Check Your VA Claims File - Check for JSRRC Confirmation!

"JSRRC" stands for the Joint Services Records Research Center, stationed at Fort Belvoir, VA. The

JSRRC has other functions but the one we're concerned with is their role in confirming...or denying...a veteran's claim to have been exposed to Agent Orange.

Settling the question is no problem for Vietnam veterans because the law takes care of that via what is called "presumptive eligibility." If you were in Vietnam you're covered for the typical Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses.

For others, especially C-123 veterans, its is more complicated. The VA regional offices need to gather a lot of data, but at some point they almost always turn to the JSRRC for a report to verify the veteran's claim of exposure.

Early in our struggle, we noted the consistent denials of all exposure claims veterans put forward. I made an appointment with the JSRRC chief and visited in February to learn more about their operation and how we could submit official documentation to make their VA responses closer to our understanding of C-123 contamination. Needed - official US government documentation, because as archivists that is all they can work with.

Fortunately we had our stack of supporting information ready, it has been provided JSRRC and currently their responses to VA are closer to the facts as we know them. Today I added more documentation from the USAF Historical Records Research Agency and also two statements from senior US Public Health officials - USPHS commissioned officers are military officers, thus we have a nice set of two physicians backing up our exposure claims...in writing!

But if you turned in your claim any time in the last two years, you really should check your VA C-file. There probably is, or should be, a JSRRC report on you. That report needs to agree with your situation.

If not, submit a written request, stating your JSRRC response is incorrect and VA should request a restatement from JSRRC. Simple...but you have to initiate the request. Don't out it off!

VA Denies C-123 Veterans' Claims with Deceptions

It is just a paragraph...a bunch of type characters printed onto the claim denial the VA sent this veteran (click to open) of the 731st Tactical Airlift Squadron, received just a few days ago. The paragraph doesn't look particularly evil or vicious. But it is.

Below is the vicious (because of the extent of the awful harm the VA knows they cause and don't give a damn) boilerplate language heartlessly tossed out by VA rating officers dedicated to prevent this veteran, and any others like him, from darkening the door of VA hospitals as he seeks care for Agent Orange illnesses.

"As of this date, the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) does not currently recognize remote or secondary exposure to Agent Orange from contact with aircraft or equipment previously used in Vietnam. It should also be noted that the U.S. Air Force (USAF) recently collected and analyzed numerous samples from C-123 aircraft to test for Agent Orange. The Air Force's recent risk assessment report dated April 27, 2012 found that potential exposures to Agent Orange in C-I23 planes used after the Vietnam War were unlikely to have put aircrew orpassengers at risk for future health problems. The report concluded that a) there was not enough information and data to conclude how much individual persons would have been exposed to Agent Orange, b) that exposure to Agent Orange in these aircraft after the Vietnam War was lower than exposure during the spraying missions in Vietnam, and c) potential Agent Orange exposures were unlikely to have exceed standards set by regulators or to have put people at risk for future health problems."

VA makes a pretense that this claim denial from Providence RI was the result of the veteran's careful "individual" evaluation of his claim. VA makes a pretense also about the other C-123 claims being "individually' evaluated as well. But what is amazing is that VA claims denial officials in Portland and Memphis and Hartford and Boston and Providence (and who knows where else) are all coming up with the very same, identical, boilerplate repeated language...word for word. The raters caved to inappropriate to inappropriate VA HQ demands that C-123 claims be denied, and HQ kindly provides the boilerplate information. 

So much for the "individually considered" promises of how claims

will be evaluated, made by senior VA folks including General A. Hickey, Undersecretary for Benefits and her Director of Compensation Services. We expected more of these folks.

The only thing "individual" about C-123 claims being denied upon Washington's orders is each veteran's name on the denial package. That's a promise broken...and a promise broken which was made to the United States Senate which asked about C-123 exposure.

The "evil and vicious" parts mentioned above come in because the raters, and those who directed them to deny these fully qualified claims, know the words they copied (fed to every regional office from 1800 G Street in Washington, D.C.) are simply false. Words so false that if on active duty we'd used similar lies in anything involving airplanes or patient health, we'd be facing criminal charges, our honor lost. Planes would crash, patients would die...but that's why honor is required of military folks. It seems honor is not a problem, for some VA people.

Although the VA people also take oaths to support and defend the Constitution, things seem different so deceptions, half-truths, prevarications...anything goes. Their mission comes first, and that mission is barring C-123 veterans from VA hospitals.

What are the "vicious lies" in VA claim denials?
1. To deny claims, VA decided it doesn't recognize secondary or remote Agent Orange exposure. So what...not our problem! Our exposure is direct and primary. "Secondary" exposure is via something touching a contaminated surface and then carrying the contamination elsewhere. In the C-123 the dioxin was tested as "heavily contaminated on all test surfaces."  The LAW promises veterans proving their exposure will be treated...but the VA feels comfortable redefining law to their liking.
2. VA mentions the USAF tested the airplanes. To better deny

claims, VA doesn't get around to saying the AF found the C-123 fleet toxic even decades after the last Agent Orange spray missions and that the airplanes eventually had to be destroyed as toxic waste. Yes, the AV tested the C-123 and the warplanes were so toxic nobody could enter after that without HAZMAT protection!
3. VA mentions the AF report, but doesn't mention that the AF Surgeon General asked the VA that it not be used to deny veterans benefits. 
4. VA viciously lies by going on about exposure, but doesn't mention that the LAW does not specify how much, what kind, what color, what anything. The LAW says exposure, and if a veteran is exposed the veteran gets treated. Neither does the LAW permit the VA to deny veterans medical care because some VA administrator doesn't feel we deserve the care, or anything...no qualifiers in the law, simply the word EXPOSED.
5. VA lies by omission, leaving lots out of their paragraph which they really should publish...but leaving these things out helps VA prevent a claim's approval. VA don't mention that experts from all over have investigated the C-123 contamination and reached opinions that we were exposed. Ignored are experts like the Director, CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry. Not mentioned either are the Director National Toxicology Program, or experts from the EPA and US Public Health Service. Not mentioned are experts from Columbia University, University of Texas Medical School, Oregon Health Sciences University and so many others. Others, with the statutory authority for making these decisions, and having far greater expertise about dioxin than the VA. Lies, lies and more lies.
6. VA mentions that exposures "after the Vietnam War" were lower than those experienced by the Ranch Hand spray veterans. True enough, but tossed in here just to be disarming, because again the law says EXPOSED, without requiring a veteran to be more or less exposed than any others. Dr. Jeanne Stellman of Columbia concluded C-123 vets were exposed less than Ranch Hand bur more than Vietnam War ground troops. Dr. Christopher Portier of the CDC.ATSDR felt the exposure was on a par with ground soldiers - but again, absolute confirmation C-123 vets were exposed.

VA people. They're not like us.

Vital Records Available for Your VA Claims (Form 5s, flight records, etc)

The VA has insisted that in addition to any other objections and qualifications they may present regarding C-123 veterans' claims for Agent Orange exposure, we have to prove actual service aboard a known spray aircraft.

Many folks like those in the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron saved only flight orders, none of which show tail numbers, only aircraft type, and we seldom signed off on Form 5s.

Thanks to certifiable hoarders Steve Caracker of the 74th with his set of flight orders, and John Riley of the 731st with his Form 5, we have the basis of a data collection now available...click for a spreadsheet of dates of AO flights (thus far...more will be added from other Form 5s) . John's Form 5s show dates on which C-123s he flew, and matching our fight orders with his 5 can provide a documented tail number for the VA. More and more will be added as others send in their papers as many have promised.

The next step is to blend in the names of people on flight orders to matched spray aircraft and dates so as to allow a printout of each individual's AO flights...volunteers??

USAF Cheats on FOIA Response - then USAF Demands Return of FOIA Response

What a comedy of errors! The C-123 Veterans Association submitted an FOIA in August 2012 for everything associated with the Air Force C-123 Consultative Letter. That letter was a messed-up analysis of the aircraft's contamination and twisted conclusion that veterans somehow were not exposed to Agent Orange.

The request was approved completely – documentation, correspondence, recordings, emails...everything was to be released within the required response time of 20 days. What we got, however, after waiting 347 days, was a CD loaded with a bunch of decades-old records and a single page related to the massive study - and not even a copy of that study! That's not good, because the Freedom of Information Act assures us that citizens have a right to this information, and the FOIA is an important cornerstone of American democracy, according to the Congress, the Supreme Court and the President. Hey, Air Force - its the law!

But apparently not an important enough law to the folks at Wright-Patterson AFB. They feel free to delay as they wish, and to withhold information as they wish, even about this 60-year-old warplane. Apparently, something in the issue embarrasses the Air Force in some way, or there is something which needs being covered up (from their perspective) and that (from their perspective) makes it perfectly okay to sneer at our rights.

But the joke - FOIA officials at Wright-Patterson AFB almost immediately demanded RETURN of their CD. Seems they inadvertently included a full page of civilian employees' Social Security numbers. The same error as I'd pointed out to them two years ago, but this time we'd posted the CD of information before we noticed their problem (and immediately informed the 88th FOIA officials, of course) so it was out for all the world to see, and now AF has to find those employees and do a big mea culpa.

USAF CHEATS on C-123 Freedom of Information Act Request

Today a CD with about 500 mg of test reports and other materials was received in response

to our 1 August 2012 FOIA submitted to the USAF Surgeon General and the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine, part of the Air Force Material Command, Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The basic subject was the 2012 USAF Consultatative Letter dealing with post-Vietnam C-123 contamination and veteran exposure.

Requested those ten and a half months ago were public documents, already gathered in one place as per the orders given the AFMC earlier, so finding everything shouldn't have proved difficult.

(Click for Video on this Subject) What does seem to be difficult was letting go of the information, despite the force of law in the FOIA. Over six weeks were required for the AFMC Judge Advocate General attorneys to select what few items they'd approve for release. A single sheet of paper was all that C-123 veterans were permitted to get, and that was simply a note from one office at Wright-Pat to a JAG at Davis-Monthan asking for some copies of old records.

What did the AF keep from the public? They failed to release the following items listed in the FOIA, which itself was earlier approved without exception, other than for irrelevant personal information such as telephone numbers and names of junior personnel:

-marginal notations ==kept secret

-interim and final reports==kept secret

-emails===kept secret

-tapes or other recordings===kept secret

-correspondence==kept secret except for a single page letter===kept secret

-other official documents, many of which we first provided USAFSAM===kept secret

The FOIA response didn't even include the report itself, nor the instructions to the team, nor their work product...nothing at all. The materials were vital to help us challenge the various mistakes the AF made in concluding that our decade flying the toxic, Agent Orange-contaminated C-123 left us somehow unexposed. We veterans believe, especially considering the expert input we've received from other federal agencies confirming our dioxin exposure, that USAFSAM must have had command interference to reach any alternate position.The AF Consultative Letter is cited by the VA in their over-eager rejection of all C-123 veterans claims, and we needed this to better challenge the mistakes in it. But... KEPT SECRET for reasons that must be VERY important at WPAFB and the USAF Surgeon General!

This reeks! What in the heck is going on, with the VA responding in a similar manner stating that, although the VA had conducted a "thorough scientific review" no materials existed within VA regarding that thorough scientific review of the C-123 -- yet the VA has enough materials somewhere to permit them to deny veterans benefits! And now the AF doing much the same, releasing only older papers which generally address Agent Orange issues from the beginning of the Vietnam War until around the late 1990's. Absolutely nothing except a single page addressing the Consultative Letter and how it came to be so anti-veteran! 

Truly, this reeks! Something very unusual is going on to force otherwise responsible Air Force civilians and military personnel to disregard laws like the FOIA! 

HEY, VA and USAF: We veterans have a RIGHT, claimed here under the FOIA regardless of your preference to such hide such things (FOIA be damned, right?? Ain't no stinkin' law gonna bother you, right??) and thus to know the foundation of your schemes to turn us away from the doors of our VA hospitals as we seek Agent Orange medical care!

Anybody remember in some high school civics class long, long ago when we were fed the line about the people being sovereign, not the government? Anybody remember "support and defend the Constitution" in our oaths?

USAF C-123 Exposure Cover-up? How Could That Be? Impossible !!!

(sarcastic, but it is certainly meant to be!)

C-123 Agent Orange and Veterans’ Exposure – A Coverup? NEVER!

How Could You Think Such a Thing?

Let the word go forth…there could be NO cover-up of the Agent Orange exposure allegedly experienced by those cranky old C-123 veterans. Nothing could be farther from the truth, and veterans need to appreciate the honest, straight-forward treatment of this issue by Air Force civilian and military leaders dedicated to truth, justice and the American way. Honor means everything to today’s Air Force leadership. 

How could the C-123 veterans, guys who flew C-123s, know anything? Even if they variously flew A-37s, F-105s, T-38s, C-124s, KC-135s, C-141s, F4s, B-52s, F5s, C-130s, C-17s and C-5s, in addition to every type civilian jetliner, what could C-123 guys know about flying? What could these guys with basic and frequently, advanced degrees in law, engineering, public health, nursing, physics, history, journalism, theology, fine arts, music, chemistry, criminology, international relations, business administration, accounting, education, aeronautics, public administration, education…what could the C-123 vets possibly know or understand about cover-ups? About aviation? About military issues? Even though their combat experiences range between Vietnam, Grenada, Panama, Gulf One, Somalia and later, what could they possibly understand of warfare?

Let’s make those veterans dispense with foolish thoughts of cover-up right away. Even mentioning cover-up is certain to cause eyes to glaze over, ears to stop hearing, and minds to stop thinking. No, no! No C-123 cover-up ever and here’s the story. Actually, a “non-story” because officially there’s no cover-up, right?

Newest C-123 YouTube Film: Brief Overview of C-123 Veterans' Agent Orange Exposure

A brief overview of C-123 Agent Orange Exposure

All of our first twelve YouTube videos were quite long and detailed, because we had a goal of each of them being a complete treatment of a topic, along with supporting evidence and a "call to action" - typically, to call your representatives in Washington. This latest video is much, much briefer at only four minutes and we leave out background proofs and evidence...if anyone wants, the script is posted on this blog and has all appropriate hot-links.

Happy little pieces of news today. Almost two years ago, Paul Bailey and I started worrying over this issue and got out blog up, and I remember calling Paul when we went past 1,000 hits. This month we'll head past 70,000, with over 340 articles written!

PS...we need a flight nurse to lend her/his name as a collaborator on these videos. You can be as active as you wish, or simply lend your name to the production, but our consultant recommended getting a physician or nurse on in addition to me as an MSC.

1.  10:08

   C-123 Veterans' Agent Orange Exposure Report, Spring 2013

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 1 month ago
   • 1,836 views

   Air Force veterans who flew the C-123 transports after Vietnam, where they were first used for spraying Agent Orange, became ...

   • HD
3.  8:49

   C-123 Veterans: VA Illegally Trashes Agent Orange Laws

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 3 weeks ago
   • 219 views

   Here we cover the attempt by VA to redefine the 1991 Agent Orange Law; VA has exchanged "BIOAVAILABILITY" for C-123 ...

   • HD
4.  12:03

   C-123 Veterans: VA trashes Agent Orange Freedom of Information Laws

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 2 weeks ago
   • 33 views

   The C-123 veterans submitted, with resultant refusal, a Freedom of Information Act demand for VA files dealing with their Agent ...

   • HD
5.  23:12

   C-123 Vets Challenge VA "Scientific Review of C-123 Agent Orange" Article

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 3 days ago
   • 1 view

   When C-123 veterans presented concerns about our exposure to dioxin aboard toxic C-123 transports used earlier for spraying ...

   • NEW
    
   • HD
6.  14:08

   C-123 Agent Orange Warplane Mass Destruction 2010

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 1 month ago
   • 130 views

   Destruction of C-123 transports at Davis-Monthan AFB because of lingeringAgent Orange contamination. VA insists there was no ...

   
   
7.  12:36

   C-123 Agent Orange: Scientific PROOF Dioxin Exposed Aircrews

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 1 week ago
   • 37 views

   Scientists from several universities, as well as from the CDC/ATSDR, US Public Health, EPA and others joined in confirming the ...

   • HD
8.  9:29

   C-123 Agent Orange: Institute of Medicine Report by C-123 Veterans (updated-current)

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 1 week ago
   • 18 views

   On January 16 2013, C-123 veterans were invited by the Institute of Medicine to present the basis for their Agent Orange exposure ...

   • HD
9.  16:12

   C-123 Aircrew Agent Orange Exposure; USAF & VA Block Claims

   • by rustysilverwings
   • 1 month ago
   • 155 views

   The Air Force C-123 fleet was heavily contaminated with Agent Orange (per multiple USAF toxicologists' tests) after Vietnam and ...

   • HD
10.  9:52

    C-123 Agent Orange: USAF- "Destroy Toxic Planes - Keep Secret from Veterans"

    • by rustysilverwings
    • 1 week ago
    • 18 views

    Toxic C-123 fleet destroyed to prevent veterans turning to VA for medical care! The USAF faced the necessity of destroying the ...

    • HD
11.  4:09

    C-123 Veterans: Our Agent Orange Exposure & VA Refusal to Care

    • by rustysilverwings
    • 21 hours ago
    • 16 views

    Here's our four-minute video overview of the Agent Orange exposure experienced by Air Force C-123 aircrews, assigned to fly the ...

    • NEW
     
    • HD
12.  11:36

    C-123 Veterans: VA Denies Agent Orange Claims - Not Legal!

    • by rustysilverwings
    • 4 weeks ago
    • 99 views

    The Air Force C-123 fleet was heavily contaminated with Agent Orange after Vietnam and the Air Force failed to notify veterans ...

    • HD
13.  13:12

    C-123 Agent Orange: USAF General Deceives Senate & Veterans with official letter

    • by rustysilverwings
    • 2 weeks ago
    • 73 views

    In August 2012 the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee sought information from the Secretary of the Air Force about C-123 ...

    • HD
14.  11:43

    C-123 Veterans Seek Senator Gillibrand's Help with Agent Orange Exposure Claims

    • by rustysilverwings
    • 1 day ago
    • No views

    C-123 veterans from New York and New England request assistance from Senator Gillibrand as we approach VA for Agent ...

    • NEW
     
    • HD
15.  8videos  

    Agent Orange Dioxin

    • by agentorangelegacy

    • 10:08

      C-123 Veterans' Agent Orange Exposure Report, Spring 2013

    • 3:26

      Agent Orange Problems 40 Years Later - A Cry for Help

    view full playlist (8 videos)