Crews of U.S. Navy vessels like the one pictured here may be eligible for Agent Orange exposure claims based on expanded criteria for the Blue Water Navy Veterans Act. (Photo: Ronnie Bell)
The Department of Veterans Affairs announced in a May 14 press release that Navy veterans who previously filed claims of exposure to Agent Orange but were denied benefits will automatically have their claims revaluated.
The tactical herbicide was used to clear forests used by the North Vietnamese Army and Viet Cong to launch attacks on South Vietnam. Agent Orange exposure is strongly associated with a number of debilitating and life-threatening illnesses, in addition to causing mild to severe birth defects in the children of those exposed to the chemical weapon.
Originally, benefits for Agent Orange exposure were limited to veterans who served on land, but the Blue Water Navy Veterans Act signed by President Donald Trump in June of 2019 allowed veterans who served on U.S. Navy vessels within 12 miles from the shores of Vietnam to claim disability benefits on the basis that the herbicide could travel away from Vietnam’s landmass and contaminate waters frequented by the U.S. Navy.
The Fair Care for Vietnam Veterans Act, which was incorporated into the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020, expanded benefits for veterans exposed to Agent Orange. Chiefly, the act added additional diseases to the list of possible illnesses that the herbicide could cause.
Now, based on a ruling made by the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California on Nehmer vs. U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, any veteran or spouse of a deceased veteran whose claim was rejected by the VA will have their claim readjudicated. If the claim is accepted after reassessment, the VA says that payments and benefits will be backdated to the original claim, even if the original claimant is deceased.
Author: Christian Southards
Coming from a family with a proud military background and wanting to contribute his writing skills to a worthy cause, Christian began writing for the California American Legion in August of 2020. His father is a 25-year Army Veteran and his grandfather served in the Navy during Vietnam.
