Blue Water sailor Agent Orange claims easier to file

#Middlebury #Veterans

Blue Water sailors, heads up. The Department of Veterans Affairs has made it easier for you to file a claim for Agent Orange exposure. Starting Jan. 1, 2020, The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019 (PL 116-23) extended coverage to those who weren’t inland but were shipboard. The difficulty has been gathering all the records and logs required to prove your location.

Now the National Archives and Records Administration has digitized declassified Navy and Coast Guard deck logs (aka ship or captain’s logs) from 1956-1978 and put them online to make it easier for veterans to validate their claims. This includes the hospital ship USS Sanctuary.
Some particulars:

• If you were within 12 nautical miles of the coast of Vietnam from Jan. 9, 1962 to May 7, 1975, or in the Korean Demilitarized Zone between Jan. 1, 1967 and Aug. 31, 1971, you qualify.
• If you have any of these medical conditions, you qualify: AL amyloidosis, chronic B-cell leukemias, chloracne, diabetes mellitus Type 2, Hodgkin’s disease, ischemic heart disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Parkinson’s disease, peripheral neuropathy, porphyria cutanea tarda, prostate cancer, respiratory cancers and soft tissue sarcomas.
• If you’ve never filed, go ahead and do it quickly. Use VA Form 21-526EZ, Application for Disability Compensation and Related Compensation Benefits.
• If you did file and were turned down, try again, and use VA Form 20-0995, Decision Review Request: Supplemental Claim. Payment is retroactive to when you first filed. Priority is given to those with a terminal condition.

For more information, go online to www.benefits.va.gov/benefits/blue-water-navy.asp and click on everything. Go to va.gov (put blue water navy in the search box). See the digitized records at catalog.archives.gov.

Remember: Agent Orange was in the water you drank onboard and the shower water you stood under. It was in your coffee, your laundry … even if your ship had a water supply system to convert seawater.

© 2020 King Features Synd., Inc.