If you have been identified as a crew member for any of the ships now designated as having served on the Inland Waters of Vietnam:
- You are are eligible to be granted service-connection for all the diseases listed by the DVA as being caused by exposure to herbicides while within the boundaries of Vietnam by way of service on inland waters.
- If you are now granted presumptive exposure by being on a ship found to have served on inland waters, file a claim with your local Regional Office if you now have any of the diseases on the DVA's list.
- DVA List of Presumptive Diseases Associated with Agent Orange
- If you have filed for an Agent Orange condition previously, and have been denied, file to re-open that claim at your Regional Office based on "new and material evidence," which is the new granting of presumption of exposure to you for having served on Inland Waters
- If you are waiting on an appeal for a claim of an Agent Orange disease, and the claim is in the queue at the Board of Appeals, file a claim giving "new and material evidence" through your Regional Office.
- If you have been denied for an herbicide-related disease, and you are now awarded compensation for that herbicide-related disease based on the list of ships that served in Inland Waters, you will be paid back to the date of your first claim per the Nehmer Ruling.
- If you have any documentation showing that any other ship not listed was on the inland waters of Vietnam, or if any additional dates for inland waters service applies to any of the ships already listed, please forward that information to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org.
- If you were on a ship that docked in Vietnam and was tied fast to a pier, and there is proof that liberty was granted to the crew, and you went ashore, that ship should appear on this list. Submit a claim for service connection along with a sworn statement that you in fact did step ashore. You will be given presumption of exposure. If that ship is not listed, please provide the documentation to navy(at)bluewaternavy.org so it can be added to the list.
- If you were on a ship that anchored in a port, bay or harbor and there is documentation that liberty was sounded for the crew, and there is documentation that ship-to-shore launches were used to ferry personnel on liberty to and from the beach, that documentation should be accepted as proof of your boots-on-ground. That ship should appear on this list. Provide a sworn statement that you actually took the liberty launch to the shore of Vietnam. If that is not listed, provide the necessary documentation so that ship can be added to this list