Mark Wheeler is a Vietnam War aircraft carrier sailor. Mark has prostrate cancer. The records indicate that Mark’s ship did not enter the ‘12-mile inclusion zone’ in the offshore waters of Vietnam. He therefore does not qualify for the presumption of exposure to herbicide based on his Vietnam service. And yet, Mark was recently granted “entitlement to service connection for prostate cancer, to include as due to herbicide exposure” by the Board of Veteran Appeals. The “Findings of Fact” in his August 3, 2023 BVA Ruling states: “Resolving all reasonable doubt in the Veteran’s favor, the Veteran has prostate cancer and was exposed to herbicide agents during his service in Vietnam.”

The indication from the ruling is that Mark was given the benefit of the doubt based on evidence he submitted for his claim. That evidence was comprised of several items that are available to all carrier sailors of the Vietnam War.

The two key pieces of evidence submitted by Mark that may have accounted for his successful benefit of the doubt ruling are available on this website as follows:

NEW AND MATERIAL EVIDENCE For all Aircraft Carrier Sailors
for all Herbicide Exposure Disability Claims
April 26, 2022

NEW AND RELEVANT EVIDENCE FOR ALL BLUE WATER NAVY VIETNAM VETERANS
to be used in conjunction with all herbicide-related disability claims
for personnel who served OUTSIDE the “12-mile limit”
February 13, 2023

If you are an aircraft carrier sailor who served within the Vietnam Theater of Combat Operation and are suffering from any of the herbicide-related diseases acknowledged by the VA, use these studies as new and relevant material for any claims you may have already filed or for the initial submission of a disability claim if you have not yet filed. Your time is running out, so act now.