By Rick Johnson

Rowan County Veteran Services Officer

WASHINGTON – The Department of Veterans Affairs recently published a new regulation that expands benefits eligibility for a select group of Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who were exposed to the herbicide Agent Orange through regular and repeated contact with contaminated C-123 aircraft used in Vietnam as part of Operation Ranch Hand (ORH).

Veterans Affairs published the regulation as an interim final rule to immediately begin providing benefits to eligible Air Force veterans and Air Force reserve personnel who submit a disability compensation claim for any of the 14 medical conditions determined to be related to exposure to Agent Orange.

Secretary of Veterans Affairs Robert McDonald made the decision to expand benefits following receipt of a 2015 report by the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine on Post-Vietnam dioxin exposure in contaminated C-123 Aircraft. The report found evidence as many as 1,500 to 2,100 Air Force and Air Force reserve personnel who served as flight, medical and ground maintenance crew members on ORH C-123 aircraft previously used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam were exposed to the herbicide.

“Opening up eligibility for this deserving group of Air Force veterans and reservists is the right thing to do,” McDonald said. “We thank the (Institute of Medicine) for its thorough review that provided the supporting evidence needed to ensure we can now fully compensate any former crew member who develops an Agent Orange related disability.”

Under the new rule, Air Force and Air Force reserve flight, medical and ground maintenance crewmembers who served on the contaminated ORH C-123s are presumed to have been exposed to herbicides during their service. That makes it easier for the service members to establish entitlement for some benefits if they develop an Agent Orange-related presumptive condition.

For affected Air Force Reserve crew members, Veterans Affairs will presume the Agent Orange related condition had its onset during their Reserve training. The change ensures reservists are eligible for VA disability compensation and medical care for any Agent Orange related condition, and that their surviving dependents are eligible for dependency and indemnity compensation and burial benefits.

The interim final rule can be found on the Federal Register: www.federalregister.gov/public-inspection. Veterans Affairs will immediately begin processing claims and issuing benefits to eligible Air Force crew members.

Veterans Affairs encourages reservists who were assigned to flight, ground, or medical crew duties at Lockbourne/Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Ohio, which includes the 906th  and 907th Tactical Air Groups or 355th and 356th Tactical Airlift squadrons; Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts, which includes the 731st Tactical Air Squadron and 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron; or Pittsburgh, Penn., International Airport, which includes the 758th Airlift Squadron, during the period 1969 to 1986, and developed an Agent Orange-related disability to file a disability compensation claim online through the joint VA-Department of Defense web portal, eBenefits (https://www.ebenefits.va.gov/) or your local Veteran Service Officer.
VA also has identified several active duty locations where ORH C-123 aircraft may have been used following their service in Vietnam. Active duty personnel who served in a regular USAF unit location where a contaminated C-123 was assigned and who had regular and repeated contact with the aircraft through flight, ground or medical duties during the period 1969 to 1986, and who develop an Agent Orange-related disability, also are encouraged to apply for benefits.

For more information on applying for these benefits, including the affected units, Air Force Specialty Codes and dates of service for affected crew members, and a listing of Agent Orange-related conditions, visit www.benefits.va.gov/compensation/agentorange-c123.asp.

In order to avoid unnecessary delay of benefits, claimants should annotate “C-123” after each Agent Orange related disability in Part II, Block 14 of VA Form 21-526 or Section I, Block 11 of VA Form VA Form 21-526EZ when filing on eBenefits. An example is: Diabetes (C-123). If claimants have any of the following documents, they should be attached to their application:

• Discharge, separation papers,  (DD214 or equivalent)
• USAF Form 2096 (unit where assigned at the time of the training action)
• USAF Form 5 (aircraft flight duties)
• USAF Form 781 (aircraft maintenance duties)
• Dependency records (marriage & children’s birth certificates)
• Medical evidence (doctor & hospital reports)

VA will process all claims related to C-123 exposure at the St. Paul, Minnesota, VA Regional Office.  Claims not filed through eBenefits should be mailed to the following address or faxed to 608-373-6694:

Department of Veterans Affairs
Claims Intake Center
Attention: C123 Claims
PO Box 5088
Janesville, WI 53547-5088