AGENT ORANGE NEWS

Fred Wilcox on the Legacy of Agent Orange

August 10th is the official Day to Commemorate Agent Orange Victims. In honor, Fred Wilcox, author of Scorched Earth and Waiting for an Army to Die, spoke on radio program Making Contact. 

Click here to listen!

 

Operation Red Hat: Chemical Weapons and the Pentagon Smokescreen on Okinawa 
 
For more than four decades, details of that project have been kept firmly under wraps. But now, newly disclosed scientific studies — and accounts from U.S. veterans who participated in Operation Red Hat — are casting light on the mission and exposing what truly occurred. These revelations include the alleged dumping of chemical weapons off the coast of Okinawa, the presence of the potent blister agent, lewisite, and the inclusion of Agent Orange – the Vietnam War defoliant which the Pentagon denies was ever present on the island.

The dangers of Agent Orange

The Department of Veterans Affairs has concluded presumptive exposure to Agent Orange can cause health hazards that may be crippling and life threatening. The Institute of Medicine reports Agent Orange can cause serious diseases. This undermines previous statements by the Department of Defense stating Agent Orange is relatively non-toxic to man, a deliberate conclusion, therefore took no precautions to prevent exposure as stated by the U.S. Comptroller General in November 1979.


Ailing veterans point to Vietnam-era cargo planes, Agent Orange contamination

But after the war, some of the planes were used on cargo missions in the United States. Now a bitter fight has sprung up over whether those in the military who worked, ate and slept in the planes after the war should also be compensated. Two U.S. senators are now questioning the Department of Veterans Affairs’ assertions that any postwar contamination on the planes was not high enough to be linked to disease.

Veteran wins fight over Agent Orange Disability benefits are granted for the first time to someone exposed after the Vietnam War.

Bailey, 67, who suffers from prostate cancer and metastatic cancer of the pelvis and ribs, said the disability compensation will allow his wife to stay in their New Hampshire home after he dies.

"The financial and emotional support this provides is just tremendous," he said in a telephone interview Wednesday. "It takes a huge burden off me."

The decision is "greatly significant," said Wes Carter, a retired Air Force major and friend of Bailey's who heads the C-123 Veterans Association.

The organization contends that postwar crews should be eligible for the same disability compensation for Agent Orange exposure provided to military veterans who served in Vietnam during the war.

Continue Learning:   http://www.pressherald.com/news/nationworld/veteran-wins-fight-over-agent-orange_2013-08-08.html

Ailing veterans point to Vietnam-era cargo planes, Agent Orange contamination

Carter, an Oregon resident, and his comrades in the C-123 Veterans Association say postwar crews should be eligible for the same compensation for Agent Orange provided to those who served in Vietnam. He has filed complaints with the Air Force and VA, and collected many documents via Freedom of Information requests, which he provided to The Washington Post and posted online.

A 2011 Air Force epidemiological study of the crews that sprayed Agent Orange — “the most heavily exposed veterans of the Vietnam War,” according to the report — found no link between Agent Orange exposure and their diseases.

But a number of outside medical experts have concluded the veterans were likely exposed to dangerous levels of dioxins. In November, 14 prominent toxicologists sent the VA a letter saying the department’s scientific conclusions are based on “erroneous assumptions.”

“It’s not right,” said retired Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, a New Hampshire resident who served with Carter aboard C-123s and is gravely ill with cancer. “We were exposed, we can prove we were exposed, but they’re saying it doesn’t matter.”

Continue Learning:  http://www.heraldandnews.com/news/oregon/article_65fd4dcc-fe63-11e2-abb0-001a4bcf887a.html

Planes linked to post-Vietnam Agent Orange exposure were stored in Tucson Spray planes alleged to have harmed fliers after Vietnam conflict:  http://azstarnet.com/news/national/govt-and-politics/planes-linked-to-post-vietnam-agent-orange-exposure-were-stored/article_93f78949-45bb-5041-a915-5673221ebc47.html


Agent Orange’s reach beyond the Vietnam War:  http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/agent-oranges-reach-beyond-the-vietnam-war/2013/08/03/803e57c0-e816-11e2-aa9f-c03a72e2d342_story.html

Agent Orange C-123s: Transcript of Agent Orange Teleconference #agentorangec123

So remember, dear readers, that the Air Force (Secretary of the Air Force as well as Surgeon General of the Air Force) has directed us to turn to the VA to get help on our C-123 aircrew dioxin exposure. The VA has told us to turn to the Air Force to get help on our C-123 aircrew dioxin exposure. Catch 22.

That’s right…there’s only one catch: Catch 22. The VA would consider allowing us Agent Orange medical care if the AF says we’ve been exposed. The AF says “Go talk to the VA!”

So we turn back to AFRC/CC General Stenner and the AF Chief of Staff and ask that they not leave our flyers alone in this struggle.

Air Force, get behind us, ask the report authors to explain the relevance of their studies to aircrew exposure, and simply get VA to designate “boots on the airplane” as adequate presumptive eligibility for our crews!

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Agent Orange C-123s: Westover Vets Fight For Agent Orange Benefits

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“For years, for many hundreds of hours, we flew that aircraft,” Carter said. “We ate in it. We worked in it. We fixed it. We slept in it… Most of us total thousands of hours inside the fuselage—inside that area the Air Force considers, even 25 years after the aircraft were retired, to be contaminated.”

“I’ve had trouble finding guys who don’t have AO-related illnesses,” said Carter, who also suffers from heart disease.

Now, Carter and Bailey are spearheading an effort to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize that the crews who manned the “spray planes” stateside from 1972 to 1982 were exposed to lingering Agent Orange contamination and should receive compensation for their illnesses, as their fellow veterans who served in Vietnam do.

The Source

Agent Orange C-123s - MILITARY UPDATE: Complaint alleges Agent Orange risks ignored

MILITARY UPDATE: Complaint alleges Agent Orange risks ignored

In a complaint to the Air Force inspector general, a retired officer alleges health officials have known since at least 1994 of Agent Orange contamination aboard C-123 aircraft flown by reserve squadrons for a decade after the Vietnam War, and failed to warn of the health risks.

“We knew it was there,” Harris said of residual herbicide on some C-123 aircraft. “You could smell it on a hot day, or a cold day when the heaters were running. You could smell it so bad you couldn’t stand it.”

Carter started a blog, www.c123kcancer.blogspot.com, with links to reports and memos referencing dioxin contamination aboard C-123s flown by reservists after the war from Westover, Pittsburgh, Pa., Air Reserve Base and Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Ohio.