VA to Drop Fight Against Blue Water Navy Veterans

https://www.military.com/daily-news/2019/03/26/va-drop-fight-against-blue-water-navy-veterans.html

VA to Drop Fight Against Blue Water Navy Veterans

26 Mar 2019

Military.com | By Patricia Kime

The Department of Veterans Affairs will not appeal a January court ruling that ordered it to provide health care and disability benefits for 90,000 veterans who served on Navy ships during the Vietnam War, likely paving the way for "Blue Water Navy" sailors and Marines to receive Agent Orange-related compensation and VA-paid health care benefits.

VA Secretary Robert Wilkie told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday that he will recommend the Justice Department not fight the decision, handing a victory to ill former service members who fought for years to have their diseases recognized as related to exposure to the herbicide Agent Orange.
(snip)

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit in January ruled that a Vietnam veteran, 73-year-old Alfred Procopio, and other Blue Water Navy veterans qualified for benefits currently given to service members stationed on the ground in Vietnam or who served on inland waterways and have diseases associated with Agent Orange.

Procopio, who served on the aircraft carrier Intrepid, suffers from prostate cancer and diabetes, illnesses presumed to be related to exposure to the toxic herbicide.
(snip)

Wilkie told members of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee during a hearing on the VA's fiscal 2019 budget that the department already has started serving 51,000 Blue Water Navy veterans.

He cautioned, however, that while he is recommending the Justice Department drop the case, he "didn't know what other agencies would do."
(snip)