Agent Orange & Blue Water Navy Veterans
Blue Water Navy Veterans are now entitled to a presumption of service connection for conditions related to Agent Orange exposure. This extension of the presumption is a result of Public Law 116-23, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019, signed into law on June 25, 2019. The law takes effect January 1, 2020.
The law states that Veterans aboard a vessel operating not mopre than 12 nautical miles seaward fro the demarcation line of the waters of Vietnam and Cambodia as defined in Public Law 116-23, between January 9, 1962, and May 7, 1975, are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides such as Agent Orange and may be entitled to service connection for conditions related to that exposure.
To be entitled to disability compensation benefits, these Veterans must have one or more of the conditions associated with Agent Orange exposure that are listed in 38 Code of Federal Regulations-section 3.309(e).
Agent Orange presumptive condition are:
- AL amyloidosis
- Chloracne, or other acneform disease consistent with chloracne
- Chronic B-cell leukemias
- Diabetes mellitus, Type 2
- lschemic heart disease
- Hodgkin lymphoma, formerly known as Hodgkin’s disease
- Non-Hodgkin myloma
- Parkinson’s disease
- Peripheral neuropathy, early-on-set
- Porphyria cutanea tarda
- Prostate cancer
- Respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx or trachea)
- Soft-tissue sarcoma (other than osteosar-coma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi’s sarcoma, or mesothelioma
Get additional information on disability compensation for Agent Orange.
For Louisiana Blue Navy Veterans: Go to your local parish Veteran Affairs Counselor. Veterans Corner advice is to have a one-on-one, that way you can ask all your questions.