BLUE WATER NAVY VETS NEEDS YOUR SUPPORT

Contact your Senator NOW and ask them to please support H.R. 299 Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018	Take Action!
Vietnam Veterans of America - Legislative Alert  November 29, 2018 Congress is very close to finally passing Blue Water Navy legislation, but unless the Senate acts in the next two weeks, that effort will fail. For over a decade, Vietnam Veterans of America has sought legislation to restore presumptive Agent Orange exposure status to members of the Armed Forces, who served in the territorial waters of Vietnam.  H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018, passed the House by a vote of 382-0 on June 25, 2018. When the bill is enacted into law, “Blue Water” veterans who served off the coast of Vietnam, veterans who served near the demilitarized zone in Korea, and certain veterans who served in Thailand will again be eligible for compensation for service-connected, disabilities related to their exposure to Agent Orange. VVA believes Congress should recognize that these veterans were exposed to Agent Orange and should authorize presumptive status for VA disability claims associated with this exposure. Now is the time to contact your Senators to ask them to support this bill.  Take Action enter your zip code, and send the prepared letters to your Senator requesting that Senator Isakson, Chair, Senate Veterans Affair Committee  move H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2018, out of committee and on to the Senate floor for a vote and passage. Please follow-up your letter with a call to the Senate switchboard at (202) 224-3121 and ask to be connected to your Senator. These veterans are aging, and the time to help them is now!

Barney Miller, Season 7, Episode 5 - Agent Orange

Sunday December 2 on FETV Network

CHECK YOU LOCAL LISTINGS...

 https://www.dailymotion.com/video/x5v265s

AGENT ORANGE and YOU!

courtesy Paul Ammiano via Paul Sutton

Reliving Agent Orange: What The Children of Vietnam Vets Have To Say

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bEy0dHpVc1g&feature=youtu.be

What Is Agent Orange? | History

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJaJbq9aRFI&feature=youtu.be

The Dark Shadow of Agent Orange | Retro Report | The New York Times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzvTB0mOS0w

The Children of Agent Orange

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S3DcCtoUubo

Agent Orange and Children Of Vietnam Veterans

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O6dz7N3ZZu4

Impacts being seen in grandchildren of Vietnam War veterans, is it Agent Orange?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OFYCv24ChPM

The Children of Agent Orange

https://www.propublica.org/article/the-children-of-agent-orange

Reliving Agent Orange: Blue Water Navy Veteran Jim Smith

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hbmr33dsTxM

What Agent Orange Does To The Body

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kPVHedTlGOQ

Agent Orange Aftermath - Vietnam Veterans Speak Out - Vietnam: The Secret Agent

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Me-irOWA83k

Do You Ever Think About A Vietnam Veteran's Kid?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oadck0qGdIc

Reliving Agent Orange: Charles Marshen was 'drenched in the defoliant'

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=agtF4-qAURE

Sprayed and Betrayed: Veterans exposed to Agent Orange feel abandoned by VA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B8H2uRrdiKI

Congress takes steps to expand burn pit research efforts

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Veterans of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan are becoming increasingly concerned that exposure to toxins produced by burn pits during deployments will mirror the experiences of veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam. In an effort to help address these concerns, earlier this year Congress passed the Helping Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Act. This Act marks the first major step by Congress to research how burn pits affected veterans who served in Iraq and Afghanistan. However, while this legislation is another step forward in helping veterans suffering from exposure to burn pits, a true solution for burn pit exposure is most likely still years away.

Responding to the increasing concern regarding how exposure to burn pits is affecting veterans, this September, Congress passed the Helping Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Act. The Helping Veterans Exposed to Burn Pits Act is the second piece of legislation Congress has passed to help veterans suffering from the effects of burn pit exposure, but the first piece of legislation that may finally provide answers regarding what conditions are caused by burn pit exposure.

In 2013, Congress required the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to establish the Burn Pit Registry to identify health conditions possibly related to burn pit exposure. While the Burn Pit Registry provided data for use in research it did not provide funding to carry out research regarding the data collected from the Burn Pit Registry.

Vt. Guard general’s death draws attention to burn pit dangers

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Flags in Vermont are flying at half-staff in honor of a former Rhode Islander, Vermont National Guard Brig. Gen. Michael T. Heston, 58, who died Nov. 14 from an aggressive cancer linked to his three tours of duty in Afghanistan, one with the Rhode Island National Guard.

Flags in Vermont are flying at half-staff in honor of a former Rhode Islander, Vermont National Guard Brig. Gen. Michael T. Heston, 58, who died Nov. 14 from an aggressive cancer linked to his three tours of duty in Afghanistan, one with the Rhode Island National Guard.

Heston was buried with full military honors at the Veterans Cemetery in Randolph, Vermont, on Saturday. An order from Vermont Gov. Philip B. Scott said flags would be flown at half-staff until sunset Monday.

Heston, the oldest son of Thomas and Dorothea Heston, grew up in Cumberland, graduating from Cumberland High School in 1978 and from Roger Williams College in 1982.

During his 34-year military career, he rose to the second-highest rank in the Vermont National Guard. He was also a trooper in the Vermont State Police for 26 years, retiring as a sergeant in 2010.

'Dr. Orange': GAO report corroborates conclusions

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The long-awaited Government Accountability Office report on the use of Agent Orange on Guam was not quite the smoking gun some veterans hoped for.

It does not conclude that the toxic herbicide made landfall or was used on island, as claimed by certain veterans.

For one man familiar with the history of Agent Orange, the report speaks more toward the opposite.

Alvin Young, commonly called "Dr. Orange" for his expertise on tactical herbicides, said the GAO corroborated his prior conclusions.

Young often has been criticized for his opposition to claims that Agent Orange was used on Guam and elsewhere. Pro Publica, a nonprofit based in New York City, ran an exposé on Young, tying the scientist to government rhetoric denying Agent Orange claims.

The military consistently has denied that Agent Orange was ever present on Guam.

But the issue has weaved in and out of headlines over the years, and recent claims of herbicide spraying from the late Master Sgt. Leroy Foster reignited interest in the topic. Certain members of Congress requested a review of potential links between the herbicide and Guam.

After reviewing logbooks for 96 percent of vessels known to have transported Agent Orange, the GAO found one ship carrying Agent Orange and other tactical herbicides stopped at Apra Harbor en route to Vietnam more than 50 years ago, but there is no evidence indicating the toxic cargo was offloaded on island.

"They did acknowledge that the SS Gulf Shipper stopped at Port Apra on the way to Vietnam. However, they make the argument that why unload any tactical herbicide and move it to Andersen (Air Force Base) when there was simply no justification – especially if the conclusion is that the tactical (herbicide) was then flown to Vietnam. Makes no sense," Young said.

Benefits for thousands of Navy veterans depend on Georgia senator's next move

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The clock is ticking on a bill to help Vietnam-era Navy veterans, and time is running out on many of them who are now sick.

The legislation extends health care and disability benefits to Navy veterans suffering from exposure to the toxic herbicide known as Agent Orange.

The so-called Blue Water Navy bill would assist 50-70,000 Navy veterans. 

In June, the measure sailed through the U.S.House of Representatives, where it received a unanimous endorsement.

Then instead of leading the way, Georgia Republican Senator Johnny Isakson, blocked the door.

About 90,000 U.S.sailors fought in the Vietnam War, not on the ground, but from the sea. 

Their ships pulled into Vietnam's bays and harbors.

Veteran Mike Kvintus of New Port Richey was one of them.

"My ship sailed into Da Nang Harbor, and the days that I was there, they sprayed Agent Orange all over the harbor," Mike recalled.

The U.S. military sprayed millions of gallons of the herbicide Agent Orange on Vietnam, to kill vegetation in which the enemy hid and rob them of their food supply. 

The powerful defoliant is now killing Americans. 

"I have diabetes, I have heart disease, neuropathy, I have kidney disease, all these are associated with Agent Orange.

The VA doesn't agree.

It maintains the science connecting Agent Orange to sailors that never touched Vietnam soil, is just not there.

"Baloney," Commander John Wells of Military Veterans Advocacy said.

According to Mr. Wells, a major force behind this bill, this isn't about science, it is about money that the VA does not want to pay.

Cdr. Wells cites studies that show Agent Orange ran into streams and rivers, then ended up offshore.

There, U.S. ships converted contaminated sea water to water that crews drank, cooked and bathed in.

The distillation process only enhanced the Agent Orange.

HAPPY THANKSGIVING 2018

AOZ will be closed until Monday December 3 so our feral staff can enjoy the 

holiday with with anyone willing to tke the risk

Dioxins in food more harmful than thought, EU watchdog says

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LONDON (Reuters) - The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on Tuesday slashed its recommended limits in food of dioxins and related toxins - chemicals that have been linked to problems with reproductive health, the immune system, hormone levels and tooth enamel.

Dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs are mainly by-products of industrial activities and can accumulate in the food chain, notably in fatty fish, cheese, eggs and farmed meat.

New data and techniques for modeling how long dioxins stay in the body convinced EFSA that the maximum weekly intake should be cut to just 2 trillionths of a gram per kilogramme of body weight - one seventh the previous limit, set in 2001.

Scientists call on VA to study Agent Orange impact in Vietnam veterans' kids

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A new report calls for the Department of Veterans Affairs to look at the generational impact of male Vietnam veterans' exposure to dioxin -- a component of Agent Orange.

Decades after the Vietnam War ended, the children of soldiers who served say they continue to struggle grapple with the impact of Agent Orange exposure.

The new report, released Thursday by The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, specifically looked into generational health effects of dioxin after a special request from the VA.

The group noted "there are relatively few studies on the health effects of paternal chemical exposures on their descendants, and none address Vietnam veterans specifically."

The majority of generational studies done by the scientific community regarding Agent Orange has been focused on women and not men. The report is the final study from the Veterans and Agent Orange series, a Congressionally mandated review that was required following the passage of The Agent Orange Act of 1991.

Agent Orange is a term that is used to describe a series of odorless herbicides that were used by the U.S. military to defoliate hiding places, fields and rice paddies used by the Viet Cong for survival.

Almost 20 million gallons of Agent Orange was sprayed in Vietnam, according to the Department of Veterans Affairs between 1962 and 1971.

The Vietnam Veterans of America, last week told ABC News that they will continue to educate and advocate for its members and their descendants regardless of the outcome of the report.

Gulf War and Health, Volume 11: Public Briefing

Dear Interested Parties:

This is a reminder that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Committee on Gulf War and Health, Volume 11: Generational Health Effects of Serving in the Gulf War will hold a public briefing for the release of the committee’s report on Wednesday, November 28, 2018, from 10-11 AM in Room 250 of the National Academy of Science’s building at 2101 Constitution Ave., NW, Washington, DC. You and any interested colleagues are welcome to attend the briefing in person or via a webcast (using Zoom). The briefing will be led by the committee chair, Dr. Kenneth Ramos.

If you have not already done so, please let Pam McCray-Ramey (PMcCray@nas.edu) know in advance if you plan to attend the meeting in person.  If you’d like to participate via Zoom, please let Pam know and she will provide you with information for accessing the briefing on Monday, November 26.  You are welcome to distribute this notice to other interested parties and ask them to contact us about participation.

Sincerely,

Robbie Wedge

Roberta (Robbie) Wedge, M.S., Study Director

Senior Program Officer 

Health and Medicine Division | Find us at nationalacademies.org/HMD

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine

500 Fifth Street, NW

Washington, DC 20001

Phone: 202-334-3106

Email: rwedge@nas.edu

Veterans and Agent Orange: 11th Biennial Update

READ THE REPORT ONLINE FOR FREE

News from National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine

Nov. 15, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Hypertension Upgraded in Latest Biennial Review of Research on Health Problems in Veterans That May Be Linked to Agent Orange Exposure During Vietnam War

WASHINGTON -- The latest in a series of congressionally mandated biennial reviews of the evidence of health problems that may be linked to exposure to Agent Orange and other herbicides used during the Vietnam War found sufficient evidence of an association for hypertension and monoclonal gammopathy of undetermined significance (MGUS). The committee that carried out the study and wrote the report, Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 11 (2018), focused on the scientific literature published between Sept. 30, 2014, and Dec. 31, 2017.

From 1962 to 1971, the U.S. military sprayed herbicides over Vietnam to strip the thick jungle canopy that could conceal opposition forces, destroy crops that those forces might depend on, and clear tall grass and bushes from the perimeters of U.S. bases and outlying encampments. The most commonly used chemical mixture sprayed was Agent Orange, which was contaminated with the most toxic form of dioxin. These and the other herbicides sprayed during the war constituted the chemicals of interest for the committee. The exact number of U.S. military personnel who served in Vietnam is unknown because deployment to the theater was not specifically recorded in military records, but estimates range from 2.6 million to 4.3 million.

GAO Report re: Agent Orange claims

READ THE REPORT

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE

We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:

https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html

November 16, 2018

Libby, Montana

Contact: Willa Burgess

northwestmtvva@yahoo.com

Burn Pits – the Agent Orange of the Iraqi War

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The same deadly chemicals found in the herbicide Agent Orange that was sprayed on the jungles of Vietnam during the Vietnam War are being released in burn pits on U.S. military bases across Iraq and Afghanistan.

“Otherwise​ healthy U.S. service members are returning from deplo​yment with cancer, leukemia, respiratory illnesses and other chronic conditions,” said Chelsey Poisson, a RIC nursing student with prior military service in the R.I. Army ​National Guard. Poisson has made it her mission to advocate for service members who have been exposed​ to burn pits and to push for legislation to change military policies.

​​​Burn pits are massive holes backhoed in the ground to dispose of waste/garbage​ on U.S. military bases​. ​One of the largest burn pits​  – at Joint-Base Balad in Iraq – spanned 10 acres. Smaller metal barrels are used at smaller platoons. ​The danger, Poisson said, is what is being burnt in them.

“Everything is burned,” she said. “Because you’re in a war zone, you can’t call up the local waste management or recycling company t​o come by and pick up your trash. So the military thought the best way to get rid of their waste is to dig a large hole, pour in diesel fuel and set the trash on fire.”

“B​urn pits smolder for weeks or months at a time, often around the clock,” she said.

“When diesel fuel burns it releases benzene, a known carcinogen.”​ Benzene, she added, is also contained in many of the items being burned – paints, solvents, paint thinners, rubber, pesticides, chemically-treated uniforms, Styrofoam and plastics. 

And plastics proliferate on base, she said​​. Plastic water bottles have replaced canteens,​​ and plastic utensils have replaced their metal counterparts. When plastic burns it releases the same dioxins found in Agent Orange, another known carcinogen. ​

Exposure to benzene, dioxins and other toxic chemicals ​occurs through inhaling or passively ingesting the fumes, gases or ashes. If toxic ash settles in water bottles, eating utensils or on ​cigarettes, it can be passively ingested orally, w​hile airborne ash that settles on the very fine Iraqi sand can enter the lungs during strenous work or outdoor exercises.

Joint-Base Balad, an air base, had one of the largest burn pits in Iraq, said Poisson. “On average, 147 tons of garbage were burned per day,” she said​. “Burning operations ran 24 hours a day, seven days a week, to keep up with the trash accumulating on the base.”

Vietnam War veterans' kids say Agent Orange impact 'a nightmare'

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Angelica Caye Kuhn was on the road to becoming a nurse.

The mother of two was working as a patient care technician nearly two decades ago when one day she heard a pop in her back.

She was in pain for days and, after several tests, she was diagnosed with Spina Bifida, a spinal cord defect common in children of male Vietnam veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange. The daughter of a combat Vietnam veteran who served in 1969 until 1970 in areas that were the most heavily sprayed with Agent Orange, Kuhn said most of her life she struggled with neurogenic stomach and bowel issues that were often misdiagnosed.

Her father years later would later be diagnosed with several heart conditions and diabetes all related to Agent Orange exposure.

Kuhn eventually received her nursing license and went back to work, but her career was short-lived. Since then, she has had 28 different surgeries and is now legally disabled.

"I am a hostage and a prisoner," she wrote in an email to ABC News. "Imprisoned by my handicap. All because of a KNOWN toxic chemical that was dumped on my unsuspecting father and millions of other unsuspecting members of our military, who have/are paying with their lives and the lives of their children!!!"

Veteran's Day 2018

Public release and briefing - National Academies Veterans and Agent Orange report

We are writing to inform you of the public release of the National Academies report "Veterans and Agent Orange: Update 11 (2018)". The release will take place at 11am EST on Thursday, November 15, 2018.

Concurrently, we will conduct a briefing on the report’s content presented by committee members Dr. Karl Kelsey, Dr. Mary Fox, and Dr. Wendy Bernstein. The briefing will be November 15 from 11:00 am to noon EST at the Keck Center of the National Academies (500 Fifth Street, NW; Washington DC 20001), Room 101. This briefing will also be broadcast over the web—remote participants will be able to view slides, hear the presentation, and participate in the question and answer session that follows.

If you would like to be a part of the briefing, please register by responding to this email with the name[s] and email address[s] of the participants and indicating whether they will attend in person or via the web. Questions may be directed to veterans@nas.edu. All are welcome; interested persons who are outside the Washington, DC area are encouraged to participate via the web.

Thank you for your interest in our work.

Dioxin contamination in Da Nang more serious than expected

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The dioxin contamination of soil in Da Nang was worse than expected, experts said at a conference reviewing the cleanup on Tuesday.

The event, organized by the National Steering Committee for Post-war Clearance of Ordnance and Toxic chemicals and USAID, shared some details on dioxin cleanup at the Da Nang International Airport, a U.S. air base during the Vietnam War.

Pham Quang Vu, head of the Air Force and Air Defense’s Military Science Division, said earlier calculations had underestimated the actual contamination at the airport.

He said the actual amount of contaminated soil is 162,500 cubic meters and not 72,900 cubic meters as earlier estimated.

Anthony Kolb, chief of USAID’s environmental remediation unit, explained that experts only took soil samples from the surface and from that determined the depth to which the dioxin could have penetrated.

The dioxin had percolated three meters deeper than expected, he said at the conference in Da Nang.

Vu said the miscalculation could be attributed to the fact this was the first time this particular technology was used to remove dioxin from the soil on such a large scale. It involves heating the contaminated soil while covering it in concrete.

The finding could help make future dioxin assessments more accurate, especially at another ongoing cleanup project at the Bien Hoa Air Base in the southern province of Dong Nai. Bien Hoa is considered one of the worst dioxin-contaminated spots, with some 850,000 tons of soil feared contaminated.

Burn Pit Vet's Widower: Memos Show that Illness Didn't Need to Happen

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It was in 2009 when Brian Muller first met his wife, Amie.

"We actually met at a music venue. And at the time I was playing music in a band and she had some friends there that were at the event," Muller, 45, from Woodbury, Minn., recalls in a recent interview with Fox News. "Her friends forced her to go out. I forced myself to go out and just to see some music."

He remembers how they discussed her service with the Minnesota Air National Guard.

"We ended up talking about what she does with the military," he says, "and at that time, she was doing a project to make video memorials for gold star families. Families that lost loved ones in Iraq or Afghanistan or any type of war."

"She asked me to write a song for those videos. And that's how we kind of started our relationship, as-- friends, and then it developed from there."

Brian has never served in the military but was impressed by Amie's service -- including her two tours in Iraq.

"She wanted to fly, and she joined the Air Force. And she got deployed and had her life kind of uprooted there for a while."

Amie was stationed at the Iraqi air base in Balad during both of her tours in 2005 and 2007. While her active service was already behind her, the effects from her time on that base still lingered.

"She didn't really want to talk about her time over there," Brian says. "Anytime a door would slam or a loud noise, she'd get startled very easily. She had a lot of PTSD [episodes] from just little things."

A decade after returning from Iraq, Amie's physical health also suffered. She was diagnosed with Stage III Pancreatic Cancer.

"I still remember Amie getting the call, and she looked at me," Muller says about the day they found out about her diagnosis back in April 2016.

"We walked around the corner just to make sure the kids didn't see. I could tell by the look in her face how scared she was. And I just kind of listening in to the call. And we just started shaking.

Both she and Brian believed it was related to her exposure to open-air burn pits used to destroy trash generated on the base. Nearly every U.S. military installation in Iraq during the war used the crude method of burn pit disposal, but Balad was known for having one of the largest operations, burning nearly 150 tons of waste a day.

The smoke generated from these pits hung above Amie's barracks daily.

"She talked about the burn pits even before she got cancer," Muller recalls, "and how the fact that they would change the filters on these ventilation systems quite frequently. And every time they'd change it would just be this black soot, so thick that you would think you'd have to change it every hour."

Supreme Court grants certiorari

In Gray v. Wilke the court will answer the question of “whether the Federal Circuit has jurisdiction under 38 USC § 502 to review an interpretive rule reflecting VA’s definitive interpretation of its own regulation, even if VA chooses to promulgate that rule through its adjudication manual.” The question arises out of the VA’s interpretation of the Agent Orange Act, an act that made it easier for veterans “to obtain disability compensation.” The Agent Orange Act “creates an automatic presumption of service connection” for any veteran who served in the Republic of Vietnam and developed “one of several diseases medically linked to Agent Orange.” However, “[o]ver the past 20 years, VA has repeatedly narrowed its understanding of which Vietnam War veterans ‘served in the Republic of Vietnam’ and thus qualify for the Agent Orange Act’s automatic presumption.”

Vets Exposed to Agent Orange May Get Help From SCOTUS

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed today to review a case that could eventually make it easier for veterans exposed to Agent Orange to obtain benefits.

The court said it would take a look at a 2017 ruling finding that the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit didn’t have the authority to review 2016 changes by the Department of Veterans Affairs to the Agent Orange Act of 1991.

Okinawa and Review of the Historical Records on Agent Orange

READ THE REPORT

This paper by Dr. Alvin Young flies in the face of several documented instances where it has been proven that herbicides were, in fact, on Okinawa.

The Brown Water Navy

WATCH THE VIDEO

courtesy Brian DuMont via Paul Sutton

This 1996 History Channel video is 46+ minutes long but well worth watching and really explains the history of and development of the Brown Water Navy in Vietnam. Many of the Brown Water Navy innovations came about once then-Vice Admiral (later CNO) Elmo R. Zumwalt became commander of all naval forces in Vietnam.