Conditions VA presumes are service connected, by when you served

It is not only Vietnam

If you read "Vietnam era" and counted yourself out, read this again.

The herbicide (Agent Orange) presumption covers service in the Republic of Vietnam, its inland waterways, or within 12 nautical miles of the Vietnam or Cambodia coast, January 9, 1962 – May 7, 1975. Blue Water Navy counts. It also covers:

• Korean DMZ — September 1, 1967 – August 31, 1971
• Thailand, any U.S. or Royal Thai base — January 9, 1962 – June 30, 1976
• Laos — December 1, 1965 – September 30, 1969
• Cambodia, at Mimot or Krek — April 16–30, 1969
• Guam, American Samoa and their territorial waters — January 9, 1962 – July 31, 1980
• Johnston Atoll, or a ship that called there — January 1, 1972 – September 30, 1977
• Certain C-123 aircraft duty

The full herbicide list

• Type 2 diabetes
• High blood pressure (hypertension)
• Ischemic heart disease
• Parkinson's disease AND Parkinsonism — VA lists these separately, so both are covered
• Hypothyroidism
• AL amyloidosis
• Monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS)
• Bladder cancer
• Prostate cancer
• Respiratory cancers — lung, bronchus, larynx, trachea
• All chronic B-cell leukemias, including hairy-cell leukemia and chronic lymphocytic leukemia
• Non-Hodgkin's lymphoma; Hodgkin's disease; multiple myeloma
• Soft-tissue sarcoma, other than osteosarcoma, chondrosarcoma, Kaposi's sarcoma or mesothelioma

Agent Orange benefits can reach your children

• Spina bifida, other than spina bifida occulta, in a child of a herbicide-exposed veteran carries a monthly monetary allowance, VA health care and vocational training (38 U.S.C. 1805; 38 CFR 3.814).
• Children of women who served in Vietnam may qualify for a wider list of covered birth defects (38 U.S.C. 1812; 38 CFR 3.815).

I am not printing a dollar amount, because those rates change. Ask VA for the current rate when you apply: va.gov/disability or 1-800-827-1000.

Burn pit and particulate matter (PACT Act)

This is not a post-9/11 benefit only. Desert Storm veterans are inside it.

You are covered if you served:

• On or after August 2, 1990 in Bahrain, Iraq, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, the United Arab Emirates, or the airspace above them; or
• On or after September 11, 2001 in Afghanistan, Djibouti, Egypt, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria, Uzbekistan, Yemen, the airspace above them, or any other country VA determines is relevant.

The PACT Act list

Illnesses

• Asthma that was diagnosed after service
• Chronic sinusitis · chronic rhinitis · chronic bronchitis
• COPD · emphysema · pulmonary fibrosis
• Constrictive or obliterative bronchiolitis
• Granulomatous disease · interstitial lung disease · pleuritis · sarcoidosis

Cancers

• Brain, including glioblastoma
• Head of any type · neck of any type
• Respiratory of any type · gastrointestinal of any type
• Reproductive of any type — VA also names male breast cancer, urethral cancer and cancer of the paraurethral glands, added back to August 10, 2022
• Kidney · urinary bladder · ureter · pancreatic
• Lymphoma of any type · melanoma

Blood

• Acute leukemias · chronic leukemias
• Multiple myelomas, including MGUS
• Myelodysplastic syndromes · myelofibrosis

Southwest Asia theater — symptoms without a diagnosis

38 CFR 3.317. This is a different rule from the burn pit list, with its own terms.

Covered: undiagnosed illness, medically unexplained chronic multisymptom illness, chronic fatigue syndrome, fibromyalgia, and functional gastrointestinal disorders. You do not need a named diagnosis for the first two — that is the point of this rule.

It requires service on or after August 2, 1990 in the Southwest Asia theater: Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the neutral zone between Iraq and Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, Oman, the Gulf of Aden, the Gulf of Oman, the Persian Gulf, the Arabian Sea, the Red Sea, and the airspace above them.

• Your signs or symptoms must have existed 6 months or more. The 6 months run from the earliest date your evidence shows the symptoms first appeared.
• And the condition must have appeared during that service, or become disabling to at least 10 percent, no later than December 31, 2026 — the deadline at the top of this page.

Nine diseases, and Afghanistan counts here

Brucellosis · Campylobacter jejuni · Q fever · malaria · Mycobacterium tuberculosis · nontyphoid Salmonella · Shigella · visceral leishmaniasis · West Nile virus.

These cover the same Southwest Asia theater or service in Afghanistan on or after September 19, 2001.

Presumptions that do not care where you served

• ALS (Lou Gehrig's disease) is presumptive for any veteran with 90 or more days of continuous active service. No era, no location, no exposure, and no time limit after discharge (38 CFR 3.318). It rates 100 percent.
• Chronic diseases that reached 10 percent within one year of separation are presumed service connected regardless of where or when you served — including high blood pressure, arthritis, diabetes mellitus, psychoses, organic neurological disorders and cardiovascular-renal disease. Three years for tuberculosis and Hansen's disease. Seven years for multiple sclerosis (38 CFR 3.307(a)(3) and 3.309(a)).
• Camp Lejeune contaminated water — August 1953 through December 1987.
• Radiation-exposed and atomic veterans.
• Former prisoners of war.

You can still win

A condition that is not presumptive can still be service connected with direct evidence linking it to your service or your exposure — your records, a doctor's opinion tying it to what you were exposed to, statements from people who served with you. VA's own Agent Orange page says a veteran may qualify with evidence linking another condition to exposure.

File the claim

Recognizing your diagnosis on this page changes nothing by itself.

An old denial is not the end

If VA denied you for one of these conditions before it became presumptive, file a Supplemental Claim on VA Form 20-0995. A Supplemental Claim has no deadline.

• Vietnam veterans denied years ago for high blood pressure or bladder cancer.
• Gulf War veterans denied for COPD, sinusitis or rhinitis.
• Anyone denied for a condition VA added to a list after your denial.

The law changed after your denial. Your claim may be winnable now on the same facts.

Who helps, and what anyone may charge

• An accredited VSO representative will help you with these claims at no cost. Free is free.
• An accredited attorney or claims agent may charge a fee, but only after VA's initial decision — never for filing the first claim. Up to 20 percent of past-due benefits is presumed reasonable (38 CFR 14.636).

Anyone asking you for money to file your first claim is not doing you a favor.

Health care and the toxic exposure screening

The PACT Act did more than expand the lists. It opened VA health care eligibility to toxic-exposed veterans and created a periodic toxic exposure screening.