6(e)(8) and 38 CFR 14.507 (b)

In part:

"VA publishes summaries of such opinions in order to provide the public with notice of those interpretations of the General Counsel that must be followed in future benefit matters and to assist Veterans' benefits claimants and their representatives in the prosecution of benefit claims. The full text of such opinions, with personal identifiers deleted, may be obtained by contacting the VA official named above or by accessing the opinions on the internet at http://www.va.gov/ogc/precedentopinions.asp."

https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2019/04/08/2019-06855/summary-of-precedent-opinions-of-the-general-counsel

The link contains a few opinions, but the problem is that most veterans never take the time to assess these opinions, and there is  always the potential that an established OGC precedent opinion could help them succeed in their claim.

Maybe I should put an article here somewhere on OGC Pres Ops.

The Pres Op I am using for my claim makes something NVLSP said to me years ago-makes sense.

1151ers cannot be deprived of SC comp.

The VA deprived me of accrued comp on two 1151 issues, that subsequently became SC issues.

The opinion is quite clear that VA cannot do that. OGC Pres Op 08-97.

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  • HadIt.com Elder

Thanks Ms berta  I think this is wonderful news for the B.W .Vietnam Veterans  especially for the Navy Vets Like Stretch.

I just hope its not to late for some of these veterans.

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