Johnston Atoll VA claims: Agent Orange, the PACT Act and what the Board grants

Is there an Agent Orange presumption for Johnston Atoll?

Yes, since the PACT Act took effect in August 2022. VA presumes herbicide exposure for veterans who served on Johnston Atoll, or on a ship that called there, from January 1972 to September 1977 (38 U.S.C. 1116; M21-1 VIII.i.1.A). The conditions on the herbicide list are then presumed service connected.

Johnston Atoll is a small island in the Pacific, southwest of Hawaii. Drums of Agent Orange removed from Vietnam were stored there from 1972 until they were burned at sea in 1977, and the island also stored chemical weapons. The presumption's dates follow the herbicide storage.

What was the rule before the PACT Act?

Exposure had to be established as a fact, case by case. From 2005 until the PACT Act, VA's manual pointed adjudicators to a fact sheet on the Agent Orange stored on Johnston Island (M21-1 VIII.i.1.C).

How the Board decided Johnston Atoll claims

147 Board decisions from 2020 to 2025 with a service-connection claim name Johnston Atoll or Johnston Island. The decision records herbicide exposure in 104 of them (70.7%). Only 5 conditions came up for 15 or more veterans, so the numbers below are small.

Bar: share granted for Johnston Atoll veterans

Red mark: all veterans with the same condition

Conditions on the Agent Orange list

VA presumes these for veterans who served on Johnston Atoll, or on a ship that called there, from January 1972 to September 1977.

• Diabetes DC 7913

  31.1% · 14 of 45

  all veterans 24.0%On the Agent Orange list

• Hypertension DC 7101

  32.4% · 12 of 37

  all veterans 19.0%On the Agent Orange list

• Coronary artery disease DC 7005

  25.0% · 6 of 24

  all veterans 34.1%On the Agent Orange list

• Prostate, bladder or kidney cancer DC 7528

  40.0% · 6 of 15

  all veterans 33.7%On the Agent Orange list

Other conditions Johnston Atoll veterans claimed

• Erectile dysfunction DC 7522

  26.7% · 4 of 15

  all veterans 19.5%

One count per veteran per condition; a remand counts as not granted. Conditions with at least 15 veterans.

Diabetes, the most common claim, was granted for 14 of 45 veterans (31.1%, against 24.0% overall), and hypertension for 12 of 37 (32.4%, against 19.0%). Hypertension has been on the herbicide list only since the PACT Act. Coronary artery disease did worse than for all veterans: 6 of 24.

Did the PACT Act change Johnston Atoll outcomes at the Board?

Yes, on small numbers. On herbicide-list conditions, the grant share was 18.2% in decisions from 2020 and 2021 (22 claims) and 36.9% from 2023 to 2025 (103 claims). Over all six years it was 32.4%, against 25.0% for all veterans with the same conditions.

Herbicide-list conditions	Granted	Claims
Decisions from 2020 and 2021	18.2%	22
Decisions from 2023 to 2025	36.9%	103

Decisions from 2022 are left out of the comparison, because the law changed partway through that year.

Many grants also rested on other service

Of 31 decisions that granted a herbicide-list condition, 16 (51.6%) also name Vietnam, Thailand or another place with its own presumption. For those veterans, the service elsewhere can carry the claim even when the dates on the atoll do not fit.

Why are Johnston Atoll herbicide claims denied?

For 31 denials of herbicide-list conditions, the Board's note named the exposure or the service in 93.5% of them: service on the atoll outside the dates, service not confirmed, or a ship that did not call there.

Read the decisions

Recent decisions, with the Board's reasoning as summarized by AI:

• A25105867, December 2025: type II diabetes granted on herbicide exposure tied to service at Johnston Atoll, with a VA opinion in support; hypertension and nerve damage in both legs were granted secondary to the diabetes in the same decision.
• A25090475, October 2025: hypertension claimed from herbicide exposure, denied; the service records did not establish exposure, and a VA examiner found the hypertension less likely than not caused by the claimed exposures.
• A25050559, June 2025: diabetes, hypertension and migraine denied; the Board found no evidence of an in-service event or of herbicide exposure.

What the data cannot tell you

The Johnston Atoll group comes from the places each decision names; a mention is not proof of service there or within the dates. The group is small, so a few decisions move the shares. Service-connection claims only; rating appeals are left out. The herbicide flag and denial notes are AI-extracted. These are historical outcomes, not predictions.

For representatives

• Pin down the dates on the atoll first: January 1972 to September 1977. Personnel records, orders and unit histories show them.
• For Navy and Coast Guard veterans, show the ship called at Johnston Atoll in those dates; VA checks deck logs and its ship locator.
• Check for other listed service, such as Vietnam or Thailand, which may carry the claim on its own.
• A veteran denied before the PACT Act can file a supplemental claim under the new presumption.