Olson seeks veterans for possible claims
Posted on Thursday, August 31, 2006
BENTONVILLE - Some Benton County veterans may want to get in touch with him following a recent court decision, Benton County Veterans Service Officer Don Olson said Tuesday.
On Aug. 16, the Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims rendered a 31-page decision in a veteran appeal which determined that the Department of Veteran Affairs has been unlawfully denying presumptive disability compensation for exposure to Agent Orange for service members who served in the waters offshore of Vietnam and earned the Vietnam Service Medal.
The decision is good news for an unknown number of veterans, said John Rowan, national president of Vietnam Veterans of America.
"Some of the inequities of the application of presumptive coverage for exposure to Agent Orange have finally been set aside. We need to spread the word about this decision to all Navy veterans who served in the waters offshore of Vietnam and received the Vietnam Service Medal. This court decision will allow for an untold number of veterans and their families to receive compensation and health care they are entitled to, as well as other VA programs," Rowan said.
Still, any veteran who might be eligible needs to act quickly. All veterans who served in the waters offshore of Vietnam need to speak with a service representative or veteran service officer as soon as possible to see if they have a viable claim for compensation, Olson said.
"The bottom line is the VA, over the course of time, has come to the presumption of disability for people that served in country Vietnam for various cancers and diabetes - there's a list of disabilities. And they came up with the fact that the Agent Orange herbicide strain caused these disabilities. And it has been ruled for people in country. It has been that people in the Navy, who served right off the shore, weren't covered in that because they didn't set foot on the ground, even though the wind and all that other stuff made exposure highly probable. Now, with this new Court of Appeals ruling, they send it back. They determined the VA had been unlawfully denying presumptive disability to veterans that had served in the Navy … off the shore," Olson said.
Many people he's talked to have diabetes and other possible disabilities on the list and served off the shore, and those people will want to find out if they are eligible for help, he said.
"They were excluded from the presumptive disability because of the fact that they didn't put their foot on the ground. There were even ships that docked and the guys went on liberty, but since they were on a ship, they weren't covered. Now they have a chance," Olson said.
A person who had a claim denied or who has never filed needs do so as quickly as possible, Olson emphasized.
For more information, call Olson at 271-1070.
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