Just Published - New VA Procedures for Processing C-123 Veterans' Agent Orange Claims

VA has published new guidelines for their internal processing of our C-123 Agent Orange exposure claims. Nothing here affects us much differently than before, but it continues to be important that everyone's claim have C-123 Agent Orange Veteran annotation, rather than let it sit at your local VA office unnecessarily long. St. Paul VA has a special team processing our claims - use them!

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from VA Manual 21-1, effective 20 January 2016

Here, from the Code of Federal Regulations 38 C.F.R. §3.307(a)(6)(v) is the VA C-123 regulation that is managed by VAM21-1 (above):

(v) An individual who performed service in the Air Force or Air Force Reserve under circumstances in which the individual concerned regularly and repeatedly operated, maintained, or served onboard C-123 aircraft known to have been used to spray an herbicide agent during the Vietnam era shall be presumed to have been exposed during such service to an herbicide agent. For purposes of this paragraph, “regularly and repeatedly operated, maintained, or served onboard C-123 aircraft” means that the individual was assigned to an Air Force or Air Force Reserve squadron when the squadron was permanently assigned one of the affected aircraft and the individual had an Air Force Specialty Code indicating duties as a flight, ground maintenance, or medical crew member on such aircraft. Such exposure constitutes an injury under 38 U.S.C. 101(24)(B) and (C). If an individual described in this paragraph develops a disease listed in 38 CFR 3.309(e) as specified in paragraph (a)(6)(ii) of this section, it will be presumed that the individual concerned became disabled during that service for purposes of establishing that the individual served in the active military, naval, or air service.