MANSFIELD Shipmates:

If you were aboard the Mansfield November/December 1965 when we went up the Saigon River and anchored while giving support fire, I need your help. I am trying to document this fact for the Veterans Administration (VA) to support a claim for typeII diabetes which falls under the Agent Orange umbrella. According to them "we can't make a claim unless we disembarked the ship" while in Vietnam. Although we literally didn't go ashore, we did anchor in the middle of the river within "spitting" distance of the banks. Obviously, they think any airborne substances stop at the water's edge and then continue on the other side.

So here's how you can help me: (and any other shipmates trying to make a claim)

• If you remember being at anchor during our shore bombardment assignment, please write (via regular mail) and describe, in your own words, how close you feel we were to the shore and any other facts you may think are important. (If by chance you have any pictures taken at that time, please include them.)

My snail mail:

Karl Kristiansen
901 Tobey Street
Acushnet, MA 02743-1709

I would also like to gather other anecdotal data that may help:

• If you were on deck at all during that bombardment assignment, have you contracted type II diabetes (insulin dependent or not) or any other ailments that fall under Agent Orange?

• Have you filed a claim with the VA regarding this? Any success?

  Thanks in advance for any help you can give me,
  Karl Kristiansen (SA/65-66)

I received a letter from the VA dated December 1, 2005 denying my claim for type 2 diabetes.

The main reason seems to be the following as stated in the "EVIDENCE" portion of their letter:

• Response from the US National Archives dated September 15, 2005, stating the USS DD-728 was in the official waters off the Republic of Vietnam. There is no record you went ashore, or up a river into the mainland of the Republic of Vietnam.

In the "REASONS FOR DECISION" portion of their letter they wrote:

• Review of the uncertified statements submitted in support of your claim are not taken as proof that the destroyer class Mansfield traveled into the Republic of Vietnam, up the Saigon River between November 25, 1965 and December 24, 1965, the dates the US National Archives, National Personnel Records Center, verified your ship was in the official waters of Vietnam. the official US Navy website, www.history.navy.mil shows the Mansfield provided gunfire support for South Vietnamese, Australian, and American forces fighting in South Vietnam. No conclusive evidence of in-country service has been submitted.

  Service connection may be established based on a relationship to herbicide exposure only if evidence demonstrates that the veteran served in Vietnam during the Vietnam era. As the required service in Vietnam is not shown, service connection for type 2 diabetes mellitus is denied.

So, there you have it shipmates. I plan to go on to the appeals process and will keep you updated.

I visited my VA agent and we sent a letter requesting the paper work for an appeal. He said that will basically be a retelling of my story in all the detail I can remember. So once again, I ask my shipmates for any help they can give me. I have the deck logs for December 1965 and there is no mention of ANY shooting missions or even being at GQ. I find this pretty strange. I know we all didn't imagine this stuff. So if anyone can shed any light on this PLEASE CONTACT ME.

I received a letter from the VA stating they have granted me a disability (TYPE 2 Diabetes Mellitus) rating of 20% falling under the Agent Orange umbrella. This is retro-active to the effective date of September 1, 2004.

I would like to thank all the shipmates that wrote letters supporting my claim. They were one of the factors the VA took into consideration in approving my claim. One good thing that comes of this is the fact the VA now agrees we were, indeed, in Vietnam.

I would also like to thank Town of Dartmouth (MA) Veterans' Agent Shawn Goldstein for his help and guidance.

The checks from the VA were direct deposited to my account on March 15, 2006 (Retroactive check) and March 31, 2006 (monthly check).

This request is on behalf of shipmate MM3 U.S. Grant:

"I am a law professor at Widener University School of Law, Wilmington, DE. I direct a free legal clinic for disabled veterans and dependents called the Veterans Law Clinic. We do VA claim appeals and discharge reviews. U.S. Grant, a shipmate on your destroyer from 1961-63, is our client. He has PTSD and one of his claimed stressors is an incident off the coast of Viet Nam when Mansfield was buttoned up on GQ and under some kind of alert when pro driven aircraft were flying overhead. The main battery was fired just as Grant popped through a scuttle to the deck, Does anyone remember Grant or this incident?"

Please contact me:

I am looking for a YN2 Roland aboard Mansfield during the Dong Hoi conflict...anyone heard from him or know where he is ?

Please contact Rick Felty if you have any information. Email: feltyr@comcast.net.

From shipmate Cef Suarez:

" Here is a way to find out some of the ships movement and firing missions. This is the Combat Naval Gunfire Support File (CONGA), [Fixed-length Version], 3/1966 - 1/1973. I found all of the times I was on the ship to prove that I was in Vietnam and in Combat. The other files that you have to order is called HOSTA . If you were not aware of this you could post it on the WEB site for others to do search's. HOSTA will one day be on the CONGA files that will be accessed from the NARA.Gov.

I have found an operation that we were on during my time called "Pepper Bush" that we did fire support on the island of Phu Quoc for spraying. But the records are still classified and they won't release any of the details. I've also got a hold of Doc Danforth who gave me the web site to search for personal records. I ordered mine and will let you know what I get and how to access them.

To get to their website go here or http://tinyurl.com/ycl4c3h. (The tinyurl is good for 1 year as of 1.13.10)

I received this information concering Operation Sea Dragon while researching data for my claim:"

I write pursuant to your conversation with Mr. Zervos, of our staff, on 18th January concerning the number of rounds expended by the USS Mansfield during operation Sea Dragon from October, 1966 - April, 1967. You told Mr. Zervos that you did search CONGA via Access to Archival Databases (AAD) and received the message that "Sea Dragon" is not a term in CONGA. On 30th January you called and expressed an interest in locating other records related to the USS Mansfield and operation Sea Dragon during October, 1966. You asked if there might be information in the "Congressional Records," and I referred you to Legislative Archives, which can be contacted via inquire@nara.gov.

While "Sea Dragon" is not a nickname in the "NICKNAME OF OPERATION SUPPORTED" list of available terms, you will find it encoded as "SE" in the list of codes available for the "OPERATION TYPE" field. If you search CONGA using "MANSFIELD" in the "NAME OF FIRING SHIP" field and "SE" in the "OPERATION TYPE" field, you will retrieve 161 partial records for the period from October, 1966 - May, 1968. There are five records for October, 1966.

Of related interest is the "Hostile Fire File (HOSTA)," Records About Hostile Fire Against US and Australian Warships During the Vietnam Conflict, 10/25/1966 - 04/05/1970; Department of Defense, Department of the Navy, Office of the Chief of Naval Operations (09/18/1947 - ). This series contains information about combat incidents of hostile fire directed at U.S. and Australian warships patrolling North and South Vietnamese waters in the South China Sea. Each record contains the date and time of incident, the number and size of hostile guns, the number of rounds fired and their accuracy, the name and mission of the ship attacked, and the number of fatal and non-fatal casualties. The record also indicates whether the incident occurred during Operation Sea Dragon or the naval bombardment of North Vietnam. This file is not currently available via AAD. It may be ordered from us together with its eight pages of documentation. Please request a price quotation if you are interested and provide us with your UPS shipping address. We also need to know your technical specifications. Our standard is copying files to CDROM or DVD, encoded in ASCII with DOS file names and record-delimited records; I.e., the inclusion of carriage return and linefeed characters at the end of each record to prevent system "lock-up".

I looked at the documentation for HOSTA in preparing this message. There are two records for 10/25/66. The Time of Incident (local) for the first incident was 0928. The Number of Rounds Fired in Incident was not given. Accuracy of Enemy Fire was Unknown (UNK). Target Range in Yards (shore to Ship) was 8000. Unknown Numeric Data Element: 15, Name of Ship Fired Upon was MANSFIELD. Friendly Killed in Action was "NO". Friendly Wounded in Action was also "NO". Name of Operation was Sea Dragon (SD). Information for second incident is:

Date of Incident: 10/25/66, Time of Incident: 1710 (local), Number of Hostile Guns: 6, Size (caliber) of Hostile Guns: 120MM, Number of Rounds Fired: MANY, Accuracy of Enemy Fire: 50, Target Range in Yards (shore to Ship): 8000, Unknown Numeric Data Element: 20, Name of Ship Fired Upon: MANSFIELD, Friendly Killed in Action: "NO". Friendly Wounded in Action: "NO". Name of Operation Sea Dragon (SD).

If we can be of further service, please contact us at cer@nara.gov or call our reference line (301) 837-0470.

Yours sincerely,
Lee A. Gladwin, Archivist
Electronic and Special Media Records Services Division (NWME)
NATIONAL ARCHIVES (USA)

Please feel free to contact me via email: cef5917@verizon.net. Thanks in advance for any help you can give me." - Cef Suarez [January 21, 2010]

Ship's log from 24 October 1966 showing we were anchored in Da Nang harbor and that we came under enemy fire. Please click here to view and print.