Leave no man behind: Belchertown veteran fights VA for crewmates after peacetime Agent Orange exposure at Westover, other bases

One lesson retired Air Force Col. Archer Battista says he learned in his six years in Vietnam was never to leave anyone behind.

This explains why Battista, 68, has since 2010 thrown his energy into an effort to get pilots who flew stateside planes contaminated by Agent Orange qualified for disability services and compensation.

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Plagued by diseases, aging fliers find VA unwilling to help

For more than a decade, Richard Matte has suffered through a series of grave illnesses. The 70-year-old from Chicopee has a transplanted heart. He’s been treated for bladder cancer, lung cancer, and nerve disorders.

But it wasn’t until 2011 that the retired master sergeant learned he and fellow veterans of the Air Force Reserve’s 731st Tactical Airlift Squadron in Westover might have been exposed to traces of Agent Orange. Matte quickly looked up ailments designated by the Department of Veterans Affairs as linked to contact with the deadly herbicide.

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Vets battle VA on post-Vietnam Agent Orange claim

 
But the veterans’ appeals continued to fall on deaf ears at VA.
Their efforts recently received another shot in the arm: In an article published in Environmental Research, scientists from Columbia, OHSU, Boston University School of Public Health and elsewhere said the potential for dioxin exposure among the C-123 crews “is greater than previously believed, and inhalation, ingestion and skin absorption were likely to have occurred during the post-Vietnam era.”

Using algorithms developed by the Army and data from the 1994 samples, researchers compared estimates with available guidelines and standards.

“Our findings ... contrast with Air Force and VA conclusions and policies,” said Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University. “The VA concept of a ‘dried residue’ that is biologically unavailable is not consistent with widely accepted theories of the behavior of surface residues.”


Some Veterans who were crew members on C-123 Provider aircraft, formerly used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, have raised health concerns about exposure to residual amounts of herbicides on the plane surfaces.

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Agent Orange Residue on Post-Vietnam War Airplanes

Responding to these concerns, VA asked the Institute of Medicine to study possible health effects. Results are expected in late 2014.

If you have health concerns, talk to your health care provider or local VA Environmental Health Coordinator.

Testing for Agent Orange residue on planes

The U.S. Air Force (USAF) collected and analyzed numerous samples from C-123 aircraft to test for Agent Orange. USAF's risk assessment report (April 27, 2012) (2.3 MB, PDF) found that potential exposures to Agent Orange in C-123 planes used after the Vietnam War were unlikely to have put aircrew or passengers at risk for future health problems. The report’s three conclusions:

1)  There was not enough information and data to conclude how much individual persons would have been exposed to Agent Orange.

2)  It is expected that exposure to Agent Orange in these aircraft after the Vietnam War was lower than exposure during the spraying missions in Vietnam.

3)  Potential Agent Orange exposures were unlikely to have exceeded standards set by regulators or to have put people at risk for future health problems. - See more at: http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/locations/residue-c123-aircraft/index.asp#sthash.6Q0UcRyS.dpuf

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Consider Agent Orange benefits for C-123 crews, 20 members of House ask Shinseki

Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, D-Ore., joined with 19 other members of the House of Representatives to implore Department of Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki to reverse the agency's stance against awarding presumptive benefits for Agent Orange exposure to crews who flew aboard C-123 aircraft after the Vietnam war.

In a letter dated this week, the congresspersons cited the agency's recent decision to award such benefits to Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, who suffered from cancer that he believes stemmed from his service aboard a C-123 after the War.

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VA gives ground on Agent Orange affect

 If you flew on or worked on a C-123K between 1972 and 1982, and if you’re sick from Agent Orange exposure and fighting for compensation, write this down: Retired Air Force Lt. Col. Paul Bailey had his denied claim overturned and he will receive compensation “as the result of occupational hazards onboard C-123K aircrafts.”

He flew on the C-123K after the Vietnam War. Bailey is ill with multiple cancers.When his plane, sent to a museum, was tested in 1994, it was discovered to still be “heavily contaminated” with Agent Orange.

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