SwiftVets.com

[Dingbat]

Woke up at 0200 with a statling revelation: Skerry really is a certifiable Disabled Vet in the eyes of the VA yet, to my knowledge, he has never mentioned it. This could be because he doesn't know about the VA ruling (unlikely since he has a record of knowing about the most obscure rules that he can use for his own hide...e,g, 3 PH's and it is a ride home) or that calling attention to it could, ahem , go against his Manly Man Campaign.

No way he is disabled, you say? Not so. 1. He has been diagnosed with and treated for prostate cancer. 2. He did show up in Viet Nam (albeit for a brief time.)

From the VA Website:

"VA presumes that all military personnel who served in Vietnam were exposed to Agent Orange, and federal law presumes that certain illnesses are a result of that exposure. This so-called "presumptive policy" simplifies the process of receiving compensation for these diseases since VA foregoes the normal requirements of proving that an illness began or was worsened during military service.

Based on clinical research, the following diseases are on VA's Agent Orange list of presumptive disabilities: chloracne, Hodgkin's disease, multiple myeloma, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, porphyria cutanea tarda, respiratory cancers (lung, bronchus, larynx and trachea), soft-tissue sarcoma, acute and subacute peripheral neuropathy and prostate cancer. A regulation is being developed to add diabetes mellitus.
…
To file a compensation claim for a current disability related to Agent Orange, veterans can call 1-800-827-1000 for an application form or visit VA's Web site at:http://vabenefits.vba.va.gov."

Seems unusual that he would not drone on forever about being a disabled Vet until you realize that the implications of having been treated for Prostate Cancer go against the Manly thing ! But then he could get a job doing Viagra commercials showing him goose hunting or wind surfing!

Now for the serious part of this post: Guys over about 40...get your PSA checked yearly!!! It is a simple blood test that is a good indicator of the presence of prostate cancer. This is one of those thing that is curable if you catch it early. And, you can have no other signs! I had none and had a low PSA # but the # had gone up from earlier years and my great (female) Doc was alarmed and sent me to Walter Reed where the Doc there (a Female Captain) confirmed it and I was treated successfully (I hope) by the same COL Doc that did GEN's Schwartzkoff and Powell. Guys, I've always been a wuss about this...for me to let 2 female Docs do all this is testimony that anyone can get over it (plus the ladies have smaller fingers! GET YOUR PSA CHECKED and be thankfull that we haven't had to listen to Skerry drone on about being a disabled Vet ... but we still have 24 hours to go so it isn't too late I guess. Steve
_________________
Kerry...Hanoi Jane...Murtha: same-same

1/101st ABN Song Be 3/82d ABN Phu Bai.

[Fantasy Dream Dancer]

[Hondo]

Let's be deadly serious for a moment.

Folks: if you are male and over 50, get your PSA tested regularly. If you have a family history that puts you at risk, start earlier.

If you're female, nag the $#!t out of your male relatives/friends/partners to get tested. They may get pissed at you. They may also literally end up owing you their lives.

I've watched my father and both of his brothers take the long, slow exit due to prostate cancer. It wasn't pretty. It made me realize - up close and personal - that there is indeed a serious difference between life and existence, and that there are indeed times when death is a mercy.

Guys, see your doctor. Get checked - now.
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"War is an ugly thing, but not the ugliest of things: the decayed and degraded state of moral and patriotic feeling which thinks nothing worth a war, is worse."
-- John Stuart Mill

[Rurik]

Not to dispute the facts of your post, but it is another example of the VA with its head "in the prostate exam place". Quite political.
My father was a career VA urologist, and was the organizer and head of the VA research group which did all the fundamental work on prostatic cancer, classifcation of stages, treatments,etc. Hearing htat CA fo the Prostate has been connected to Agent Orange has him spinning in the grave. In fact, he thought the whole Agent Orange thing was a bit of paranoia cooked up to spook vets and make the envirowacks happy.
I believe that Michael Fumento did a debunking piece on AO some years ago.
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Hating John Kerry continuously since 1971.

Essayons!
Fight Build and Destroy

[Dingbat]

[Digger]

sKerrys only disabilities are mental. He was that way long before he ever went to VN. I know something about the crowd he hangs with . I've been variously employed by some of them as an estate grounds keeper. All you have to do is hang around them for a while and you begin to go goofy
with trivia. UFOs, ALIENS, wierd scientific notions about nature and how to exploit people. YYAAAGHHH!!! It gives me the willies to even think about it
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Hey swifty, I'm with you, Just watch you don't get "Kerry'd away in the propwash

Sgt. Maj. Seamus D.D. MacNemi R.M.C. Ret.

[Rurik]

[I B Squidly]

Burkett's "Stolen Valor" spent a chapter or two debunking 'Agent Orange'.
Named for the color stripe on the canister (as opposed to purple, red, brown,etc) he describes how newbies on the air crews that dispersed the stuff (and regularly bathed in the resultant aeresol) had to drink it (something like that chicken abortion [eggs with legs] that was a delicacy for for drunk philipinos but a terror for chief initiations). A follow up of the air crews showed no delitorious effect.

[Guest]