All About Pocket Knives

so here is where i grew up...joined the army in march of 69...who knew agent orange was in use locally?

i don't care what political party one belongs to...this activity is bogus.
http://www.examiner.com/public-policy-i ... ommunities

last year as a result of agent oranges use in vietnam, the government paid out 1.7 billion dollars in tax free cash benefits last year. they will continue to pay those benefits every year.
there are people who were really affected by this chemical, but there are just as many who jumped on the band wagon because of simple old age ailments that can be associated with agent orange exposure.
then there are other veterans that have been affected by agent orange and are getting no compensation even after multiple visits to medical experts.
very touchy subject here...

Chet, were you there?

jerry i wasn't there. three bros were there.. don't forget six of us brothers were jarheads. anyways, all three are sitting good on the agent orange pay out...kinda wish i was there now..
i feel bad for the ones and their families who didn't make it back alive. i lost a few friends. i guess we all did.

Gringo,
Agent Orange was used here in the states Possibly even before it was used in Vietnam.
Some of the earliest A/O info I have seen quoted was a study in Alsea Oregon, from the early 1960, IIRC. They were studying how far A/O drifted on the wind from the coastal forest up & beyond the town of Alsea, OR. The Alsea study was cited widely in the early A/O informational literature for veterans. Apparent there were civilian uses for the stuff, or so they thought.


Being a Vietnam Veteran and having worked with veterans and veteran issues for nearly 20 years, (10 years in a volunteer capacity and 10 years professionally for the State of Oregon, 4 of which I was attached to a VA Vet Center), I have worked with far too many veterans with A/O exposure. It can be devastating. Unfortunately many of the folks most affected by Agent Orange died long before there were any programs to help them or even acknowledge that A/O caused any health problems.

Though I was in an area where A/O was used, fortunately I have not been diagnosed with any of the ‘presumptively service connected conditions’ due to exposure to A/O.
From my time working with veterans I know it is very nearly impossible to get a claim for A/O unless you have one of the conditions on the list of ‘presumptively conditions’ AND were in an area where A/O was used. Without both you don’t get an A/O claim. It is quite a long drawn out process.

Type 2 diabetes adult onset is one of the ‘presumptively conditions’ as defined by the Federal Government. Could there be people who would have gotten Diabetes anyway whether they were exposed to A/O or not? Undoubtedly. But there is a much higher incidence of type 2 diabetes among veterans exposed to A/O than there is among other men their age. It is impossible for medical science to differentiate between diabetes caused my A/O exposure or diabetes caused by some other factor. Therefore the benefit of the doubt goes to the veteran, as it should in my opinion.

There are 14 conditions currently on the A/O presumptively conditions list, most are pretty nasty. Some conditions require the onset of the condition within a certain period of time after the exposure to A/O.
The list of presumptively conditions for A/O exposure is available here:
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposure ... p#veterans

chetr1200c wrote:jerry i wasn't there. three bros were there.. don't forget six of us brothers were jarheads. anyways, all three are sitting good on the agent orange pay out...kinda wish i was there now..
i feel bad for the ones and their families who didn't make it back alive. i lost a few friends. i guess we all did.

Chet, you told me all that and my memory is getting so bad, I forgot. Please accept my apologies. It's so embarrassing when that happens.


Dale - Over three months ago, I filed a claim with the VA for Ischemic Heart Disease. I have yet to receive an acknowledgement that the claim was received. Everyone has told me they are slow but...

Whether my condition is caused by A.O. or not is not mine to determine but the facts are:
1.) I was in I Corps, along with III Corps the district with the most heavy use of Agent Orange in all of South Viet Nam.
2.) I was there when they were spraying the stuff.
3.) Ischemic Heart Disease is on the VA's list of presumptive conditions.

I would be a fool to not file a claim. Right now, I'm hovering just below the border line for Type 2 Diabetes. If it crosses the border, you can bet your sweet bippy I'll file a claim on that as well.

This is a .AVI video. My Windows Media Player will play it. I make no guarantees for your default video player.
Click Here for a Viet Nam Agent Orange spray map 1963-1970

touchy subject for sure...more like a can of worms...

my brother in law is now in denver va...throat cancers...he was with the 2nd infantry on the DMZ...he sure has been good to my sister.
i had seen bags of those crystals all over the farming areas of arizona...but that is down south an not a bother..but now it comes out...due to a fire, that the forest service sprayed the areas we used to play as kids...(we didn't have video games..we hunted an hiked a climbed cliffs...and four wheeled.)

i knew ft wingate in new mexico had testing programs for chemical/biological/nuke agents...many people over there were exposed...i also knew the navy did testing of dispersal equipment in the bay at san francisco...

here is the list of presumptive conditions.
http://www.veteranprograms.com/id1071.html

here is a link to U.S. test/storage sites.
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposure ... am_usa.asp

jerryd6818 wrote:

chetr1200c wrote:jerry i wasn't there. three bros were there.. don't forget six of us brothers were jarheads. anyways, all three are sitting good on the agent orange pay out...kinda wish i was there now..
i feel bad for the ones and their families who didn't make it back alive. i lost a few friends. i guess we all did.

Chet, you told me all that and my memory is getting so bad, I forgot. Please accept my apologies. It's so embarrassing when that happens.


Dale - Over three months ago, I filed a claim with the VA for Ischemic Heart Disease. I have yet to receive an acknowledgement that the claim was received. Everyone has told me they are slow but...

Whether my condition is caused by A.O. or not is not mine to determine but the facts are:
1.) I was in I Corps, along with III Corps the district with the most heavy use of Agent Orange in all of South Viet Nam.
2.) I was there when they were spraying the stuff.
3.) Ischemic Heart Disease is on the VA's list of presumptive conditions.

I would be a fool to not file a claim. Right now, I'm hovering just below the border line for Type 2 Diabetes. If it crosses the border, you can bet your sweet bippy I'll file a claim on that as well.

This is a .AVI video. My Windows Media Player will play it. I make no guarantees for your default video player.
Click Here for a Viet Nam Agent Orange spray map 1963-1970

Jerry,

DON'T WAIT!!

File the claims now. It'll be two years or thereabouts before the claim is finalized.

You were there, "boots on the ground", you're home free in the system. Get busy.

I strongly advise getting your state's veterans representative organisation involved in your claims process. The DAV can help too.

The VA is not our friend, so it helps to have someone with a big stick to keep them in line on your behalf.

Owd Wullie wrote:Jerry,

DON'T WAIT!!

File the claims now. It'll be two years or thereabouts before the claim is finalized.

You were there, "boots on the ground", you're home free in the system. Get busy.

I strongly advise getting your state's veterans representative organisation involved in your claims process. The DAV can help too.

The VA is not our friend, so it helps to have someone with a big stick to keep them in line on your behalf.

Jerry, I totally agree!
Ask around to see who the best Service Officer is in your area.
I am a life member of DAV & AMVETS and am annual member of American Legion. They all should have good service officers to help with your claim, free of charge with no requirement of membership in their organization. The VFW should have service officers as well. Use a service officer; don’t try to fight the VA alone. They won’t help you like a service officer will, IMHO.

Semper Fi,
Dale

A guy I worked with for about seven years (Dave) is a retired Army Master Sergeant and now he's working as a State of Illinois Veterans Representative. I went to him to have the paperwork filled out for my claim. I need to get back up to him and get a claim filed for tinnitus. I have a cousin who was a generator operator in an Army HAWK Missile Battery and he gets 10% for tinnitus. Except when I was in school, I was in HAWK units for my entire enlistment, starting out as a generator operator and later as a CW Radar Repairman. Between the generators, fan noise and servo noise, a HAWK unit is not a quiet place to work and live.

I procrastinate because Dave's office is all the way up on the north end of town and they don't take appointments so you have to sit and wait. And wait. And wait.

Owd Wullie wrote:File the claims now. It'll be two years or thereabouts before the claim is finalized.

I don't doubt it. The first time I sent a request to get my ribbons and awards updated, it took a year and a half and they didn't get it right the first time. I sent in a second request and that one came back correct but it still took six months even though I included copies of the paperwork of a guy I went there with on the same orders and rotated back to CONUS with on the same day.

So two years for a claim? Sounds about right.