60 Minute Segment Regarding VA Claims
The segment on CBS 60 Minutes which aired this evening (Jan 03, 2010)
mentioned that those of us who can prove that we, "... were in Vietnam, are
automatically awarded disability compensation for Agent Orange-related
illnesses." NOT TRUE. Many of us who have illnesses which are
listed as -related to Agent Orange chemicals, are still fighting for
service-connection. I am still rated at ZERO % for Agent Orange
illnesses; although I have lung disease, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy,
connective-tissue disease, muscle/bone and joint degenerative disease, etc.
VA is still playing games with us, only awarding compensation for its own
limited list of cancers, which is baseless and false. VA continues to
allege that its information on whether or not our illnesses are
"suggestive/limited-suggestive of association" has been determined by
The National Academy of Sciences (NAS) Institute of Medicine (IOM), blah blah
blah, many of which are not necessarily 'cancerous,' but just as deadly such as
Heart disease, Lung disease, Liver disease, Central Nervous system (brain and
spinal cord) crippling illnesses, Testicular Cancer, etc., have not been
determined by IOM to be connected to Agent Orange. This is HOG-WASH, and
they know it. I have reams of research documents which I will be glad to
present or mail to you.
Institute of Medicine (IOM) actually admitted in its 2000 (2001) according to
this excerpt, that (IOM's own words): Given the large uncertainties
that remain about the magnitude of potential risk from exposure to herbicides in the epidemiological studies reviewed (Chapters 7-10), the inadequate
control for other important risk factors in many studies, and uncertainty about
the nature and magnitude of exposure to herbicides in Vietnam (Chapter 5), the
necessary information to undertake a quantitative risk assessment is lacking.
Thus, the committee cannot quantify the degree of risk likely to be experienced by those exposed to
herbicides during service in the Republic of Vietnam during the Vietnam era.
For those outcomes in the "sufficient" and "limited/
suggestive" categories, what can be said is that too little
is known about the herbicide exposure of
veterans to make a meaningful determination
of the increased risk, if any, of these outcomes among Vietnam veterans.
Where there is inadequate/insufficient evidence to determine whether an
association exists between herbicide exposure and a particular health outcome,
there is also inadequate/insufficient information to assess the increased risk,
if any, of that outcome.
IOM is hereby admitting that their multi-year, multi-million dollar 'study' is
worthless; yet, VA continues to deny us our benefits (service-connection)
based on this false/non-existent data. How many of us disabled Veterans
have the resources or the stamina to fight VA, or the manufacturers-crooks,
in Federal Court?
Unfortunately, your report, due to limited time, did not even scratch the tip of
the cruel DEADLY AGENT ORANGE iceberg government fraud against its Warriors.
The gentleman who claims that VA's policy of "Deny, deny, deny - until I
die" is correct. Unfortunately, TIME is not on our side. Our
only hope is that MAYBE, under VA Secretary (General Retired) Eric
Shinseki, himself a Vietnam Veteran, the truth - and JUSTICE - might happen,
before we all waste-away.
I hand-delivered several reams of this information to Veterans Affairs in
Washington DC, also to Congressman Bob Filner and several others on several
occasions, but nothing has changed. I know that Congressman Bob Filner has
tried to help us, but his efforts against this enormous system of bureaucrats,
have failed.
Placido Salazar, USAF Retired Vietnam Veteran (Class of '65), Universal City
TX (210) 658-9756