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Here's a breakthrough.
Opening the gate to deserving Vets who were exposed to [doused with] Agent Orange.
In this legislation, Air Force crews which handled Agent Orange dispensed via C-123 airplanes in Vietnam and Thailand are now eligible for disability compensation and health care benefits for a variety of cancers from skin cancer to prostate cancer to diabetes and leukemia.
[National Guard air crews flying these same craft after war suffered Agent Orance residue, but are ineligible for compensation or health benefits.]
The cost of this compensation is under $50 million per year -- which VA extrapolates to a 10-year period to make it half a billion dollars [roughly the cost of Mr 0bama's fuel costs since he entered office].
The VA, however, would not address the Blue Water Navy personnel who likely had the heaviest doses of Agent Orange.
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| Floating Chemical Coffins |
En-route, those ships encountered heavy storms with massive waves, resulting in the 50 gallon drums breaking loose, popping their lids, and pouring their contents into the ships' interiors, soaking the crew.
Most of those crews later died of, not one, but multiple types of cancer.
The VA screening process demands that claimants prove that they "... set foot in Vietnam", which many in the Blue Water Navy cannot do -- nor can they produce bills of lading showing their ships carried Agent Orange. In fact, there were no official bills of lading since the Navy did not want to admit they were carrying this dangerous chemical aboard their combat ships.
Oh, and the commercial carrier refusing to ship Agent Orange?
That was Lady Bird Johnson's company SeaLand, which had the exclusive contract for all logistic shipments from the US to Vietnam.
