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Old Mon Apr 5, 2010, 04:22 PM
Bob Macfarlane Bob Macfarlane is offline
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Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: Soutwest Ranches, Florida
Posts: 126
VA Washington, DC

Good morning folks,

I just received a call from the young man, Mitch, carrying my case in the office of my United States Senator the Honorable George Lemieux.

Mitch told me he has represented veterans with VA problems for five years. What happened this morning he has never seen before. The Acting Under Secretary for Benefits has instructed my regional office, Saint Petersburg, to forward all of my medical records and claims paper work directly to his office.

Of course, never lose sight of the fact that his answer will be YES or NO. If yes, he could decide that our disease should be presumptive for all Vietnam veterans. Should that happen, all of the credit will go to Dr. Timothy Aliff, my private oncologist and Drs. Judith Karp (John Hopkins), David Steensma (Harvard Medical) and Mikkael Sekeres (Cleveland Clinic). I emailed every hematologist I could locate and these last three doctors are the only ones that bothered to respond. And did they ever respond.

The afore mentioned doctors are the ones that took the time to look at my records and write letters of support. Allow me to add that not a single one of them would accept compensation for their work.

We also owe our gratitude to those in the VA in Washington. It would seem that after all of these years they are beginning to further address what was done to us in Vietnam. Agent Orange has done horrible things to our bodies. They need to change their system though. A veteran should not have to reprove the relationship of their disease to Agent Orange once another veteran has proven it.

In diseases where it is so clear cut (AA/MDS/AML/CML/CMML and others) that it was caused by Agent Orange, we should only have to prove the relationship once. The BVA should stop using the phrase "giving the benefit of doubt" in their decisions.

If they decide NO, I will ask for a hearing before the Veterans Affairs committees in both the House and Senate. I will do likewise if they decide in my favor but my favor only. If NO, I also have the route of going before the Court of Veterans Appeals.

Those of you with the diseases, stay strong, pray and keep the faith. Tenacity is the only way we will win this battle. While it at times seems like we are tilting at windmills, windmills have been known to fall down.


***************

You all knew that some things are worth dying for. One's country is worth dying for, and democracy is worth dying for, because it's the most deeply honorable form of government ever devised by man.
--Ronald Reagan, at the 40th anniversary of the D-Day invasion at Normandy, France

May God always bless America in all ways and may God protect our warriors, "We will not waver, we will not tire, we will not falter, and we will not fail. Peace and freedom will prevail." George W. Bush, 2001

I aver that I have no expectation of privacy with respect to any communications I might have with suspected or known al Qaeda members or persons linked to al Qaeda or related terrorist organizations. Indeed, I'd like to meet the person who would pretend to be victimized by an interception of a call he had with al Qaeda.

Bob Macfarlane
Disabled Vietnam veteran and proud to have been allowed to serve this great nation...
In the service of a Jewish carpenter -- a relationship, not a religion
John 14:6 / Mathew 10:32-33
The tomb is empty because HE is risen
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