The Veterans Association of Sailors of the Vietnam War
"Fortitudine vincimus!"
By endurance we conquer!
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V A S V W has come out in full support of H.R. 3612 The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act as well as S.1629, the new Agent Orange Equity Act of 2011 because they are short, simple, to the point, and the nearest bills that have been presented to what the V A S V W has advocated since we became an organization in 2008, a restoration act, nothing more, nothing less and the only restriction is "Territorial Waters".
While this bill isn't going to cover everyone in the Blue Water Navy, it will cover a large majority of them and will get the benefits restored and going for those members of Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans who served within the stated limits.
Remember, our stated primary mission is to get the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans benefits restored. Once that is done, and this has always been the plan, we go after T L C, Korea and the other sites such as Guam, Johnston Island, Okinawa, Subic Bay & etc.
Stand to and stand strong my friends.
These bills are the best chance we have at getting the restoration of benefits in nearly a decade.
Veterans and Agent Orange Update: 2010 Released
The BiAnnual Veterans and Agent Orange Update for 2010 has been released. You can download the pdf of the pre publication copy at no cost. Use the widget below to access the National Academies Press website.
This is an interesting passage: Exposure opportunity has been defined as the potential for exposure rather than as a quantitative determination of exposure (that is, relatable to dose) and is therefore only a crude estimate of dose (IOM, 2008). There are no environmental concentration data (for example, data on concentrations in soil and water) for the three populations of interest on which to base estimates of individual dose or exposure levels. Thus, the potential for exposure is the best—in fact, the only—available method for assessing and comparing exposure.(Qualitative)
While the quantitative data does not produce results due to the lack of pertinent information it does put the Blue Water Navy into the same class as the boots and brown water, scientifically.
Qualitatively the report does give a number of plausible means of exposure via the water and that, in my way of thinking, lends to us at least the benefit of doubt.
The committee found that Agent Orange-associated TCDD could, under some circumstances, contaminate marine waters off the coast of South Vietnam.
Blue Water Navy ships may have distilled those marine waters, so TCDD contamination of potable water aboard those ships was possible. Use of potable water containing Agent Orange–associated TCDD could result in inhalation exposure to TCDDs in water vapor during showering or other uses of hot water, such as cooking, and could result in volatilization of TCDD from the water during other uses, such as cleaning. Use of the water for showering and cleaning would also result in dermal exposure to TCDDs. Finally, the use of the potable water for drinking itself and for food preparation could lead to ingestion of TCDD.
Since the final IOM May report has come out I’ve been able to read it and in addition to the information imparted by Ms Slider above, it contains a very interesting statement that certainly should have been brought to everyone’s attention.
“It is possible that some fraction of Blue Water Navy personnel were not exposed to Agent Orange–associated TCDD, either directly or indirectly, but the proportion of personnel for whom that would have been the case is not known nor is it estimable with available information; there are similar uncertainties in estimating exposure of ground troops and Brown Water Navy sailors and the proportion of those personnel who might have been exposed”.
The important part of that statement is that some “fraction of Blue Water Navy personnel were not exposed”. It’s clear that statement must certainly mean the majority of Blue Water Navy personnel WERE exposed to TCDD.
With that and this statement;
“Moreover, the committee concluded that it could not state with certainty that exposures to Blue Water Navy personnel, taken as a group, were qualitatively different from their Brown Water Navy and ground troop counterparts.” there is no valid reason the Secretary does not return the presumptions of exposure to the Blue Water Navy.
Of course, I’m using real logic, not VA logic in coming to my conclusion.
