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 Vallarta Living | Veteran Affairs | March 2006 
Agent Orange
 David Lord - PVNN
| | Sculptures by Vietnamese students representing disabled child victims of the defoliant Agent Orange used by US army during the Vietnam War on display in Ho Chi Minh City. Vietnam War veterans and activists from six countries urged the US government to compensate millions of people they say are victims of toxins in the military defoliant Agent Orange. (AFP/File) |
A combat veteran has one focus when in the fight, to survive the battle, firefight, or attack and thinking if I can survive this battle, I will go home and have this all behind me. If the bullets or bomb blast miss, I win. I will be home where it is safe and I have earned my right to a long productive life with this hell long past and forgotten.
The Non-Combat Veteran not being directly engaged in action represents 90% of all veterans in the war zone. They thank their lucky stars they were not in combat, feeling they escaped the hell of war, maybe the life cut short by the fate of battle, or a mortal wound, the oozing out of the life they cherished, watching it go, feeling it slip away.
The U.S. Veterans that have served in Vietnam have always had to contend with the hidden effects of Agent Orange, a medical nightmare. It is said that they died in Vietnam... they just didn't know it.
Their lives have been filled with a vague sense of unbalance, which usually is form continuous medical stress. They were unable to put a finger on the exact cause of any aliments they endured. The exposure to Dioxin in Vietnam may be the source of various diseases which started thirty, even fourty years ago and they are totally unaware they were exposed until all of a sudden they have cancer or some other deadly result of exposure.
Residual exposures from service effect the quality of life. Like never before in warfare Vietnam just keeps producing wounded. I know so many Viet Nam Vets that cannot put the war behind them, reliving the war over and over so that many of their friends or family simply say to others, "I Cannot Tolerate The War Talk, The Conversation Is So Repetitive, And So Boring! So over-blown that it serves no purpose, uses up too much time. Why can't he just move on and forget it."
Well, he may not move on because unknown to him he literally may be filled with the poison of war such as Cancer. If you have a loved one who was in Vietnam, have him or her read this check list.
DIOXEN: MY GUIDE FOR AIDING VETERANS WHO SUFFER SYMPTOMS OF AGENT ORANGE
A checklist for service connection for herbicide-related conditions (Agent Orange Conditions.)
A Veteran may be able to obtain service-connected benefits based on exposure to Agent Orange in two ways: Presumptive Service Connection or Direct Service Connection.
PRESUMPTIVE SERVICE CONNECTION FOR AGENT ORANGE CONDITIONS
There are four requirements for Presumptive Service Connection for an Agent Orange-related condition. If "YES" is checked in response to the following four questions, the claim for Presumptive Service Connection has a good chance of being granted.
1. Did the Veteran serve in Vietnam - that is, perform active Military Naval or Air Service in the Republic of Vietnam or the waters offshore, during the period beginning on January 9, 1962, and ending on May 7, 1975?
YES__ NO__
2. Does the Veteran have one of the seven kinds of disease on the VA's list of conditions linked to herbicide exposure, which are:
Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
Some Soft-Tissue Sarcomas, consisting of: Adult Fibrosarcoma, Dermatofibrosarcoma Protuberans, Malignant Fibrous Histiocytoma, Liposarcoma, Leiomyosarcome, Epithelioid Leiomyosarcoma (Malignant Leiomyoblastoma), Rhabdomyosarcoma, Ectomesenchymoma, Angiosarcoma (Hemangiosarcoma And Lymphangiosarcoma), Proliferating (Systemic) Angioendotheliomatosis, Malignant Glomus Tumor, Malignant Hemangiopericytoma, Synovial Sarcoma (Malignant Synovioma), Malignant Giant Cell Tumor of Tendon Sheath, Malignant Schwannoma (Including Malignant Schwannoma with Rhabdomyoblastic Differentiation, or Malignant Triton Tumor, and Glandular and Epithelioid Malignant Schwannomas), Malignant Mesenchymoma, Malignant Granular Cell Tumor, Alveolar Soft Part Sarcome, Epithelioid Sarcoma, Clear Cell Sarcoma of Tendons and Aponeuroses, Extraskeletal Ewing's Sarcoma, Congenital and Infantile Fibrosarcoma, and Malignant Ganglioneuroma.
Chloracne
Hodgkin's Disease
Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
Respiratory Cancers (Lung, Bronchus, Larynx, or Trachea)
Multiple Myeloma;
Prostate Cancer; or
Acute or Subacute Peripheral Neuropathy.
[NOTE: VA has agreed to add Diabetes to The List of Presumptive Conditions. The rules adding that condition to the list are not yet final.]
YES___ NO___
3. Does the Veteran meet the following requirement for the time of onset of the disease (the appearance of symptoms): Chloracne, Porphyria Cutanea Tarda - within one year of the last day on which the Veteran served in Vietnam;
Respiratory Cancers - within 30 years of the last day on which the Veteran served in Vietnam;
Acute Peripheral Neuropathy - within weeks or months of exposure to the herbicide agent (must also resolve within two years after it appears);
All other listed diseases - any time after service.
YES___ NO___
4. Does the Veteran meet the requirement that the disability manifest to a degree of at least 10 percent within the required length of time of onset?
YES___ NO___
 David Lord served in Vietnam as combat Marine for 1st Battalion 26th Marines, during which time he was severely wounded. He received the Purple Heart and the Presidential Unit Citation for his actions during the war in Vietnam. In Mexico, David now represents all veterans south of the U.S. border all the way to Panama, before the V.A. and the Board of Veterans Appeals. David Lord provides service to veterans at no fee. Veterans are welcome to drop in and discuss claims/benefits to which they are entitled by law at his office located at Bayside Properties, 160 Francisca Rodriguez, tel.: 223-4424, call him at home 299-5367, on his cell: 044 (322) 205-1323, or email him at mophmx@@yahoo.com or david.lord@yahoo.com.
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