[gyvel]

It's not only you "blue water boys" who are screwed, all those who were stationed at combat support bases in Thailand (such as myself) are also screwed.

In 2010, an attorney using the FOIA forced the government to admit that Agent Orange was used around all bases in Thailand, but the gov't says that, in order to qualify for compensation, you had to have been a dog handler walking the perimeter.

Now, I lived in an open screen sided "hooch" approximately 100 feet from the perimeter, and worked daily on the flight line which was about 30 feet from the perimeter. In fact, I have photos of racks of 55 gallon drums of the stuff stored right on the flight line, but nobody knew what it was at the time.

I have been afflicted with two of the "presumptive" diseases from AO, and another good friend of mine who was stationed there with me has already been operated on for prostate cancer.

As the normal work shift was 12 hours/day on the flight line, I would say I had my fair share of exposure to AO. Yet the V.A. keeps denying my claim stating that they require "proof" of some kind. I have submitted every kind of proof that I have at my disposal, so I don't really know what they want.

As an incidental, the Wikipedia article about my base states that all personnel were armed: This is not true. We were not allowed to carry any weapons unless you were part of a flight crew actually in the air, or if the base was being threatened with imminent attack. Whoever wrote that article obviously wasn't stationed there. Only the Thais were armed and carried M1 carbines or, in some cases, Siamese Mausers or leftover Jap Type 38 long rifles.