New VA Collaboration Helps Blue Water Veterans Claims Process


The Department of Veterans Affairs has collaborated with the National Archives and Records Administration to help document ship locations and digitize more than 1,800 Vietnam-era Blue Water Navy ships logs.

According to an article published by Connecting Vets, “The data contained in these ships’ deck logs is critical in determining qualifying ship locations in accordance with the law. For the first time, VA will have each of the ships mapped with precision, providing a comprehensive view of their locations. The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veteran Act of 2019 gave VA the opportunity to consider new and previously submitted Blue Water Navy claims. The legislation was one step in a decades-long fight to guarantee the same benefits to nearly 90,000 Navy veterans who served in the waters offshore of Vietnam that their land and brown-water comrades were already entitled to after potentially being exposed to Agent Orange.”

Relevant pages: Veterans Disability