USAF AO Shame

Jim Fausone
Veteran Disability Lawyer

Those veterans who flew on C-123 airplanes dropped more than 10 million gallons of Agent Orange to destroy enemy cover and crops during the Vietnam War.  After the war between 1972 and 1982, about 1,500 men and women served aboard 34 C-123s that were previously deployed in Operation Ranch Hand, a large-scale defoliation mission in Vietnam and other countries in Southeast Asia. VA does not recognize AO exposure onboard the C-123s during or after the Vietnam war. If the veteran can prove boots on the ground during the war he can establish AO exposure.  However, those who were exposed outside the country or after the war by residuals from the C-123s are not as fortunate.  Spreading the word among scientists, veterans and politicians and posting evidence publicly at c123kcancer.blogspot.com is one way to keep this in the public eye even as veterans pass away. 

Just as the Navy and VA have shame for how they treat Blue Water Navy vets, the USAF has shame for its treatment of C-123 crews.

 

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/10/agent-orange-vietnam-veterans_n_3572598.html?utm_hp_ref=green

 

Who is in the Backlog?

Jim Fausone

Veteran Disability Attorney

Ok, you have heard about the backlog of claims at VA.  But who is in that clog?  Vietnam era veterans account for the largest share of the 865,000 veterans stuck in the clog.  They are 37% of the clog according to VA statistics. The post 9-11 wars in Afghanistan and Iraq account for 20%. The remainder,43%, are from the 1991 Gulf War, Korea, World War II and times of peace. Some reasons are obvious - aging population and resulting increasing health issues and some reasons are subtle - changing attitudes.  This LA Times article discusses the clog and the reasons.

http://www.stripes.com/news/veterans/vietnam-veterans-new-battle-getting-disability-compensation-1.220697

PTSD: Is it Real?

Jim Fausone
Veterans Disability Lawyer

It would be easy to get made about this. But many people feel free to comment that PTSD is not a real condition.  I suspect they mean it’s not an "injury" that you can attribute to a single act or event. It is not a sprained knee or back.  You have to remember that some people believe the following (1) man has never walked on the moon; (2) the earth is flat ; (3)  one's race impacts one's intelligence; (4) global warming does not exist; (5) there is no god  and a variety of other commonly held believes are not true just because. 

So when I hear about the veteran and PTSD haters talk about PTSD, I just lump them in the "it takes all kinds" category.   In 2011, the VA listed the three most common service-connected disabilities among veterans receiving federal compensation that year: tinnitus (ringing in the ears) at 10.9 percent, hearing loss at 7.5 percent, and PTSD at 5.3 percent.   According to the VA the percentage of veterans of World War II and Vietnam who obtained disability compensation is 11 percent and 16 percent, respectively.  

So does that mean PTSD has been faked for the last 70 years?  I don’t think so.  Despite exhaustive scientific studies that have explored the symptoms, causes, diagnoses, and prevalence of post-traumatic stress disorder, hardcore skeptics remain.  If you want to read about the skeptics see the following blog:

http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/11/26/15395330-ptsd-may-be-overdiagnosed-but-ptsd-deniers-are-wrong-psychologists-say?lite

VA to Review 17,000 “Brown Water” Cases

by Kristina Derro

The VA has recently agreed to review the cases of nearly 17,000 “Brown Water” Vietnam Era veterans who have claimed disabilities related to Agent Orange exposure. VA previously denied a number of these claims without properly determining whether they served in Vietnam’s inland waterways (“Brown Water”) or in other locations where they would have been exposed to Agent Orange and other herbicides.

Many of these claims were held by VA while litigation was ongoing concerning “Blue Water” veterans and their exposure to herbicides, and were later denied. A review of these claims found that many of the so-called “Blue Water” veterans actually served in “Brown Water” or inland waters of Vietnam, and should have received the same presumptions of service-connection as those veterans who had “boots on the ground” in Vietnam. Unfortunately, their claims were denied by VA without looking up proper documentation to prove whether they actually served in “Brown Water”.

This recent agreement by VA allows certain veterans who were previously considered “Blue Water” veterans to have their claims reevaluated for evidence of “Brown Water” service, or evidence of service in other locations where VA acknowledges that herbicides may have been used. Visit http://veterans.senate.gov/press-releases.cfm?action=release.display&release_id=4acabc2b-f423-4543-ab3c-e38cece413fc to view the press release and for more information. Links are provided on the press release of a list of ships that have been identified by VA as having traveled in inland waters of Vietnam.

Delayed Seizures From Head Injury

A recent study found that Vietnam vets with penetrating head injuries could first exhibit seizures decades after the injury. The Journal Neurology published a report that found that among a group of 199 Vietnam veterans, about 13% developed post-traumatic epilepsy more than 14 years after they had suffered a penetrating head wound, such as a gunshot injury or shrapnel that entered brain tissue. In at least one instance the onset was 35 years later. The LA Times wrote about this study "It is unclear how the study relates to combatants returning from Iraq and Afghanistan today, the authors said. The Vietnam veterans in the study suffered from penetrating brain injuries, which are rarer in soldiers fighting in the current conflicts because helmets have improved. Today, closed-head injuries (where the brain is not penetrated) are more common, in part because of the helmet improvements and partly because of a change in the weaponry used in modern warfare." The VA would be well advised to take these results into account. This once again proves that VA, veterans and their advocates should not simply dismiss a medical nexus because of the passage of time.


Veterans can have seizures decades after a head injury, study finds