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Several subs will be involved

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Sewer Pipe Snipe View Drop Down
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    Posted: 17 Apr 2019 at 10:13am

https://www.ajc.com/news/breaking-news/navy-veterans-see-hope-for-benefits-tied-agent-orange-exposure/4hB45grQMMgMXNL92AdXTP/

Mike Sherwood, a Navy Veteran, applied nine years ago for government compensation for exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, complaining it caused the coronary artery disease and other serious health problems that still afflict him today. The Navy veteran believes he came into contact with the toxic defoliant while serving aboard the Intrepid aircraft carrier in the Gulf of Tonkin and South China Sea between 1968 and 1969. But the Veterans Affairs Department rejected his application, saying he needed to submit evidence of “in-country service” in Vietnam or proof of exposure to herbicides, a high bar decades after the fact. So, Sherwood gave up. However, a January federal appeals court ruling in favor of another seaman with similar complaints who served on the Intrepid and related legislation pending in Congress are renewing hopes for Sherwood. He is among the so-called Blue Water Navy veterans — an estimated 90,000 served on ships off the coast of Vietnam — who could be eligible for VA benefits for Agent Orange exposure under the court decision. Sherwood is gathering his records and has contacted an attorney about pressing his claim with the VA. “I have been denied for not having boots on the ground,” said Sherwood, a 71-year-old retired homebuilder who lives about 40 miles south of Atlanta. “When I finally heard about this and the possibilities of it, I just went kind of crazy. I started digging.” Georgia senator in the mix During Operation Ranch Hand, the U.S. military sprayed Agent Orange to deprive Communist forces of cover and crops in the dense jungles. The herbicide — it got its name from the orange-striped barrels in which it was stored — contained one of the most toxic forms of dioxin, a compound linked to some cancers. The VA provides compensation and health care to troops who served on the ground in Vietnam or on its inland waterways and are suffering from seven forms of cancer and seven other illnesses it says are linked to Agent Orange exposure, including the ones that trouble Sherwood today. The VA has resisted extending those benefits to Navy veterans like Sherwood who never set foot on Vietnamese soil, warning the science linking them to Agent Orange exposure is tenuous. The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has said the additional cost of the benefits could reach $2.5 billion over 10 years. And the VA said that would divert funding from other priorities. “The accomplishments we have made with congressional assistance will be stymied due to the fact that we will have to research and evaluate what could total over 30,000 potential claims,” VA Secretary Robert Wilkie wrote in a September 2018 letter. The Veterans Benefits Administration’s “current resources,” he added, “are not adequate to begin this workload.” On the opposing side of the fight has been Georgia Republican Sen. Johnny Isakson, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He has pushed legislation to extend benefits for the Navy veterans. While the House unanimously passed it last year, a pair of fiscal conservatives blocked its progress in the Senate. One of them was libertarian Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah. He urged colleagues to wait for the results of a scientific study to first ensure there was a clear link to Agent Orange exposure for those veterans.




Edited by Sewer Pipe Snipe - 17 Apr 2019 at 10:14am
Walt,
Had I done everything right throughout my life, the World wouldn't have noticed.
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote Runner485 Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Apr 2019 at 6:41am

I wish him and all the other Blue Water sailors good luck in their fight. A good friend of mine was a Marine in Nam and was involved in being sprayed with it and subsequently dieing years later of brain cancer. Left 3 young kids behind. Too many vets gave their lives. They may have survived combat, but died years later...
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Sorry for changing the subject Walt...
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Post Options Post Options   Thanks (0) Thanks(0)   Quote JrKrup, Skimmer Quote  Post ReplyReply Direct Link To This Post Posted: 18 Apr 2019 at 11:38am
I guess I missed the Agent Orange spraying. I was offshore in 1965 and 1967. Sort of glad too.
Jon Krup, Skimmer - Minesweeps
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