So my brother went to his Agent Orange Screening...

[catnhatnh]

to see if exposure to it is tied to his recently developed type 2 diabetes...And yes-the VA is owning a bunch of these cases-and the coverage from his pension guaranteed health care was being strained...

For those who want specs he was 1st of the 506th Bco 2nd platoon 101 airborne 1970-71...a direct replacement for the Hamburger Hill fiasco. Radioman and later Lrrp or lurp depending on how you put it...he said he became allergic to wearing an antenna as it didn't seem healthy.

So anyhow he found a distribution map on line and if you were at the tooth end or the "tooth to tail" chain you probably sniffed some and if you developed type 2 the VA probably owns it.

He is waiting his determination,but get this...don't fake extreme exposure. The Doctor asked if he had ever been "directly sprayed" and he admitted he was tempted to say "I think so." or "probably", but instead said, "not that I know of." and the Dr. said something about fakers claiming direct contact and that was "almost non-existent" since the Army was very concerned and took care to avoid that.

The thing is that if you walked through some oily foliage 40 years ago and have diabetes problems now you may be owed some help. And the VA is aware of it and actively looking for real victims.

I will update when he hears back.

Edited for spelling and to complete unit designation.

[sakabatou]

1. Good vibes for your brother

[catnhatnh]

3. He's good and doing fine...

Retired fireman with a wife of 30 odd years. He checked into VA after a guy he worked with mentioned the VA was tying Type 2 to defoliant exposure. The only upside for him is if the Army that drafted him pays for the medical damage and he loses less interms of maxing out his pension coverage.

The posting here is to tell our vets the VA IS buying up a bunch of these claims and they are owed coverage for them.

But Thanks a ton for the vibes...everyone could use a few.

[aquart]

2. So far as I'm concerned, if you've worn the uniform of your country

then the LEAST your country can do is pick up every damn medical bill and I don't care if it's for hangnail.

[catnhatnh]

4. Not really...

I wore the uniform but defended Colorado for a couple years back then...I was one of a bunch of new guys working on both helicopters and to keep our asses away from shooting and I succeeded. What they owed me they paid month to month and I'm perfectly happy with that...I volunteered both to enter and to exit.Back then heroes were drafted and thrown into fire, or volunteered to be shot at...other than that you got lucky or to the Asian theater where you faced death only by bad luck or accident.

[aquart]

8. Yes. Really.

See, I'm not interested in a means or heroism test. You didn't get a stop loss when you wanted to leave? Nobody decided to retrain you to drive a truck in Baghdad? Great. You're lucky. You wore the uniform? That means they could have done any damn thing they pleased with you. And you don't seem to get that. But I do.

[sandnsea]

5. They used that at the forest service

2,4-D and 2,4,5-T. The PR guy used to carry it around the office in a glass and tell people it was safe enough to drink. Then there wre all the crew who burned slash and were out in the forest all the time. I don't know how careful they were with where they sprayed that stuff and where they sent the crews. I wonder why nobody has ever checked into that.

Hopefully your brother will get help. We had a friend who moved to Oregon from Montana. He was repeatedly refused there, and helped the first time around here. Weird how that works sometimes.

[KT2000]

6. I heard prostate cancer

is now covered too.
Have you heard anything about this?

[catnhatnh]

7. No

But we heard about what he already had...With defoliants that maybe worth looking into.