Tuesday, October 21, 2014

The home front: Local veterans host Oct. 25 town hall on Agent Orange



Saturday, Oct. 25, members of Asheville’s 124th chapter of the Vietnam Veterans of America will be holding a Agent Orange town hall meeting.

“We will have presenters, then a kind of storytelling and testimonial session where a veteran and his family will talk about the health effects of Agent Orange,” says Allan Perkal, president of the Asheville VVA

From 1965 to 1970, the United States dumped some 13 million gallons of the dioxin-based compound on Vietnam. 

“We want to tell veterans what help’s available,” says Jack McManus, who served in the Air Force during the Vietnam War and took part in Operation Ranch Hand: 

Mokie PorterHerb Worthington andTom Berger — all affiliated with the national office of Vietnam Veterans of America — will lead an expert panel providing an overview of the problems linked to Agent Orange exposure.

Although the fighting stopped more than 40 years ago, the damages — be they physical, psychological or spiritual — incurred during the Vietnam War continue to challenge this country today, say McManus and Perkal.

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