Agent Orange - PSA for Vietnam vets, widows or descendants

[Moiraine]

So, my mom inadvertently found out this week that she is eligible for compensation from the government due to my dad dying of a disease on the agent orange list and his having been exposed to agent orange in Vietnam. There is no proof requirement other than showing your disease is on the list and you were stationed near where they were spraying.

 

I just wanted to post this because the Agent Orange Act was created in 1991 and we didn’t know about it until now. So there must be a lot of others who don’t know. If we had known about it, I believe everyone in my family could have been getting compensated until age 18, and widows can get compensated for life (up to ~$16,000 per year). And there are going to be vets younger than my dad would be who might have one of the diseases and they can get this compensation. He got sick when he was in his 30s but a lot of these diseases don’t show up until a lot later.

 

Now that said, I’m not really upset about it because I don’t think he died because of Agent Orange. He smoked unil 8 years before he died and his parents smoked a lot in the house. I definitely would have bought a super nintendo and all of the games if I had been getting this though. Actually I think this was PS1 era. 

 

Anyhow, I do think, although they created the Act, they didn’t want to advertise its existence. I googled it and there are articles about how a lot of vets don’t know it exists or don’t know they’re eligible.