Veterans Voices- ‘Like a giant X-ray’ They had a front-row seat to secret nuclear weapons tests. Now they’re fighting for recognition and compensation
- An Army of One: Oregon widow dedicates everything to providing housing for homeless veterans
- The Lost Graves of Tarawa: Hastily buried following one of World War II’s most horrific battles, the remains of missing Marines are coming home
- Growing Veterans: A Marine Corps veteran teams up with a trauma counselor to prevent suicides, through farming, fellowship and an effort to end the stigma of getting help
- ‘Nothing wrong with you:’ Twenty-five years later, Gulf War Illness often treated as a mental condition
- Home at Last: Seventy-five years after the attack on Pearl Harbor, men who died on USS Oklahoma are finally being returned to their families
- Thoroughbred Therapy: How Saratoga WarHorse rekindles life for soldiers dealing with PTSD
- ALASKA’S VANISHING CARE: How VA’s “Choice” program sabotaged a hard-earned network of local health care across the state’s vast and inaccessible wilds
- Wrongful discharge? Board that corrects military records ‘stacked against servicemembers’ critics charge
- BOOTED AFTER BATTLE Thousands of combat veterans have been kicked out of the military for misconduct without regard to PTSD, TBI or their right to medical retirement
Tag Archives: Agent Orange Blue Water Veterans Ken Olsen
Sailors Adrift: The Lingering Tragedy of Agent Orange
Forty-three years later, time is running out for tens of thousands of sailors suffering from various cancers, Parkinson’s disease, diabetes and heart conditions caused by Agent Orange exposure during the Vietnam War. For nearly a decade, VA, acting on a Bush administration directive and a punitive court decision, has severed their benefits or denied their claims. Under these new VA rules, so-called “Blue Water” and “Blue Sky” veterans are deemed not to have suffered any ill effects from the millions of gallons of toxic defoliant spread across the jungles during the war, regardless of any contact they may have had with it. The government’s rationale: they did not set foot on land or couldn’t meet VA’s stringent requirements for proof that they were exposed. Continue reading
