Toxic Legacy: Healing from Agent Orange

http://aworldofpossibilities.org/program/toxic-legacy-healing-from-agent-orange

Thirty-five years ago the war in Vietnam came to an abrupt end, yet for millions of Vietnamese soldiers and citizens and for thousands of American veterans and their descendants, a legacy of diseases, disabilities, and unexplained symptoms echo down the decades. During the war, some 4.5 million Vietnamese were exposed to highly toxic dioxins sprayed by the American military. Today we’ll hear from a range of individuals from varied sectors and backgrounds who’ve gathered together in support of a ten-year plan of action to clean up toxic hotspots in Vietnam and expand humanitarian services to people with disabilities as a result of exposure to Agent Orange dioxins.

This program was funded by the Agent Orange in Vietnam Information Initiative.
Guests:

Susan Berresford, Convener, U.S. -Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin; Former President, Ford Foundation

Charles Bailey, Director, Special Initiative on Agent Orange, Ford Foundation

Rick Weidman, Director, Government Relations, Vietnam Veterans of America

Mary Dolan-Hogrefe, Director of Public Policy, National Organization on Disability

Bob Edgar, President and CEO, Common Cause

De Tran, Journalist, Editor, VTimes

Read more and listen to the program at: http://aworldofpossibilities.org/program/toxic-legacy-healing-from-agent-orange

Army Bids Goodbye to Last Draftee

Chief Warrant Officer Clyde Green and his wife Veria, in front of their house on base. Green, one of the last men drafted into the Army, and a Vietnam veteran, is retiring after 40 years of service in a ceremony to be held at Fort McPherson Thursday. He’s the oldest soldier at Fort McPherson, where he lives in the oldest house on base.

Bob Andres bandres@ajc.com

http://www.military.com/news/article/army-bids-goodbye-to-last-draftee.html

September 30, 2010
Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He was a kid who didn't want to be a Soldier. There was a war in Vietnam and a peace movement in America.

But then he got the government's letter and soon found himself on a cold December morning in 1970 in front of a post office in Sumter, S.C., listening to a Soldier read names until he heard his: "Clyde Green!" With that, the 20-year-old kid climbed on the bus headed to a U.S. Army base.

"I didn't want to join the Army," Green said last week. "The Army came and got me."

When he retired as a chief warrant officer in a ceremony this morning at Fort McPherson, Ga. --- after 39 years, 9 months and 15 days of continuous active duty --- he became, by the best accounting, the last U.S. Army draftee who fought in Vietnam.

READ MORE: http://www.military.com/news/article/army-bids-goodbye-to-last-draftee.html

Widows urged to check VA compensation

http://www.navytimes.com/news/2010/10/ap-surviving-spouses-va-compensation-100810/

The Associated Press
HONOLULU — Hawaii's U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka is urging widows and widowers of deceased veterans to be sure they received compensation for the month of their spouse's death.
The island Democrat is quoting the Department of Veterans Affairs as saying, 196,000 widows and widowers have received a total of $124 million in month-of-death back payments since he uncovered a VA accounting error in December 2008.
Akaka, the chairman of the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, said Thursday in a Washington news release that he wants to be sure that all surviving spouses receive the compensation they are due.
Akaka's office says surviving spouses of veterans had been wrongfully denied the benefits for almost 12 years.

Widows on a Warpath demand justice for chemical spraying victims

http://www.globaltoronto.com/Widows+Warpath+demand+justice+chemical+spraying+victims/3611258/story.html

OROMOCTO, NB – Widows of soldiers affected by the deadly chemical Agent Orange held a protest outside CFB Gagetown on Friday.

The group Widows on a Warpath are fighting against what they believe is unfair compensation for the victims of chemical spraying.

Agent Orange and other deadly herbicides were tested at CFB Gagetown in the 1960s and 1970s.

In 2007 the government agreed to pay $20,000 to the families of those who fell ill or died from the sprayings – but only if the victims fell ill within certain guidelines.

The widows say that everyone affected by Agent Orange needs to be compensated.

“We want Mr. Blackburn and Mr. Harper to know that we’re no finished with this,” says the head of Widows on a Warpath Bette Hudson.

“We will continue,” says Hudson, “because we want justice for our husbands, and that’s all we’ve wanted from the beginning – justice for our husbands and our families.”

As of now, only women whose husbands became ill or died before the cut off date of February 2006 are eligible for compensation.

The protestors also said Friday that they want Veterans Ombudsman Pat Stogran reinstated.
© Copyright (c) CW Media Inc.

Toward healing Vietnam

http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/10/agent-orange-vietnamese-victims-still.html

1 October 2010 - The war in Vietnam ended more than 35 years ago, but Trinh Luc, age 18, is still feeling the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military. Totally disabled since birth with mental deficiencies, violent tremors and muscle degeneration, he lives in rural Vietnam with his mother, 59, who was a volunteer cook with Vietnamese troops in the jungle mountains during the war and recalls being sprayed several times. Her skin is still blotched and bumpy with chloracne.

Agent Orange, it seems, is still causing fresh harm to innocent newborns and adults in Vietnam, not to mention its harm to war vets on both sides of the Pacific. The good news is that we can stop this nightmare, and at a reasonable cost.

Doing so would be in the best American tradition of humanitarian care, and would help address the remaining shadow on the relationship between our two countries. An action plan is now in hand that comes out of another valued tradition - a public-private partnership.

READ MORE: http://vato21stcentury.blogspot.com/2010/10/agent-orange-vietnamese-victims-still.html

Hearing exposes flaws in Agent Orange law, studies

http://www.sunherald.com/2010/10/02/2523985/hearing-exposes-flaws-in-agent.html

Anthony Principi, former secretary of veterans affairs, warned last week that disabled veterans and their families will suffer if Americans “lose faith in the integrity” of the VA disability compensation system.

“And the surest way for that to happen,” he told the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, “is for the American people to believe that large numbers of veterans are being compensated for illnesses that may not be the result of their military service. That’s the crux of the issue we’re all grappling with.”

Thankfully, for hundreds of thousands of Vietnam veterans in line to be compensated for three additional diseases linked to Agent Orange exposure, few senators seemed ready to grapple with that issue any time soon.

The hearing that many veterans feared boosted confidence that, in the months ahead, they will be found newly qualified for disability payments. But it also revealed that up to $4 billion a year more in compensation will be paid in part because VA and Congress have mishandled this volatile issue.

Studies cut short

As witnesses explained, the government cut short or never sponsored a host of potential Agent Orange studies that might have better informed on levels of exposure, or the relative incidence of herbicide-linked conditions among Vietnam veterans versus other populations.

Congress in turn left the 1991 Agent Orange law on automatic pilot and with such ambiguous guidance that VA secretaries are strapped to make presumptive disease decisions with confidence. The result is uncertainty now about the fairness of some Agent Orange claims for veterans and taxpayers.


Read more: http://www.sunherald.com/2010/10/02/2523985/hearing-exposes-flaws-in-agent.html#ixzz11bqk7dd8

Shenseki's Call to IBM CEO

http://whatsbrewin.nextgov.com/2010/10/shensekis_call_to_ibm_ceo.php

By Bob Brewin 10/06/10 01:18 pm ET

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki personally called the chairman and chief IBM, Samuel Palmisano, this summer to express his dissatisfaction with the company's progress on development of a computer system to process veterans' claims for ailments associated with Agent Orange, VA Chief Information Officer Roger Baker told the Senate VA Committee on Wednesday.

Baker alluded to a post I wrote in September on Shinseki's pique with IBM.

Contractors often run late on government information technology contracts, and IBM did not "understand it was not business as usual" when it came to the small-($9.1 million)-but-important-Agent-Orange project, Baker said in response to a question from the committee's ranking member, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C.

IBM got the message it needed to meet its 90-day delivery schedule for the system after Shinseki called Palmisano, he told Burr. "Its not every day a Cabinet secretary calls a CEO," Baker said.

He also said he expects IBM to meet the delivery schedule, but may need a backup if IBM misses it. VA issued a proposal for a second contractor in September, although the department has not issued an award.

VA expects to be hit with 240,000 claims from Vietnam veterans exposed to the Agent Orange defoliant and Burr said the VA definitely needs the Agent Orange system as it faces "an implosion of the claims process".

Now, if only IBM and VA would answer my multiple, more-than-month-old queries on what problems they have encountered with the Agent Orange claims system, what it's supposed to do, and when it will go into operation.

We can stop the nightmare from Agent Orange

http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/05/we-can-stop-the-nightmare-from-agent-orange/

- Traitors like U.S. Sens. James Webb and Richard Burr aside consciousness is flowering amid tragedy -


By Susan V. Berresford, convener of the U.S.-Vietnam Dialogue Group on Agent Orange/Dioxin

The war in Vietnam ended more than 35 years ago, but Trinh Luc, 18, is still feeling the effects of Agent Orange, a defoliant used by the U.S. military. Totally disabled since birth with mental deficiencies, violent tremors and muscle degeneration, he lives in rural Vietnam with his mother, 59, who was a volunteer cook with Vietnamese troops in the jungle mountains during the war and recalls being sprayed several times. Her skin is still blotched and bumpy with chloracne.

Agent Orange, it seems, is still causing fresh harm to innocent newborns and adults in Vietnam, not to mention its harm to war vets on both sides of the Pacific. The good news is that we can stop this nightmare, and at a reasonable cost.

Doing so would be in the best American tradition of humanitarian care, and would help address the remaining shadow on the relationship between our two countries. An action plan is now in hand that comes out of another valued tradition — a public-private partnership.

By the end of the war in 1975, 2.5 million U.S. military personnel had served in combat zones where many were exposed to Agent Orange’s toxic contaminant, dioxin. Upon returning home, many began reporting unusual illnesses: chloracne, several forms of cancer, diabetes, and birth defects in their offspring.

READ MORE: http://www.veteranstoday.com/2010/10/05/we-can-stop-the-nightmare-from-agent-orange/

U.S. Sen. Harkin: Applauds VA decision to review previously denied Agent Orange benefits for Vietnam veterans with "brown water" service

http://www.iowapolitics.com/index.iml?Article=213018
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Kate Cyrul / Bergen Kenny
October 1, 2010
202-224-3254
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA) today applauded the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) for its decision this week to review the cases of 17,000 “Brown Water” and other Vietnam-era veterans who may have been exposed to Agent Orange. “Brown Water” vets are those who served in the inlets and inland waterways of Vietnam, where the use of Agent Orange was prevalent, while a “Blue Water” classification denotes service outside of affected areas. Senator Harkin, who served in the U.S. Navy during the Vietnam War, is a cosponsor of S. 1939, the Agent Orange Equity Act, which was designed to address cases of veterans who served in inland waterways and other areas of Vietnam who were denied benefits despite evidence of Agent Orange exposure.

“It is our moral obligation to treat our veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange, which has been linked to so many debilitating diseases,” Harkin said. “They served our country and we must honor the sacrifices they made.”

With the VA’s decision, veterans who served their nation in the inland waterways of Vietnam and at Air Force bases that may have been contaminated by Agent Orange will now receive more standing to claim Agent Orange benefits. Previously, veterans potentially exposed to Agent Orange were denied “Brown Water” classification without obtaining relevant military records, such as deck logs, and were classified as “Blue Water.” Conditions linked to Agent Orange exposure include lymphoma, diabetes, heart disease, Parkinson’s disease, prostate cancer and respiratory cancers.

A full list of diseases for which Veterans may claim Agent Orange benefits is listed here.

Faces of Agent Orange - Amy King-Applewhite

from The VVA Veteran, September October 2010
www.vva.org
BY LINDA MAY
Amy King-Applewhite’s younger daughter once had to leave her classroom in the middle of a teacher’s instructions, but it wasn’t because she didn’t want to hear what her teacher was saying. Because of a problem with her eardrum, it sounded to her as if the teacher was screaming.

Her eardrum vibrations speed up and slow down abnormally so that without warning she either hears things at a painfully loud level or at a level so low that she cannot hear the sound. It’s only one small part of the story of the child’s problems, her older sister’s problems, and their mother’s problems.

King-Applewhite, 35, was born with an undeveloped digestive system.

“I went through many years of testing to find out why my stomach and abdomen hurt,” she said. “Being 12 years old and having multiple colonoscopies and throat scopes were painful and a violation to my body.”

Despite those invasive procedures in the 1980s, which were even more uncomfortable than they are today, doctors never came up with a diagnosis.

Her rashes, particularly on her hands and feet, made her skin red, itchy, painful, and peeling. Other children's reactions ranged from tactless to cruel. "I remember being asked once if I was part snake," she said.

Her teenage and early adult years were plagued with painful, irregular menstrual cycles (and misdiagnoses for the cause), endometriosis, bilateral fibroid tumor breast disease, and ovarian cysts. Doctors tried many medications, laparoscopies, and other surgeries.

Despite King-Applewhite’s medical conditions, she became the mother of two girls. She wanted more children, but ended up getting a hysterectomy. The ovaries that had been left intact produced cysts that ruptured.

Read more: www.vva.org
The VVA Veteran, September/October 2010, Page 18

from The VVA Veteran

September/October 2010, Vol. 30, No. 5
BY PATRICK WELCH, CHAIR, GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS COMMITTEE, WITH GOVERNMENT AFFAIRS STAFF

On August 30, Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki published the final rules declaring Parkinson’s disease, ischemic heart disease, and hairy cell leukemia as presumptive service-connected conditions for exposure to Agent Orange for Vietnam veterans. VVA applauds Secretary Shinseki and President Obama for moving ahead with the process according to the science and acting in accord with the provisions of the Agent Orange Act of 1991 (Public Law 102-4), despite opposition led by a few Senators who challenge the wisdom of that law. What was interesting was Senators who were not in public life in 1990 or 1991 speaking about what “our” (congressional) intent was when the law was enacted.
The fact remains that Public Law 102-4 has fulfilled much of its promise by getting the focus of the debate about Agent Orange and the other toxins used during the Vietnam War off of straight politics and onto the science. One can argue that there has not been nearly enough science published on Agent Orange and the other toxins of war, and VVA agrees with that premise. In fact, VVA has been pushing hard for more and better research and robust epidemiological studies of Vietnam veterans, our children, and our grandchildren for the better part of two decades.
One should ask where the folks who now say there is not enough science have been.
In September, VVA anticipates that there will be two new pieces of legislation introduced in the House of Representatives and the Senate to begin to answer the need for additional research. One bill would create an extramural research program at the VA to fund studies by non-VA researchers on the environmental wounds of war of every generation. The other would focus on the need for both epigenetic studies of birth anomalies in the children and the grandchildren of Vietnam veterans, as well as immediate delivery of desperately needed health care to these progeny of Vietnam veterans.
VVA contends that many Vietnam-era veterans also were exposed in their service elsewhere in Southeast Asia during the war, including in Thailand and Laos, and aboard Navy vessels off the coast of Vietnam, as well as at military bases located in the continental U.S. and its territories. VVA will continue to fight for all who suffer long term health effects as a result of their service to our nation.

Requesting permission to speak with a Veteran Navy Corpsman

To Whom It May Concern,

I am inquiring into the possibility of speaking with a Navy Corpsman who served with a patrol in Vietnam . I am currently learning more about the experiences of a group that was in harm's way to a great degree, but about which there is little written. I fully respect any Sailor, Marine, Soldier, or Airman's privacy, but think there is a story to be told. I am currently writing a novel about a young person who is drafted and serves during the war in 1970. As an aside, I just finished Karl Marlante's Matterhorn , and even more so respect that even fiction has to be "told right."

My background is this: I am a 62 year old physician, who is currently the medical director for my state's drug and alcohol treatment administration. One mission is to be prepared for the current and future veterans who need an array of services and support. My training is in psychiatry and addiction medicine. Although I did not serve in any branch of military service, my family comes from a proud tradition in the Marines. My father, John B. Cohen, had retired as a Major in the Marine Reserves, after serving as a Lieutenant and Captain in the Pacific Theater in WWII, especially at Roi Namur, Saipan and Tinian. He was awarded the Navy and Marine Corps Medal for rescuing several sailors who was swept over in the Kwajelein Reef. He also related to me some stories about the day-to-day courage of his men in battle, including the Naval Corpsmen.

I am, however, making this request as a private citizen, not connected to my governmental service. The novel I am currently revising spans the lifetime of one person from early childhood through his being in Vietnam . It is not intended to focus on the right or wrong of war or of the Vietnam War in general, but the experience taken from the viewpoint of a young man who eventually became a corpsman: what he learned in preparatory training, what he carried with him into battle, how he kept watch over the health and safety of the patrol, and how he interacted with the staff, patrol officers, and combat marines.

I thank you for your consideration. If I can gain permission, I would anticipate being oriented to the process for interviewing, having already read through the relevant portions of your public relations manual.

Sincerely,

Peter R. Cohen MD
14403 Butternut Court
Rockville , Maryland MD
Home (after 5 pm): 301-871-8947
Work: 410-402-8677
Mobile Phone (personal): 240-432-5019