We took the time to review the 2014 to date VA Board of Appeals Citations searching the key words Agent + Orange + Okinawa. There were a total of 60 Citations. For two of those, the veterans actually proved they served in Vietnam and we discounted those leaving 58 Citations for our review. Here are the results; DENIED = 35 REMANDED (for further evidence) = 22 APPROVED = 1 (This veteran died from COPD related illness) The following Board of Appeals statement in general was typical and consistent within most of the Denials. Please note the wording tactical herbicide(s). Compensation Service referred to a list of tactical herbicide use, testing, and storage sites provided by the DoD, and it does not show any use, testing, or storage of tactical herbicides, such as Agent Orange, at any location on Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan during the Vietnam Era. It was noted that, in general, tactical herbicides were developed for Vietnam and used there, along with limited use on the Korean DMZ. DoD further indicated that tactical herbicide testing was conducted at sites in the U.S. and foreign locations under direction of the Fort Detrick, Maryland, Plant Science Laboratory, and specifically indicated that Kadena AFB, Okinawa, Japan, was not among the listed sites. Lastly, the DoD noted that there is no evidence documenting the storage or use of tactical herbicides on Kadena AFB. As a result, Compensation Service was unable to provide evidence to support the Veterans claimed in-service herbicide exposure.
Posted on: Sun, 16 Nov 2014 19:01:22 +0000
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