It's been a tough, four-year battle,
but some Westover Air Reserve Base veterans are one step closer now to
receiving the medical care they believe they deserve.
Veterans of the Air Force Reserve
741st Tactical Airlift Squadron say they were exposed to Agent Orange during
the decade they flew C-123 Provider planes from Vietnam.
According to our media partners Mass
Live and The Republican, they could now receive full medical
benefits thanks to an Institute of Medicine report.
Federal health officials have ruled
flight crews at Westover ARB were exposed to the herbicide, but some veterans
say they wish they knew it sooner.
Veterans such as retired Master Sgt.
Richard Matte, who after years of hospital visits, learned his three rounds of
bladder cancer, lung cancer, nerve disorders and a heart transplant, could be
because of Agent Orange, an herbicide used as a defoliant during the Vietnam
War.
Matte is now confined to a
wheelchair and takes several pills a day. His illnesses began back in the
mid-1990's, just before he retired.
“You know, little things,” he said
of his symptoms. “All of a sudden, I need glasses.”
Matte never served in Vietnam, but
he did fly C-123 Provider planes that had flown there, ones that had dumped
Agent Orange throughout the country. Those planes have since been shredded,
according to our media partners Mass Live and The Republican.
"Because it was a distinct,
foul odor that emanated from some of these planes," Matte said.
When asked if he remembered that
smell, he said, “Oh, yes.”
The VA helps those exposed to Agent
Orange who fought in Vietnam, but hadn't helped those like Matte who were
exposed to the chemical, until now.
The Institute of Medicine committee
studied the issue and found these men and women could have ingested Agent
Orange.
"Ecstatic, but it's not
finished,” Matte said of the report, adding there is still work to be done.
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