Blue Water Vet, Agent Orange, Retroactive Pay Question

[mrmo]

In Aug 2006, at the urging of a VA oncologist/hematologist, I submitted a disability claim for  myeloproliferative disorder as a result of Agent Orange.  On Jul 5 2007, my claim was denied.  I filed an appeal on Jun 12, 2008.  The appeal was denied on May 26,2009 with the reason for both denials being;     "Service connection for myeloproliferative disorder associated with herbicide exposure remains denied because the veteran did not serve "in country" in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era."    And that was true since I was a "Blue Water sailor."

 

Shortly after the Blue Water Vietnam Veterans act of 2019 went into effect in Jan 2020, I submitted a supplemental claim for myeloproliferative disorders as a result of AO on Jun 6, 2020.  Twelve days later on June 18, my claim was denied because myeloproliferative disorders are not on the AO presumptive illness list.  On Oct 29, 2020, I filed for a Higher Level Review.  They sent me for a C&P exam in May 2021, and my claim was approved at 30% on Jan 25, 2021, retroactive to Jun 1, 2019 when I had submitted an intent to file.

 

My question is, do I have a case to request that my claim be retroactive to 2006 when I first filed?  Do I fall under Nehmer?  I assume not since my illness is not one of the presumptive AO illnesses.  Yet I would have continued to pursue my case had the fact that I did not serve "in country" was so cut and dried.  I did appeal shortly after the Blue Water sailor ruling was instituted, and my disability was approved after a Higher Level Review.  

 

[mrmo]

Berta,

I have scanned the docs that you have asked for, but I don't see how to attach them here.  All I see is "insert image from URL.  Can you please point me in the right direction.  Thanks

[Berta]

Got to the bottom of the reply you want to make with the scans, and click on choose files, and your file doo dad,  if WiN 10 pops up should reveal the scans , by name or scan number, in the pdf files 

I need to do it here again to make sure what I am saying will work. I have an American flag on my desktop,and I went to the 'choose file' thing  on the bottom of the reply area, and typed name of the file FLAG and it popped up right away.and I just attached it here.

You will need to name the scans , easier to find that way, and Save them via the Scanner program  into your PC as a pdf, (or doc you make into a pdf,  and then when you 'choose 'them, make sure your file explorer is searching your PDFs, and the scans should pop up- and click on Open on the dialog box and then they should appear here-

I use Windows 10 , and Microsoft- maybe others here have a better way to do this.

Dont feel bad, it took me a long time to learn how to copy and paste.It was so easy however I really felt stupid.

 

 

[mrmo]

yea, I feel kind of stupid now also.  When I hit "answer this question, a box pops up that I can type in, but the only thing I have at the bottom is "insert image from URL".  Nowhere does it say "choose files".  The files are all named and ready to go.  I just can't figure out how to attach them.  Sorry

[Berta]

I have no idea why your reply area is different than mine- there i even a paper clip doo dad before the 'choose file thing to click on.

You could make the scans as  Word documents ,open them in Word, and then copy and paste them here.

Long ago Mekong Mike (Mike Harris AO Vietnam vet) told me how to copy and paste-

Click on your left mouse over what you want to copy, 

,then click on the right side of the mouse ,where it says paste and also paste as plain text, click on one od those ,then use your cursor asto where you want to paste it, as within a reply area here.

(also paste as plain text)-I just had to try it myself- I do it so often ,but seems automatic to me now.

You can copy and paste a large document and it can take mere seconds,when you get used to it.  Does your mouse look like this: HP Mouse Win 10- the middle button starts my PC and the left and right sides do wonderful things.You have to click on them near the top of the mouse.They dont look like 'buttons'.

This is funny- when my PC man last upgraded my whole system a few years ago,he also gave me a tutorial when Windows 10 showed up on my PC .I was pretty confident I could learn Win 10 fast but the next day I didnt know how to actually  turn the PC on. The tower was on , the modem was on, but it took me some time to remember he told me to click on the button in the middle of the top of the mouse to start the PC . We bought  our first PC here  in 1988-you can imagine how stupid I felt.

I hope others chime in- tp help you-

 

 

[Berta]

If you cannot attach the decision here:

These are some links to Footnote One Nehmer-

Footnote One is the essense of AO awards and proper retro:

SORRY for the TYPO I have carpel tunnel syndrome and often dont catch those errors I make.

There is plenty here on Footnote One  Nehmer-in the AO forum.

I am a Footnote One widow-

The regulations in the footnote state 'coded' on a past VA decision and also 'should have been coded'- I was a "should have been coded" claimant.

No one should ever overlook that part of Footnote One. i might be the only "should have been coded" claimant. That arose from the fact that my husband had 2 and claim for 3 AO diabilities that VA malpracticed on and never coded.

However there could be other reasons the RO never coded a past disability that "should" have been coded, with NSC and a percentage on the rating sheet, which at that time of the claim, might

not have seemed relevant but the disability could be by now an AO disability.

LOTs here:

https://community.hadit.com/search/?q=Blue Water Footnote One&quick=1

 I need to re- read this case myself- dont want to forget it

 

[mrmo]

Thanks, Berta

I think it is because A am a newbie.  Long time lurker, but first time posting.  I have watched the video of how to attach, but I just don't get the choose files at the bottom of the box.  Did a search of the site and saw someone else had the same problem in 2019, who was a newbie and seemed like someone gave him the ability to attach files.  Maybe a moderator or whoever controls the site can do that for me.

thanks