Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Tuesday, September 14, 2010
Weitz & Luxenberg
I have never before advocated the use of any specific lawyers to veterans in regards to veterans claims. I am going to do it this time because I belive that the time has come for veterans to get proper legal representation in dealing with the Veterans Administration.
I use to believe that if a veteran was harmed while on active duty the VA would automatically care for them, that is just not the case. Especially in dealing with chemical or toxic exposures. TCE is a big health issue coming down the road and quickly and veterans just can not handle these type of claims on their onw, you need legal help. Weitz and Luxenberg have been fighting for veterans and their families on the Mesothelioma and asbestos related health claims for years, with very good results.
You need experts to handle your claims and care for you and your families, investigate them on your own as I have and I think you will come to the same conclusion, these are the type of lawyers I want to fight for me, now that I can't fight for myself. Being sick and disabled I no longer have the energy to fight, I know I have needed help. If you have chemiocal or toxic related veterans claims, this is one firm you should consider using.
Michael Bailey U.S. Army October 1973 - Sep 1982 SSG, 11B3M Goergia Army National Guard astivated for Desert Storm Nov 30, 1990 - May 1991 100% disabled veteran June 2002 - present
Help yourself and your family use a GOOD lawyer
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Ships that were exposed to Agent Orange
http://www.bluewaternavy.org/shiplist2%20announcement.htm
If you have any documentation showing that any other ship not listed was on the inland waters of Vietnam, or if any additional dates for inland waters service applies to any of the ships already listed, please forward that information to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org.
If you were on a ship that docked in Vietnam and was tied fast to a pier, and there is proof that liberty was granted to the crew, and you went ashore, that ship should appear on this list. Submit a claim for service connection along with a sworn statement that you in fact did step ashore. You will be given presumption of exposure. If that ship is not listed, please provide the documentation to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org so it can be added to the list.
If you were on a ship that anchored in a port, bay or harbor and there is documentation that liberty was sounded for the crew, and there is documentation that ship-to-shore launches were used to ferry personnel on liberty to and from the beach, that documentation should be accepted as proof of your boots-on-ground. That ship should appear on this list. Provide a sworn statement that you actually took the liberty launch to the shore of Vietnam. If that is not listed, provide the necessary documentation so that ship can be added to this list
Here is a combined listing of ships from the first and second release of ships eligible for service connection for all crew due to service on the Inland Waters of Vietnam
Policy (211)
Additional Information on Vietnam Naval Operations
If evidence places a Veteran on one of these vessels at the time of inland waterway operations, the Veteran is eligible for the presumption of herbicide exposure. In the case of a ship with confirmed docking to the shore, the Veteran must also provide a statement that he went ashore to be eligible for the presumption.
Vessels that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways
All vessels of Inshore Fire Support [IFS] Division 93 during their entire Vietnam tour
USS Carronade (IFS 1)
USS Clarion River (LSMR 409) [Landing Ship, Medium, Rocket]
USS Francis River (LSMR 525)
USS White River (LSMR 536)
All vessels with the designation LST [Landing Ship, Tank] during their entire tour
All vessels with the designation LCVP [Landing Craft, Vehicle, Personnel] during their entire Tour
All vessels with the designation PCF [Patrol Craft, Fast] during their entire tour, Also called Swift Boats
All vessels with the designation PBR [Patrol Boat, River] during their entire tour, Also called River Patrol Boats
All U.S. Coast Guard Cutters with hull designation WPB or WHEC
USS Antelope (PG-86)
USS Asheville (PG-84) patrol gunboat
USS Askari (ARL-30)
Barracks Barge (APL-26)
Barracks Barge (APL-30)
USS Belle Grove (LSD-2)
USS Benewah (APB-35)
USS Bexar (APA-237)
USS Brule (AKL-28)
USS Comstock (LSD-45)
USS Canon PG-90)
USS Colleton (APB-36)
USS Crockett (PG-88)
USS Elkhorn (AOG-7)
USS Gallo (PG-85)
USS Genesee (AOG-8)
USS Indra (ARL-37)
USS Kishwaukee AOG-9
USS Krishna (ARL-38)
USS Marathon (PG-89)
USS Mark (AKL-12) [light cargo ship]
USS Mercer (APB-39)
USS Montrose (APA-212) [attack transport]
USS Noxubee (AOG-56)
USS Nueces (APB-40)
USS Okanogan (APA-210)
USS Patapsco (AOG-1) [gasoline tanker]
USS Ready (PG-87)
USS Satyr (ARL-23) [repair ship]
USS Sphinx (ARL-24)
USS Tombigbee (AOG-11)
USS Tutuila (ARG-4) [repair ship]
USS Tortuga (LSD-261)
Winnemucca (YTS-785)
Floating Base Platform
(YRBM-17) [repair, berthing, and messing barge]
(YRBM-20)
Vessels that operated temporarily on Vietnam's inland waterways or docked to the shore
USS Basilone (DD-824) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, May 24-25, 1966]
USS Black (DD-666) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, July 13-19, 1966]
USS Buck (DD-761) operated on Mekong River Delta and Saigon River during October 1966
USS Bolster (ARS-38) [salvage ship] crew operated on land to extract USS Clark County (LST-601) from beach after grounding at Duc Pho from November 18 to December 1, 1967
USS Boxer (LPH-4) [amphibious assault ship] docked to pier at Cam Rahn Bay on September 9, 1965
USS Card (ACV-11) [escort carrier] mined, sunk, and salvaged in Saigon River Harbor during May 1964
USS Carter Hall (LSD-3) [landing ship dock] operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha during December 1967
USS Canberra (CAG-2) [guided missile cruiser] operated on Saigon River from March 31 through April 1, 1966, on Cua Viet River during December 15, 1966, and on Mekong Delta Ham Luong River during January 15, 1967
USS Cleveland (LPD-7) operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha, as well as Hue River, from November 1967 through 1968 and Saigon River during September 1969
USS Conway (DD-507) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, early August 1966]
USS Dubuque (LPD-8) docked at Da Nang on March 15, 1970
USS Duluth (LPD-6) [amphibious transport dock] docked to pier at Da Nang during March and October 1971
USS Dyess (DD-880) operated on Saigon River and Rung Sat Special Zone from June 19—July 1, 1966
USS Epperson (DD-719) docked to Da Nang Pier on October 4, 1970
USS Fiske (DD-842) [Destroyer] [Operated on Mekong River, June 16-21, 1966]
USS Hamner (DD-718) [Destroyer] [Operated on Song Lon Tao and Long Song Tao Rivers,
August 15-September 1, 1966]
USS Henrico (APA-45) [amphibious attack transport] operated on Hue River during March 1965 and conducted numerous troop landing through March 1967
USS Ingersoll (DD-652) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River, October 24-25, 1965]
USS Richard E. Kraus (DD-849) [Destroyer] [Operated on coastal inlet north of Da Nang,
June 2-5, 1966
USS Mahan (DLG-11) [Guided Missile Frigate]
[Operated on Saigon River October 24-28, 1964]
USS Mansfield (DD-728) [Destroyer] [Operated on Saigon River August 8-19, 1967 and
December 21-24, 1968]
USS Maury (AGS-16) [mapping survey ship] conducted surveys of Mekong Delta and other coastal areas and rivers beginning November 1965 through 1969
USS Montrose (APA-212) operated on Song Hue River during December 1965, operated on Long Tau River during March 1967, and operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha during May 1967
USS Newell (DER-322) [radar destroyer escort] docked at port of Nha Trang during December 22-24, 1965
USS Niagara Falls (AFS-3) [Combat Stores Ship] [Unloaded supplies on Saigon River April 22-25, 1968]
USS Okanogan (APA-220) [Attack Transport] [Operated on Saigon River July 22-23, 29-30,
1968 and August 5-6, 1968]
USS Orleck (DD-886) operated on Mekong River Delta during July 1969
USS Perkins (DD-877) operated on Saigon River during June 1969
USS Picking (DD-685) operated on Saigon River during November 16, 1965
USS Preston (DD-795) operated on Mekong River Delta, Ganh Rai Bay, and Saigon River during September 28 — 29 and December 27 — 29, 1965
USS Providence (CLG-6) [Cruiser, Light, Guided Missile] [Operated on Saigon River 3 days during January 1964]
USS Southerland (DD-743) operated on Song Nga Bay and Saigon River during July 1966
USS Sproston (DD-577) [destroyer] operated on Mekong Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during January 1966
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) [guided missile destroyer] operated on Mekong River Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during November 7 and December 7, 1968
USS Talladega (APA-208) operated on Saigon River during October 1967
USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) operated on Nga Be River during 1969
USS Warrington (DD-843) operated on Mekong River Delta Rung Sat Special Zone, North of Vung Gahn Rai Bay during March 1967
USS Waddell (DDG-241) operated on Cua Viet River during March 1967
original list and article on the list
Wednesday, August 4, 2010
Ground-zero of Imperial Japan's germ war
Ground-zero of Imperial Japan's germ war
By Peter J Brown
Jul 29, 2010
the original article
In 1989, a mass grave was unearthed at the construction site for a National Institute of Health facility in the Shinjuku section of Tokyo.
Flash forward 21 years to another site a short distance from where the remains were discovered in 1989. Excavation work will soon commence at this second site, one of three identified in 2006 by a former nurse who worked at the Imperial Japanese Army Medical College in Shinjuku, and who pinpointed possible locations where human remains were hastily buried.
These were all probably the unfortunate victims of a string of medical experiments performed on living subjects in Japan as well as in Manchuria and China by the Imperial Japanese Army.
The nurse reported that she and other medical workers were ordered to bury these complete and partial remains after Japan surrendered to the US in August, 1945.
The Imperial Japanese Army Medical College's Research Institute for Preventive Medicine once occupied this site. The infamous Unit 731 created in 1932 - aka the "Kwantung Army Epidemic Prevention and Water Supply Department" or simply the "Manchuria 731st Unit" - was also headquartered there.
"If the bones are actually there, they are likely related to Unit 731 itself, because the facility that used to stand in that part of the compound was closely linked to the unit," Professor Tsuneishi Keiichi of Kanagawa University, one of Japan's top biological warfare (BW) experts, told the Taipei Times newspaper in 2006. [1]
Today, a soon-to-be demolished government-funded residential complex is located at the Tokyo compound.
"From a procedural standpoint, the government had to wait for the government building built over the site to be obsolete enough to be torn down," said Yukie Yoshikawa, a senior research fellow at the Edwin O Reischauer Center for East Asian Studies in Washington DC. "But my sense is that in 1989 [when the first bodies were discovered in Shinjuku] many of the people involved in this issue were still alive, and wanted the truth not to be uncovered."
Ishii Shiro, the director of Unit 731 who died in the 1950s, was once described as the "Japanese Mengele", a reference to Josef Mengele, the German SS officer and a physician in Nazi concentration camps who was also known as the "Angel of Death". Unit 731's operations in China included a large contingent in Harbin, along with one in Singapore.
Shinjuku was the source of BW agents that infected thousands of people in China. Estimates of the total death toll in China range from anywhere between 250,000 and 1 million. The BW experiments conducted in Shinjuku and elsewhere which Ishii supervised killed more than an estimated 3,000 people, including many Chinese.
Many of the army officers and personnel responsible for these horrific acts who were captured by the Russians were imprisoned. But in Japan after the war, the US turned a blind eye and allowed them to simply walk away. The perpetrators were never prosecuted or punished in any way.
According to Koga Kei, a 2009-2010 Vasey Fellow from Japan at the Pacific Forum Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Honolulu and a PhD candidate in international relations at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University, the upcoming excavation in Shinjuku is tied to the broader joint effort recently undertaken by Japan and China to jointly explore historical issues often divisive and painful in an attempt to gain a better understanding of each other's different perspective, among other things.
"The issue relating Unit 731 is a point of contention. The research group provided its reports both in Japanese and Chinese last January, and the descriptions in these Japanese and Chinese reports differ," said Koga. "Regarding the issue of biological weapons, the Japanese report did not directly mention Unit 731, while the Chinese version explicitly described that biological and chemical warfare was committed by the Japanese, and that Unit 731 carried out experiments on Chinese subjects."
Koga remains concerned that given the sensitivity of the subject at hand, "if exaggerated information about this issue is disseminated, this might instigate anti-Japanese sentiment in China".
"This should be understood as a voluntary movement by the Japanese without any foreign and especially American pressure to recognize the dark side of Japan's past, in contrast with the recent 'comfort women' issue," said Yoshikawa. "It often takes time in Japan, but wait in patience, and things will move."
Thanks in great part to the Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) and the concerted pressure exerted by a particularly persistent and unyielding Japanese civic organization - the Association Demanding Investigation on Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College - Japan's Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare approved the excavation in Shinjuku.
"The health minister under the conservative Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) cabinet of Junichiro Koizumi promised in June 2006 to continue investigations of human remains at the old army medical college originally found in 1989. He was, in fact, responding to questions from a representative of the DPJ," said Professor Frederick Dickinson of the University of Pennsylvania.
"A proper accounting of this issue has, in other words, been DPJ policy since at least 2006 and, it is safe to say, with the DPJ now in power since last September, it makes sense for the party to move on the investigation. Funds for the new excavation were approved in the latest budget approval in the parliament at the beginning of March."
In effect, this issue is one of many others including a friendlier relationship with China, and a harder line on the US - Japan security treaty that the DPJ has used to distinguish itself from the LDP and that it is now trying to capitalize on.
"Now that the DPJ has completely backtracked on its hardline stance vis-a-vis the US, it needs to maintain some semblance of its identity of being the 'reform' party. The medical college site issue, although a very small one compared to the US-Japan security alliance, is one small way of doing so," said Dickinson.
While there has been a long history of revelations in Japan about wartime Japanese atrocities and while some might argue that the Japanese are very aware of them, many view Japan as moving ahead too slowly and still dragging its feet.
"There has been insufficient Japanese scholarly or governmental investigation of these episodes and this new investigation is long overdue. A large part of Japan's difficulty addressing these issues was that the conservative LDP had in its DNA ties to the pre-war leadership, while the left in Japan had a political agenda that went beyond truth and reconciliation and was therefore suspect from the beginning," said Michael Green, senior adviser and Japan chair at CSIS in Washington, DC.
With the rapid recent rise of the DPJ, more space has perhaps emerged for less politically motivated inquiries that can enjoy broader political support.
"This is not the same Japan," said Green. "And coming at a time of sagging confidence among Japanese citizens about the future, it will be important for the emerging generation of leaders to expose and learn from this tragic history while also instilling pride and confidence in Japan's role in the world."
Japan must prepare for what will surely be an extremely sensitive and perhaps painful episode.
"Japan's biological warfare program in China was, as far as we know, the first use of scientifically organized germ warfare in history," Iris Chang told the Shanghai Star in March, 2004 just a few months before she took her own life. Chang, a noted Chinese-American historian, is best remembered for her book The Rape of Nanking, about the atrocities committed there by Japanese occupation forces in 1937.
A close friend and former instructor of Chang informed this writer in 2008 that she was unaware that Chang was engaged in any in-depth research focused on Japan's BW program before and during World War II. Still, Chang appeared to know quite a lot about what transpired. She must have known that Unit 1644 established a forward base in Nanjing. Unit 1644 specialized in BW like Unit 731 and conducted extensive BW field operations in China, especially from late 1940 until 1942. China conducted a formal inquiry into one of this unit's BW attacks - on Ningbo in October 1940 - for example.
"Details from this period were suppressed during the Cold War. The US government cut a secret deal with these Japanese doctors, giving them immunity from prosecution in exchange for their medical data," said Chang in 2004. [2]
Decisions made years ago by the Japanese government to undertake government-funded construction projects at these troubling sites are seen by many as no mere coincidence.
"According to the former nurse, the public housing for government officials was constructed immediately after the war so that no one could dig up the human subjects buried there," Tsuneishi, who represents the Association Demanding Investigation, was quoted as saying by the Mainichi Daily News. "The search may uncover the facts that the government had sought to conceal." [3]
Asia Times Online's attempts to contact Tsuneishi were unsuccessful.
Tsuneishi gave a speech at the annual meeting of the Association for Asian Studies last March in Philadelphia entitled, "The Purchase of the Data of 'experiments' conducted in the Japanese BW Program by the US in 1947."
The truth about the role of Unit 731 in so many BW-related deaths in China and the US government's deliberate attempt to cover up this war crime really did not emerge until the late 1970s and early 1980s. Japanese and American researchers pursued every shred of evidence.
Professor Sheldon Harris at California State University at Northridge stood out early on in this regard.
However, while Harris and others helped to expose the fact that the US secretly decided to overlook the criminal acts perpetrated by members of Unit 731 and not prosecute them as war criminals once the US had obtained the data derived from countless human experiments performed by the Japanese, the fact that the US actually paid Ishii and other members of Unit 731 an enormous sum in order to obtain this data only recently came to light, due to Tsuneishi's diligent research.
There was no mention of any payment from a secret US fund in this 1947 memorandum to US General Douglas MacArthur, for example.
"For all practical purposes, an agreement with Ishii and his associates that information given by them on the Japanese BW program will be retained in intelligence channels is equivalent to an agreement that this [US] government will not prosecute any of those involved in BW activities in which war crimes were committed. Such an understanding would be of great value to the security of the American people because of the information which Ishii and his associates have already furnished and will continue to furnish." [4]
In Philadelphia, according to one person who was in the audience, Tsuneishi spoke about the many errors that can be found in English publications and books about Unit 731, and he criticized authors for not doing thorough research on this topic. However, while historical inaccuracies and distortions are unwelcome and distracting, this does not excuse the conduct of the Japanese government which bears much if not all of the responsibility for concealing the truth about Shinjuku.
Among other things, the Japanese Health Ministry has repeatedly denied Chinese requests for DNA tests. [5]
According to Koga, one Japanese Health Ministry official said during the 164th Diet (parliament) session in 2006 that although several DNA investigations were undertaken, sampling was difficult and because a substance known as hormaline might be present in the human bones in question, it would be difficult to reach definitive conclusions. There is no firm indication of any substantive DNA work done prior to 2006 on any remains recovered in Shinjuku.
In late 2010, there might be a change of heart in Tokyo.
"The DNA technology may be what makes a more objective and scientific study possible," said Green.
While analyzing DNA evidence might reopen the door to another dark dimension of this chapter in Japanese history, it must be done.
"As for DNA analysis, yes, it will be very useful to have concrete proof of Japanese, Chinese, perhaps victims of other nationalities at this site," said Dickinson.
What about the American prisoners of war in Shinjuku? Is this file now closed? After all, a quick scan of state and local prisoner of war (POW) accounts from the Pacific theater, for example, has revealed that hundreds of American POWs were held at a POW camp(s) in Shinjuku during World War II for varying lengths of time, and it would have been very easy for the Japanese to conceal their fate.
''It is significant that these are probably the skeletons of non-Japanese,'' said Tsuneishi a short time after the mass grave was discovered in 1989. ''The Health and Welfare Ministry has been very eager to collect bones in the South Pacific islands for decades. I just wish they had that enthusiasm for the mysterious bones here in Tokyo.'' [6]
Notes
1.) WWII horrors believed hidden in Tokyo neighborhood, Taipei Times, September 18, 2006
2) Book Exposes WWII Japanese Biowarfare Program in China, China Internet Information Center
3) Government to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims, July 8, 2010, Mainichi Daily News
4) Memos Say US Hid Japanese War CrimeDecember 18, 1988, LA Times
5) Human bones could reveal truth of Japan's 'Unit 731' experiments February 15, 2010, Daily Telegraph
6) Skulls Found: Japan Doesn't Want to Know Whose, August 13, 1990, New York Times
Peter J Brown is a freelance writer from Maine USA.
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If Americans are buried in these mass graves I hope the US govt can explain to the families of the deceased WW2 veterans WHY they bought and paid for the research of Unit 731 and ignored recovering the bodies of the fallen American soldiers who had become POWs and were used in Biological weapons research by their captors.
It is my understanding from years of research that General MacArthurs staff arranged the "deal" with the Japanese Officers for cash and immunity for the research papers of their doctors and scientists, from what I have read it took a better part of 2 years to get the deal into place and the papers were then taken to the US, more than likely to either Fort Detrick and or Edgewood Arsenal where the US was doing it's own research into biological weapons and experimenting on American soldiers from 1941 thru 1973 when President Nixon signed the 1972 Biological Weapons Treaty which banned the use and research of Bio Weapons the use of Operation White Coat volunteers was ended at Fort Detrick, in 1975 all "human experimentation" using chemical weapons and drugs was stopped when Congress learned of the Edgewood Arsenal experiments. In 1976 Presindent Gerald Ford signed a law that forbid any "human experimentation" by the military and the CIA.
Gov't to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims
Gov't to excavate Shinjuku site for remains of WWII-era live human experiment victims
http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100708p2a00m0na024000c.html
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare says it will excavate the former site of an Imperial Japanese Army medical college, where the victims of experiments on live human subjects are suspected to have been buried.
The ministry will embark on its first search of the site in Tokyo's Shinjuku Ward this autumn. In 2006, a former nurse at the college confessed that they had buried human subjects at three different locations in the area at the end of the war.
The college's laboratory for epidemic control supervised the infamous Unit 731 -- a group of scientists who allegedly carried out medical experiments on live Chinese subjects -- and the Association Demanding Investigation on Human Bones Discovered from the Site of the Army Medical College had requested the government search the site, saying, "Those buried there could be the victims of experiments on live subjects."
One of the three locations indicated by the former nurse as dumping sites for human bodies will be excavated. The project will cover some 3,000 square meters, including a public housing complex scheduled for demolition by October. The ministry and the Shinjuku Ward Office are currently arranging procedures for the search.
In 1989, human bones from 62 individuals were discovered during construction of the National Institute of Infectious Diseases in the same area. The site was one of the locations identified by the witness.
In 2001, the ministry conducted interviews with about 370 individuals who had worked for the Imperial Army's medical college. The survey concluded that the remains discovered at the construction site belonged to both Japanese and Chinese war victims used as medical subjects. It remained unknown whether the Unit 731 had been involved in the case.
Kanagawa University Professor Keiichi Tsuneishi, a representative of the citizen's group demanding the investigation into the remains, said, "According to the former nurse, the public housing for government officials was constructed immediately after the war so that no one could dig up the human subjects buried there. The search may uncover the facts that the government had sought to conceal."
click here for original article
(Mainichi Japan) July 8, 2010
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After 65 years I think it is finally time for the Japanese govt to deal with what really happened in WW2 and quit the cover up 731 was a real unit, they did unspeakable things to fellow humans, some of the things they did was as bad if not wrose than what happened under Dr Mengele and other doctors in WW2 German camps
The diiference was that General MacArthur bought and paid for the research papers of Unit 731 and none of the Japanese Officers were prosecuted for War Crimes as were the Nazi's.
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Naval and Coast Guard ships exposed to AO in Vietnam
NAUS today in their newsletter published the following list of Navy
ships which were added this week to the AO List
VA Adds Ships to Agent Orange Exposure List
This week the VA has added the below named ships to the already
existing list for Navy and Coast Guard ships and vessels that are
presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange. If you served on any
of these mentioned ships and you have had a claim denied, you should
reapply citing the VA list as the source for your reapplication. NAUS
is told the VA is already working on a third list that will have more
ships listed. If you have a claim and evidence the ship you served on
was in Vietnamese waters and/or actually tied up to a dock there, make
sure you include that with your claim.
Vessels that operated primarily or exclusively on the inland waterways
All U.S. Coast Guard Cutters with hull designation WPB [patrol boat]
and
WHEC [high endurance cutters]
USS Mark (AKL-12) [light cargo ship]; USS Brule (AKL-28)
USS Patapsco (AOG-1) [gasoline tanker]; USS Elkhorn (AOG-7)
USS Genesee (AOG-8); USS Kishwaukee (AOG-9)
USS Tombigbee (AOG-11); USS Noxubee (AOG-56)
USS Okanogan (APA-210) [attack transport]; USS Montrose (APA-212)
USS Bexar (APA-237)
USS Benewah (APB-35) [self-propelled barracks ship]; USS Colleton
(APB-36)
USS Mercer (APB-39); USS Nueces (APB-40)
Barracks Barge (APL-26) [sleeping quarters] ); Barracks Barge
(APL-30)
USS Tutuila (ARG-4) [repair ship]; USS Satyr (ARL-23) [repair ship]
USS Sphinx (ARL-24); USS Askari (ARL-30); USS Indra (ARL-37)
USS Krishna (ARL-38)
USS Belle Grove (LSD-2) [landing ship dock]; USS Comstock (LSD-19)
USS Tortuga (LSD-26)
USS Asheville (PG-84) [patrol gunboat]; USS Gallop (PG-85)
USS Antelope (PG-86); USS Ready (PG-87); USS Crockett (PG-88)
USS Marathon (PG-89); USS Canon (PG-90)
Floating Base Platform (YRBM-17) [repair, berthing, and messing barge]
Floating Base Platform (YRBM-18); Floating Base Platform (YRBM-20)
Winnemucca (YTB-785) [harbor tug]
Vessels that operated temporarily on Vietnam's inland waterways or
docked to the shore:
USS Card (ACV-11) [escort carrier] mined, sunk, and salvaged in Saigon
River Harbor during May 1964
USS Maury (AGS-16) [mapping survey ship] conducted surveys of Mekong
Delta and other coastal areas and rivers beginning November 1965
through
1969
USS Henrico (APA-45) [amphibious attack transport] operated on Hue
River
during March 1965 and conducted numerous troop landings through March
1967
USS Montrose (APA-212) operated on Song Hue River during December
1965,
operated on Long Tau River during March 1967, and operated on Cua Viet
River and at Dong Ha during May 1967
USS Talladega (APA-208) operated on Saigon River during October 1967
USS Bolster (ARS-38) [salvage ship] crew operated on land.
USS Canberra (CAG-2) [guided missile cruiser] operated on Saigon River
from March 31 through April 1, 1966, on Cua Viet River during December
15, 1966, and on Mekong Delta Ham Luong River during January 15, 1967
USS Sproston (DD-577) [destroyer] operated on Mekong Delta and Ganh
Rai
Bay during January 1966
USS Picking (DD-685) operated on Saigon River during November 16, 1965
USS Epperson (DD-719) docked to Da Nang Pier on October 4, 1970
USS Southerland (DD-743) operated on Song Nga Bay and Saigon River
during July 1966
USS John W. Thomason (DD-760) operated on Nga Be River during 1969
USS Buck (DD-761) operated on Mekong River Delta and Saigon River
during
October 1966
USS Preston (DD-795) operated on Mekong River Delta, Ganh Rai Bay, and
Saigon River during September 28 - 29 and December 27 - 29, 1965
USS Warrington (DD-843) operated on Mekong River Delta Rung Sat
Special
Zone, North of Vung Gahn Rai Bay during March 1967
USS Dyess (DD-880) operated on Saigon River and Rung Sat Special Zone
from June 19-July 1, 1966
USS Perkins (DD-877) operated on Saigon River during June 1969
USS Orleck (DD-886) operated on Mekong River Delta during July 1969
USS Joseph Strauss (DDG-16) [guided missile destroyer] operated on
Mekong River Delta and Ganh Rai Bay during November 7 and December 7,
1968
USS Waddell (DDG-24) operated on Cua Viet River during March 1967
USS Newell (DER-322) [radar destroyer escort] docked at port of Nha
Trang during December 22-24, 1965
USS Duluth (LPD-6) [amphibious transport dock] docked to pier at Da
Nang
during March and October 1971
USS Cleveland (LPD-7) operated on Cua Viet River and at Dong Ha, as
well
as Hue River, from November 1967 through 1968 and Saigon River during
September 1969
USS Dubuque (LPD-8) docked at Da Nang on March 15, 1970
USS Boxer (LPH-4) [amphibious assault ship] docked to pier at Cam Rahn
Bay on September 9, 1965
USS Carter Hall (LSD-3) [landing ship dock] operated on Cua Viet River
and at Dong Ha during December 1967
Sunday, June 20, 2010
VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water
VA quietly giving benefits to Marines exposed to toxic water
By Barbara Barrett
McClatchy Newspapers
Published: Saturday, Jun. 19, 2010 - 9:01 pm
WASHINGTON — Former Marine Corps Cpl. Peter Devereaux was told about a year ago that he had just two or three years to live.
More than 12 months later, at 48, he still isn't ready to concede that the cancer that's wasting his innards is going to kill him. He swallows his pills and suffers the pain and each afternoon he greets his 12-year-old daughter, Jackie, as she steps off her school bus in North Andover, Mass.
The U.S. Department of the Navy says that more research is needed to connect ailments suffered by Marines such as Devereaux who served at Camp Lejeune and their families who lived there to decades of water contamination at the 156,000-acre base in eastern North Carolina. Meanwhile, however, the Department of Veterans Affairs has quietly begun awarding benefits to a few Marines who were based at Lejeune.
"Right now, I would venture to say that any Camp Lejeune veteran who files a claim now is presumed to have been exposed to the contaminated drinking water," Brad Flohr, the assistant director for policy, compensation and pension service at the VA, told a meeting of affected Marines and family members in April.
It's estimated that as many as a million people were exposed to the water from the 1950s to the 1980s. The water was laced with trichloroethylene, known as TCE; tetrachloroethylene, known as PCE; benzene and other volatile organic chemicals.
Peter Devereaux doesn't expect to be around for Jackie's college years, but he hopes to be able to pay for them. Along with hundreds of other veterans across the country, he's convinced that contaminated water caused his cancer.
"It's like it's criminal, you know?" said Devereaux, who has male breast cancer.
While the Department of the Navy, which oversees the base, is funding continuing research on the issue, in some cases the VA has acknowledged that as likely as not, some Marine veterans' ailments were caused by drinking and bathing in poisonous water.
Despite the exposure, though, there's no presumption that a veteran's disease was caused by the contamination. Each case is judged on hits own merits, Flohr said.
Still, veterans' advocates have hope.
"It matters. That's an admission, right there," said Jerry Ensminger, a Marine veteran in North Carolina who lost his daughter to leukemia in 1985 after living at Camp Lejeune.
James Watters of Lubbock, Texas, was told in 2008 that he had a year to live. In June 2009, he learned that the VA had linked his cancer to the Lejeune contamination.
"This thing is huge in its ramifications," Watters said. "I think it just opens the floodgates."
More Marine veterans are learning about what happened years ago at Camp Lejeune.
Two years ago, a new law required the Defense Department to contact veterans through the Internal Revenue Service and tell them about their exposure.
Many veterans interviewed by McClatchy said they had no idea that they'd been exposed until they opened the envelopes in the mail.
"You know what went off in my head? A light bulb," said Allen Menard, 47, of Green Bay, Wis. His doctor had told him years before that his form of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, mycosis fungoides, was chemical-related.
He filed for VA disability in 2008, blaming his cancer on Lejeune's water, and was at first denied before finally he was granted a full service connection, a recognition that his illness is related to his service, this spring.
"I did my research. I had to fight," Menard said. "I had two professors at Boston University write letters for me."
One of those professors, epidemiologist Richard Clapp, said veterans deserve an answer about what effects the water might have had on their health.
"It's a horrific problem," said Clapp, who serves on a community panel that's studying the Lejeune contamination. "There are lots of people exposed, some to very high levels of these chemicals. Some for short periods for time, some for decades."
The public is only now beginning to realize the extent of the contamination.
Stories among the veterans indicate a handful have been given service connections. Each case means the VA has established that there's at least a 50 percent chance that the veteran's military service caused the ailment.
The awards are inconsistent, however. While a veteran in Wisconsin is offered payment, one in Florida with similar symptoms is denied. The VA doesn't keep track, and Flohr said this spring that he'd just learned about many of the successful appeals.
Legislation in the House of Representatives and Senate would establish presumptions between service connection and illnesses associated with the contamination, but those bills are still pending.
Although advocates are energized by recent VA benefits awards, a McClatchy review of some Veterans Affairs decisions shows that connections to the toxic water at Lejeune have been made in the past.
In 2002, for example, the agency granted a service connection to a veteran with cancer of the hard palate. The veteran, whose name is redacted, had served from 1982 to 1987 at Lejeune. His application was denied in 1995 and again in 1999.
After he sent in medical opinions about the contamination, an appeals board granted the service connection.
Another challenge for Veterans Affairs and federal scientists comes in deciding what diseases might have been caused by which chemical in the water.
For now, Flohr said the VA is trying to educate regional offices around the country. Last month, the agency sent a memo to its regional offices describing contamination of TCE and PCE.
The memo says there may be limited association between those chemicals and cancers of the kidney, breast, bladder, lung or esophagus.
The Veteran Affairs memo doesn't mention benzene, even though federal scientists said a year ago that benzene has emerged as a central suspect in the contamination. Benzene is a known carcinogen.
The distinction about which chemicals were present in the water is important, because they're associated with different diseases.
For years, Marine veteran Michael Schooler suspected that Agent Orange he was exposed to in Vietnam was responsible for his acute myoletic leukemia. Then McClatchy and other news outlets reported this year that benzene has had a far greater significance in the contamination than scientists had previously realized.
"I asked my doctor, 'Does benzene cause it?' " recalled Schooler, 61, of Jasper, Ind. "He lit up like a Christmas tree. He said, 'That's what causes it.'"
Schooler filed an appeal this spring. He expects to learn this month whether the VA will grant the service connection for benzene exposure.
In Massachusetts, Peter Devereaux also waits, drawing on the patience he learned while he was in the Marines.
"I'm terminal," he said. "Being a man, I only want to take care of my wife and daughter, like I always have."
FOR VETERANS WHO MIGHT BE AFFECTED
Veterans who think they might have been affected by contaminated water at Camp Lejeune can apply for service connection health benefits from the U.S. Department of Veteran Affairs. You can apply by filling out VA Form 21-526, Veterans Application for Compensation and/or Pension.
The VA recommends that if you have any of the following material, please attach it to your application:
Discharge or separation papers (DD214 or equivalent)
Dependency records (marriage & children's birth certificates)
Medical evidence (doctor & hospital reports)
Veterans who have applied for benefits related to water contamination at Camp Lejeune say they strongly recommend a medical nexus letter from a doctor.
For more information, contact your local VA office or your local veterans service organization, or go online to http://www.vba.va.gov/VBA/
The Marine Corps also has a website about the Lejeune contamination, https://clnr.hqi.usmc.mil/clwater/
A group of Marine veterans and affected family members has a website on the issue, The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten, www.tftptf.com
ON THE WEB
Department of Veterans Affairs fact sheet on Camp Lejeune water contamination
Department of Veterans Affairs benefits website
"The Few, The Proud, The Forgotten: Camp Lejeune Toxic Water"
Camp Lejeune Historic Drinking Water
About Camp Lejeune
MORE FROM MCCLATCHY
Congress pushes military to release data on Camp Lejeune water
Warnings about Lejeune's tainted water unheeded for years
Lejeune water probe: Did Marine Corps hide benzene data?
Judge: Lejeune ex-resident can move ahead with injury claim
Marine base's residents, many ill, only now learning of toxic water
Toxins in Camp Lejeune water 30 years ago still a problem
Follow the latest politics news at McClatchy's Planet Washington
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go to the link at the top of the page and you can access all of these topics and get more information about the exposures and follow the mess......
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