AO Mother and Son of Veteran - Followup info from previous topic

[Foxhound6]

Berta and all. Here is what I have so far from my friend and his mother that I was speaking about the other day. From what I can tell, They do have the DD214 and DD215's. However, there DD214 itself does not show any type of locations of service as the newer ones do.It does show a previous command which I assume is the one he deployed with. I took notice of the "Foreign/Seas service" section of his 214 and noticed he has Foreign service for 11 months and 20 or so days, just long enough to be in Vietnam... However, I feel I may have to dig up records pertaining to that unit at the time in order to prove it? I am unsure on that exactly. It was also strange they had 2 DD215's, also unsure what to make of that. *edit - I remember the wife speaking about the veteran making a stop in Okinawa before Vietnam. I found a unit that fits that timeline of when the veteran would have arrive in Okinawa to link up with as a support engineer. I dont have a way to confirm, but it fits...:

" On July 4, 1965, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines was ordered to Vietnam. During this first year 9th Marines took part in approximately 45 battalion-sized and several company-sized operations. During the next four years 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines operated in or around Danang, Hue, Phu Bai, Dong Ha, Camp Carrol, Cam Lo, Con Thien, Than Cam Son, Quanq Tri, Cua Viet, Vandergrift Combat Base and Khe Sanh. For its actions in Vietnam 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines was awarded a third Presidential Unit Citation, a bronze star in lieu of second award of the National Defense Service Medal, the Vietnam Service Medal with two silver stars, and Vietnam Cross of Gallantry with Palm. In August 1969, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines left Vietnam and returned to Okinawa. Its role in the Southeast Asian Conflict ended with the recapture of the Mayaquez and the landing on Koh Tang Island in May 1975 (Veteran completed his training sometime in 1969). In February 1979, 2nd Battalion, 9th Marines became the first battalion to rotate to the United States as part of the unit deployment program. " via http://www.2ndbattalion9thmarines.org/About_Us

As far as medical is concerned, I believe I have enough to prove the VA wrong. The mother has HUNDREDS upon HUNDREDS of medical records pertaining to his disability. I couldn't copy them all but I found many pertinent ones that show the initial DX plus ongoing treatment. I am posting all of it here in hopes someone might make more sense of it along with the Rating decision. Sorry for some of the photos, the mother found more docs after I left and sent them via her phone.

 

Matt Spina Bifida_Redacted.pdf

Edited November 25, 2019 by Foxhound6
Possible unit

[Berta]

Thanks for the older DD214- I can read it better-he certainly had a year overseas somewhere-but it looks to me like his Separation Date was one day before his service Entry date...?????????

If he had Vietnam service it should be on the DD 215.

If not spelled out , it would list the Medals from the Vietnamese Gov. That is all they did on husband's DD 215-

it never says he served in Vietnam, it just  lists the corrected past medals, which were minimal on the 214 and then has the corrections below that.

And it would supercede the older DD 214.I don't know what the newer DD 215s look like-

but my husband was told in the letter with his medals, from DOD that he had to supply the DD 215 along with his DD 214 for any purposes he needed it for

Also my husband was told that he would have to purchase the Vietnamese Medals at a PX or elsewhere.

The USA, as they said, cannot produce those medals for him or any Vietnam Veteran as they are manufactured in Vietnam.

I am beginning to think he served that year DEROS info , in Okinawa.

We need to see the DD 215. 

 

 

 

[Foxhound6]

38 minutes ago, Berta said:

Thanks for the older DD214- I can read it better-he certainly had a year overseas somewhere-but it looks to me like his Separation Date was one day before his service Entry date...?????????

If he had Vietnam service it should be on the DD 215.

If not spelled out , it would list the Medals from the Vietnamese Gov. That is all they did on husband's DD 215-

it never says he served in Vietnam, it just  lists the corrected past medals, which were minimal on the 214 and then has the corrections below that.

And it would supercede the older DD 214.I don't know what the newer DD 215s look like-

but my husband was told in the letter with his medals, from DOD that he had to supply the DD 215 along with his DD 214 for any purposes he needed it for

Also my husband was told that he would have to purchase the Vietnamese Medals at a PX or elsewhere.

The USA, as they said, cannot produce those medals for him or any Vietnam Veteran as they are manufactured in Vietnam.

I am beginning to think he served that year DEROS info , in Okinawa.

We need to see the DD 215. 

 

 

 

The only DD215s they have are the corrections of his service dates. I am unsure where to land on the DD214s to be honest. The DD214 ALMOST looks more like a transfer order from Active back to Reserve? It looks entirely different than I am used to seeing so its fairly foreign to me.

Edited November 26, 2019 by Foxhound6

[Berta]

I forgot you mentioned that before- sorry- the past 149 specifically only wanted the dates corrected.

I suggest that the widow fill out another DD 149 and send it in the the proper address ( on the instruction form)

requesting any decorations, medals, etc that could be missing and a clarification of exactly where the veteran was, for almost a year overseas.

 

https://community.hadit.com/topic/71108-ao-okinawa-granted/

This link is 2 years old but holds 4 AO Okinawa awards- I will see if there are any more at the BVA.

The note I added is unfortunately true-----it is very difficult for widows to prove their husband's exposure to AO outside of Vietnam.

Did the veteran have any compensated SC disability at all? Or even have a C file in addition to the son's VA files? 

 

[Berta]

There have been 284 decisions on Agent Orange Okinawa, since I posted the above link to 4 awards:

https://www.index.va.gov/search/va/bva_search.jsp?QT=Okinawa&EW=Agent+Orange&AT=&ET=&RPP=10&DB=2019&DB=2018

I am in a cloud- live at high altitude and that affects my PC- if the clouds break I will try to narrowthose cases down to any awards.

But if I lose access by satellite, you might want to read some yourself-

I read BVA cases every week, sometimes daily- because even if they are denials they contain lots of info-as to why they were denied and what evidence the claimant failed to give the VA.

 

 

 

[Foxhound6]

3 hours ago, Berta said:

I forgot you mentioned that before- sorry- the past 149 specifically only wanted the dates corrected.

I suggest that the widow fill out another DD 149 and send it in the the proper address ( on the instruction form)

requesting any decorations, medals, etc that could be missing and a clarification of exactly where the veteran was, for almost a year overseas.

 

Berta, I will absolutely do this. It appears they may have not even seen that other list of duty stations, otherwise they may have already figured some of this out. I feel like they did not fulfill their duty ot assist during the previous claim.

 

https://community.hadit.com/topic/71108-ao-okinawa-granted/

This link is 2 years old but holds 4 AO Okinawa awards- I will see if there are any more at the BVA.

The note I added is unfortunately true-----it is very difficult for widows to prove their husband's exposure to AO outside of Vietnam.

Did the veteran have any compensated SC disability at all? Or even have a C file in addition to the son's VA files? 

 

From the link, I read that piece about the VA never even tries to contact the JSRRC in some cases. Perhaps we should write them in addition to the DD149? I do feel I may have established a decent timeline of events of his service. It really is a black hole of nothing between the dates he claims to have been there other than the assignment to 3d FSR Maint Bn which, based on quick search of unit history, was often utilized for Engineer operations in Vietnam during the 70-71 timeline this veteran claims to have been there. It was also during a time where many Marines were being rotated to shipped out, requiring "Mixmastering" of personnel. From my understanding, a Marine could transfer between 2-4 commands in the span of a month. To a point where Marines didn't know who they were reporting to. Engineer and deconstruction operations were very heavy during this time. Plus with those operations, vehicles and equipment were sent back to Okinawa to be cleaned and prepped to be shipped back to the States. I could absolutely see some info just not getting viewed somewhere...It is an interesting case...

 

[Berta]

Here is the DD 149 app:

https://www.esd.whs.mil/Portals/54/Documents/DD/forms/dd/dd0149.pdf

Good thinking as to JSRRC ----they changed their address and Marines Corps info:

https://community.hadit.com/topic/48901-jsrrc-contact-info/

YOu are right- the VA has often stated they could not verify a  veteran's stressor and denied PTSD claims. The VA can and will lie.

I know personally two vets they said that to, and the VA was wrong.The vets wrote to JSRRC themselves and got their stressors verified.We have had members here over the years that had to write to JSRRC themselves.

The Marines have a specific link above and it should be easy for them to search this veteran's place of overseas duty as well as maybe give you more info, as he might well have been in a support battalion in Vietnam.

I was surprised so little showed up on Google for his unit but as you said they moved the Marines around a lot, depending on their MOS.