Monday, January 9, 2017

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE










We update our meetings regularly on the Town Hall Meeting Calendar:
https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html

January 7, 2017 (Postponed due to weather-will reschedule)
Lebanon, Oregon
Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8140

January 21, 2017
Hollister, North Carolina
contact: Chief W.R. Richardson (252) 382- 9743

February 18, 2017
Balboa Park, California
Contact: Sunny Richard  Farrand 
619-791-6694 
rcf14@sbcglobal.net

March 9, 2017
Newport, Oregon
Contact: Tony Molina 270-270-0569
Tom Owen  541-619-8187

March 10, 2017
Lebanon, Oregon
Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8187

March 11, 2017
Portland, Oregon
Contact: Gary McAdams 503-577-6639
Tom Owen 541-619-8187

March 11, 2017
Sedro Woolley, Washington
Contact: Chapter President Bob Garrison (360) 770-0545
Pete Sill (360) 420-3891

April 22, 2017
Greenfield, Massachusetts
Contact: MA State Council
413-772-1571
413-775-1825
Gumersindo Gomez
sgtgomez@aol.com

April 22, 2017
Faribault, Minnesota
Contact: Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
James Mayr 608-556-0617
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Legislation to Expand Benefits for Vietnam Blue Water Navy Veterans

WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Congressman David G. Valadao (CA-21) introduced bipartisan legislation in the House of Representatives to expand benefits for Blue Water Navy Vietnam veterans. Joined by lead cosponsors, Representatives Timothy J. Walz (D-MN), Elise M. Stefanik (R-NY), and Joe Courtney (D-CT), H.R. 299, the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act works to grant presumptive Agent Orange exposure status to U.S. military personnel who served in the territorial seas of Vietnam during the Vietnam War. Author of the legislation, Congressman David G. Valadao stated, “Ensuring our veterans have access to proper medical care is a small, yet important, symbol of gratitude for their service, especially when their medical conditions are a result of active service.” He continued, “I am proud to introduce this legislation today, and as a member of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, and Veterans Affairs, I will continue to fight for the men and women of our Armed Forces and for our selfless veterans.”
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Minister inspects dioxin decontamination at Da Nang airport

Minister of Defence Ngo Xuan Lich inspected the US-funded dioxin decontamination project currently underway in Da Nang airport in the central city of Da Nang on January 8.
He recognised the significant outcomes in implementing the national action plan for basically overcoming consequences of toxic chemicals used by the US during the war in Vietnam. The action plan was for the 2012-2015 with orientations towards 2020.
Domestic units have closely worked with the US Agency for International Development (USAID) to complete the first phrase of the dioxin decontamination project in Da Nang airport, he said.
The minister urged the involved parties to carry out effectively and ensure the progress and quality of the second phase, while building and implementing similar projects in Bien Hoa and Phu Cat airports via non-refundable official development assistance (ODA) sponsored by the US and other countries.
He suggested stepping up international cooperation to deal with the toxic chemicals at hotspots and newly-discovered contaminated areas.
At the same time, it is necessary to promptly provide medical support for the Agent Orange (AO)/Dioxin victims, and improve research and environmental monitoring capacity in the field, he added.
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A 68-year-old Air Force veteran said he sprayed Agent Orange on Guam in '60s, '70s

A 68-year-old Air Force veteran, now suffering from cancers and auto-immune diseases, said he sprayed “hundreds of thousands of gallons” of the toxic herbicide Agent Orange on Guam while stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in the 1960s and '70s.
Florida’s NBC News Channel 8 aired a news report Jan. 4 in which Leroy Foster, who lives in Lakeland, Florida, said he “bears enormous guilt for exposing other veterans and their families.”
According to the report, Foster was assigned to vegetation control while stationed at Andersen. He said he sprayed “two and three trailer fulls” of the herbicide a day “along the flight line, sidewalks, fences, fuel tank farms and barracks” at the base.
Foster said he was told the chemical was harmless enough “that I could brush my teeth in it, wouldn’t hurt anybody.”
Foster said he now suffers from 33 diseases, including rectal cancer, colon cancer, thyroid cancer, bladder cancer, prostate cancer and numerous autoimmune disorders.
The report also stated Foster’s grandchild was born with 24 fingers and toes.
As of 2003, the military hadn't reported using or storing Agent Orange on Guam, Pacific Daily News files show. Veterans of Vietnam may receive benefits based on exposure to Agent Orange, but those who claim exposure on Guam must provide proof of dates and locations of exposure. But because no official verification of the presence of Agent Orange on Guam has been issued, even if veterans can provide dates and locations as evidence, they still may be denied benefits.
For example, in a ruling issued by the Department of Veterans Affairs in Hartford, Connecticut, on Aug. 12, 2015, one veteran’s Agent Orange claim was denied precisely because he alleged that exposure occurred on Guam, not in Vietnam or Korea: “As he has not asserted, and as the record does not reflect, that he served in the Republic of Vietnam or in Korea during the Vietnam Era, the presumption of herbicide exposure is inapplicable.”
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Thursday, January 5, 2017

AGENT ORANGE TOWN HALL MEETING SCHEDULE







Town Hall Meeting Calendar:
https://vva.org/AOTownHall.html
January 7, 2017

Lebanon, Oregon

Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8140



January 21, 2017

Hollister, North Carolina

contact: Chief W.R. Richardson (252) 382- 9743



February 18, 2017

Balboa Park, California

Contact: Sunny Richard  Farrand  

619-791-6694  

rcf14@sbcglobal.net



March 9, 2017

Newport, Oregon

Contact: Tony Molina 270-270-0569

Tom Owen  541-619-8187



March 10, 2017

Lebanon, Oregon

Contact: Tom Owen 541-619-8187



March 11, 2017

Portland, Oregon

Contact: Gary McAdams 503-577-6639

Tom Owen 541-619-8187



April 22, 2017

Greenfield, Massachusetts

Contact: MA State Council

413-772-1571

413-775-1825

Gumersindo Gomez sgtgomez@aol.com
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Reliving Agent Orange, Rethinking the Cost of War

There are many ways to measure the cost of U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War: In bombs (7 million tons), in dollars ($760 billion in today’s dollars) and in bodies (58,220).
Then there’s the price of caring for those who survived: Each year, the Department of Veterans Affairs spends more than $23 billion compensating Vietnam-era veterans for disabilities linked to their military service — a repayment of a debt that’s supported by most Americans.
The question has been at the heart of reporting by The Virginian-Pilot and ProPublica over the past 18 months as we’ve sought to reexamine the lingering consequences of Agent Orange, the toxic herbicide sprayed by the millions of gallons over Vietnam.
We’ve written about ailing Navy veterans fighting to prove they were exposed to the chemicals off Vietnam’s coast. About widows left to battle the VA for benefits after their husbands died of brain cancer. About scores of children who struggle with strange, debilitating health problems and wonder if the herbicide that sickened their fathers has also affected them.
Along the way, we noticed some themes: For decades, the federal government has resisted addressing these issues, which could ultimately cost billions of dollars in new disability claims. When science does suggest a connection, the VA has hesitated to take action, instead weighing political and financial costs. And in some cases, officials have turned to a known skeptic of Agent Orange’s deadly effects to guide the VA’s decisions.
Frustrated vets summarize the VA’s position this way: “Delay, deny, wait till I die.”
This month, after repeated recommendations by federal scientific advisory panels, Congress passed a bill directing the VA to pursue research into toxic exposures and their potential effects across generations. But even that will take years to produce results, years some ailing vets don’t have.
The questions we’ve posed have no easy answers. But science — and our own analysis of internal VA data — increasingly points to the possibility that Agent Orange exposure might have led to health problems in the children of veterans. And we can’t help but think of the words displayed at the entrance to the VA headquarters in Washington: “To care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow, and his orphan.”
We noticed the phrase, a quote from Abraham Lincoln’s second inaugural address, during an evening stroll through D.C. in June, a day before hosting a forum on Agent Orange’s generational effects and policy implications. With us that night was Stephen M. Katz, the Virginian-Pilot photographer who initiated our reporting project when he shared the story of his estranged father, a Vietnam vet who’d gotten back in touch to warn that he’d sprayed Agent Orange.
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