VA Exec Insists Agent Orange is Harmless & Orders C-123 Exposure Claim Denied: Earns $11,000 Bonus!

Its true. The recent release of VA executive bonuses revealed a sore point about a sore point.

A C-123 veteran's claim for Agent Orange exposure was ordered denied by VA's Compensation and Pension Service with the statement that Agent Orange is harmless. Hard to believe, right?

Here is is. A regional office had recommended approval of a C-123 veteran's Agent Orange exposure claim and, following instructions in VA 21-1MR, forwarded the case to a special desk at VBA's Compensation and Pension Service. Quickly, the claim was slapped down and ordered denied.

In the Advisory Opinion sent back to the regional office, the Director of Compensation and Pension summaries the official findings by the CDC/ATSDR that C-123 vets were exposed to Agent Orange and suffer a 200-fold greater cancer risk with the misleading sentence in the summary paragraph, "In summary, there is no evidence of adverse health effects from TCDD exposure."

This executive earned $11,000 by overlooking the reams of VA official documentation labeling

TCDD "a potent human carcinogen." This executive earned $11,000 by ignoring the requirement in his department's own rules that all a non-Vietnam vet needs to prove is Agent Orange exposure, and the executive twisted the denial into one citing no proof of medical nexus...a requirement not mentioned in the law, VA rules, Federal Register...only in his mindset that the clam must be denied.

Maybe he was too focused on that $11,000 bonus to read the law correctly.