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Well, they’re not exactly new vessels, just new on the list of ships whose crews might have been exposed to the defoliant Agent Orange. The VA has a database of over 200 ships in service from 1962 to 1975 where exposure was possible. Note that the database includes not just Navy but Coast Guard ships too. If you served on one of these 47 “blue water” ships or any of the ones in the database, you might be eligible for disability compensation.

You got a favorite comedian?  Somebody who always makes you laugh?  Then you know how important timing is.  Ask any really good comic and they’ll tell you timing is everything. Same thing applies to getting some of your VA benefits.  The biggies, medical, disability compensation and disability pension, you don’t have to worry about.  But others do have time windows before they expire.

OK.  Not that hard.  But if it’s something you’ve looked forward to it’s easy to get ahead of yourself and take shortcuts you might regret later.

Like what?  Oh, like that physical and psychological exam the military wants to do.  You don’t want to take the time.  What you want is to speed things up.

Bad decision.  Here’s why:

No matter where you are at this time of year, whether it’s Kansas or Kabul, it seems like that old memory train just keeps pulling into the station.  Sometimes good memories, sometimes ones you’d just as soon forget. So I wanted you to hear, and hear it from me, that you’re not the only one out there experiencing this. Happens to all of us.