Cliff Turcotte's Widow Approved for VA Agent 0range Survivors Benefits! Thank you, VA!

A few minutes ago, Cliff Turcotte's widow Norma phoned to tell me her good news: The VA approved her survivor benefits based on his service aboard our former Agent Orange spray C-123 aircraft.

Earlier this year, on hearing of her loss I suggested she apply for the benefits. His death is now considered by both the Air Force and the VA to be related to his toxic exposures while on duty with the 74th AES.

The VA calls it Dependents Indemnity Compensation (DIC,) awarded survivors of active duty or retired personnel in the amount of $1240. DIC is in lieu of survivors benefit compensation unless DIC is the lesser amount. For all, DIC is tax-free.

Cliff died before applying for any Agent Orange exposure benefits but on my urging his wife contacted the Agawam Town veteran service office and completed the necessary paperwork. VA awarded her the benefit retroactive to the date of her application, and this was just the greatest news I could hope for this morning!

Norma gave me her permission to tell everyone about this, and together we urge all C-123 veterans or their survivors to apply to the Department of Veterans Affairs if they have any of the presumptive illnesses associated with Agent Orange.

This can be done online, or through state or county veterans service officers or through any of the veterans organizations such as Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The veterans organizations provide this as a free service as part of their congressional charters. Their VA-accredited representatives can usually be contacted through VA medical centers.

I don't know the list of our comrades' survivors but I know that Paul Bailey, Cliff Turcotte, Ed Kosakoski, Dick Matte and our other friends now lost to us would all want this benefit to protect their loved ones. Yet, every widow I've spoken with has been reluctant to apply, concerned that it could be unseemly to seek this important financial protection, or the benefits provided by state or local governments such as property tax relief.

Let's put that fear to rest! Serving in the military it's done out of patriotic motivation and also for the opportunity to earn the benefits important to our lives. Our military retirement pensions, TriCare medical coverage and base shopping privileges are some examples we appreciate and have earned.

DIC and other survivor benefits are just as important and every servicemember wants these earned protections for our families. I assured Norma that Cliff probably headed over to get another beer from the refrigerator up in Heaven when he heard the good news!

We must give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the Agawam veterans service officer and also the VA itself for the prompt attention given the claim.

A personal note: Cliff and I joined the 74th AES the same day, and were welcomes aboard by Marv Proctor and Vinny Macrave. Cliff was a prior service Navy corpsman, and I was a prior service medic with the Army and as California Air National Guard, and both of us were staff sergeants. Cliff completed his education and was commissioned as a flight nurse, retiring as a major.

Once again today, Cliff's family told me how much he loved flying and loved the squadron.

74/439 AES Annual Dinner, Friday Sept 25 in Chicopee

74AES Executive Committee

Steve Caraker and Rosemary Costa have worked their usual magic to organize another great dinner for everyone this Friday evening at the Munich House in Chicopee Center.

Good friends, good food, and I hear they even serve beer. RSVP to Steve.

Hey – I'm coming in hopes of seeing Steve in lederhosen!

IOM Report Due January 9 at 11:00 Eastern

Tomorrow we'll know the recommendations made by the Institute of Medicine about our C-123 Agent Orange exposures. We hope for the best when IOM begins their briefing at 11:00 here in Washington, D.C.

A long and painful time has passed since we started our effort in the early spring of 2011, and so many kind people have done right by us.

Whatever IOM recommends, and whatever VA does with that recommendation, our thanks must be expressed for the hard work of the committee and the IOM staff, headed by Dr. Mary Paxton. Also, thanks to those many VA leaders who kept an open mind...and an open heart

Although we hope for the best, and the most comprehensive positive finding, realistically there can only be a compromise. Not on the science or the history of the C-123 exposure story, but on the consensus report selected as the format for this investigation.

Stay tuned: I'll post the IOM's conclusions as soon possible.

Air Force AGAIN Refuses to Designate C-123s as Agent Orange Sites

Received December 6, 2014 from the USAF General Counsel. This is their third refusal to acknowledge the issue. VA has said only AF or DOD can designate DOD sites as Agent Orange sites. AF here says that's a VA responsibility.

The problem: VA cites the DOD list of bases and ships which were potential Agent Orange exposure sites as proof in related disability claims. Whether or not a base, ship or airplane is labeled by DOD as a contaminated site affects whether VA will recognize the veteran's claim.

In the case of C-123s, their absence from the DOD list is cited by VA as "proof" we weren't exposed. VA says if the airplanes were contaminated, they'd be on the DOD list. As can be seen in the letter below, AF is making every effort to avoid any modification of the Al Young-produced list DOD provided the VA in 2006...despite the reams of documentation calling for just such a recognition.

Cliff Turcotte Passes

News received this morning that retired Major Cliff Turcotte, Nurse Corps, 74th AES, has passed
away in Springfield, MA. Cliff and I were enlisted medics together, with him going on to a Flight Nurse commission and me, off to the Medical Service Corps.

A big, tough guy, Cliff loved the hard work he did in the 74th so very much, especially out in the field. He was never one to miss the opportunity to help another, to volunteer, to be the best he could be. A great Navy corpsman, he was a great aeromedical evacuation technician and then a great flight nurse. And a great friend.

Rest in peace, Cliff. God bless.

My Most Recent Claim Denied – For Want of VA Records

Typical VA Claims Result

My latest claim for various VA disabilities (not the Agent Orange-related ones) was denied last week, mostly because the VA regional office in Denver maintained I had no new information to submit against earlier denials, thus the original denials were final.

VBA was especially clever in this response: the adjudicator avoided addressing several elements of the claim (different injuries,) knowing that once the claim reaches the Board of Veterans Appeals they don't have jurisdiction, and the claim will be remanded. That will mean more time at the regional office, and then back in line for more years of waiting for BVA to decide.

They don't do this stuff without strategy, you know! What looks like an oversight is meant to provide VA with several more years of stalling, waiting for the vet to lose interest, or die.

For some reason, eBenefits has been accepting electronic documents for several months, at least since the end of April, but not showing them in the list of either requested or unrequested materials. Things get posted on eBenefits only if mailed or if a vet calls IRIS. Thus all my responses to VA inquiries for the last ten weeks have disappeared, so VA denied my claim.

That's one problem. The other is that the FOIA I submitted in April, which was acknowledged, still hasn't been fulfilled. That was where I'd expected to find the Air Force line-of-duty determinations for the specific injuries in the claim. Originally VA had somehow failed to even note the LODs and denied the claim because the LOD-specified injuries "did not occur during service nor in one year after." Heck, I was even hospitalized in Bethesda Naval Hospital on AD and they missed that.

I should have asked the Denver FOIA office about this earlier, because from their response letter I had no idea their current backlog is actually between six to nine months for a "C" file FOIA response. I'd gone in to see my files but they could only let me see a few pages on their computer, so a trip to Denver was wasted.

Yesterday, Denver FOIA offered to move my request for a copy of my records up and get them here in about a week because I'm so sick. Great. Now I can face two to five years in an appeal but that's way, way past my life expectancy.

Nice folks. Lousy system. Everybody at VA solves claim problems with a vet by telling us to "just appeal."

That's like a kiss of death. They know it. Perhaps their greeting at the 800-number should be "sorry for your loss" instead of "thanks for your service."

C-123 Veterans Agent Orange Exposure: August 2014 Update

The C-123 Veterans Association has updated its summary of our situation thus far, with the next major events being VA's redefinition of exposure through some sort of regulatory process, and the anticipated September Institute of Medicine C-123 report to Secretary McDonald. Included is an updated document list in chronological order and with hyperlinks.

The problem with the C-123 IOM report is that even if the investigators' findings support us, there is still a year or so for the Secretary to take any action. Then, claims will sit around on the VA regional office desks for a year or so, making any solution, however positive, years away.

We don't have those years. VA knows it. Which is why they stall. Every day's delay is money saved for Veterans Health Administration and Veterans Benefits Administration. Every claim denied is big money saved!

Policy rather than law makes for today's VA claims process.