Vets Helping Vets

Combat Veterans Motorcycle Association
(click on link above to visit the National site)

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Vets Helping Vets

Chapter 23-1 Business Owners

Fred Buck -
Graphic Partners of Texas
website: www.GraphicPartnersTx.com
email: info@GraphicPartnersTx.com
Robuck Energy
website: www.robuckenergy.com
email: fred@robuckenergy.com

Stacy Burdette -
Tex-Spections Property Inspection Services
website: www.tex-spections.com
email: stacy@tex-spections.com

Below you will find links that will help with benefits, services and to help other Vets.

US Department of Veterans Affairs

Disabled American Veterans

Fisher House

North Texas Patriot Guard Riders

Snowball Express

Iraq Star

Veteran Falls

Gulf War Syndrome Treatment info

The Kitchen Table Gang Trust

VA Mortgage Loans

Texas Lawyers for Texas Veterans

Recent VA News Releases

To view and download VA news releases, please visit the following
Internet address:

http://www.va.gov/opa/pressrel

VA Begins Paying Benefits for New Agent Orange Claims

VA Encourages Affected Vietnam Veterans to File Claims

WASHINGTON - The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) has begun
distributing disability benefits to Vietnam Veterans who qualify for
compensation under recently liberalized rules for Agent Orange exposure.

"The joint efforts of Congress and VA demonstrate a commitment to
provide Vietnam Veterans with treatment and compensation for the
long-term health effects of herbicide exposure," said Secretary of
Veterans Affairs Eric K. Shinseki.

Up to 200,000 Vietnam Veterans are potentially eligible to receive VA
disability compensation for medical conditions recently associated with
Agent Orange. The expansion of coverage involves B-cell (or hairy-cell)
leukemia, Parkinson's disease and ischemic heart disease.

Shinseki said VA has launched a variety of initiatives - both
technological and involving better business practices - to tackle an
anticipated upsurge in Agent Orange-related claims.

"These initiatives show VA's ongoing resolve to modernize its processes
for handling claims through automation and improvements in doing
business, providing Veterans with faster and more accurate decisions on
their applications for benefits," Shinseki said.

Providing initial payments - or increases to existing payments - to the
200,000 Veterans who now qualify for disability compensation for these
three conditions is expected to take several months, but VA officials
encourage all Vietnam Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange and
suffer from one of the three diseases to make sure their applications
have been submitted.

VA has offered Veterans exposed to Agent Orange special access to health
care since 1978, and priority medical care since 1981. VA has been
providing disability compensation to Veterans with medical problems
related to Agent Orange since 1985.

In practical terms, Veterans who served in Vietnam during the war and
who have a "presumed" illness do not have to prove an association
between their illnesses and their military service. This "presumption"
simplifies and speeds up the application process for benefits.

The three new illnesses - B-cell (or hairy-cell) leukemia, Parkinson's
disease and ischemic heart disease - are added to the list of presumed
illnesses previously recognized by VA.

Other recognized illnesses under VA's "presumption" rule for Agent
Orange are:

* Acute and Subacute Transient Peripheral Neuropathy
* Chloracne
* Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia
* Diabetes Mellitus (Type 2)
* Hodgkin's Disease
* Multiple Myeloma
* Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma
* Porphyria Cutanea Tarda
* Prostate Cancer
* Respiratory Cancers
* Soft Tissue Sarcoma (other than Osteosarcoma, Chondrosarcoma,
Kaposi's sarcoma, or Mesothelioma)
* AL Amyloidosis

Veterans interested in applying for disability compensation under one of
the three new Agent Orange presumptives should go to
www.fasttrack.va.gov <http://www.fasttrack.va.gov/> or call
1-800-827-1000.

Veteran Resource Suggestion

My name is Colin Hare and I'm the Veteran Liason for the Mesothelioma Center (Asbestos.com); an organization devoted to assisting veterans through their application processes for VA benefits, and helping them obtain the maximum benefits for which they are entitled. While I was browsing through a number of Veterans sites I came across your website and was very impressed by the information you have listed.

Countless veterans are currently suffering from life-threatening illnesses that are a result of exposure to asbestos, a material that was commonly used in hundreds of military applications, products, and ships because of its resistance to fire.

The Mesothelioma Center provides a complete list of occupations, ships, and shipyards that could have put our Veterans at risk for developing asbestos-related diseases. In addition, we have thousands of articles regarding asbestos and mesothelioma and we've even created a veterans-specific section on our website in order to help inform about the dangers of asbestos exposure.

Because so many veterans visit your site, I thought that you may be interested in posting our link to help educate veterans on the dangers of asbestos exposure by linking to our website from your page at cvma23-1.org. Please let me know. You can reach me at chare(@)asbestos.com or at 407-965-5755. Thanks again.

Best Regards,
Colin Hare
Mesothelioma Center

National Hotline for Homeless Vets
Among many programs, VA has also created a national hotline for homeless
Veterans - 1-877-424-3838 -which is staffed around the clock, seven days
a week. Responders can help callers find food, shelter, clothing and
other assistance for homeless Veterans.