http://www.uwstout.edu/news/articles/Ceramics-Agent-Orange-exhibits-open-March-2-at-Furlong-Gallery.cfm
"Legacy of an Ecocide: Agent Orange
Aftermath" by St. Paul photographer Petronella Ytsma will be at Furlong Gallery
in Micheels Hall through Friday, April 3.
Ytsma will exhibit
photos that show the multigenerational effects of Agent Orange used during the
Vietnam War. The photos were taken during two trips to Vietnam. She interviewed
officials, visited long-term care facilities and went to homes of 75 families,
many of which had second- and third-generation children with disabilities
related to the use of Agent Orange.
Tuesday, March 3, 2015
Sunday, March 1, 2015
Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings - MARCH
Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting Schedule
Davenport, Iowa
Saturday,
March 7, 1 pm
Rogalski
Center St. Ambrose University Campus
518
W Locust St, Room 211
Davenport,
IA 52803
Contact:
Greg Pauline 563-650-3055
Mayetta, Kansas
Sunday,
March 8, 1pm – 3pm
Prairie
Band Casino and Resort
12305
150th Road
Mayetta,
Kansas 66509
Contact:
Linda Ortiz 785-771-2316
Lake Havasu, Arizona
Thursday,
March 12, 1pm – 4pm
Knights
of Columbus
186
London Bridge Road
Lake
Havasu City, AZ 86403
Contact:
avvarep@vva975.org
3rd Annual Veterans Mental Health Conference, New
York
Tuesday,
March 17, 8:30am – 4:30pm
Topics:
needs of older veterans; suicide prevention; the role of families; substance abuse;
Agent Orange;other targeted areas.
Ruth
S. Harley University Center
1
South Avenue Garden City
Hempstead,
New York 11530-0701
Must
register in advance: http://university-college.adelphi.edu/newsevent/veterans-mental-health-conference-2015/
Florida Highlands County
Tuesday,
March 24, 6pm – 9pm
Betr
J. Harris Agricultural Center
4509
George Blvd.
Sebring,
Florida 33852
Contact
: Rod Phillips 386-690-9553
Marvin
Desselle 863-214-0601
Okeechobee County, Florida
Wednesday,
March 25, 7pm – 9pm
Okeechobee
High School
2800
N. Hwy. # 441
Okeechobee,
Fl. 34972
Contact:
Dan Hunt: 863-447-3662
Martin County, Florida
Thursday,
March 26, 6:30pm – 9:00pm
Stuart
City Hall
121
SW Flagler Avenue
Stuart,
FL 34994-2140
Contact
: Rod Phillips 386-690-9553
Lew
Jones 561-379-6387
Duval County, Florida
Friday,
March 27, 6:30pm – 9:00pm
7235
Bonneval Road
Jacksonville,
Florida 32256
Contact
: Les Bertrand 1vp@vva1046.com
Mary
Anne Newman brooklynborn1949@yahoo.com
South Dakota
Saturday,
March 28, 1:00pm – 3:30pm
American
Legion
520
S Pierre St.
Pierre,
SD 57501
Contact:
Maynard Kaderlik 507-581-6402
Roland
Lambert: roland_lambert2000@yahoo.com
Florida Nassau County
Saturday,
March 28, 2pm – 5pm
1st
Baptist Church of Fernandina Beach
1600
South 8th Street
Fernandina
Beach, FL
Contact
: Rod Phillips 386-690-9553
John
Scherer 912-320-7840
Thursday, February 26, 2015
North Dakota House approves funding to help Vietnam vets dealing with Agent Orange
http://kfgo.com/news/articles/2015/feb/25/north-dakota-house-approves-funding-to-help-vietnam-vets-dealing-with-agent-orange/
BISMARCK (KFGO-AM) - The North Dakota House this
week passed a bill appropriating $50,000 to help Vietnam veterans
sickened by Agent Orange. The bill now goes to the Senate.
Representative Wayne Trottier of Northwood carried the same bill which passed two years ago. He said the money makes up for the federal government's failure to take proper care of veterans affected by the chemical.
Dan Stenvold, President of the North Dakota Vietnam Veterans of America chapter and a member of the VVA's National Agent Orange Committee, said the money is used for education. So far they've traveled to 22 counties to get the word out. Before state funding, he and others paid the costs out of their own pockets. Stenvold is surprised that many veterans who turn out know nothing about the illnesses associated with exposure to Agent Orange or that it can affect their children and grandchildren. His group has also put up billboards to raise public awareness.
Stensvold, Mayor of Park River, was forced to retire in 2005 because of vision problems caused by exposure to Agent Orange during his three tours of Vietnam.
Representative Wayne Trottier of Northwood carried the same bill which passed two years ago. He said the money makes up for the federal government's failure to take proper care of veterans affected by the chemical.
Dan Stenvold, President of the North Dakota Vietnam Veterans of America chapter and a member of the VVA's National Agent Orange Committee, said the money is used for education. So far they've traveled to 22 counties to get the word out. Before state funding, he and others paid the costs out of their own pockets. Stenvold is surprised that many veterans who turn out know nothing about the illnesses associated with exposure to Agent Orange or that it can affect their children and grandchildren. His group has also put up billboards to raise public awareness.
Stensvold, Mayor of Park River, was forced to retire in 2005 because of vision problems caused by exposure to Agent Orange during his three tours of Vietnam.
Wednesday, February 25, 2015
Agent Orange: Former Victorian employees exposed to toxic chemicals report serious health problems
https://au.news.yahoo.com/vic/a/26423321/agent-orange-former-victorian-employees-exposed-to-toxic-chemicals-report-serious-health-problems/
"They gave us, like, disposable overalls at one stage, but we weren't really made to wear them. Most of the time over summer we just wore a pair of shorts and gumboots," said Lindsay Murnane, a weed sprayer with the department in the late 1970s.
Mr Murnane is undergoing treatment for cancer, after he was diagnosed two years ago.
"I've finished chemo from that about six months ago, whether that's all linked to it I'm not sure," he said.
Ben Davis from the Australian Workers Union (AWU) said the union was in touch with a few dozen former employees, many of whom were suffering from ill health.
"We've had evidence from a number of former lands department employees and others about these sorts of things happening across Victoria," he said.
One of them is Greg Purcell.
Mr Purcell joined the lands department in the 1970s and is also unwell.
"I've got skin problems that have haunted me for years; I've got nervous problems," he said.
"Agent Orange was sprayed as a defoliant in the Vietnam War. Medical science has now proven conclusively and did say decades ago that it is carcinogenic and causes cancers."
READ MORE
Former Victorian Crown Lands Department
employees say their health has suffered after being exposed to toxic
chemicals like cyanide and Agent Orange, which were used to kill off
weeds and animals from 1965 to 1995.
The Victorian
Government today announced an independent inquiry, and former employees
want to know why safety practices were so lax."They gave us, like, disposable overalls at one stage, but we weren't really made to wear them. Most of the time over summer we just wore a pair of shorts and gumboots," said Lindsay Murnane, a weed sprayer with the department in the late 1970s.
Mr Murnane is undergoing treatment for cancer, after he was diagnosed two years ago.
"I've finished chemo from that about six months ago, whether that's all linked to it I'm not sure," he said.
Ben Davis from the Australian Workers Union (AWU) said the union was in touch with a few dozen former employees, many of whom were suffering from ill health.
"We've had evidence from a number of former lands department employees and others about these sorts of things happening across Victoria," he said.
One of them is Greg Purcell.
Mr Purcell joined the lands department in the 1970s and is also unwell.
"I've got skin problems that have haunted me for years; I've got nervous problems," he said.
"Agent Orange was sprayed as a defoliant in the Vietnam War. Medical science has now proven conclusively and did say decades ago that it is carcinogenic and causes cancers."
READ MORE
Air Force Reservists Say Agent Orange Residue Damaged Their Health
http://www.npr.org/2015/02/19/386984176/air-force-reservists-say-effects-from-agent-orange-exposure-still-linger
'These Health Issues Start Popping Up'
At the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, a looping video shows off C-123 planes — aircraft used to spray the chemical defoliant Agent Orange and pesticides during the Vietnam War.
The only actual C-123 you can still see here, nicknamed "Patches," has been on display inside this big hangar since the mid-1990s, when it was decontaminated. It's a wide, clunky-looking cargo plane.
"They're big and slow, and they're extremely noisy," says Ed Kienle, laughing. For most of the 1970s, he was a flight mechanic on a plane just like Patches at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus. "We know that most of the airplanes we flew had done duty in Vietnam."
'We're A Learning Organization'
Jeanne Stellman, a public health professor who has done extensive research on Agent Orange at Columbia University, worked on an article published last year in the journal Environmental Research that blasts the VA for ignoring the science.
"It seemed to us to be a total no-brainer that there was exposure possible," she says.
Since 2011, a growing group of reservists and their families has been calling for the VA to recognize C-123 vets. A study released in January, commissioned by the VA, confirms that many reservists very likely were exposed.
Dr. Ralph Erickson, a VA health expert, says a task force will make recommendations to the VA secretary within months on next steps.
"I think we're a learning organization, we're able to make the adjustments that are necessary, and we're basically moving forward at this point," Erickson says.
For Barbara Carson, it feels like too little, too late. Her husband, who worked on a C-123 at Rickenbacker, died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 54. Years later, she filed a claim with the VA for survivors benefits linked to Agent Orange exposure. That claim was denied, a ruling she is appealing.
She says it's frustrating because if her husband had been on the ground in Vietnam, she'd be eligible for benefits owing to the presumption of exposure.
"I guess I was naive enough to believe that they would've been responsible in their reaction," Carson says.
READ MORE
'These Health Issues Start Popping Up'
At the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, a looping video shows off C-123 planes — aircraft used to spray the chemical defoliant Agent Orange and pesticides during the Vietnam War.
The only actual C-123 you can still see here, nicknamed "Patches," has been on display inside this big hangar since the mid-1990s, when it was decontaminated. It's a wide, clunky-looking cargo plane.
"They're big and slow, and they're extremely noisy," says Ed Kienle, laughing. For most of the 1970s, he was a flight mechanic on a plane just like Patches at Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus. "We know that most of the airplanes we flew had done duty in Vietnam."
'We're A Learning Organization'
Jeanne Stellman, a public health professor who has done extensive research on Agent Orange at Columbia University, worked on an article published last year in the journal Environmental Research that blasts the VA for ignoring the science.
"It seemed to us to be a total no-brainer that there was exposure possible," she says.
Since 2011, a growing group of reservists and their families has been calling for the VA to recognize C-123 vets. A study released in January, commissioned by the VA, confirms that many reservists very likely were exposed.
Dr. Ralph Erickson, a VA health expert, says a task force will make recommendations to the VA secretary within months on next steps.
"I think we're a learning organization, we're able to make the adjustments that are necessary, and we're basically moving forward at this point," Erickson says.
For Barbara Carson, it feels like too little, too late. Her husband, who worked on a C-123 at Rickenbacker, died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma at age 54. Years later, she filed a claim with the VA for survivors benefits linked to Agent Orange exposure. That claim was denied, a ruling she is appealing.
She says it's frustrating because if her husband had been on the ground in Vietnam, she'd be eligible for benefits owing to the presumption of exposure.
"I guess I was naive enough to believe that they would've been responsible in their reaction," Carson says.
READ MORE
Monday, February 23, 2015
Wages of War: Vietnam and Iraq
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/john-tirman/wages-of-war-vietnam-and-iraq_b_6721068.html
One of the frequent acts of hubris by war makers is to ignore the consequences of war that will last a generation or more. Political leaders rarely point to any outcome of a war unfolding apart from the war's aims -- glorious victory, horrid enemy vanquished, few casualties, peace and prosperity for all.
But war has a mind of its own, as nearly every conflict of the past 70 years has taught us. The Second World War deluded Americans into believing that we could manage enormous conflicts and win them unequivocally. It was, however, a consequence of the bloody First World War and exacted a colossal scale of carnage -- 50 million dead and an equal number displaced. And that was "the good war."
Since then, we have had four major conflicts, and we see every day the lasting consequences of carnage. In Korea, there is the contemptible north. In Afghanistan, we are in effect waiting to turn the keys over to the Taliban, as a longtime observer of the country, Anna Badkhen, recently remarked to me. The toll of 100,000 or so Afghans and the millions displaced and immiserated hardly registers even on America's short-term memory.
Consider, then, two other sizable wars: the U.S. wars in Vietnam and in Iraq. The Vietnam War ended 40 years ago on April 30 as the Viet Cong overran Saigon. Vietnam went through years of extreme hardship after the war, emerging to be a dynamic country. But the war took an enormous toll. Not only were there some three million killed and five million displaced, and the 10-20 years of deprivation following, but residual chemical warfare and unexploded bombs that bedevil the country four decades after the war's abrupt end.
"From 1961-1971, the U.S. military sprayed 18 million liters of chemicals, including 366 kilograms of dioxin," Pham Troung of the Center for International Studies and Cooperation explained to me recently in Hanoi. Dioxin, the lethal component of the defoliant Agent Orange used by American forces, is one of the world's most toxic substances. "It got into water supply and land sediment. Humans, animals, and plants were contaminated. The local ecosystems were totally destroyed."
READ MORE
One of the frequent acts of hubris by war makers is to ignore the consequences of war that will last a generation or more. Political leaders rarely point to any outcome of a war unfolding apart from the war's aims -- glorious victory, horrid enemy vanquished, few casualties, peace and prosperity for all.
But war has a mind of its own, as nearly every conflict of the past 70 years has taught us. The Second World War deluded Americans into believing that we could manage enormous conflicts and win them unequivocally. It was, however, a consequence of the bloody First World War and exacted a colossal scale of carnage -- 50 million dead and an equal number displaced. And that was "the good war."
Since then, we have had four major conflicts, and we see every day the lasting consequences of carnage. In Korea, there is the contemptible north. In Afghanistan, we are in effect waiting to turn the keys over to the Taliban, as a longtime observer of the country, Anna Badkhen, recently remarked to me. The toll of 100,000 or so Afghans and the millions displaced and immiserated hardly registers even on America's short-term memory.
Consider, then, two other sizable wars: the U.S. wars in Vietnam and in Iraq. The Vietnam War ended 40 years ago on April 30 as the Viet Cong overran Saigon. Vietnam went through years of extreme hardship after the war, emerging to be a dynamic country. But the war took an enormous toll. Not only were there some three million killed and five million displaced, and the 10-20 years of deprivation following, but residual chemical warfare and unexploded bombs that bedevil the country four decades after the war's abrupt end.
"From 1961-1971, the U.S. military sprayed 18 million liters of chemicals, including 366 kilograms of dioxin," Pham Troung of the Center for International Studies and Cooperation explained to me recently in Hanoi. Dioxin, the lethal component of the defoliant Agent Orange used by American forces, is one of the world's most toxic substances. "It got into water supply and land sediment. Humans, animals, and plants were contaminated. The local ecosystems were totally destroyed."
READ MORE
The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act: HR-969 Introduced in the House of Representatives
https://www.opencongress.org/bill/hr969-114/show
H.R.969 - 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.
The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act was introduced in the House by Rep. Chris Gibson (D-NY) along with the signatures of 131 strongly bipartisan original co-sponsors on February 13, 2015. This legislation will return the presumption of exposure to herbicide to Navy and Marine veterans who served in the off shore waters of Vietnam. HR-969 now replaces HR-543, which was the number used in the previous 113th Congress. The wording is the same, but the new designating number is HR-969.
A Senate Companion Bill is expected later in February.
HR-543 of the previous 113th Congress died in the House Veterans Affairs Committee, led by Congressman Jeff Miller (FL) with 258 co-sponsors. Only 218 co-sponsors represents 1/2 the voting member of the House. Miller would not release the Bill for a vote on the floor of the House.
READ MORE
H.R.969 - 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.
The Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act was introduced in the House by Rep. Chris Gibson (D-NY) along with the signatures of 131 strongly bipartisan original co-sponsors on February 13, 2015. This legislation will return the presumption of exposure to herbicide to Navy and Marine veterans who served in the off shore waters of Vietnam. HR-969 now replaces HR-543, which was the number used in the previous 113th Congress. The wording is the same, but the new designating number is HR-969.
A Senate Companion Bill is expected later in February.
HR-543 of the previous 113th Congress died in the House Veterans Affairs Committee, led by Congressman Jeff Miller (FL) with 258 co-sponsors. Only 218 co-sponsors represents 1/2 the voting member of the House. Miller would not release the Bill for a vote on the floor of the House.
READ MORE
Got Dioxin? 3 Abandoned Places That Are Likely Damaging Our Earth
http://www.care2.com/causes/3-abandoned-places-that-are-likely-damaging-our-earth.html
A place, once bustling and booming with life, becomes thoroughly vacated. Whether due to financial reasons, legal issues or something else, amusement parks, properties and even entire towns sometimes become abandoned. Most of the time, items at the site are left to rot away and can damage the environment since they are not properly disposed of. That means fuel, chemicals, paint and other harmful liquids are exposed to the elements in canisters that rust and then rot. When deterioration occurs, containers that hold toxic contents seep out into the earth.
There are many factors like this where abandoned places can negatively affect our environment. But whose job is it to clean these areas up? Volunteers can’t step foot on many of these restricted and unsafe areas without evading health risks or imprisonment for trespassing. Plus, there are many government-owned abandoned places like military bases, making it unlikely that the government will take ownership and responsibility for each and every single one of these situations; their deserted locations are often left astray as well.
Many instances have occurred where soil and site areas test positive for radiation or other toxins at places of abandonment. Following disasters or evacuation, even many years afterwards, some places contain little to no signs of viable life, wildlife and even certain plant growth. Particular whereabouts, especially those in which radioactive incidents transpired, are just too hostile and unlivable. Here are three examples of disclaimed locations that are likely harming our environment:
READ MORE
A place, once bustling and booming with life, becomes thoroughly vacated. Whether due to financial reasons, legal issues or something else, amusement parks, properties and even entire towns sometimes become abandoned. Most of the time, items at the site are left to rot away and can damage the environment since they are not properly disposed of. That means fuel, chemicals, paint and other harmful liquids are exposed to the elements in canisters that rust and then rot. When deterioration occurs, containers that hold toxic contents seep out into the earth.
There are many factors like this where abandoned places can negatively affect our environment. But whose job is it to clean these areas up? Volunteers can’t step foot on many of these restricted and unsafe areas without evading health risks or imprisonment for trespassing. Plus, there are many government-owned abandoned places like military bases, making it unlikely that the government will take ownership and responsibility for each and every single one of these situations; their deserted locations are often left astray as well.
Many instances have occurred where soil and site areas test positive for radiation or other toxins at places of abandonment. Following disasters or evacuation, even many years afterwards, some places contain little to no signs of viable life, wildlife and even certain plant growth. Particular whereabouts, especially those in which radioactive incidents transpired, are just too hostile and unlivable. Here are three examples of disclaimed locations that are likely harming our environment:
READ MORE
Wednesday, February 11, 2015
Vietnam Drinks Monsanto GMO Kool Aid
http://www.isaaa.org/kc/cropbiotechupdate/article/default.asp?ID=13110
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences in cooperation with ISAAA, held a conference on February 3 in Hanoi on the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2014 (ISAAA Brief 49).
Dr. Clive James, author of the report and Founder and
Emeritus Chair of ISAAA presented the highlights of the ISAAA Brief 49,
showing that in 2014, 181.5 million hectares of biotech crops were
planted by 18 million farmers in 28 countries. It was also reported that
Bangladesh is the latest country that adopted a biotech crop,
particularly Bt eggplant (Bt brinjal).
Dr. Randy Hautea, Global Coordinator of ISAAA discussed the application and benefits of biotech corn in the Philippines, while Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan, Executive Director of Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC) highlighted the role of the media in providing correct and objective information about biotech crops against the misconception of this technology.
Distinguished heads of ministries graced the occasion including Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy- General Director of Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Prof. Dr. Trinh Khac Quang, Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences and participated by more than 100 regulators and scientists from science, environment and agriculture ministries, members of the academe and research institutes, representatives of businesses, associations and media agencies. Discussions on the Q and A revolved around management of biotech seeds after commercialization and effective methods of communication on biotech crops to the public.
MORE
The Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development, Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences in cooperation with ISAAA, held a conference on February 3 in Hanoi on the Global Status of Commercialized Biotech/GM Crops: 2014 (ISAAA Brief 49).
Dr. Randy Hautea, Global Coordinator of ISAAA discussed the application and benefits of biotech corn in the Philippines, while Dr. Mahaletchumy Arujanan, Executive Director of Malaysian Biotechnology Information Centre (MABIC) highlighted the role of the media in providing correct and objective information about biotech crops against the misconception of this technology.
Distinguished heads of ministries graced the occasion including Dr. Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy- General Director of Department of Science and Technology of the Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development; Prof. Dr. Trinh Khac Quang, Director of the Vietnam Academy of Agricultural Sciences and participated by more than 100 regulators and scientists from science, environment and agriculture ministries, members of the academe and research institutes, representatives of businesses, associations and media agencies. Discussions on the Q and A revolved around management of biotech seeds after commercialization and effective methods of communication on biotech crops to the public.
MORE
Thursday, February 5, 2015
Pat Hynes: A Vietnam War debt that remains unpaid
http://www.gazettenet.com/home/15523291-95/pat-hynes-a-vietnam-war-debt-that-remains-unpaid
NORTHAMPTON — The
Paris Peace Accords were signed Jan. 27, 1973, making possible a
re-united Vietnam. The peace accords ended eight years of the American
War (as it is known to the Vietnamese) and two prior decades of covert
warfare against this small, agrarian Asian country. For much of the
American public, the war was a bitterly divisive issue to put behind
them.
With no good ending,
why dwell on or learn from or lose sleep over Vietnam, unless you had
lost a loved one or were a veteran haunted by its violence?
In the Paris peace
negotiations President Nixon agreed to pay Vietnam $3.25 billion for
reconstruction aid; however, he was impeached before this agreement was
honored. The following two post-war presidents — Ford and Carter —
refused to enforce it and Congress then annulled the agreement.
Our government then set
out to punish Vietnam, working to hinder its entry into the United
Nation, initiating an economic and trade embargo and blocking aid from
international agencies, until 2000. Some have labeled this period of
penalizing the country that defeated us, the second American War in
Vietnam.
Last March, I traveled
through Vietnam from Hanoi to Da Nang in central Vietnam to Ho Chi Minh
City (formerly Saigon). The purpose of my journey was to investigate the
plight of third and fourth generation Agent Orange-dioxin victims, the
fate of contaminated sites from the war and what is being done to
overcome the legacy of the 12 million gallons of Agent Orange our
military sprayed on upland forests, coastal mangroves and villages from
1961-1971.
MORE
Westover Reservist speaks out about being exposed to Agent Orange
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.
Westover Reservists exposed to Agent Orange, federal officials rule after 4-year battle
http://www.masslive.com/news/index.ssf/2015/02/westover_reservists_exposed_to.html
After a four-year battle, federal health officials have ruled flight crews at Westover Air Reserve Base were exposed to Agent Orange during the decade they flew recycled planes from Vietnam, but the decision that could grant them full medical benefits is too late for some.
The study released recently by the Institute of Medicine was the veterans' last hope to win their long, research-filled battle to receive the same medical care and disability payments as those who served during the Vietnam War when Agent Orange was used as a defoliant.
"The whole population has waited for four years. There has been predictable suffering, financial loss and death. That is unacceptable," said retired Air Force Major Wesley T. Carter, who served as an air medical technician and flight instructor with the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Westover in Chicopee for 20 years.
In the four years that he and others fought the battle for benefits at least a half-dozen people have grown sicker and sicker and several have died. One, Retired Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, received benefits after a long appeal process only to die a month later of cancer. He was 67.
Carter argued the benefits, which include access to free medications, dental care, optometry and hospice, are invaluable and vital to ill veterans. Financial disability payments come tax free and can be passed onto survivors.
MORE
READ THE REPORT
After a four-year battle, federal health officials have ruled flight crews at Westover Air Reserve Base were exposed to Agent Orange during the decade they flew recycled planes from Vietnam, but the decision that could grant them full medical benefits is too late for some.
The study released recently by the Institute of Medicine was the veterans' last hope to win their long, research-filled battle to receive the same medical care and disability payments as those who served during the Vietnam War when Agent Orange was used as a defoliant.
"The whole population has waited for four years. There has been predictable suffering, financial loss and death. That is unacceptable," said retired Air Force Major Wesley T. Carter, who served as an air medical technician and flight instructor with the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Westover in Chicopee for 20 years.
In the four years that he and others fought the battle for benefits at least a half-dozen people have grown sicker and sicker and several have died. One, Retired Lt. Col. Paul Bailey, received benefits after a long appeal process only to die a month later of cancer. He was 67.
Carter argued the benefits, which include access to free medications, dental care, optometry and hospice, are invaluable and vital to ill veterans. Financial disability payments come tax free and can be passed onto survivors.
MORE
READ THE REPORT
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