If you served in the US military and have been diagnosed with mesothelioma, this page is your starting point. The VA recognizes mesothelioma as a service-connected condition for veterans with documented asbestos exposure. The exposure could have come from a Navy ship, a base boiler room, a vehicle maintenance shop, an aircraft hangar, a shipyard, or base housing. The compensation, healthcare, and family benefits available to you are substantial. Most veterans never claim everything they are entitled to.
We are not a law firm. We are not the VA. We help veterans and their families navigate the asbestos trust fund system that pays out alongside VA benefits. Most of what you need to do does not involve us. We have written this page to point you to the right resource for each step, in the order that helps most.
Where to start, by where you are right now
Just diagnosed (within the last 30 days)
- Get the diagnostic paperwork (pathology report, imaging, written diagnosis).
- Find your DD-214. If you do not have it, request it from the National Personnel Records Center (archives.gov/personnel-records-center).
- Contact a free Veteran Service Officer through your state veterans affairs department, the American Legion, VFW, DAV, or AMVETS. They handle the VA paperwork at no cost.
- Read Veteran Caregiver Support if you have a family member helping you. Read Support for Veteran Families to share with the rest of your family.
Filing a VA claim
Read VA Benefits for Mesothelioma. It covers the disability rating, Aid and Attendance, the caregiver program, healthcare priority, and survivor benefits. It also explains how to file using a VSO, online, or by mail.
Navy veterans
If you served in the Navy on a ship built before 1980, in a shipyard for refit or overhaul, or in an aviation maintenance role, see Navy Veteran Asbestos Exposure. It lists the ship classes, ratings, and shipyards with documented exposure.
Shipyard workers (military and civilian)
If you worked at a US naval shipyard or a private yard with Navy contracts, see Shipyard Asbestos Exposure. It covers the trades, the major yards, and how to confirm exposure for a claim.
Other branches and base service
If you served in the Army, Marine Corps, Air Force, or Coast Guard, or you served on a base in a non-shipboard role, see Military Base Asbestos Exposure. It covers the spaces where asbestos was used on military bases and what evidence the VA accepts.
What you can claim, briefly
- VA disability compensation at 100 percent rating: ~$3,737 to $3,946+ monthly, tax-free, depending on dependents
- VA Aid and Attendance: additional ~$2,300 to $2,727 monthly if you need help with daily living
- VA healthcare: Priority Group 1, no copays at VA facilities
- VA caregiver program: monthly stipend + healthcare + respite for your primary family caregiver
- VA survivor benefits: tax-free monthly DIC for surviving spouse, education benefits for surviving children
- Asbestos trust funds: separate from VA, paid by the bankrupt manufacturers. Can be filed alongside VA claims. Approximately $30 billion across all trusts.
- Burial benefits: free burial in a VA national cemetery, headstone, presidential memorial certificate, military funeral honors
Information sources we use
The information on these pages comes from public US government sources, peer-reviewed medical literature, and Department of Veterans Affairs publications. Where we cite specific numbers (compensation rates, exposure dates, ship classes), we use:
- VA.gov for current benefit rates and program rules
- Naval History and Heritage Command (history.navy.mil) for ship histories and deck logs
- National Personnel Records Center for service records
- VA Compensation and Pension records and federal litigation history for exposure documentation
- The CDC’s National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) for asbestos exposure research
We do not write content based on a single source. We update pages when the VA changes rates or rules. The “last reviewed” date at the bottom of each page is the date we last verified the page against current sources.
Talk to someone
For VA-specific questions, the best resource is your local Veteran Service Officer. They are free.
For caregiver questions, the VA Caregiver Support Line is open Monday-Friday, 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Eastern: 1-855-260-3274.
For asbestos trust fund questions specific to your service history, you can call us at (800) 763-9692. We do not charge for the first conversation. We will not push you to file anything.
This page is reviewed by the editorial team at Mesothelioma Funds Administration. We are not affiliated with the US Department of Veterans Affairs. For our editorial standards, see Editorial Policy. Last reviewed: 2026-05-07.
If your veteran has lung cancer, not mesothelioma
Asbestos exposure causes both. The two cancers have different VA rules and different trust fund tiers. We have a parallel track for lung cancer:
- Asbestos lung cancer in veterans — the full pillar covering VA service connection (including for smokers), 100 percent rating, monthly compensation, and trust fund eligibility.
- Asbestos lung cancer vs mesothelioma — the comparison page: how the two cancers differ medically, in VA rating, in trust fund payouts, and in prognosis.
Have questions about your situation?
Call to speak with someone who can point you to the right Veteran Service Officer, walk you through what evidence you need, or explain how the trust fund pathway works alongside your VA claim. There is no cost and no obligation. We do not handle your VA claim ourselves; we help families understand the parallel benefit pathways that most veterans never claim.
Call (800) 763-9692 Phone line staffed during business hours.
Branch-specific exposure pages
If you served in the Army or Air Force, we have branch-specific pages covering where exposure happened, which MOSs and AFSCs were most affected, and how to document service for a VA claim:
- Army veteran asbestos exposure — boiler rooms, motor pools, base housing, aviation maintenance, MOS-specific exposure profiles.
- Air Force veteran asbestos exposure — aircraft brakes, engine fireproofing, hangars, missile silos, AFSC-specific exposure profiles.
- Navy veteran asbestos exposure — already covered separately as the most-affected branch.
Marines, Camp Lejeune, and lung-cancer statistics
Three more pages now live as part of the silo:
- Marine Corps veteran asbestos exposure — amphibious shipboard service, Camp Lejeune and Camp Pendleton base infrastructure, AAV maintenance, Marine air wing exposure.
- Camp Lejeune asbestos exposure — the three parallel compensation pathways: VA disability, asbestos trust funds, and the PACT Act of 2022.
- Asbestos lung cancer statistics in veterans — rates, survival, smoking interaction, and trust fund payout data — sourced from NCI, SEER, VA, RAND.
If you are at the very beginning, or at the very end
Two more pages cover the bookend phases of the journey:
- Newly diagnosed: what to do in the first 30 days — Week-by-week checklist for the active-decision window: pathology, DD-214, VSO contact, VA claim filing, trust fund analysis, family conversations.
- Surviving spouse: checklist for the first 90 days — Practical week-by-week guide for surviving spouses: DIC, asbestos trust funds, PACT Act, CHAMPVA, Social Security, estate. What is time-sensitive vs what can wait.
More for families and surviving spouses
Three new operational pages cover the family-side workflow and the fifth military branch:
- Coast Guard veteran asbestos exposure — Cutters, shore facilities, lighthouse service, Squadron 1 Vietnam. Completes branch coverage for all five US military services.
- Adult child helping a veteran parent: practical checklist — Step-by-step guide for the adult child taking on the paperwork and decisions when a parent veteran is diagnosed.
- Widow VA claim vs trust fund claim: when to pursue which — How VA DIC and asbestos trust fund claims work in parallel. Both/and, not either/or. Sequencing and capacity considerations.