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Going to Maui in 33 days ... cannot wait to get on the beaches and snorkel and to geocache
My husband went to the VA this morning for his first C&P exam for what turned out for two of his claims for compensation for service connected injuries ... his back and his knee.
My husband seems to think it went well since the examiner said "screw the regional office, I am going to set you up right now for the needed xrays for your back and knee" because he had a letter in his records that he found that talked about his injuries in detail that he wrote home to his parents 40 years ago while on active duty.
We sure hope he gets it approved as a service connected injury and gets some compensation because he is no longer working and we could use the retro check for this. He still has PTSD C&P exam and that is going to be a tough one because he worked in a high security area so it will be hard to prove and he also has a hearing loss C&P exam because of working on aircraft carrier and around top secret crypto equipment that made a constant whirring sound for his 12 hours watch day after day ... we are hoping for near to 100% compensation eventually.
Are there any VETS who can answer questions about his C&P meetings?
Last night before going to bed I took my husband's blood pressure and it was the lowest it has been in two years since he has brain stem stroke. It was at a whoppin 117 / 67 ... that really put a smile on his face. It is usually around 165 / 100 . Four days off from work doing nothing really paid off for him. He should seriously think about disability for his blood pressure. He is going to the hospital on Tuesday to have a angioplasty done on both his interior carotid arteries.
My husband wrote this letter to his congressman and senator for the passage of HR2254 and S. 1939 in the next legislative session to be considered ... they need a push to finally make all veterans of Vietnam equal in treatment after 40 years of time. Please send your congressman and senator a similar letter ... google on the web to find the name and address of you representatives in Washington DC.
Dear Congressman or Senator
I know of one former sailor that was aboard the USS Intrepid over in Vietnam who was awarded Agent Orange Exposure by the VA for having drunk the water, bathing in the water and eating meals prepared in the water because everything in Vietnam, even the Gulf of Tonkin, was exposed to Agent Orange. The water that all sailors drank were processed through the same desalination processors that the Australian Navy had processed their salt water from the Gulf of Tonkin.
Apparently the ruling has changed over the years and it apparently has been kept quiet from the media for this unfair and unequal treatment for the thousands of Vietnam Blue Water Navy Veterans who have applied for Agent Orange Exposure for being on the Cruisers, Destroyers, Battleships, Aircraft Carriers and other support ships in Vietnamese waters and fought in the same war as those who were “boots on the ground” soldiers and Navy vets.
For Congress and the Senate living on the belief that Agent Orange miraculously was stopped by a barrier of untold height and untold depth at the beach of Vietnam is not only ridiculous but a major slap in the face to every sailor onboard ship in the Gulf of Tonkin. It is also an insult to all Navy veterans who have spent a tour or two onboard ships while being much less than the arbitrary 30 miles off the coast of Vietnam as defined by our government. It is very well documented that Agent Orange drifted to jungles hundreds of miles away purely on the winds. It would be also presumed that the same Agent Orange, taking the predominant wind direction from land to gulf, would also drift into the gulf and expose all the ships within hundreds of miles from the spraying. Why would anyone in their right mind consider that the rivers of Vietnam did not flow into the Gulf of Tonkin is beyond us. Vietnam would be the only place on Earth where the rivers do not flow into the offshore body of water. All the dioxins and toxins from every spray, not only Agent Orange, drifted down the rivers and into the Gulf of Tonkin. Logic and science does not stop in Vietnam just because members of the US government say so. Here it is 40 years later and we have not been given the same treatment as others of the Vietnam War and with all the same diseases that they have encountered. Yet they are recognized with their disabilities by the VA and WE are not. Only, because they had “boots of the ground” and we had “boots on the deck”.
The navies of Australia and New Zealand have recognized the effects of Agent Orange Exposure through scientific studies and have given their Blue Water Navy sailors the claim for disability. But not our government. That would make the Navy of Down Under even more American than the government of United States of America. They honor their vets and our government just spits on us like so many hippies did to our vets of Vietnam at the time for being “baby killers”.
This fight, between the sailors and the government we went to defend, has been going on for over 40 years? What are the Congressmen and Senators waiting for? All of us to die off from AO exposure related diseases to and then admit they were WRONG after the LAST sailor dies? What a shame!
If our government will not support equally the veterans of these government run wars than it is advised this same government stop entering these wars that cost billions of dollars over the life time of the war only to hear complaints from our government on how much it will cost them to support the veteran when they come home. In the private world it is called “the cost of doing business”.
Don’t let this disgrace by our government last any longer and do the honorable thing. Sponsor HR 2254 and S. 1939 when it appears before you in the future.
Very Truly Yours
I spent the day writing a short letter to all the US Senators and sent them an email
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Encourage your congressman to vote in favor of H.R. 2254 to further define the exposure of Agent Orange during Vietnam War to the Blue Water Navy as well those that pulled into port or ran patrols in the rivers of Vietnam. Where do you think the exposed water of the rivers flowed? Right into the Gulf of Tonkin to be drunk by all the Blue Water Sailors ... they also showered in the contaminated waters of agent orange ... what is the problem with Congress?
If a sailor is in Vietnam he was exposed ... PERIOD!!!!
Because my husband never set foot on Vietnam soil while in Vietnam, Congress and the VA state he does not qualify to receive compensation for Agent Orange exposure ... what a bunch of dummies lead our country and how poorly they treat our Vietnam vets ... still.
My husband served for almost a year in the Gulf of Tonkin aboard the USS America. During that time he drank contaminated water, bathed in contaminated water and ate food that was boiled in contaminated water that went through the desalinsaination process from the gulf water.
Jets who returned from combat missions who were splattered with the spray of of Agent Orange landed on board the carrier and were washed off using ship board water exposing the entire flight deck with AO.
The rivers that were spray with millions of gallons of AO flowed into the Gulf of Tonkin creating a soup effect in the gulf. Which they drank, ate and bathed from.
According to the VA a presumptive disease of AO exposure is Ischemic Heart Disease. My husband had a heart attack 7 years ago followed by arterial bypass surgery immediately afterward. Twenty months ago he had a brain stem stroke and died while in ER. He is still recooperating from the ill effects of the stroke.
He has written a letter to the editor of one paper but is going to be writing congress and more papers on the wrong doing the VA is doing on the Blue Water Navy sailors who were just as much exposed to Agent Orange as were the "boots on the ground" sailors.
Would sure like to hear from other Blue Water Navy vets who are fighting congress and the VA over this.
I am up to 188 finds for geocaching and we have hidden 30 geocaches including a travel bug hotel. We sure enjoy geocaching ... we work so well as a geocaching team and it is great for the relationship ... I cannot think of anyone else I would rather be doing this with other than my husband.
If you are not geocaching you do not know what you are missing. Check out my pics in my geocaching album.
Today we are driving down to the Oregon Coast and spend the weekend at our favorite place to hang out ... Florence, Oregon.
Monday is our 24 year anniversary and we will be spending our days geocaching along highway 101 near the dunes, cliffs and lighthouses along the west coast searching for treasures.
I am sure that my husband will take some pics and even some videos of us during our hunt for the geocaches.
And of course tonight we will be having some real fun in our room.
After the movie we went to our hometown Applebees and I order the 7 ounce sirloin steak covered with mushroom and garlic sauce. I had a side of the baked potatoe with everything on it also a side of steamed broccolli.
The steak was a little too rare for me so I had them recook it ...
When the dinner was complete I was completely full ... what a meal.
