By Tom Philpott: Military Update

Tens of thousands of Vietnam veterans with ischemic heart disease, Parkinson’s disease or B cell leukemia should file claims now with the Department of Veterans Affairs for disability compensation, not wait until VA publishes a regulation officially linking these diseases to wartime service.

Advocacy groups are urging the swift filing of claims because veterans eventually found eligible for disability pay for these diseases will be able to receive compensation back to the date their claims were filed. Those who wait for a regulation to add these ailments to VA’s list of diseases presumed caused by exposure to Agent Orange and other toxins used in the war could lessen, by several months of compensation, any retroactive pay that they will be due once their claims have been approved.

Help in filing claims is available through the Legion and its service officers as well as through most other major veterans’ organizations. A law firm representing the Legion, the Military Order of the Purple Heart and the National Veterans Legal Services Program (NVLSP) sent a March 1 letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki demanding that VA publish by March 12 an interim regulation for adding these illnesses to its list of diseases presumed caused by Agent Orange — or face a lawsuit.

Longer delays in rulemaking, the letter said, will “result in irreparable harm to thousands of Vietnam veterans who suffer from these diseases” because VA compensation is not owed to “new claimants for any period prior to publication of a final regulation.”

What the letter didn’t make clear is that veterans can avoid the “irreparable harm” if they don’t wait for the regulation to file their claim.

The Agent Orange Act of 1991 requires VA to publish final regulations to expand its list of presumptive diseases within 210 days of receiving a report from the Institute of Medicine (IOM) linking more illnesses to use of the herbicide during the war in Southeast Asia. That 210-day deadline was reached Feb. 19 without VA having published even an interim regulation.

A VA official said the Office of Management and Budget is expected to complete its review of VA’s interim regulation by the end of March. It then will be published in the Federal Register for public comment.

Shinseki had delighted veterans’ groups last October by announcing that VA would not challenge a July 24 report by the IOM that found sufficient epidemiologic evidence to suggest a link between wartime herbicide exposure and Parkinson’s disease, B cell leukemia and ischemic heart disease, also known as coronary artery disease.

Veterans who set foot in Vietnam from 1962 to 1975 and suffer today from one of these diseases will be in line for a disability rating and compensation once the regulation is final and claim adjudicators begin using it. By one estimate, as many as 185,000 veterans could be eligible for disability pay for these diseases.

The American Legion is sending out fresh guidance to its service officers to urge veterans who believe they have a claim under any one of the three illnesses to come in for free help in developing their claims.

Past Department Commander Charles E. (Red) Sonntag passed away at 5:40 AM Monday March 8, 2010

There will be a rosary at 7:00 PM on Thursday, March 11th at
Emken-Linton Funeral Home
5100 Emmet F Lowery Expressway, Texas City, 77592
409-945-4444

A funeral mass will be held on Friday, March 12th at 10:00 AM at
St Mary of the Immaculate Conception Church
3rd Ave and 6th St
Texas City Tx
409-945-8662

There will be a private burial at the National Cemetery in Houston.

Condolences may be sent to his wife Irma at
PO Box 2877
Texas City 77592

Donations in lieu of flowers may be sent to
Col. H B Moore Post 89
PO Box 2596
Texas City 77592

Past Post, 6th District and 2nd Division Commander Ralph York passed away on March 7, 2010 at 1:47 pm. Arrangements for the funeral of Past 2nd Division Commander Ralph Y. Cobb have now been made as follows:  Visitation on Thursday Night, March 11, from 5 to 8 p.m. at the Hillier Funeral Home 2301 East 29th Street.  The funeral service will be at the Reliance Baptist Church 6925 Reliance Church Rd, 77808, Phone 979 589 3081 at 2 pm, Friday March 12, with a reception at Earl Graham Post 159 at 3:45 pm, 101 Waco St, Bryan TX 77803.  In lieu of flowers please donate to your local charities. or send a boy to Boys State.

You can send your condolences to www.hillierfuneralhome.com or read his obituary at that site.

If we can be of help please call Don Simons at 979 589 2075

VA To Re-Examine Gulf War Vets’ Disability Claims

The American Legion welcomes VA decision
 
(AP - February 26, 2010) The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) will re-examine the disability claims of what could be thousands of Gulf War veterans suffering from ailments they blame on their war service, the first step toward potentially compensating them nearly twenty years after the war ended.
 
Secretary Eric Shinseki said the decision is part of a "fresh, bold look" VA is taking to help veterans who have what's commonly called "Gulf War illness".  "I'm hoping they'll be enthused by the fact that this ... challenges all the assumptions that have been there for 20 years," Shinseki told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview.  These veterans have long felt the government did little to help them.  The VA says it also plans to improve training for medical staff who work with Gulf War vets, to make sure they do not simply tell vets that their symptoms are imaginary-as has happened to many over the years.
 
The changes reflect a significant shift in how VA may ultimately care for some 700,000 veterans who served in the Gulf War.  It also could change how the department handles war-related illness suffered by future veterans, as Shinseki said he wants standards put in place that don't leave veterans waiting decades for answers to what ails them.  The decision comes four months after Secretary Shinseki opened the door for as many as 200,000 Vietnam veterans to receive service-related disability compensation for three illnesses stemming from exposure to the Agent Orange herbicide.
 
About 175,000 to 210,000 Gulf War veterans have come down with a pattern of symptoms that include rashes, joint and muscle pain, sleep issues and gastrointestinal problems, according to a 2008 congressionally-mandated committee that based the estimate on earlier studies.  But what exactly caused the symptoms has long been unanswered.  Independent scientists have pointed to pesticide and pyridostigmine bromide pills, given to protect troops from nerve agents, as probable culprits.  The 2008 report noted that since 1994, $340 million has been spent on government research into the illness, but little has focused on treatments.
 
Last week, Secretary Shinseki and Senator Jay Rockefeller (WV), a member of the Senate Veterans' Affairs committee, met privately in Charleston, West Virginia, with several Gulf War veterans.  In an interview after the meeting, Rockefeller told the AP that Shinseki's background as a former Army chief of staff made the changes possible.  He said either the military has been reluctant over the years to release paperwork related to the war or kept poor records about exposures in the war zone, which made it harder for the veterans to prove they needed help.  "The paperwork isn't very accurate, but the pain is very real," Rockefeller said.
 
Secretary Shinseki has publicly wondered why today there are still so many unanswered questions about Gulf War illness, as stricken veterans' conditions have only worsened with age.  Last fall, he appointed a task force led by his chief of staff, John Gingrich, a retired Army colonel who commanded a field artillery battalion in the 1991 war, to review benefits and care for Gulf War veterans.  The changes stem from the task force's work.  Gingrich said in an interview that he feels a personal stake because some of his own men who were healthy during the war are dealing with these health problems.  Gingrich said the VA isn't giving a new benefit to Gulf War veterans, just making sure the claims they submitted were done correctly.  "We're talking about a culture change, that we don't have a single clinician or benefits person saying 'you really don't have Gulf War illness, this is only imaginary' or 'you're really not sick,'" Gingrich said.
 
A law enacted in 1994 allows the VA to pay compensation to Gulf War veterans with certain chronic disabilities from illnesses the VA could not diagnosis.  More than 3,400 Gulf War have qualified for benefits under this category, according to the VA.  The VA says it plans to review how regulations were written to ensure the veterans received the compensation they were entitled to under the law.  The VA would then give veterans the opportunity to have a rejected claim reconsidered.  The VA doesn't have an estimate of the number of veterans who may be affected, but it could be in the thousands.  Of those who deployed in the Gulf War, 300,000 submitted claims, according to the VA.  About 14 percent were rejected, while the rest received compensation for at least one condition.