Comment on AO32-Proposed Rule-Hicks, Charles R.

This proposed rule is good but does not go far enough. When I came home and Vietnam no one ever told me what agent orange could do to me. So how could I have guessed that the little things that were happening to me were do too agent orange. Did I go to any Dr.? No. Why, because I thought I had just become naturally clumsily. When I came back from Vietnam nobody from the military sat down with me and told me that I should be watching for certain signs because I had been exposed to agent orange. So how in the world can you put a time stamp on peripheral neuropathy. Over the years I have gotten progressively worse to the point where now I can barely walk. I have to use a walker or a wheelchair to get around. If I had been told by the military that I could contract certain diseases from agent orange I could've been more vigilant. You gave the Gulf War veterans a disability claim for mentally unexplained illnesses. Did you give anything like that to the Vietnam veteran? No! Shame on you for that. I can look back now and say, oh this is what was going on and that's what was going on. Once again did I go to a Dr., No. I hated going to doctors. So why would I go to the doctors when I got a little tingling in my legs, losing strength in my legs and been so off balance at times. Before I joined the Marines at the age of 17 I played baseball, football and basketball. When I got out of the service I still played a lot of baseball but noticed my lower body strength just was not the same. I didn't know why but I do now. My quality of life sucks right now. For four years doctors have been trying to find out what's going on with my body. They have found a few things like my peripheral neuropathy. They are still looking for answers for my other medical conditions. I believe there is a prejudice by our government and the VA when it comes to Vietnam veterans. I have to write this using speech recognition. Thank you for your time. Semper Fi!!!!!