Tag Archive: Agent Orange

Blue Water Navy Vietnam Vets and Agent Orange

Author: March 3, 2020

New map helps Vets locate ship positions 
from “Military Times” 

A new interactive map could help ill Vietnam veterans who served on U.S. ships determine whether they could be eligible for Agent Orange-related benefits. The law allows veterans who served on a ship that operated within 12 nautical miles of a line of demarcation established by law and have an illness presumed related to herbicide exposure, to apply for health benefits and disability compensation. 

Blue Water Navy Vietnam Vets and Agent Orange

Over 1,700 deck logs have been plotted to date, and new information continues to be added. The map is hosted online by the disability law firm Hill & Ponton one of numerous law firms which vie to assist veterans in drafting and filing disability claims with VA.Veterans service organizations provide similar assistance free of charge. As part of filing disability claims, veterans must show they served on a U.S. vessel when it traversed the congressionally drawn zone. 

Veterans who were on ships that aren’t yet mapped or who served outside the zone, such as in the Gulf of Tonkin, should contact Military Veterans Advocacy and the Blue Water Navy Association if they have one of 14 diseases listed by the VA as linked to Agent Orange. They may still be able to file a claim

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Blue Water Navy Legislation Moves Forward

Author: May 14, 2018

Blue Water Navy Legislation Moves Forward

Some of our Vietnam Navy veterans may find this report on the subject of VA benefits for impacts of agent orange on sailors of the “Tonkin Gulf Yacht Club”.

H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2017, as amended, passed the House Committee on Veterans’ Affairs on Tuesday. The VFW-supported bill, which must still be approved by the full House and Senate before going to the president, would restore benefits to thousands of Vietnam veterans, expand inclusive dates to those who served along the Korean DMZ, require VA to report on research related to a broad range of conditions possibly connected to service in Southwest Asia, and benefit children born with spina bifida due to a parent’s exposure to Agent Orange-related herbicides in Thailand. Further, VA will be required to conduct an outreach campaign to those Blue Water Navy sailors who were denied benefits in the past and make retroactive payment of benefits for those previously denied. The vote on this legislation comes 16 years after benefits were lost due to a regulatory change in the Agent Orange Act, and the VFW is proud to have worked with this committee to ensure passage without any cuts to other benefits.

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