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From Chuck Weber, your Veteran Service Officer... |
1. The Agent Orange Act of 1991 is set to
expire next month. Here is what the act does: Agent Orange Act of 1991
establishes provisions for the
National Academy of Sciences to analyze and summarize
scientific evidence regarding presumptive
military service exposure to
defoliants,
dioxins and
herbicides, better known as
Agent Orange, during the
Vietnam War
era. The
United States Statute endorses an observation of human
medical conditions directly related to
non-Hodgkin lymphoma,
soft-tissue sarcoma,
chloracne, and consistent
acneform diseases for
military personnel who served in the
overseas Vietnamese region. The
Act of Congress ratifies a
medical research compilation of voluntarily contributed
blood and
tissue
samples provided by
Vietnam-era veterans serving in
Southeast Asia between 1961 and 1975. The H.R. 556
legislation was passed by the 102nd United States
Congressional session and enacted into law by the
41st President of the United States
George H.W. Bush on February 6, 1991.
If the Act is not extended the VA will no longer
be required to follow the NAS scientific evidence in determining
compensation for U.S. servicemen exposed to AO in Vietnam and elsewhere.
It is likely that these servicemen will lose their eligibility for
compensation. However, Congressman Tim Walz (Minn.) has
recently introduced the “Agent Orange Extension Act,” (H.R. 3423), which
will extend benefits from the Agent Orange Act for two years, giving the
NAS enough time to finish its report and for the VA to review its
findings. The NAS is expected to publish its final report
on Agent Orange exposure by March of 2016. [Compiled from various sources] 2.
Two weeks ago, the Fleet Reserve Association
opened a survey to determine its members’ position on whether to support
a suggested method of funding the “Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans
Act” (HR-969 and S-681). Congressional leaders are looking for a
monetary offset, and one suggestion would have all veterans
receiving disability compensation to allow the VA to round down their
benefit to the nearest dollar. For example, if you currently receive a
check for $100.15, your payment would be rounded to $100, and the
remaining $0.15 would be placed in a fund to pay for benefits for Blue
Water Vietnam veterans affected by exposure to Agent Orange. FRA has received well over 1,000 survey responses, and more than 73% indicated that they would be willing to round down their compensation checks in order to help blue water Vietnam veterans get the care they desperately need. The results of this survey will be reviewed by members of Congress and at the VA as well.[Excerpted from FRA NewsBytes] 3. The Gray vs. McDonald case recently
resulted in a verdict that required the VA to rewrite the description of
certain internal Vietnam waters, such as Da Nang Harbor, that the VA had
declared as not inland with regard to the presumption of exposure rule.
Commander John Wells, USN (Ret), a lawyer, met with individuals at the
Veterans Administration as a result of Senate interaction with the VA to
try to establish a line of communication and mutual understanding of the
Blue Water Navy issues.
The rewrite and distribution of the regulation
was done without any notice to Commander Wells. In an underhanded
way, the VA did rewrite the portion of the M21-1 "training manual" and
distribute it internally to BVA judges. The descriptions still
excluded the same bodies of water in a slightly reworded fashion.
At least two cases of BWN veterans were denied coverage based on this
new wording in the "training aid" manual. When called on this, the VA Chief of Staff (and
apparently the designated "spin doctor" for this issue) made the
following response to Commander Wells of Military Veterans Advocacy: Dear Commander Wells: I apologize for the miscommunication you
received regarding the revision of the Adjudication Procedures Manual
related to Blue Water Navy Veterans. The revised manual attached to your
email correspondence to Deputy Secretary Gibson was an internal draft
that pre-dates your July 6th meeting with the Deputy Secretary.
Secretary McDonald and Deputy Secretary Gibson are fully engaged in
continued policy discussions within the Department related to Blue Water
Navy. Future updates to this manual will be based on final decisions
made by the Secretary. We value your partnership and we look forward to
consulting with you regarding Agent Orange presumptions and Blue Water
Navy Veterans. Again, my apologies for the confusion and
thank you for your commitment and continued service to our Nation’s
Veterans. Sincerely,
Rob Nabors Commander Wells now furnishes the following
response to what was by the Veterans Administration an "error" with the
supposedly internal draft: Important Update on the Premature Distribution of
the M21-1 change in response to Gray v. McDonald from Military-Veterans
Advocacy: At least two Blue Water Navy veterans were denied
claims in whole or in part due to reliance by the Board of Veterans
Appeals on the draft M21-1 regulation, identified as a training aid,
that was prematurely and improperly furnished to the BVA. This morning,
an e-mail went out to all Veterans Law Judges telling them to not rely
on that “training aid.” The problem is that we do not know how many
other veterans were improperly denied. We have asked the BVA to review
their recent cases and vacate any decisions that improperly relied upon
this training aid. They have not agreed to do so. It is important that
if you are aware of any BWN veterans who have had their cases denied by
the BVA within the last 45 days, based on this “training aid” to file a
request for reconsideration or an appeal to the Court of Appeals for
Veterans Claims. Any veteran or VSO that needs more information
should contact Military-Veterans Advocacy at:
johnlawesq@msn.com Apparently the only "miscommunication" was the
fact that the rewrite was noticed outside of the VA. Errors like
this certainly call into place the integrity of certain individuals in
the management level of the VA. Please keep this error by the VA in mind if you
or any other service officers are serving any Blue Water Navy veterans
with claims at this time. 4. Commentary. It seems to this
three decade service officer that VA will do anything to frustrate the
eligibility of over 400,000 Vietnam veterans who served off shore from
receiving compensation for AO related conditions. It is comforting
to know that other veterans will sacrifice small portion of their
compensation to bring justice to these BWN comrades. But it is
equally disheartening to know that the VA bureaucrats are like all the
others in Washington and lie to us, and then they lie to us about lying
to us. This is just awful 5. Recommendations. With all of the
above information coinciding in such near term criticality I strongly
recommend:
a. If you believe that you have any AO connected disease or
condition, even if you are a BWN claimant, consider filing a service
connected compensation claim to VA immediately through an accredited
local service officer. If you don’t know what the AO related
conditions are, go to the following web page:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/conditions/index.asp.
b. If you are a BWN claimant, especially one that served in Da
Nang harbor, and you have had a claim denied in the past 45 days,
contact Commander Wells at the above listed email address immediately. |
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