A Message from Bob McDonald, Secretary of Veterans Affairs: on the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

A Message from Bob McDonald, Secretary of Veterans Affairs:

Our nation is currently commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Vietnam War, a long overdue opportunity to honor our 7.2 million living Vietnam Veterans and the 9 million families of those of us who served from November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975. The Department of Veterans Affairs and more than 9,000 local, state and national organizations have joined the Department of Defense as Commemorative Partners in this important commemoration. 

For us, this partnership holds special significance in light of our mission to serve those who “shall have borne the battle,” their families and their survivors. Embracing our Vietnam Veterans and their families is in keeping with the intent and spirit of our MyVA transformation, focusing on our customers and improving their experience with the VA. 

Please take advantage of the opportunity this commemoration presents to express your gratitude for the service and sacrifice of this generation of American Servicemembers. Thank a Vietnam Veteran and welcome them home!

VA Secretary McDonald "Indifferent?" NO! He is passionate about serving veterans.

I CANNOT agree with WSJ's January 13 report on VA "indifference." My experience since 1992 has been quite the opposite, other than a few instances where staffers were in an inappropriate position of authority. Instead VA has been amazingly attentive to my concerns, and concerns of the veterans of our C-123 Veterans Association.

For instance, this MLK holiday weekend a dedicated claims worker in the VA St Paul Regional Office has been reviewing veterans' claims and resolving many which have taken too long.

That worker has been available for detailed inquiries, and has resolved claims in as little as 16 days for a terminal veteran.

Mr. McDonald's leadership cannot inspire everyone at VA nor can he do the work of all 300,000 employees. His leadership, however, is as telling as it can be. I cannot imagine any cabinet officer working as hard at such a thankless job.

As for medical care, I've had some disappointments but in the decades since my injury, probably fewer complaints with VA than I'd have had with my civilian practitioners, and certainly a more comprehensive package of care offered me...dental, prosthetics, rehab, pharmacy, ophthalmology, general medicine and other benefits essential to a disabled veteran.

Veterans are lucky to be able to say to Secretary McDonald, "Thank you for YOUR service!"

VA Explains How It Arranged to Avoid Retroactive Benefits. An Exercise in Disappointments!

(from email received from Veterans Benefits Administration on Tuesday June 23; Names redacted and quoted by permission)

Wes, I've been working on the C-123 issues on behalf of Dave Mxxxx and Dave’s asked me to respond directly to you.  

Unfortunately, VA will not be able to extend any retroactive effect to Reservists’ disability compensation based on exposure to Agent Orange aboard C-123s.  

The June 19^th rulemaking was needed to establish Veteran status for Reservists based on the presumption that Agent Orange disabilities were incurred during active or inactive duty training, even though symptoms may have first manifested decades later.  

That rule was necessary to grant benefits, and so it is “liberalizing” and subject to the effective date provisions Congress enacted in 38 USC 5110(g), which provides that: 

Subject to the provisions of section 5101 of this title, where compensation, dependency and indemnity compensation, or pension is awarded or increased pursuant to any Act or administrative issue, the effective date of such award or increase shall be fixed in accordance with the facts found but shall not be earlier than the effective date of the Act or administrative issue. In no event shall such award or increase be retroactive for more than one year from the date of application therefor or the date of administrative determination of entitlement, whichever is earlier. 

Under the statute cited above, VA can pay Reservists C-123 Agent Orange claims as early as June 19, 2015 if those claims are submitted, or initiated online via eBenefits.va.gov, by phoning 1-800-827-1000, or at a VA Regional Office public contact center, before June 19, 2016.  

We would urge any Veteran, former Reservist or Survivor whose C-123 Agent Orange claim was previously denied to submit a reopened claim for consideration under the liberalized rule. Former Reservists whose claims or appeals are pending right now will be entitled to benefits as early as June 19, 2015 if their claims are granted. 

We're sympathetic to your position that the VCAA and due process required VA to make available to decisionmakers the 2013 letter from ATSDR to JSRRC, but because C-123 Reservists were not Veterans in the absence of the rule published, and effective, June 19, 2015 rule, VA cannot provide benefits to former Reservists any earlier. 

I’m sure that’s not what you wanted to hear, but we’re bound by the law and the law is pretty clear here.

          /signed/ 

VA Consultant: "Hold the line. No C-123 claims!"

VA Agent Orange Consultant Email to Mr. James Sampsel, August 12, 2013

That's pretty stern advice, coming from the VA's principal Agent Orange consultant. Very stern, when one understands his advice on August 12, 2013 is that VA must, despite any evidence offered by the veterans and other federal agencies to the contrary, take the dramatic and saddening step of refusing life-saving medical care for Agent Orange illnesses suffered by Air Force veterans.

Especially stern, when one also realizes his advice was against numerous expert opinions supporting the veterans from the CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the NIH, the US Public Health Service, dozens of independent physicians and scientists, university researchers, and...as we learned last week, even the Department of Defense confirmed the C-123 veterans' exposures but their input was considered unacceptable to certain VA staffers. There was no evident concern for the Veterans Claims Assistance Act, for the requirements of VAM21-1MR, or for Due Process.

"Hold the line" indeed, because there is such a plethora of evidence for the veterans' exposures, and a paucity supporting the VA's decision to oppose them. (besides the consultant, Dow and Monsanto sponsored input against the C-123 veterans.) Somehow, facing the storm of experts disagreeing with it, VA's Agent Orange desk was still insisting to veterans, the media, and especially VA claims workers that the department possessed "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against the veterans.

That means VA was saying it had more than enough medical and scientific evidence, so much as to compel its "unfortunate decision" to deny the disability claims of Air Force veterans, ordering them to go elsewhere for their cancers, heart disease, ALS and other Agent Orange ailments. And also, according to the Director, Compensation and Pension per the conference in his office on 28 Feb 2013, tell the veterans nothing they could ever do would bring the level of their argument to the "benefit of the doubt" VA is required by law to extend in disability claims.

Per VA, there was no possibility of doubt, which seems now to have been more an unofficial policy position of certain VA staffers, than a scientific and legal basis to let C-123 veterans suffer and die. Per the Institute of Medicine, the VA was wrong. Per Secretary McDonald, he agrees.

VA's Agent Orange consultant, one of the few voices supporting VA (and generously paid $300,000 a year for the effort in his two year, no-bid sole source unsolicited consulting contract) writes to his contact at the Agent Orange desk "to hold the line against emotion and political pressures." Emotional, certainly, because the consultant was discussing the Washington Post's 8 August 2013 article about the victory of Paul Bailey of Bath, NH who appealed VA's denial of his claim and won. Bailey's death followed shortly thereafter, ending his struggle with VA's Agent Orange desk and its Agent Orange consultant.

$600,000 to tell VA "hold the line against emotional and political pressure?" $600,000 for "scientific advice" from a consultant so firmly against the subjects involved, whom two years earlier he slandered as "trash-haulers, freeloaders looking for a tax-free dollar," he insists the line be held against them? $600,000 to be the voice of VA before the Institute of Medicine C-123 Committee?

VA Consultant to VA on C-123 Claims

Today, looking back with the Institute of Medicine C-123 Committee's confirmation of exposures and Secretary McDonald's own acknowledgement of it, perhaps we see that $600,000 paid to the consultant to encourage VA to refuse life-saving medical care for veterans eventually determined fully eligible for care...was C-123 a bad decision based on bad input leading to a terrifically miserable outcome for 2100 men and women who flew and maintained these former Agent Orange spray transports.

"Hold the line against C-123 veterans" just doesn't work with VA's standard phrase, "each claim is considered on a case-by-case basis." It is the policy of a few VA employees, not law or medicine. It certainly isn't the objective science claimed by the consultant in his reports.

Senators Call on VA Secretary to Ensure Post Vietnam USAF C-123 Veterans Receive Benefits and Compensation

Bipartisan Group of Senators Call on VA Secretary to Ensure Post Vietnam USAF C-123 Veterans Receive Proper Benefits and Compensation

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A bipartisan group of senators led by Senators Richard Burr (R-NC) and Jeff Merkley (D-OR) today called on VA Secretary Robert McDonald to ensure that veterans long denied care for exposure to Agent Orange receive timely and proper benefits and compensation. The letter follows a recent Institute of Medicine (IOM) study that provides new and compelling evidence on exposure to Agent Orange of veterans who flew contaminated aircraft after the Vietnam war.

Burr and Merkley were joined in a letter by Sens. Ron Wyden (D-OR), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), and Michael Bennet (D-CO).

The IOM study, which was published in January, found “with confidence” that post-Vietnam veterans serving on C-123 aircrafts were exposed to potentially dangerous levels of dioxin from aircrafts that were used to carry and spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and that were never properly decontaminated.

According to the study, an estimated 1500-2100 personnel served on the affected planes, and numerous veterans among that group have developed symptoms, including cancer, consistent with Agent Orange exposure.

The senators pushed the VA to reverse previous decisions that have denied veterans benefits and compensation, writing:

“Despite (1) multiple Air Force reports going back to 1979 showing that the C-123s were contaminated, (2) numerous expert opinions from inside and outside the government suggesting these veterans were  exposed to Agent Orange and other toxins, and (3) a judge’s order stopping the resale of these C-123s because the planes were a ‘danger to public health,’ the VA to-date has doggedly insisted  there is no possibility that post-Vietnam era C-123 veterans might have been exposed to dangerous levels of Agent Orange.  It also has denied all but one of the C-123 veterans’ claims for benefits.”

They continued, “It is our desire to see that C-123 veterans who suffer today because of service-related exposure to Agent Orange receive the help they need. To speed the award of benefits, we ask that you provide a presumption of service connection for these veterans.”

The senators also called on the VA to immediately review all C-123 Agent Orange exposure claims, including those that have been denied and are under appeal, and to work with the Department of Defense to proactively contact all veterans who served on any C-123s previously used in Vietnam to spray Agent Orange defoliant that were subsequently assigned to Air Force Reserve units based in the United States from 1972-1982 in order to notify these veterans that they may be eligible for benefits.

Institute of Medicine Announces C-123 Agent Orange Exposure Report is Delayed

Yesterday the IOM Agent Orange committee reported that their C-123 report, expected by the end of
this month, has been delayed into October. This is regrettable because the Department of Veterans Affairs has since January put all C-123 veterans’ claims on hold, awaiting the IOM report.

Until the IOM report is released VA will continue to refuse medical care for over 2100 affected veterans. Further, however conclusive it may be regarding the aircrew’s exposures, the Secretary of Veterans Affairs may still accept the advice of Post Deployment Health and not implement the report’s recommendations.

House of Representatives Begins Circulating Congressional Letter to VA About C-123 Veterans

Congresswoman Bonamici (D-OR) and her Republican colleague Congressman Paul Cook have begun circulating their bipartisan letter from the House of Representatives to VA Secretary Erik Shinseki, demanding justice for C-123 aircrew Agent Orange veterans. All veterans are urged to ask their congressional representatives to sign on and join this bipartisan effort! Congresswoman Bonamici has asked all veterans to urge their representatives to contact her office and join this important effort. The Senate, under leadership of Senator Richard Burr and Senator Jeff Merkley, has a similar effort underway.

Call Congress today – urge support for Congresswoman Bonamici and Congressman Cook's letter, shown below:

Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange Deserve VA Benefits

From: The Honorable Suzanne Bonamici
Sent By: carly.katz
Date: 9/25/2013

Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange Deserve VA Benefits

Dear Colleague:

Please join us in a letter to the Veterans Administration (VA) to reexamine its benefits policy for veterans exposed to Agent Orange after the Vietnam War.  Veterans who served on Agent Orange spray aircraft after the Vietnam War are facing serious health issues today due to their exposure to military herbicide residue.  These veterans served our country without knowledge of the risk to their health and they deserve to be treated fairly by the VA.  Despite evidence and support from the country’s top experts on Agent Orange, the VA refuses to provide these veterans with disability benefits. 

From 1972 to 1982, between 1500 and 2500 aircrew, aerial port, and maintenance staff served on C-123 aircraft that had been used during the Vietnam War to spray military herbicides, including Agent Orange.  Many of the country’s top experts on Agent Orange, including the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, have written detailed statements supporting the crewmembers’ likely exposure to Agent Orange.  Despite this overwhelming evidence and support from the scientific community, the VA denies that any level of exposure to dioxin occurred.  As a result, many veterans’ disability claims have been denied by the VA.

After publication of a Washington Post story highlighting the serious health issues facing the C-123 veterans and the VA’s refusal to grant them benefits, the VA reversed its denial of disability benefits for LTCOL Paul Bailey.  This is a positive development, but there are still many other sick veterans waiting for the benefits they have earned.. 

Please join us in writing to Secretary Shinseki urging him to reevaluate previously denied claims and carefully consider pending claims.  To sign this letter, please contact Carly Katz in Rep. Bonamici’s office at carly.katz@mail.house.gov or Claire Cozad in Rep. Cook’s office at claire.cozad@mail.house.gov by COB October 3.

Sincerely,

Suzanne Bonamici                                         Paul Cook

Member of Congress                                     Member of Congress


---

October XX, 2013

Dear Secretary Shinseki:

Thank you for your work on behalf of our nation’s veterans.  We were pleased to hear that the Department of Veterans Affairs recently reversed its denial of disability benefits for LTCOL Paul Bailey, who served on C-123 aircraft in the years after the Vietnam War.  In light of this, we urge you to reevaluate previously-denied claims for other veterans who also served on C-123 aircraft.  In addition, we ask that you expedite review on current pending cases for the veterans who served aboard these planes, many of whom are suffering from multiple illnesses.

From 1972 to 1982, between 1500 and 2500 aircrew, aerial port, and maintenance staff served on C-123 aircraft that had been used during the Vietnam War to spray military herbicides, including Agent Orange.  These men and women served their country without knowledge of the danger posed to them by the dried herbicide residue on the aircraft.  Many of the country’s top experts on Agent Orange, including the Director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences and the Director of the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, have written detailed statements supporting the claims of the  crewmembers that they were exposed to Agent Orange.  Despite overwhelming evidence and support from the scientific community, the VA continues to deny that any level of exposure occurred.

As described in a recent Washington Post article, a 2009 recommendation by Hill Air Force Base in Utah stated that “smelting is necessary for these 18 [C-123] aircraft so the Air Force will no longer be liable for ‘presumptive compensation’ claims to any who works around this ‘Agent Orange’ metal.”  This appears to indicate a desire to obscure evidence of Agent Orange exposure in order to deny benefits to those who served; if that is accurate, it is shameful and an affront to many who put their lives on the line for our country.

The C-123 veterans deserve better than this.  Given the vast evidence from the toxicology community, as well as documentation from the military, the VA must seriously reconsider its position on this issue.  Those whose claims were denied deserve to have their files reopened and reevaluated.  And the claims that are still being processed must be given expedited, careful, and thoughtful review.  This attention should be given to all C-123 veterans who, from 1972 to 1982, flew the same aircraft from the same bases and with the same mission.

We will continue to follow this issue closely.  We look forward to a prompt response from you outlining the steps you plan to take to help the C-123 veterans.

      /s/       Susan Bonamici

C-123 VA Claims Approvals and Denials Needed!

C-123 Veterans and Survivors!

The two law firms helping us fight the VA's pretense that we are not entitled to Agent Orange benefits need to have copies of C-123 veterans' Agent Orange claims approvals and denials. So far, we only have a few copies of denied claims, and some overturned at Board of Veterans Appeals levels.

Please: if you have applied, been denied or been approved, WE NEED COPIES OF WHAT WAS DONE! The various reasons VA picks to deny claims, even only when the rating officer denies for meaningless reasons such as ruling all evidence unacceptable, is important as the attorneys helping our Association form our best approach.

While we obviously are moving forward on the lawsuit, we also need to develop a logical "cookie-cutter" package for our members to follow. This will insure as perfect as possible a claim put forward, with all evidence that we've gathered, with targeted rebuttals for what are the expected VA objections. This cannot be developed with any accuracy without YOUR denied or approved claims being provided.

We have a handful of widows who have also pressed survivors claims and I only have a couple of those - if you are a survivor, please do what's right and give us copies of your claims.

Delete your names and personal info if you wish, but get them scanned and emailed, or send snail mail copies to Wes at 2349 Nut Tree Lane, McMinnville OR 97128.