Department of Justice Confirms: VA Never Did Claimed C-123 "Scientific Review" Before Rejecting Veterans' Claims

VA claimed they'd conducted a "scientific review" of all things relevant to C-123 Agent Orange exposure, and on the basis of that review determined that none of the veterans were ever exposed and that none of their Agent Orange claims would be approved.

Honest. OPH did a scientific review! Honest!

The problem: There was never any"scientific review." Rather, staffers in VHA's Public Health/Post Deployment Health Section (OPH) looked over selected reports, chosen only to refute veterans' exposure claims. OPH simply pretended away reports confirming C-123 veterans' exposures sent to VA from the CDC, the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, the National Toxicology Program, the US Public Health Service, and dozens of skilled scientists and physicians around the country. All pro-veteran science was ignored, only anti-veteran materials permitted consideration. That's not science. That's raw policy.

That's not how VA should decide to deny medical care to sick and dying veterans seeking help.

The process was so casual the Department of Justice reports that no notes were taken, no approvals sought from supervisors or other authorities, and the only work product from OPH was typing out the web page by which VA refused to honor the veterans' claims. Does sound like careful research??

Not much of a "scientific review." But it was all the VA needed to block essential medical care and other benefits. Why? Because, as the Associated Press reported in their interview with VA's Dr. Terry Walters, OPH "has to draw the line somewhere" against Agent Orange claims.

And they did.

Disputing the scientific input from all these experts, OPH staff didn't even take notes. Their determination to forbid VA medical care to C-123 veterans, even in the face of other federal agencies' strong support for the veterans, was a process that didn't even require notes, or a meeting summary, or an email between staffers. No recordings, no peer review, no memos, not even a sticky note. No doodles, post-its, credit card charges for the office pizza. Nothing.

And Nothing was all VHA needed for VA to block all medical care due C-123 veterans between 2011 and 2015. OPH didn't bother running it past VA Office of General Counsel, or anyone else. It seems the only step was to tell their webmaster what to put up on the VA's web site.

OPH staffers didn't even take notes. Theirs was never what they told legislators and the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee constituted a "scientific review,"or "investigation." Instead there was merely the free-wheeling OPH anti-veteran policy decision against the aircrews and maintenance vets who'd been exposed to Agent Orange on the C-123s transports for a full decade.

Here's how the VA described their non-existent "scientific review:"

"Scientific Review of Agent Orange in C-123 Aircraft"
VA's Office of Public Health has investigated the potential exposure to Agent Orange among crew members of C-123 aircraft used previously in spraying missions during the Vietnam War. Although residual TCDD – the toxic substance in Agent Orange – may be detected in C-123 aircraft by sophisticated laboratory techniques many years after its use, the Office of Public Health concluded that the existing scientific studies and reports support a low probability that TCDD was biologically available in these aircraft.  

Therefore, the potential for exposure to TCDD from flying or working in contaminated C-123 aircraft years after the Vietnam War is unlikely to have occurred at levels that could affect health. To address the concerns expressed by crew members, the Office of Public Health reviewed available scientific reports and peer-reviewed literature related to potential adverse health effects, such as:
• Physical properties of TCDD (2,3,7,8-tetrachlorodibenzo-p-dioxin)
• Routes of exposure (inhalation, ingestion, dermal) and bioavailability (ability to enter the body) of TCDD over extended periods 
• Known levels of safe exposure and threshold levels of TCDD toxicity"

But on December 1,  2015, the Department of Justice reported to C-123 veterans that VA had greatly overstated their so-called "scientific review." DOJ described the OPH effort:

"The review of the scientific evidence to which the OPH website referred was done by Dr. Irons and Dr. Dick (who is no longer with VA).  They read all of the reports separately and met with each other to discuss the weight of the evidence verbally.  No reports were rejected and there are no documents that would show their analysis of each study.  The content that they drafted for the website was reviewed internally within OPH, but this was not done in a formal manner that would have been kept as proof of an official approval."  

VA would never accept such an informal, casual, opinion-based "review" to support a veteran's disability claim. They'd toss the veteran's claim out in a New York nano-second for such useless drivel. But they had no problem denying C-123 veterans using their own useless drivel...what OPH glorified as their "scientific review" and "investigation."

Actually...NO! Not at OPH.

Now DOJ has helped show VA's scientific review and investigation to be nothing more than staffers' personal preferences used to create and defend baseless policy decisions, Policy decisions by a handful of staffers pursuing their own anti-veteran agenda shouldn't have been allowed to block VA medical care to thousands of C-123 veterans for so many years.

Readers might remember earlier postings where Major Marlene Wilson and I reported on our face-to-face meeting with Mr. Tom Murphy, VA Director of Compensation and Pension Services. Mr. Murphy said VHA had already determined no C-123 claims would be permitted...that OPH had already determined that no Agent Orange exposure occurred and informed him all such claims were unacceptable. I asked Mr. Murphy what proof, how much proof he would need to reconsider our claims. He responded that no amount of proof from whatever source would be permitted to challenge OPH's "scientific review," and he deferred all questions to Dr. Terry Walters in OPH.

Our quest for VA medical care was to remain frustrated for three more years based solely on this non-existent OPH "vapor-ware."

US sets new record for denying, censoring government files

I am a veteran serving other veterans, and both the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs have abused my rights, and the rights of the veterans I serve.

Both VA and USAF have routinely ignored our Freedom of Information Act requests for unclassified materials, much of it dealing with our own health and the government's treatment of our exposure claims.

Unsuccessfully, we have sought materials as individual citizens, as a veterans association, and as journalists (per the blog, web site and C-123 Agent Orange book.)

Not addressed in the article below from today's Associated Press is the tremendous cost citizens must bear for legal expenses to assert our rights under the FOIA. Not addressed is the solution, which is to permit citizens to recover expenses and damages if they are forced to seek relief through litigation. Right now, the government can ignore or abuse FOIA requests with abandon (which AP's article suggests is the case) without consequences.

The C-123 Veterans Association has requests for information going back to 2012 which the USAF ignored. After ignoring, USAF said it had no materials. Then it said the materials would cost over $4,000 to provide. Then it stopped dealing with the request altogether, until we filed suit in the US District Court.

Even that did little to help – both the VA and the USAF are still only slowly releasing bits and pieces, each month telling our attorneys they need more time, with much of what they do release heavily redacted.

Can you just imagine how the IRS or DOJ would tolerate us as individual citizens ignoring their demands for our records? They have tools to compel our response...but we have none to compel any department's respect for our rights under the FOIA.

US sets new record for denying, censoring government filesBy TED BRIDIS
Mar. 18, 2015 3:27 AM EDT 

WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second consecutive year, the Obama administration more often than ever censored government files or outright denied access to them under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act, according to a new analysis of federal data by The Associated Press. 

The government took longer to turn over files when it provided any, said more regularly that it couldn't find documents, and refused a record number of times to turn over files quickly that might be especially newsworthy. 

It also acknowledged in nearly 1 in 3 cases that its initial decisions to withhold or censor records were improper under the law — but only when it was challenged.
Its backlog of unanswered requests at year's end grew remarkably by 55 percent to more than 200,000.

Thank You, Vietnam Veterans of America!

Happy Easter, dear friends.

Thanks are offered to the Vietnam Veterans of America, and their president John Rowan, as well as other national leaders in this outstanding veterans organization. I am the son and cousin of long-time members of VVA, and while a new member myself, it doesn't take long to realize how much this dedicated team has done for America's veterans of all conflicts.

VVA - my thanks, for reason which will be specified later. Please know vets of all generations recognize the burden you've accepted of "No veteran left behind" which is exactly how you've embraced our people of the C-123 Veterans Association. All veterans realize it will be our responsibility to carry forward that spirit of service and dedication to our brothers and sisters in arms following us in later years and in later conflicts.

Trip Report: I had the unexpected opportunity to make a trip to Wright-Patterson AFB again, and was there Thursday through Saturday. Patches looked great, with some work being done by skilled restoration volunteers on the right wing flaps. A recent inspection indicated the interior looked as good as when it flew out of Hagerstown decades ago, however there still was a powerful stench which scientists have attributed to Agent Orange, smelling like the garden weed killer Roundup. While there has been controversy over whether Agent Orange smells at all, a professional having first-hand familiarity with Agent Orange insists the odors are the same...he even compared the smell experienced inside Patches with a container of Roundup and confirmed the similarity. He also reminded me that Roundup has much of the same chemistry as Agent Orange!

There were very interesting videos being shown of Ranch Hand operations on the monitor portion of the Patches exhibit, but I was unable to visit the museum's archives to get copies as they don't permit researchers to access materials without an appointment in advance. Kinda hard to have done that as I didn't know I was going to Dayton until the day before I got there. Anyway, I'll try to recover from the museum as well as Air Force Historical Research Center which has been so helpful in the past.