Proving You Are a Brown Water Naval Veteran
Vietnam naval veterans, who operated in brown (shallow) waters, may qualify for service connection due to herbicide exposure.
In order to prove exposure as a naval veteran, you must:
- Provide documentation of your location during relevant military service;
- Identify your ship; and
- Obtain evidence of the ship’s location in Vietnam waters
To qualify for benefits, veterans should provide documentation, which may include one or many of the following sources:
- A veteran’s copies of the ship logs or command history;
- Documentation on an official military site concerning the ship on which he or she served during the relevant time frame;
- The veteran’s “201” military service file, which VA or the veteran should request from the National Personnel Records Center;
- A“PIES” request to VA staff at the National Personnel Records Center;
- Documentation on the C and P Web site
- The Dictionary of American Fighting Ship Index on the Navy history site. https://www.history.navy.mil/danfs/index.
- National Archive “CONGA”;
- Deck logs from the Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC) and/or
- Documents such as cruise books and photographs found on the Internet at individual ship and organization sites
For more information regarding VA Disability Benefits for Naval Veterans exposed to Agen Orange, please visit our website at disabilitydenials.com.
