Lou, my VSO keep telling me that I had to go through all of the steps to get a hearing at the appeals board. He said it would take about 7-8 years. I finally presented a fully developed claim with maps that showed were I worked, played and lived. These maps showed the perimeter of the base and how close we were to that perimeter. I attached buddy letters, medical records, (civilian, military and VA) and all other evidence that seemed relevant. I gave this to my VSO and asked him to sent it to the VA. He was reluctant to send it all in. I had to insist that it go my way. In 4 months I got my AO connection for serving in Thailand. Understand, my CAD was already service connected before I applied for AO connection. I suggest everyone do a fully developed claim and have the VSO sent it into the VA. VSO's do a lot of good work, but they can only present to the VA what you provide. My experience with several VSOs is they do a few lines to the VA without evidence. Nothing good is going to happen without evidence. I used a lot of stuff from this site and from the Korat and Ubon sites. Tons of good information on these sites. Last, write and call your Congressman and Senators, tell them to get the VA to acknowledge that AO was part of our experience in Thailand.