To: Rep. Tom Marino (PA-12), Sen. Robert Casey (PA-1), and Sen. Patrick Toomey (PA-2)
Equal Treatment of Vietnam ERA Veterans Exposed to Herbicides
We the undersigned petition the US Senate, US Congress and the President of the United States to enact legislation that makes ALL veterans have equal presumption of exposure to Dioxins while in the service of the United States at any location or unit. We feel that ALL veterans MUST be treated equally with respect to Dioxin exposure by the US government and Department of Veterans Affairs. NOTE: Veterans must also still prove they have a recognized condition that maybe caused by Dioxin exposure during or after service to get DVA benefits. Currently only veterans of the Vietnam Conflict are afforded this in a limited presumption, “Boots on Ground” legislation, if they were in the Republic of Vietnam (Served in the Republic of Vietnam between 1/9/62 and 5/7/75) per the Department of Veterans Affairs. In fact any current end date for any location would be invalid as Dioxins stay active for much longer than the time since the 1962 admitted RVN Agent Orange / Dioxin start date, current end date is the end date for RVN service, per the DVA.
Why is this important?
I have been personally affected by this exposure, I have appealed my denial ever since filing my claim in 1977. My last denial in 2013 was a result of 22 years of appeals only to have Judge Kathy Bansfield call me and the buddies who signed my affadavits incompetent. It is recognized the DOD gave orders to use herbicides containing dioxin in the areas I was deployed in Okinawa, Japan, and on the DMZ in Guantánamo bay. My children and grand children born with birth defects like the children and grand children of my peers who reported the same birth defects as my children have been diagnosed with. It is time the federal government do the right thing and stop this discrimination My physicians at the V.A. hospital know that dioxin never leaves the blood system, and that if anyone was severely exposed, they told me it was I.