In-Country Vietnam Veterans..........

B

brian roberts

New member
I just thought I'd post this, as not many know of this, I'm told.

If you were in Vietnam, in ANY capacity, and you are now contracting, or have contracted Diabetes, you need to call the VA, as this is an automatic compensible condition. This is true whether OR NOT you were in combat....

I hope this may help anyone who is struggling w/this condition.


Brian
 
True

I was a Rating Specialist with the VA before I retired 8 years ago. What Brian said is TRUE. but you will need proof you had "boots on the ground" there. The assumption is that Agent Orange was used so widely in RVN that everyone there was exposed and have an increased risk for certain diseases in the future. The best evidence would be a medal that reflects you were there.

Remember some medals only reflect you were in the area, not that you were on the ground. Serving on a ship in the area DOES NOT qualify you for this assumption.

Also, the same goes for prostate cancer. Proof you were on the ground and have prostate cancer gets you 100 percent disability compensation and attendant perks such as free treatment for ANY condition, a DAV license plate in some states as well as tax relief.

You continue to get 100 percent disability compensation if you either have the disease or are getting continuing treatment such as seed implants or antioplastic treatment (this is the use of a drug that inhibits testosterone which aggravates the disease). If the treatment is considered to be permanent, you will also get free medical insurance for your family.

George
 
In country

The Nam was not the only place they used agent orange''.
The government doesn't talk about the other places.
This is good post.
Thanks , I also think it might be good to put this on Military.com.
A lot of old grunts, crunchies, are there.
 
I don't have either problem as yet. But, thanks for the advice, I may need it someday...

Jim
 
It's easier to get a rating for Agent Orange for about any disease than it is for recently injured Veterans to get a rating for missing a limb or other body parts (internal or external). The VA has been screwed up for the last several years. It doesn't matter if a Army Medical Board gives you a rating, the VA will most likely deny it. It's a shame.

Hovis
 
Agent Orange Newsletter

There is a newsletter that the VA sends out 3 or 4 times a year on agent orange. They have sent this letter to Viet Nam veterans for at least 25 years. It tells of the illnesses covered by the effects of agent orange. You can get it by contacting the VA.
 
I should have said..............

"stationed" there, living on a base, etc. One fellow I know married a VN national, and he told me she is exhibiting signs of neuropathy in the feet, although she doesn't have diabetes. We all hear of A/Orange, but I understand there were agents "White" and "Blue" as well as some others I've never heard of, that aren't mentioned. The VN channel on cable, which his wife watches, says that diabetes has become a rampant affliction in VN. Of the four people I know that served there, all have contracted diabetes to one degree or another.....
 
No Symptoms

But I do have a friend I went to High School with who was in the Marines in 68-69. He went on the full insulin regiment a couple of years ago, and is going down hill pretty quick. I will give him this if he already does not have it. Thanks.......jackie
 
Travelor said:
I was a Rating Specialist with the VA before I retired 8 years ago. What Brian said is TRUE. but you will need proof you had "boots on the ground" there. The assumption is that Agent Orange was used so widely in RVN that everyone there was exposed and have an increased risk for certain diseases in the future. The best evidence would be a medal that reflects you were there.

Remember some medals only reflect you were in the area, not that you were on the ground. Serving on a ship in the area DOES NOT qualify you for this assumption.

Also, the same goes for prostate cancer. Proof you were on the ground and have prostate cancer gets you 100 percent disability compensation and attendant perks such as free treatment for ANY condition, a DAV license plate in some states as well as tax relief.

You continue to get 100 percent disability compensation if you either have the disease or are getting continuing treatment such as seed implants or antioplastic treatment (this is the use of a drug that inhibits testosterone which aggravates the disease). If the treatment is considered to be permanent, you will also get free medical insurance for your family.

George
Click to expand...

VA is a joke. I left Chu Lai 1965 kept my orders to prove I was on the ground. Acouple years ago I applied turns out we made too much money so was turned down. Had I filed return separte I would of been covered.

I'm 68 now and diabetic and I don't expect a free ride but I'm always hearing about benefit like I say it's a joke.
 
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My brother (1948-2007) fought long and hard but finally got through to the think heads at VA, as he was USN (66'-72') and couldn't of been on the ground as his orders said "Asigned to ship" how did he get it.....just like everyone else by being there. After all was said and done he got his award so he could stop sleeping where ever he could find a spot, get a small apartment, the medical/mental help he needed and best of all feel that what he did was for the good and not for nothing and that he did matter.

Most importantly he never gave up until his body said no more.

One of my sponsors is involved in VA workings and is a fighter for our rights, Bulz Eye Pro.

Mike
USAF Para Rescue 79'-83', USMC 83'-85'
 
Jackie, here's a resource for...............

your friend, from the library, get the book, "Bypassing Bypass Surgery" if you haven't read it, it deals w/Chelation Therapy(key-LAY-shun) I had a friend who was suffering w/diabetes & high blood pressure, and diabetic neuropathy to the feet. At that time, when I saw him at 52, he was taking 9"-12" steps and turning grey; after working in a couple hospitals when I was younger, I knew what the color meant. After 20 treatments, he told me he was walking relatively pain-free, after 30, he went back to work. Here's a link so you may find a therapist in your area.
http://www.acamnet.org/site/c.ltJWJ...nk__18005323688_/apps/kb/cs/contactsearch.asp

Your insurance coverage will usually pay for your medical exam, workup, and blood work, but not the treatment, as this is perceived as "alternative therapy".
Depending on where you live treatments will run from $100-$125, and the treatment is around three hours. Why isn't it more widely-known?? In a word, the AMA. The AMA HOUNDS these practioners even though they are above board, let alone if they were to do anything wrong. If you walk into a doctor's office, sit down for three hours, get up, hand him a Franklin and walk out, well, that doesn't keep those Mercedes wheels spinnin', or those country club memberships paid-up, does it?? Some chelation therapists are so booked you cannot get an appointment for SIX MONTHS if you're a new patient. Here's something else, these therapists do NOT put you on or reduce the medication your doctor has you on, they will tell you to see your regular doctor to modify your meds.

I sincerely hope I have given some of you food for thought, and this info helps you or friends of yours. I know I've just gotten angry, and tired of seeing people I knew having toes, feet, legs amputated, dying needlessly from cancer, etc. when, knowing there were effective treatments out there for BOTH these maladies, yet no one knew of, or would recommend the exploration of these treatments to see if perhaps there was something that may have been done before it was too late.....HTH :)
 
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I was in country from Oct. 1969 to Dec. 1971.
I tried to get some help when I got home in 1972 for some medical problems and the VA bunch was real a-holes, no help at all.
In 1996 I developed prostate cancer and used my own insurance to get it removed. I then discovered that the VA would rate Vietnam vets so I applied and was accepted after 8 months.
Once I got in the system it was easier to get listened to, I developed diabetes in 2002 and they upped my rating within 3 months.
I have my medical treatment done at the Robert J. Dole VA Medical Center in Wichita, KS. The treatment since being rated has been good but it improved after the scandal at Walter Reed.
I think this is still in effect. Any veteran can get their prescription medicines through the VA at $7.00 for a ninety day supply. They just have to see a VA Rep., provide a DD-214, and get in the system.
The cheap prescriptions save me about $800.00 a month.
If you don't complain they won't ask about your ailments.
 
What I have found this winter

is the terrible wast of time resources in the VA system. I have to get injections every two weeks and in my travels I have been able to get the service wherever I have gone. BUT I have had to go through an intake process at each VA clinic I have visited just as if I had come there for my first time coming into the system even though all my records are on their computer, which they are easily able to access. That time could be better spent taking in Vets who have been waiting for several years to get into the system.

I must say though I have found the people working in the clinics, especially the nurses, to be excelent with their service. They are the ones who seem to know what is going on and will dodge around the protocall whenever they can. They seem to give way more than 100% and a number of them have been former GI's. They have said they feel privilidged to serve we vets.

I have several friends who have the Agent Orange diagnosis. All of them have the three big symptoms and all of them have been able to get treated and get a rating. How long it took is another matter but they did get rated.

I use a combination of my Medicare now and the VA and that seems to work out fine. I know it is frustrating and have lived through it but once in, I have found the service to be very good in all the clinics I have used.

I think I am correctin saying that one gets paid from the date they make their claim so even if one is denied at first they will get paid back to the date they first made their claim.
 
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My heart goes out to all veterans especially Vietnam vets becasue I have spilt the same blood in the same mud.
I had a mate that had his legs blown off and he was sent home WITHOUT a pension or any financial support. He was a plant operator by profession ( dozer driver) . How the F*ck do you drive a dozer with no legs.
I had to resist a massive impulse to find the scum that sent him home and send them some place very lonely .
Some idiot seemed to think just because he could walk on artificial limbs he was fine.
Vietnam veterans were treated disgracefully by all the Governments involved and most of the general public .
They cash compensated , indians, aborigonals , wrongly acused criminals , wrongly jailed people , homosexuals and even some idiot falling of his motorbike or jet ski on his holidays . However they will not give Vietnam Veterans any real cash compensation for public vilification and being left to rot in many instances without the proper care they qualified for . You had to fight for many more years for a lousy starvation pension.
My mate with no legs , it took 20 years to get him a disabled pension.
Another mate I had to feed and cloth him for 1 year while I fought to get him a pension 30 years after Vietnam and he had been unemployable due to war injury for the last 15 or so years. Lucklily I was able to get him into a special program that recognised his problems and he had his pension within the year . However that dont make up for the 15 years they stuffed him about.
Bitter , you Fu*ken bet I'm bitter.
I have seen some scum bag illegal immigrant get a million dollars in compinsation because he was treated with to much force on arrest.
Some idiot tourist that lost all her papers and got arrested sued and got hundreds of thousands in compinsation and the list is endless.
An illegal imigrant gets compinsation but the men that fight to protect the country and loose their legs don't deserve it!
Every Politician I have contacted all agree that the Vietnam Veterans were abandoned by the country and the Government for many years but no one will talk about compensation.
 
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You are correct that they pay from the date you file a claim, even if it takes them 8 months to approve it.
You are correct, the nurses and the Physicians Assistants (PA) are great.
There must be some new rules to stop fraud, I used to just walk in for my appointment because they all knew me. Now, even if I have appointments at the same clinic on consecutive days, they grill me for all my presonal info. birthday, SS#, full name including middle, address, and phone no.
 
In country

Valentine i feel your pain"
I know the score on that . You can blame that on the politicians.
One thing he came home vertical"
Things could be worse he could have come home in a box.
Lost a cousin there. Yes the Va slipped back then , the works were not in place .
They also refused Korea vets. The system is way better now, improvements are in place. Lets all hope thing get better for Us vets.
I posted Agent Orange was not used just in The Nam'
It was Sprayed Every where that thought they needed it.
Tank courses to golf courses any place they wanted to kill folage.
 
VA has gotten better

My son got out about a year ago, 3 tours no bullet holes but not much hearing left. VA was good at processing him and getting him down the road to hearing aids. That's a complete 180 from when I got out in the '70's.
 
In country

Sorry to hear about your sons hearing loss.
I lost some also when a M60 let off around, He almost ranover me too.
Of course we all have a little shooters disease.
I hope his hearing is better now.
I'm hoping my two sons in law don't get back to the fighting 3 tours are enough for anyone.
 
my son's doing okay, he's lucky that both Grandpas are still with us. Both served. My dad did WW II, hasn't spoken a handfull of words about it in my life time has become a regular chatty Kathy when we all get together. It's good medicine for all.
Hope your son in laws make it back to the world safe too. Odds are they will. Those freinds they made will be the closest in many lifetimes to come.
best regards to all,
Dan
 
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