WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s been a long battle, but after years of fighting the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to provide medical benefits to a unique group of Air Force personnel, Wes Carter says he’s finally won.
The VA has announced a new regulation that will expand eligibility for medical benefits to a select group of Air Force Veterans and Air Force Reserve personnel who were exposed to Agent Orange through contact with contaminated C-123 aircraft that had been used in Vietnam.
The planes were used to spray Agent Orange and other toxic defoliants from 1961 to 1971 as part of the U.S. military’s herbicidal warfare program in Vietnam, known as Operation Ranch Hand. But the planes were actively used by the Air Force after the war ended.
After the C-123’s work in Vietnam in 1971, the plane was re-purposed and transferred to tactical airlift units of the Air Force Reserve and the Air National Guard and used for routine cargo and medical evacuation missions, work that lasted for 10 years.
During that decade, Carter, who’s now 68 and lives in Fort Collins, Colo., served as an Air Force medical service officer on UC-123s, a variant of the C-123. In 2011, he was diagnosed with potentially fatal prostate cancer that a VA urological oncologist told him likely came from Agent Orange contact.
Carter has long led the C-123 Veterans Association — a group that has advocated for veterans' benefits due to Agent Orange exposure from working on and around C-123 aircraft after the Vietnam War. He says many of his former UC-123 crew members have already died of diseases commonly linked to Agent Orange exposure. He hopes the VAs decision to start providing benefits will prevent any further heartache.
“Nobody should have to endure this kind of unhappy struggle without any help,” he said. Hopefully now, they won’t have to.“
Under the new VA ruling, Air Force and Air Force Reserve flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members who served on the contaminated C-123s are now presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange during their service. This presumption will make it easier for the veterans who are impacted to establish entitlement for benefits if they develop an Agent Orange-related health condition. Those with conditions related to Agent Orange are now eligible for VA disability compensation and medical care and their surviving dependents are eligible for dependency compensation and burial benefits.
VA Secretary Robert McDonald said the decision to expand benefits follows a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft.
The report found evidence that as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force personnel who worked on ORH C-123 aircraft from Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said in a press release.
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WASHINGTON
– The Department of Veterans Affairs recently published a new
regulation that expands benefits eligibility for a select group of Air
Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who were exposed to the
herbicide Agent Orange through regular and repeated contact with
contaminated C-123 aircraft used in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch
Hand (ORH).
Veterans Affairs published the regulation as an interim final rule to immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions determined to be related to exposure to Agent Orange.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald made the decision to expand benefits following receipt of a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam dioxin exposure in contaminated C-123 Aircraft. The report found evidence as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force and Air Force reserve personnel who served as flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members on ORH C-123 aircraft previously used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the herbicide.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange related disability.”
- See more at: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/06/29/veterans-affairs-publishes-new-agent-orange-regulation/#sthash.1lm7svge.dpuf
Veterans Affairs published the regulation as an interim final rule to immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions determined to be related to exposure to Agent Orange.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald made the decision to expand benefits following receipt of a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam dioxin exposure in contaminated C-123 Aircraft. The report found evidence as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force and Air Force reserve personnel who served as flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members on ORH C-123 aircraft previously used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the herbicide.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange related disability.”
- See more at: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/06/29/veterans-affairs-publishes-new-agent-orange-regulation/#sthash.1lm7svge.dpuf
WASHINGTON
– The Department of Veterans Affairs recently published a new
regulation that expands benefits eligibility for a select group of Air
Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who were exposed to the
herbicide Agent Orange through regular and repeated contact with
contaminated C-123 aircraft used in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch
Hand (ORH).
Veterans Affairs published the regulation as an interim final rule to immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions determined to be related to exposure to Agent Orange.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald made the decision to expand benefits following receipt of a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam dioxin exposure in contaminated C-123 Aircraft. The report found evidence as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force and Air Force reserve personnel who served as flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members on ORH C-123 aircraft previously used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the herbicide.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange related disability.”
- See more at: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/06/29/veterans-affairs-publishes-new-agent-orange-regulation/#sthash.1lm7svge.dpuf
Veterans Affairs published the regulation as an interim final rule to immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions determined to be related to exposure to Agent Orange.
Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald made the decision to expand benefits following receipt of a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam dioxin exposure in contaminated C-123 Aircraft. The report found evidence as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force and Air Force reserve personnel who served as flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members on ORH C-123 aircraft previously used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the herbicide.
“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange related disability.”
- See more at: http://www.salisburypost.com/2015/06/29/veterans-affairs-publishes-new-agent-orange-regulation/#sthash.1lm7svge.dpuf
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