Navy and Coast Guard, VA source directory

Agent Orange Ships Directory

Search VA's official list of Navy and Coast Guard ships associated with herbicide exposure in Vietnam. Type a ship name, hull number, or designation to see what the list records about that vessel: its category, its documented activity, and the dates.

403 vessels 5 categories 2019 source list

Illustration of a generic naval destroyer underway at sea
Illustration only

Not on the list does not mean no exposure. This is one 2019 source, not every ship and not every exposure.

Ship not listed? Start here

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A ship entry is a starting point

Find the record. Understand what it means. Choose your next step.

01, build the record

Find your ship's records

Deck logs, service records and where to request them.

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02, understand the rules

Agent Orange conditions

See the presumptive conditions and the service rules.

Read the guide

03, follow the evidence

Search Board decisions

Read published decisions, with their facts and their limitations.

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The complete source directory

Browse all 403 ships

Choose a letter, then open a vessel's record. Check the hull number, not just the name.

A (16)
B (34)
C (38)
D (18)
E (16)
F (21)
G (22)
H (20)
I (7)
J (10)
K (9)
L (15)
M (29)
N (14)
O (12)
P (22)
Q (2)
R (19)
S (26)
T (18)
U (3)
V (7)
W (24)
Z (1)

Know the source

What this list is, and what changed after it

This directory is built from VA's "Navy and Coast Guard Ships Associated with Service in Vietnam and Exposure to Herbicide Agents," July 1, 2019 edition, the last version VA published. It records 403 vessels across five categories, from brown-water patrol boats that lived on the rivers to blue-water ships that docked at Da Nang once.

The law grew past this list. Under the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act, federal law now presumes herbicide exposure for veterans who served on a vessel "not more than 12 nautical miles seaward" of the demarcation line of the waters of Vietnam and Cambodia between January 9, 1962 and May 7, 1975 (38 U.S.C. 1116A). That offshore presumption does not depend on a ship appearing on this list. The regulation text of 38 CFR 3.307 still reads the older way; the statute controls.

So this list matters today mainly as evidence: it documents which ships operated on inland waterways, which docked, and when, in VA's own words. Whether a particular veteran was aboard during a listed event is a service-record question this page cannot answer.

Official reference: VA's Agent Orange eligibility page and our Agent Orange presumptive guide.

Read the category correctly

Five categories, different evidence

Category I: primarily inland waterways

Ships that operated primarily or exclusively on Vietnam's inland waterways, the "Brown Water Navy". Everyone who served aboard is covered by the list's terms.

Category II: temporarily inland

Larger ocean-going ships that temporarily entered inland waterways. Coverage attaches to being aboard at the time of entry.

Category III: docked to shore or pier

Ships that docked to a shore or pier. The list pairs this with a statement of personally going ashore.

Category IV: crew members went ashore

Ships that operated close to shore with documented evidence that crew members went ashore, paired with a statement of personally going ashore.

Category V: landing craft went ashore

Ships whose landing craft regularly delivered supplies or troops ashore, paired with a statement of personally going ashore with the landing craft.

A ship can appear in more than one category, and the dated activity notes beside each entry are quoted from the VA document verbatim.

The list's own warning, in VA's words: "This list is evolving and is not complete. Therefore, the presumption of Agent Orange exposure should not be denied solely because the Veteran's ship is not on this list."

A ship missing from this directory is a reason to check the record, never a reason to stop. Shipboard Exposure & Records has the deck-log custodians, the shipboard exposure topics and the Board decision search.

This page catalogues a VA source document and links to the published Board record. It does not decide whether any veteran qualifies for a presumption, and appearing on the list does not by itself prove any individual was aboard during a listed event. An accredited representative can help apply this to a specific record: find one here, always free.

Source: VA Compensation Service, "Navy and Coast Guard Ships Associated with Service in Vietnam and Exposure to Herbicide Agents," July 1, 2019. Legal context verified against 38 U.S.C. 1116A and VA.gov on August 17, 2026.

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