My Brother, I am sorry to hear of your prognosis. I was struck with prostate cancer back in 2004, just lucky my doctor noticed a change and sent me in for a biopsy...scored a 9 on the Gleason Scale. Very virulent and would have taken me out with-in a year or so. I had it radically removed by an excellent surgeon and healed up, etc. A little over a year ago I ran into an old buddy at a restaurant, he told me that he had heard I had prostate cancer and then said that he remembered I had been in Nam about the same time he was, 70-71. I then went on to tell me about the agent orange thing and that all of us with boots on the ground were supposidly candidates for all kinds of maladies...one of which is prostate cancer. He then went on to tell me about filing the claim, etc. I've always had a real negative attitude about many guys claiming this and that and getting paid in the process, many of whom seemed like bums to me...unable to work but able to drink and smoke with the rest.
To make a long story shorter, another buddy of mine told me about the American Legion, gave me a number. I called them, set up an appointment and I believe within 2 months received a 60% disability rating. I can't thank those folks at the AL enough and will probably volunteer my services in the near future. The one thing I will say in terms of advise is that you can't have enough documentation from your attending physician (the guy that did/does your prostatectomy, as well as the guy that found and sent you forward. I had everything from the beginning to the end, including a number of follow-up years. Went very smoothly and through it all they were very supporitive and in fact encouraged me to push forward because for every guy like us that actually "deserves" compensation there are a couple just looking for a free ride.
Another factor that played in my favor was that there is no known occurance of prostate cancer in my family, on either side, that and the fact that I was only 53 when diagnosed led my doctor to believe that an outside influence could definitely have a bearing, he also encouraged me to go forward with the claim. I wasn't a ground pounder in the bush but served aboard an Army LCU hauling cargo, ammo, etc. up and down the coast as well as up rivers.
They are currently working on trying to get Navy guys like a good friend of mine that did roughly the same thing I did covered, also some of the "bluewater" guys were actually hauling drums of the stuff.
There is a list of about 13 maladies covered under the agent orange umbrella.
If you have any further questions you can email me at
[email protected]
Best of luck...Dick
