Federal Ruling Could Help Local Navy Vietnam Veterans

Thread view:

Enable EMail Alerts

Start New Thread

Thread rating:

c palmer - 05 Sep 2006 09:40 GMT

this is just the beginning for some of our navy brothers who served in
vietnam and have suffered from the effects of agent orange but were told
that because they were not on land, the gov't is not responsible..

~ curtis

============
by DENNIS PHILLIPS

9/4/2006 - MAYVILLE A ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals could help
Blue Water Navy Vietnam vets in Chautauqua County exposed to Agent
Orange.

On Wednesday, Chautauqua County Executive Gregory J. Edwards and James
Hurley, Veterans Service Agency director, announced that the U.S. Court
of Appeals for Veteran Claims has made a decision in the case of Haas v.
Nicholson. This ruling could directly affect thousands of disabled
Vietnam-era Navy veterans.
The ruling means Blue Water Navy Vietnam veterans can now file claims
based on service in the Republic of Vietnam including ''service in the
waters offshore.'' This decision may open the floodgates to millions of
Vietnam-era disability claims.

How many this decision will affect in Chautauqua County is unclear,
Hurley said.

''Since I've been around we have had just a couple sailors, Navy
veterans, turned away based on the previous law,'' he said. ''I wouldn't
even want to guess at how many. Potentially many, though.''
Hurley said the decision will help Navy veterans that were stationed
around Vietnam that might have been exposed to Agent Orange, which has
been linked to causing diseases like cancer and diabetes.

''If you were on Vietnam, the potential of being exposed to it was
really high. We have a lot of Army and Marines that come in with those
types of diseases because of Agent Orange,'' Hurley said.

Agent Orange was a herbicide used by U.S. forces during the Vietnam War
to expose enemy guerrilla forces in forested areas. Agent Orange
contains varying amounts of dioxin. Exposure to the defoliant has been
linked with chemical acne, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease,
and soft-tissue sarcoma.

Many soldiers were exposed to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. Afflicted
veterans brought a class-action suit against manufacturers of Agent
Orange, which was settled out of court by the establishment of a fund to
compensate them and their families for any disabilities.
Navy Vietnam veterans are encouraged to contact the Chautauqua County
Veterans Service Agency at 661-8255 or 363-3630 as soon as possible to
determine if they are eligible to receive disability benefits based on
this ruling.

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Reply to this Message

I.P. Freely - 05 Sep 2006 15:31 GMT

DENNIS PHILLIPS wrote

> 9/4/2006 - MAYVILLE — A ruling by U.S. Court of Appeals could help
> Blue Water Navy Vietnam vets in Chautauqua County exposed to Agent
> Orange.

> Many soldiers were exposed to Agent Orange in the Vietnam War. Afflicted
> veterans brought a class-action suit against manufacturers of Agent
> Orange, which was settled out of court by the establishment of a fund to
> compensate them and their families for any disabilities.

Reply to this Message

c palmer - 05 Sep 2006 18:22 GMT

It's nice to see the government come around on this issue, but that's a
poor choice of words. How the hell do they "compensate" a person or a
family for ruining their lives, in the case of terminal or extremely
disabling (as determined by the victim) cancer?
I.P.

======> hi I.P. - this has been the topic of many a discussion. as
american citizens - we went there. we paid the price and yet, when we
came home, we were not given a hero's welcome but instead - we were
spit on, cussed at, and discriminated against - yet, no other vet has
been exposed to this type of disgrace for defending their country.

and the price we pay....

did you know....

the vietnam vet is dying at twice the rate of the WWII vets? by the
time the last WWII vet dies, the vietnam vet will have been long gone.

as to compensation for what is due to them and their families.....

the gov't has ALWAYS been slow in it's response time. doesn't make any
difference if it is a natural disaster such as a hurricanes and we all
know how they responded on that one. go look in florida at all those
blue tarps on the roofs of homes that were struck by hurricanes back in
2004 and they still haven't gotten the money to get their lives back.

and look at long it took to compensate the blacks in florida for acts
done against them. over 100 years.

and what about the japanese citizens of america that had their
businesses and properties taken from them and pushed into camps back in
WWII. how long did it take to make it right for what they did to a
person who was a U.S. citizen - just happened to be the offspring of
japanese parents.

so, when it comes to the vietnam vet. look at it like this...... it is
business. for each day they don't pay any benefits, look at how much
money they save and over the years, it amounts to billions. of course,
keep this in mind.

a congressman is a person who travels to iraq and speaks to the troops
and say that they will back them up and fly back to the the united
states and vote to cut benefits to the vets. so which is it?

and when you take a young man who was in perfect health before he went
to desert storm, and is now sitting in a wheel chair in a nursing nurse,
and yet they say that nothing happened over there.

go figure......

~ curtis

knowledge is power - growing old is mandatory - growing wise is optional
"Many more men die with prostate cancer than of it. Growing old is
invariably fatal. Prostate cancer is only sometimes so."
http://community.webtv.net/PALMER_ENT/doc

Reply to this Message

Steve Kramer - 05 Sep 2006 21:59 GMT

> - this has been the topic of many a discussion. as
> american citizens - we went there. we paid the price and yet, when we
> came home, we were not given a hero's welcome but instead - we were
> spit on, cussed at, and discriminated against -

I didn't. Nor do I know anyone who did. Must have been awful.

> the gov't has ALWAYS been slow in it's response time. doesn't make any
> difference if it is a natural disaster such as a hurricanes and we all
> know how they responded on that one. go look in florida at all those
> blue tarps on the roofs of homes that were struck by hurricanes back in
> 2004 and they still haven't gotten the money to get their lives back.

Please don't cheapen your experience with comparisons to victims of natural
disaster. We all feel sorrow for the things that happen to man. People die
in accidents and lose their houses in fires. Sometimes, tens of people or
hundreds of houses or thousands.... These things happen and that is why
they are called natural.

The reason the government (i.e., the people) owes you something is because
you picked up a rifle and defended the nation (i.e., the people). We owe
you for cancelling out whatever dangers existed in that Hell hole. The
aggregiousness of the whole affair (and one that continues to this day) is
that very fact.

You built no homes on barrier reefs or along coast lines. You did not
ignore a lifetime of warnings, failing to take yourself and your family away
from breached levies, then stand in line for other men to serve them water.
Nor were you in a position of power, indeed savior, and remove yourself,
your family and your belongings to a safe place and come back days later and
force people out of temporary housing.

No sir. You are a man. You acted as a man. And men and women betrayed
you.

No, it's nothing like blue tarps in Florida; nor reparations to persons no
longer in existence.

Reply to this Message

Tom Cular - 06 Sep 2006 09:43 GMT

>> - this has been the topic of many a discussion. as
>> american citizens - we went there. we paid the price and yet, when we
[quoted text clipped - 33 lines]
> No, it's nothing like blue tarps in Florida; nor reparations to persons no
> longer in existence.

Very well said Steve.

Tom

Reply to this Message

Bob C - 06 Sep 2006 14:10 GMT

> spit on, cussed at, and discriminated against - yet, no other vet has
> been exposed to this type of disgrace for defending their country.
[quoted text clipped - 6 lines]
> inhale. And ....fill in the blank. She won't remember me, but I sure
> remember her.

Reply to this Message