http://vva.org/testimony/2010/051910.html
S. 1939 - Agent Orange Equity Act of 2009 - To amend title 38, United States Code, to clarify presumptions relating to the exposure of certain veterans who served in the vicinity of the Republic of Vietnam, and for other purposes.
VVA reiterates our strong support for passage of S. 1939 the Agent Orange Equity Act, and the companion bill in the House of Representatives, H.R. 2254. VVA particularly thanks Senator Gillibrand of New York for introducing this proposed legislation. We must do whatever needs to be done, in this thirty fifth year since the end of the Vietnam war, to ensure that these veterans receive some measure of justice as soon as possible.
In the latest biennial update pursuant to the Agent Orange Act of 1991, the panel of the Institute of Medicine (IOM), of the National Academies of Science (NAS), unequivocally reiterated that there was no valid scientific reason for the exclusion of so-called “Blue Water” Navy veterans from the presumption of exposure to Agent Orange and other harmful toxins present in South Vietnam during the war. It is clear that the study performed by the University of Queensland regarding the desalination plants on board Australian ships at the time is directly applicable to American Navy personnel. Not only did the desalination plants on the American vessels work in exactly the same manner as those on Australian ships, they were manufactured and installed by the same company. The methodology for creating fresh water for both the boilers and for drinking, cooking, etc. actually had the perverse effect of concentrating dioxin in the “cleansed” water that was then ingested by the fliers and sailors on board.
http://veterans.senate.gov/hearings.cfm?action=release.display&release_id=301f367a-18c3-44af-b401-f8d74bc5be21
It is easy to see how the Agent Orange which was mixed with diesel fuel could float down rivers and out in the ocean. There was over 19 million gallons of tactical herbicides sprayed in Vietnam. Just look at the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico to see how far and fast the oil has spread. The ships use the water from the ocean, the de-saline process could not remove the dioxin in the herbicides and in fact consentrated it. These Blue Water Veterans deserve justice and everyone's support in this fight.
ReplyDeleteA person would have to be a fool to assume that there was no runoff of AO into the surrounding seas, I mean it is the nature of things and if all 20 million gallons of the stuff were to stay where they put it Vietnam would have just been a puddle of AO. Do they figure that during the monsoon season the water didn't wash AO into the water? Mixed with diesel fuel made the situation just that much worse.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guamagentorange.info/home I PREPARED, MIXED AND HAND SPRAYED AGENT ORANGE HERBICIDES FROM SEPT 1968 TO JUNE 1978 (ONE TDY ARCLIGHT AND 2 PCS's) ON ANDERSEN AFB GUAM. GUAM SENATOR BEN PANGELINAN IS COMING TO WASHINGTON DC TO TALK TO CONGRESSIONAL OFFICIALS AND WILL BE WAITING FOR PRESIDENT OBAMAM TO COME TO THE ISLAND OF GUAM TO ANSWER TO THE GUAM LEGISLTAURE WHY AMERICA ISN'T CLEANING UP THE TCDD DIOXIN THAT HAS LEFT GUAMANIANS DYING OR DEAD. THE HIGHEST DIOXIN LEVELS IN THE SOIL ANYWHERE IN THE WORLD AT 19,000 PPM. THOUSANDS AND THOUSAND OF VETERANS DENIED BY THE VA FOR AGENT ORANGE EXPOSURE AND DENIED THE VSM EVEN THOUGH WE WERE DROPPING THOUSANDS OF BOMBS ON VIETNAM JUST LIKE ANY OTHER FREAKIN BASE IN THE THEATER OF OPERATIONS OF THE VIETNAM WAR.
ReplyDeletethe guys that were preparing, mixing and handspraying it were getting thousands of times more exposure than anyone else
ReplyDeleteDONT FORGET GUAM..I PREPARED, MIXED AND HAND SPRAYED IT FOR TEN YEARS THERE. 1968 TO 1978. HAVE THE DOCUMENTATION TO PROVE IT. RETAIRFORCEMAN@aol.com new york resident living in westfield ny. fighting the VA for 24 years. ischemic heart disease, chloracne, sterility, anklylosing spondiolitis, spinal stenosis, autoimmune disease MCTD, and many other illnesses
ReplyDeleteMy husband is having his 43rd kidney surgery 06/03. 2 heart attacks, 4 cancer surgeries, type 2 diabetes, ptsd, thick blood of which 350 pints have been removed, tremors, memory loss just to name a few problems. Blue water navy so he has gotten NO disabilty from the VA. Oh yes, we lost our home this month. What a great way to treat a Vietnam Veteran who didn't have a choice in where he was sent to. A curse on the VA and what they supposedly stand for.
ReplyDeleteThe U.S. government lies! You will get 48 months G.I. Bill to use anytime during your life. Everyone remember that one from the recruiters. Too bad the government reneged on that one! Too many other lies to name - all enlisted personnel know them. But the best lie of all - that the U.S.S. Turner Joy and U.S.S. Maddox were attacked when we now that was not true - and 55,000 Americans died.
ReplyDeleteI have a claim for prostate cancer pending now. I have no anticipation of success as I can not prove I stepped foot in V.N. - aircrew - and operated off the U.S.S. Kitty Hawk and out of N.A.S. Cubi Point. As an aviation ordnanceman - yes I handled that stuff.
I also have a pending claim for AO exposure and I now have prostate cancer. The VA turned me down the first time with the HYPOTHESIS That ther is no proof that there was toxins in the Desalination tanks aboard a ship that was at the mouth of the Saigon river for gun fire support, In the port of Da Nang with I corp were we had to anchor in the harbor because naval vessels were not allow to dock for fear of mortar or sabotoge so we had to take the launch to the shore to get the officers there for conference with I corp. And I was on the launch on the dock on the shore. Boots on the Ground and they still don't read all the documentation I have sent in that regard.I WOULD HYPOTHESIS THAT THERE IS ALSO NO PROOF THAT THE TANKS DID NOT HAVE TOXINS IN THEM AS THEY WERE NOT CLEANED . In the middle of combat, at general quarters, on gun fire support. PLEASE.
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