During the Vietnam War,
hundreds of U.S. Navy ships crossed into Vietnam’s rivers or sent crew
members ashore, possibly exposing their sailors to the toxic herbicide
Agent Orange. But more than 40 years after the war’s end, the U.S.
government doesn’t have a full accounting of which ships traveled where,
adding hurdles and delays for sick Navy veterans seeking compensation.
The Navy could find out where each of its ships operated during the
war, but it hasn’t. The U.S. Department of Affairs says it won’t
either, instead choosing to research ship locations on a Bills that would have forced the Navy to create a comprehensive list have failed in Congress.
case-by-case
basis, an extra step that veterans say can add months — even years — to
an already cumbersome claims process.
As a result, many ailing vets, in a frustrating race
against time as they battle cancer or other life-threatening diseases,
have taken it upon themselves to prove their ships served in areas where
Agent Orange was sprayed. That often means locating and sifting through
stacks of deck logs, finding former shipmates who can attest to their
movements, or tracking down a ship’s command history from the Navy’s
historical archive.
“It’s hell,” said Ed Marciniak, of Pensacola, Fla., who served aboard the USS Jamestown during
the war. “The Navy should be going to the VA and telling them, ‘This is
how people got aboard the ship, this is where they got off, this is how
they operated.’ Instead, they put that burden on old, sick, dying
veterans, or worse — their widows.”
Some 2.6 million Vietnam veterans are thought to have
been exposed to — and possibly harmed by — Agent Orange, which the U.S.
military used to defoliate dense forests, making it easier to spot enemy
troops. But vets are only eligible for VA compensation if
they went on land — earning a status called “boots on the ground” — or
if their ships entered Vietnam’s rivers, however briefly.
The VA says veterans aren’t required to prove where
their ships patrolled: “Veterans simply need to state approximately when
and where they were in Vietnam waterways or went ashore, and the name
of the vessel they were aboard, and VA will obtain the official Navy
records necessary to substantiate the claimed service,” VA spokesman
Randal Noller wrote in an email.
More than 700 Navy ships deployed to Vietnam between
1962 and 1975. Veterans have produced records to get about half of them
onto the VA’s working list, with new ships being added every year. Still, veterans advocacy groups estimate about 90,000 Navy vets are
not eligible to receive benefits related to Agent Orange exposure,
either because their ships never entered inland waters, or because they
have yet to prove they did.
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