Maude DeVictor has passed; helped begin struggle for Agent Orange care and benefits

Maude Esther Elmore-DeVictor, 79 of San Mateo, CA passed away peacefully on Sunday, May 12, 2019.

Born March 24, 1940 in Lovejoy, Illinois, she was the birth daughter of the late Mary V. King-Glass and the adopted daughter of the late John T. Elmore and Earlie M. Elmore.

She is survived by her son Vincent DeVictor and his wife Monica of San Mateo, CA.

A Navy veteran, she went on to careers in the U.S. Postal Service, the Veteran's Administration, San Mateo County Deputy Public Guardian, Drug Rehabilitation Counselor, Investigator for the Chicago Dept. of Child and Family Services and finally working 30 years for the U.S. Census Bureau, up until the onset of her illness.

Known as the "Mother of Agent Orange", when employed as a Veteran's Benefits Counselor for the V.A. in Chicago, she investigated and made public the link between the use of the defoliant Agent Orange in the Vietnam War and its effect on the veterans that served there. This resulted in forcing the V.A. into changing its policies to include exposure to Agent Orange as a service related illness/disability. She received many accolades for her courageous and determined actions, including the American Legion Unsung Heroine Award. In 1986 the movie "Unnatural Causes" starring John Ritter and Alfre Woodard debuted, chronicling these events of her life.

Guided by her Buddhist faith and always an activist, Maude volunteered for many community programs throughout her life. Her favorites included, U.N. Election Observer in Nicaragua, Library Commissioner for the City of Richmond, CA, a reading mentor for disadvantaged children and election poll worker.

Her lists of accomplishments were not ones that necessarily benefited her in this lifetime but they were ones that benefited her community and the world.

Memorial Services will be conducted at 1:00pm, June 15, 2019 at Nichiren Shoshu Myoshinji Temple, 2631 Appian Way, Pinole, CA 95464.

In lieu of flowers the family respectfully requests donations be made to the charity of the givers' choice in memory of Maude Elmore-DeVictor.

Colonel Frederick Lindahl laid to rest at Arlington

Dr. Fred Lindahl, Colonel USAF Retired
"The Perfect Warrior"

Fred was laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery on April 18, 2019, in a moving ceremony of full military honors. His wife Liz and family were comforted by the company of Dr. Lindahl's Georgetown colleagues and many Air Force friends.

"Fred honored the flag in his lifetime of service.
Now, the flag honors Fred."

Colonel Fred Lindahl has passed

Colonel Frederick W. Lindahl USAF Retired, age 76, died on October 27, 2018, after a long illness. Col. Lindahl was born in West Springfield, MA, graduating from West Springfield High School and the United States Air Force Academy, Class of 1963. Col. Lindahl flew combat missions in Vietnam from 1968–1969, leaving active duty in 1969. He continued as a C-5 command pilot in the Air Force Reserves until his retirement in 1995, serving in Operations Just Cause and Desert Storm and flying in joint service exercises in the US and Europe, including three REFORGER exercises. 

His many decorations included the Distinguished Flying Cross, Bronze Star, Legion of Merit and numerous Air Medals.

After earning an MBA from Harvard Business School in 1971 and a PhD from the University of Chicago’s Booth School of Business in 1985, Col. Lindahl joined the faculty of the Fuqua School of Business at Duke University. He moved to the George Washington University School of Business in 1993, where he was a tenured professor at the time of his death. His service was recognized in May 2018 with the Outstanding Master of Accountancy Faculty Award. 

Col. Lindahl was a devoted husband, father, brother, grandfather, and teacher. He was happiest reading, mentoring students, walking with his wife on Cape Cod, telling his daughters about their family history, visiting his sisters, and playing baseball with his grandsons. He cherished visits to Shenandoah National Park and to Finland, his ancestral home. Col. Lindahl is survived by his wife, Anna Lindahl; two daughters, Virginia Lindahl, of Alexandria, VA, and Kristine Lindahl Currie, of Chapel Hill, NC; and two sisters, Susan Costa and Dorothy Guenther, both of South Yarmouth, MA. He is pre-deceased by his sister Margaret Servidio. Col. Lindahl leaves three grandsons, Benjamin Lecker, Nathaniel Currie, and Noah Currie, who knew him affectionately as "Popsy."

In lieu of flowers, memorial contributions can be made to Veterans of Foreign Wars Foundation to aid veterans affected by Agent Orange exposure, to the Daedalians Foundation, or to the Shenandoah National Trust Fund. 

A memorial viewing was held on November 10, 2018 in Alexandria Virginia, with final military honors to be rendered at Arlington National Cemetery.

In this blog, his fellow Air Force veterans want it known by all that our friend Fred was held in the very highest esteem as a man and scholar-warrior.

“The society that separates its scholars from its warriors will have its thinking done by cowards and its fighting by fools.”  Thucydides, History of the Peloponnesian War

Chicago Area C-123 Veterans Needed for Interview!

We have fortunately attracted the attention of a network famous for caring about veterans' issues, and we hope for some great coverage next month.

For their reporters to look further into our C-123 Agent Orange claims they really want to interview any of our veterans or surviving family members in Chicago, or in the broader Illinois area. If that's you, or if you know where we can find such folks, please get an email to me or call!

And there's news coming out of Springfield, too!

     Wes

Agent Orange - How'd This Mess Get Revealed?

(from the National Academies Press)

The Beginning of the Controversy

Snoopy Explains Agent Orange to his ground crew!

During the early and mid-1970s, a growing number of veterans began to question the possible linkage between their conditions or diseases and their exposure to herbicides, mainly Agent Orange, in Vietnam. In 1977, Maude deVictor, a benefits counselor in the Chicago regional office of the Veterans Administration (VA), was contacted by the wife of Charles Owen, a Vietnam veteran who believed his terminal cancer was the result of exposure to Agent Orange. 

After learning that Charles Owen had died and that the VA had refused his widow's claim for benefits, deVictor began to research the health effects of exposure to Agent Orange (Wilcox, 1989). She contacted Alvin L. Young, Major, U.S. Air Force, an expert in plant physiology, and inquired about the types of herbicides used in Vietnam. DeVictor recorded the conversation in a memorandum to the file, which explained the use and toxicity of Agent Orange and Agent Blue (DeVictor, 1977). In response to this memorandum, a line-by-line commentary was prepared by Dr. Young, and a copy was recorded in a congressional hearing (U.S. Congress, House, 1980b).

DeVictor continued her inquiries into the possible connection between Agent Orange and certain health outcomes. She began gathering statistics on veterans' exposure to Agent Orange by questioning veterans who visited her office for benefits, widows of veterans, and wives of veterans about the health of their husband and children. When the VA learned that she was carrying out this research, she was asked to cease these additional inquiries and concentrate on her assigned duties, but she continued her research on Agent Orange. 

Soon after, someone contacted Bill Kurtis, a local television reporter, about deVictor's inquiries on veterans' exposure to Agent Orange (Linedecker et al., 1982). On March 23, 1978, WBBM, a CBS affiliate in Chicago, aired Kurtis' documentary Agent Orange, the Deadly Fog. Subsequently, local and national media began to report on Agent Orange and veterans' complaints with more frequency (Wilcox, 1989).

Early in 1978, Paul Reutershan, a former helicopter crew chief responsible for transporting supplies to the 20th Engineering Brigade, appeared on the ''Today" show and shocked many of the show's viewers by announcing: "I died in Vietnam, but I didn't even know it." He told of how he flew almost daily through clouds of herbicides being discharged from C-123 cargo planes, and how he observed the dark swaths cut in the jungle by the spraying, and watched the mangrove forest turn brown and die (Wilcox, 1989). Even though he observed this destruction of the jungles and forests, he did not worry about his own health. He said that he was told by the Army that Agent Orange was "relatively nontoxic to humans and animals" (Wilcox, 1989). 

Upon returning home from Vietnam, Reutershan was diagnosed with cancer.  On December 14, 1978, at the age of 28, Reutershan died.