VA Benefits for Camp Lejeune Family Members?
If you ever hear someone tell you they know everything about the VA, you can grab your hat and head for the door. The VA is the second largest federal agency, soon to surpass the size of the DoD. There are literally hundreds of benefit programs available. Programs range from disability compensation, education benefits, to home loans. Are they all limited to Veterans? What about Camp Lejeune family members? One thing I love about this job is the number of niche areas within an already niche area of law. The Camp Lejeune Family Member Program is one of those. One I had no idea about.
Over twenty-five years ago, Senator Thomas Daschle of South Dakota took to the floor of the Senate to make an impassioned argument for extending benefits to the children of veterans, because their disabilities were (and are) an unintended and unexpected consequence of war in the modern age¹. Likewise, Senator John D. Rockefeller, IV, noted that “[w]ar is changing…We are getting into the century of toxins, of chemicals, We do not have the big Russian bear anymore. We have the little horrendous dictators . . . . They build their little bombs, and their little bombs are not filled with explosives, they are filled with chemicals and toxins that will destroy peoples’ nervous systems. He called the environmental exposures our forces face today as the “toxic hazards of war²”. At home, our forces, and their families, still face the hazards of war. Less than a decade after the end of the Vietnam War, contaminants were found in the water supply at Camp Lejeune³. Additional investigations revealed that the contamination spanned from the 1950s until the mid-1980s⁴. With the literal thousands of people who worked, lived, and were stationed at Camp Lejeune, Congress was faced with the need to care for not just Marines and Sailors who fell ill over the contamination, but also family members.
In June of 2023, Sarah called me frantically around a week and a half before her Board hearing. She was a referral from a client, so I wanted to hear her out. When she told me she wasn’t actually a Veteran, I was a little puzzled. I told her I had never heard of a non-Veteran being able to file a VA claim, except in DIC cases. She insisted that she could, told me her docket number, and told me to Google the Camp Lejeune Family Member Program. I told her, still skeptical, that I would, and for her to send me any paperwork she had on hear appeal. To my pleasant surprise, certain family members who lived at Camp Lejeune qualify for medical cost reimbursement of certain medical conditions. Sarah was squarely within this category. This is why I say never say you know everything about the VA. There is always some program you have never heard about. One that is a real program and can do some real good to those in need.
Sarah was born in 1980. Her family comes from a long line of decorated Veterans. In July of 1982, Sarah’s family moved inside the gates of Camp Lejeune. Specifically, they moved into an area known as Paradise Point, an area of Camp Lejeune now known to be one of the most toxic areas. Her father, as he testified to, ironically, wanted his family inside the gates of Camp Lejeune to keep them safe during an upcoming deployment. How awful the irony.
Despite my hesitations, Sarah talked me into helping her. She was desperate. I knew her chances of finding someone in a week’s time were slim. I figured at least being onboard would do more harm than good. We still had a small problem to work through. Sarah had opted for an in-person Board hearing. That’s right, an in the flesh hearing before a Veterans’ Law Judge—face to face, at the VA Central Office. There was no way I could make a trip to DC on a week’s notice, I had…well life to deal with. Sarah already had her plane ticked and was set to fly clear across the Country to plead her case, face to face. That is when I contacted the Central Office hearing coordinator, Thomas. Thomas, now retired, is a born and raised southern gentleman in another life. He may have worked and lived in the greater DC area, but he was country to the bone. He lived on a farm away from the hustle and bustle of DC politics, but came into the city every day helping the Board schedule and conduct hearings.
Thomas was fast to respond to me. He agreed to tie me in virtually while Sarah and her father appeared in-person. All systems were a go. However, Thomas told me to check with Sarah and let her know that we could all be virtual, and that she could spare the expense of traveling across the County. I told him that sounded dandy to me and I would loop back with him. Sarah promptly informed me that come hearing day, she would be seeing the Judge, face to face. By now, she had waited years for a hearing. I relayed the response to Thomas. He said he understood. A few days before the hearing, Thomas pinged me again, offering for everyone to attend virtual. I said let me check again and see. This time, Sarah made it clear. I went back to Thomas, and told him hell or high water, Sarah would be seeing him and the Judge, face to face, come hearing day.
Come hearing day, we drew a female Judge. Which, in my opinion, was helpful in this case. Contrary to what some pretend to believe, there are differences between genders. Having a female Judge, to me, made it easier to understand the issue in this case. Speaking of which, what even was the issue? When Congress passed the Honoring America’s Veterans and Caring for Camp Lejeune Families Act of 2012, it added in a list of conditions the Government would reimburse medical costs for, provided that the person met the basic eligibility requirements. In Sarah’s case, it was undisputed she lived at Camp Lejeune during a time period covered under the law. It was also undisputed that she had a “diagnosis of female infertility”, and had spent hundreds of thousands of dollars out of her own pocket to start a family. She met that basic eligibility criteria. Where her and the VA parted ways was whether or not her infertility (the technical diagnosis was endometriosis) was related to her time at Camp Lejeune.
The VA, in denying her claim, explained that because she was diagnosed with infertility after living at Camp Lejeune, there is no way it could be related to her time there. During the hearing, I pointed out the obvious. Sarah lived here as a child. How would anyone have known she would have difficulty conceiving? VA logic at its finest.
Thankfully, the Judge figured out things pretty quickly. Sarah testified that she didn’t have a family history of infertility, that she stayed away from the bottle, didn’t smoke, and fast foods in hopes of having another child. In her mind, there wasn’t anything that could account for her condition, other than her time at Camp Lejeune. One thing I always love about hearings is the opportunity to humanize the VA process. The VA is so often nameless, faceless, and it can seem impossible to reach someone with the ability to help you. A Board hearing is a rare opportunity to tell your side, to humanize things. The results are moments like this:
“Ma’am, there is no way that we or [Sarah] could have or would have known about the damage being done to her as her internal organs were growing inside of her when she was two and three years old. It is tragically ironic that I moved my family onto the base to increase their safety and that that decision during these critical years of my daughter’s development, which cause such medical disabilities that have inflicted her for the rest of her life.
The second irony is that I have spent my entire adult life — the last 53 years since I was 17 years old — working to improve the lives of others in scores of countries around the world. I’ve had a very unusual career. Counterinsurgency will do that. You get involved with farming and helping families survive and security and clinics — schools with textbooks and safety for their teachers in all sorts of places only to find that the government of my country has been breaking faith with my family. I appeal to this [Board] as a dad and as a Veteran to end the travesty, which has been essentially the track record of her appeals for the last seven years. I thank you for your patience, ma’am, your consideration, and the assistance of our counsel.”
Moments like this always remind me of the “reason” behind what I do. Veterans are among the most selfless group of people you will ever find. This Veteran spent his life fighting for American freedoms, the freedoms you and I enjoy. The freedoms so many others have fought for. Then, he came home and stood alongside his daughter, fighting for her. If that doesn’t tell you about the character of American Veterans, I don’t know what does.
Following a very personal and heartfelt hearing, I knew I had my work cut out for me. Like establishing service-connection, I knew I needed a medical opinion to link things together. I had also been doing some research on this program. To the best of my knowledge, there are only a handful of Court decisions that even mention this program. The Judge, admittedly, wasn’t familiar with the program. Time to really get to work.
Following the hearing, I got into contact with a doctor I have frequently used to offer medical opinions. He stated he would have no problem supporting the case. Following receipt of his opinion, along with some other materials, I prepared a final package for the Board. As always, those weeks following a hearing, but before a decision, can be nerve racking for a client. The state of unknown, but also knowing you are close to a decision, can be torturous. Thankfully, before the end of the year, Sarah’s appeal was granted by the Board. But, the story doesn’t end there.
As with any Board decision that grants a particular benefit, it is up to the Regional Office to implement the Judge’s decision. Normally that process takes around a month. That is because a Board grant normally goes to the VBA (Veterans’ Benefits Administration). However, this particular program is implemented by the VHA (Veterans’ Health Administration). This creates a “gap” of sorts and getting the VHA to comply with a Judge’s Order can be difficult. In Sarah’s case, we went nearly a year without hearing a word about getting those medical bills reimbursed. In October of this year, I fired off a “where’s the money” letter.
Nearly a month later, the Board vacated its prior decision, finding that it had granted Sarah’s appeal based on bogus evidence, namely, the private medical opinion we had submitted. The Board reasoned that there is no evidence dioxins, a group of highly toxic chemicals, were present at Camp Lejeune. Instead, the Board now says, there was only trichloroethylene (TCE), perchloroethylene (PCE), benzene, and vinyl chloride in the Water at Camp Lejeune. You know, that’s all folks, just those four deadly chemicals. Anyhow, had the Board actually read what our doctor said, they would have been able to understand how dioxins are a bi-product of those four chemicals. In other words, the presence of the chemicals the Board admits were at Camp Lejeune require that there also be present dioxins. Our doctor painstakingly explained this. I guess the Board just missed the boat.
I knew immediately something was up. I don’t believe in coincidences, certainly not with the VA. The timing was impeccable. We hadn’t heard from the VA for nearly twelve months after the Board’s original decision, and a month after I send a “where’s the money” letter, we get this. Not buying it. It was very odd that the Board would vacate a decision over the word “dioxin”, then in the same decision, turn around and use the same doctor’s opinion it said was bogus to re-grant the claim based on the word “benzene”. Talk about an absolute waste of resources.
I knew right away there had been some ex parte communications between the VHA and the Board. Sure enough, shortly after the Board’s new decision, I got an e-mail from a supervisor at the VHA. She explained to me that the Board’s decision required a “technical change” to conform the the Camp Lejeune Family Member Program requirements. Potato, potáto. Whatever. What the supervisor did accidentally do was forward me the entire string of e-mails between the VHA and the Board. Oops. While I don’t appreciate the ex parte communication, the keeping us in the dark, the waste of resources, and the accusation of bogus evidence, if the end result is the same, I could care less. As I write this, it is looking like we should soon have some reimbursements for Sarah, nearly eight years later.
I should probably mention that the medical treatment Sarah got was well worth it. Thanks to IVF treatment, Sarah has a healthy, beautiful, and full of life child. She still has hopes of conceiving another child, and these reimbursements will go a long way towards future treatment. Though Sarah was able to give birth, she still struggles immensely with various problems, including endometriosis. For many, moving away from Camp Lejeune marked the end to a chapter in their life. For this family, for Sarah, that chapter has never ended.
While Sarah’s chapter of life on Camp Lejeune may never close, I am thankful we will soon recover some much needed funds for her. It will go a long way to helping raise her child, and hopefully, conceive another, as she hopes to do.
Godspeed.
Footnotes
See 42 Cong. Rec. S9878-79 (daily ed. Sept. 5, 1996) (statement of Sen. Thomas A. Daschle).
See id at S9885 (statement of Sen. John D. Rockefeller, IV).
See Veterans Benefits Admin., Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Processing Disability Claims Based on Exposure to Contaminated Drinking Water at Camp Lejeune, Training Letter 11-03 (Revised) (Nov. 29, 2011).
See Veterans Benefits Admin., Dep’t of Veterans Affairs, Environmental Hazards in Iraq, Afghanistan, and Other Military Installations, Training Letter 10-03 (Apr. 26, 2010).