Chief Fusco has passed

EASTHAMPTON - Charles Carmine Fusco, CMSgt, (retired), 83, of Easthampton, entered into eternal life Sunday, Oct. 11, 2015, following a brief illness, surrounded by his loving family at Baystate Medical Center in Springfield. 

He was born July 27, 1932, in Everett, and was the son of the late Mario and Carmella (Gianantonio) Fusco. He was educated in the Everett Public Schools and was a graduate of Everett High School with the class of 1950. Shortly, after graduation, he enlisted in the United States Air Force beginning a 40 year career from 1952 to 1992. A veteran of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Korean War, Vietnam War and The Persian Gulf War. 

Charles was married Aug. 24, 1958, in Summerville, at Saint Clements Church to Virginia Vincenza (Russo) and they celebrated 41 years of marriage until her death Jan. 18, 1999. An amazing man with a true zest of life and living every moment to its fullest, he enjoyed traveling, cooking, and catching up on westerns and Fox news. His most favorite past-time was food of any kind and got excited at the thought of a new recipe. His memory is a true blessing to his family and friends and he will be sorely missed.

He leaves his three devoted and loving daughters, Linda Shaw and her husband William of Easthampton, Lisa Fusco and her husband Kevin Lennon of Nashville, Tennessee, and Lori Seaver and her husband Jay of Westhampton; four adored grandchildren, Nicholas, Ashley, Danica and Charles; and one special great-granddaughter, Selena. Besides his wife Virginia, he was predeceased by his five siblings, a brother Carmine and four sisters, Lena, Nelda, Grace and Gilda. His beloved Boxer, Cassius predeceased him by only 24 hours.

Funeral services with full military honors will be rendered for Chief Master Sergeant Charles C. Fusco Saturday, Oct. 17, at 9:15 a.m. from the Rocco, Salvatore & Sons Funeral Homes, 331 Main St., Everett, with a Liturgy of Christian Burial at 10 a.m. at Saint Anthony's Parish, 38 Oakes St., Everett, with burial to follow at Woodlawn Cemetery, 302 Elm St., Everett. Calling will be held Friday, Oct. 16, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Everett funeral home. Local calling hours, will be held Thursday, Oct. 15, from 3 to 7 p.m. at the Graham Funeral Home, 18 Adams St., Easthampton.

Great Story For Great Reporter! Call Us. Pulitzer Awaits !

Ace Reporter Looking for Great Agent Orange Story

Calling All Ace Reporters: This story has it all...romance, intrigue, adventure, airplanes, toxic dioxin chemicals, billions of dollars, government cover-up & veteran abuse. Did I mention airplanes? Did I mention romance?

2012 Prize for Agent Orange C-123 Story

Here is is, ready for your research, ready to put your      name on every wire service in the country, ready for you to get that well-deserved call from Columbia School of Journalism announcing the 2012 Pulitzer...with your very own name on it! Wow, that will leave the old J-School bragging you went there!


Are you backed by a great metropolitan daily or a large regional broadcaster? Do you have a sense of defiance? Do you yearn for an editor screaming "this story's too hot for us" as you type up your notes? Do you wish it had been you partnering with Bernstein as he met with Deep Throat? Well, Ace, that weren't nothin! Here's the blockbuster story of 2012 on a golden plate, just for the first hot shot like you to pull out his/her notebook, lick the pencil stub and start outlining the guts of a wicked awesome piece of journalistic excellence.


Here's what we offer: We are a group of 1500 manly Air Force guys and womanly Air Force ladies. We flew the C-123K Provider after Vietnam and have learned it remained heavily contaminated. Gosh, I don't know why we don't glow in the dark!


Our airplanes were discovered to be toxic, but there was a cover-up of sorts and our aircrews left unaware and unable to take health precautions related to their toxic exposures. The all-powerful Department of Veterans Affairs seems flat determined to prevent our veterans from receiving medical care (this is where you add tear-jerking emotional content), leaving us sick, and in some cases, leaving our widows in desperate situations. That ain't right, Ace.

Edward R. Murrow

This guy on the right set the standard. This guy invented journalism the way you always wanted it to be. It could be your voice saying, in effect, "This...is London." Not every reporter gets the opportunity Murrow had...or that you can grab right now!

We need your help fighting the VA's Evil Empire (that's funny...we need to fight them so they'll take care of us!) We need skillful investigative journalism, taking our 320 pages of detailed source materials and digging out the whole stinkin' mess -- we want to partner with a writer like you able to tell our story and in return, we'll give access to our pilots, flight nurses, maintenance personnel and point you to where the rest of the story can be revealed. Air Force, government agencies, universities, veterans, airplane boneyards, dark alleys, foreign agents, billion-dollar fines, dramatic court scenes...this story has depth and breadth you've never worked on before...give us a call and be the first to break the news!

We need you, Ace! Give us a few columns coverage and watch the story break.

USAF Needs C-123 Information! NOW!

The USAF School of Aerospace Medicine at Wright-Patterson AFB is investigating the dioxin contamination of our C-123 and trying to determine whether we have been exposed to the Agent Orange left after Vietnam. 


They need our help...to help us! Their project OIC wrote to ask us:

That's one of our questions--how much red clay from Vietnam came home with the planes? And how much of that saturated with AO? We are looking at possibility of airborne exposure from both vapor, as well as particulate-bound dioxin. 

What kinds of activities might have caused particulate-bound AO to blow in and out of nooks and crannies?  

We think that we can probably find some reference values from the literature of a "body-burden" of dioxin considered to be a problem. From there we can do some back-calculations about how much mass you'd need to inhale, ingest, and have dermal contact with. 

If you have memories, or even with luck original documents or photos, please get them to Wes Carter by scanning the materials, or if you can offer your personal knowledge, send in a SIGNED letter detailing what you know. Wes is at c123kcancer@gmail.com

We are looking for physical condition of the aircraft when they were assigned to the 731st. We are looking for photos. We are looking for information about the black, smelly goop in the wings and under the cargo deck...that's the stuff which was mostly one of the insecticides but also contained dioxin left over from the Agent Orange spray operations. 


I can't stress how important this research is and how important your contribution can be. The VA has turned us down. The Air Force is trying to stand up for us but will do so only if backed by evidence that the Provider was indeed contaminated to the point of causing us harm. Your signed letters are vital.


A point. We all know how stinky Patches was, but hat stink was not Agent Orange--it was the malathyon! Dioxin has no odor, and Agent Orange was something that evaporated fairly quickly. But not the dioxin that was in it. So we need hard data and first-hand signed personal recollections...which the VA will accept as evidence in our veterans benefits claims...to start helping the School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM). 


Maintenance folks like Charlie Fusco, Joe Butler...all of you guys...please get behind us on this!