Latest Version of C-123 Agent Orange Binder - 30 Mar 2012

Here's the updated version of our C-123 Agent Orange epistle, AKA "Trail of Tears."
Click Here: https://docs.google.com/open?id=0B88rlJ4p_859dVF4X0NvNEJTa0tQWFBYbFdnRktQdw

It has improvements in the date sequences and page numbering. Also, we've added a very important newly uncovered 1996 USAF report which used water-based swipes for one of the testing sequences on some of the C-123 fleet...this test wasn't for dioxin in particular but it was positive for military herbicides, and it is the broad category of "military herbicides" which various veterans' benefits are based upon and not dioxin in particular!

Why is it important that water was used on this test's swipes? Because the VA's position against the multiple USAF tests which we've been pushing him their face has been that those tests used the industry-standard protocol for a solvent...and the VA immediately created a hypothesis that only such solvents would have released harmful substances...and that crews couldn't have inhaled, ingested or absorbed the military herbicides by dermal contact. Note that when the 1994 and 1996 tests were done, no EPA protocol existed for the toxicologists to follow...yet, their conclusions have been reviewed in 2011 and 2012 and held to be still valid! Yes, we were exposed.

Somehow, in the back of my meager but darkly suspicious brain, I feel the VA would have been quick to develop an argument to any claim we'd make even if we showed them photos of toxins entering us by IM, IV, oral, sub-lingual, nasal, and every other route possible.

It has been suggested that we submit the binder for academic "peer review." I say the heck with that...we do "BEER REVIEWS" in this ancient but honorable flying squadron of amazing aging aviators!

Gee. Major. Is this required reading? Is there gonna be a test? Na...this is just a 430-page, 66MB reference work collecting all the materials we've found since April 2011, and my simple layman's attempt to get our veterans' case explained, simply using the VA and USAF documents that proliferate the record...the C-123K fleet was exterminated because it was contaminated - and here's the proof! You might consider printing parts of whatever you and your veterans service office (DAV, VFW, VVA, etc) feel appropriate to submit and buttress your VA disability claim.

Questions:
1. Isn't it a fact that every USAF and other official document dealing with the C-123K over the decades since the first tests were ordered on Patches in 1979 has labeled the airplanes "toxic, contaminated, Agent Orange, dioxin" or "military herbicide"and treated them (properly) as contaminated waste? answer: yes.
2. In 2009-2010 discussions about the C-123 toxicity and plans to destroy the airplanes, didn't OSD and AMFC officials arrange manage the event to prevent veterans who'd already been exposed from finding out about the dioxin problem, and the need to make sure those veterans wouldn't then get VA benefits - and didn't the officials discuss the fact that the veterans were indeed eligible for VA benefits because of the airplane's dioxin toxicity? answer: yes.
3. Why the heck did the USAF take action in 2010 to prevent already-exposed veterans from being able to get VA medical care? answer: anybody's guess but probably fear of publicity and blame for wrong decisions. This is what happens when military and civil service folks act without considering the impact on their personal honor and the broader good of the service.
4. And isn't it a fact that once our aircrews and ground personnel learned about the contamination the airplanes were suddenly not toxic after all? And already destroy?? Miracles? Or merely VA budget policy? answer: what do you think?