Ohio Public Radio: Vietnam Veterans: VA Is In “Delay, Deny Until They Die” Mode With Agent Orange Vets"

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  "Patches" is one of the C-123 cargo planes used to spray Agent Orange. It's now on display at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force.

  LEWIS WALLACE WYSO

The group Vietnam Veterans of America is criticizing the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs over its painfully slow response to concerns from Air Force reservists exposed to Agent Orange in the 1970s and 1980s.

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The organization has joined the chorus of veterans organizations demanding answers for about 2,000 people who crewed C-123s, the clunky cargo planes that were used to spray Agent Orange, after those planes came back from the war.

A study released by the VA in January confirmed previous findings that these vets could have been exposed to Agent Orange at dangerous levels while they were flying and maintaining the planes on bases in Ohio, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania from 1971-1982. The Air Force knew as early as the 1990s that the planes still had some Agent Orange residues on them. Agent Orange, a defoliant, contains dioxin, which can be very toxic if humans are exposed in high enough amounts or over sustained periods.

But today, almost all of the C-123 vets who are sick with diseases that can be related to Agent Orange have had their VA claims denied.

A group led by Major Wes Carter, a C-123 vet who is himself quite sick with potentially related conditions, has been calling for the VA to include these reserve veterans in what’s called presumptive benefits. Vietnam vets who had boots on the ground are presumed to have been exposed to Agent Orange, removing the burden of proof from the vets if they apply for benefits.

More than three weeks ago now, VA Secretary Robert McDonald told senators an announcement would be coming within the week on the issue, responding in part to WYSO’s NPR report about C-123 veterans. Now that announcement has been pushed back to an unknown date—which Barbara Carson says is disappointing. She’s appealed her claim for benefits after her husband, a former reservist, died of non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

“They’ve denied this for years, and they can’t deny it anymore,” Carson says. “They’ve got to admit to it.”

The Vietnam Veterans of America have now joined with the reservists and families calling for a more aggressive response from the VA, issuing a press release on Sunday that accused the VA of taking a “delay, deny, until they die” approach to these vets.

In an email, a VA spokesperson said “in order to better inform and serve our Veterans, the Department is examining policy and legislative issues in order to proceed with its final proposal.” In other statements to the press, VA officials have offered wildly differing reasons for their delay, including conflicting meetings, and senior leaders travel schedules. The Secretary of Veterans Affairs even offered his own perspective on the justification for continuing to refuse medical care to these veterans.

“The issue frankly is how to execute once the announcement is made,” Secretary McDonald told the Dayton Daily News on March 21. “For whatever reasons, it’s very hard to find the people who worked on or flew those C-123s and we want to make sure when we announce we can have perfect clarity on the next steps for those veterans who served with C-123s that sprayed Agent Orange.”

Whatever reason VA cites to justify its continuing delays, the result is indeed...delay. For years, delay after delay, until the most positive spin that can be put on this miserable mess is that VA simply can't get its act together. Any less positive spin as to wny VA is treating these veterans as it does would suggest paranoia.

Lewis Wallace is WYSO's managing editor, substitute host and economics reporter. Follow him @lewispants.

First News Report of C-123 Agent Orange Coverage Revealed by VA Secretary McDonald

Lewis Wallace published the first announcement of C-123 Agent Orange coverage in his Ohio-area WYSO report.

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs says it will make an announcement next week about treatment for Air Force reservists who may have been exposed to Agent Orange after Vietnam. Ohio U.S. Senator Sherrod Brown has joined the chorus of voices asking for a policy change.

As many as 2,100 people who worked on C-123 cargo planes in the Air Force reserves could have been exposed to Agent Orange residues in the 1970s, after those planes had been used in Vietnam to spray the toxic defoliant. The planes weren’t thoroughly cleaned before being reused in the reserves in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts. One C-123 that was finally retired to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force was decontaminated by contractors in the 1990s before going on display inside a hangar.

Rickenbacker Air Force Base in Columbus is one of the sites that flew C-123s for medical and other missions, and a growing group of former reservists has been asking the VA for recognition for health conditions that could be related to dioxin, the toxin in Agent Orange. Currently, anyone who was on the ground in Vietnam and has any of a list of diseases associated with dioxin is eligible for what are called presumptive benefits, including disability benefits and money for survivors. But many of the C-123 reservists never went to Vietnam, and almost all have had their claims related to Agent Orange denied by the VA.

Ohio Democratic Senator Sherrod Brown says he talked to VA Secretary McDonald about the issue personally.

“How do we make this up to them in the quickest, best possible way?” he said in an interview with WYSO.

In a Veterans Affairs committee meeting Thursday morning, McDonald for the first time publicly promised answers following a question from Senator Brown that referenced WYSO’s national reporting on the issue. The statement came after years of pressure from reservists, who say the VA had the information it needed years ago to reassess the status of C-123 vets.

After a recent report by the Institute of Medicine confirmed the possibility that C-123 reservists were exposed to Agent Orange in hazardous amounts, the VA updated its website encouraging vets to file claims. Still, veterans involved in advocacy have been pushing for the VA and the Air Force to be proactive about finding the people who could be affected, and offering them the same presumptive benefits given to those who were in Vietnam.

McDonald said the VA is working to identify the people who could have been exposed, and Under Secretary for Benefits Allison Hickey will make an announcement on the issue next week.

NPR Reports C-123 Exposure Story on "All Things Considered"

Dayton-based Public Radio researcher Lewis Wallace expanded his initial January 28 story about C-123 Agent Orange issues into a report carried by National Public Radio on "All Things Considered."  (CLICK HERE for print version.)

Listeners heard Wallace in the Air Force Museum interview a former crewmember, as well as Mrs. Barbara Carson, widow of another C-123 vet, both from Rickenbacker Air Base in earlier years.Mrs. Carson has waited many years since first applying for survivor benefits which remain denied by the VA.

Also heard was Dr. Ralph Erickson, the VA physician chairing the committee of experts from Veterans Benefits Administration and Veterans Health Administration charged with recommending response to the January 9 Institute of Medicine report.

VA also told Wallace that any changes would take several months, but there was no suggestion of what sick C-123 veterans should do in the interim.

C-123 vets who are ill, all of whom are still refused VA care, should continue seeking medical attention elsewhere. Note there is no reimbursement for any such care. Once VA's plans to address C-123 needs are published, claims submitted will take a year or more to move through their system and veterans must anticipate providing for their own care during that period.

Survivors of C-123 veterans who die during the application process might be eligible for some residual benefits. Some C-123 veterans' claims have been denied and in appeal since 2007, and veterans and even their survivors have died in the interim...General Mike Walker is a painful example of this.

The IOM research, ordered by VA in early 2014, concluded that C-123 veterans of the 1972-1982 era, from Westover AFB MA, Pittsburgh AFS PA, and Rickenbacker ANGB OH, were exposed to Agent Orange residue in airplanes left after Vietnam. Print media also covering the issue included Scientific American, Reuters, LA Times, Washington Times, New York Times, and the AP.

That conclusion overturned VA arguments which had for years improperly blocked C-123 vets' disability claims, and clears the way for aircrews, aircraft maintenance and other veterans to seek Agent Orange benefits from the VA. Dr. Erickson's committee certainly has its hands full of a complex assignment, but we have maintained that all VA has to do is issue a training memo, rather than construct new regulations and other time-killing steps.

Present law, present regulations, present rules all fit perfectly...we now ask VA to follow its own rules in VAM21-1MR, and get our folks into the VA medical system as soon as possible, even if on an interim basis. Normally, such changes are announced in the Federal Register to allow for public comment...a process taking up to seven months.

Fortunately for C-123 veterans, VA has already made three separate Federal Register announcements assuring Congress that VA will treat veterans exposed to Agent Orange with the same presumptive service connection offered Vietnam veterans themselves. Any rule changes or Federal Register postings at this point would merely be announcements that VA will henceforth follow its own rules. Rules which they could use today and permit veterans to receive care, but for some reason additional delays are what VA does best.

Of course, there is significant savings for VA in denying medical care for these men and women for as long as possible, forcing them to seek attention through other insurance or Medicare program rather than in VA hospitals and clinics where lines are already long. While such savings aren't necessarily VA's primary objective in avoiding all C-123 veterans' care for even longer than the years already wasted, that fact works against, rather than for, C-123 veterans' health needs. If veterans pay, VA saves.

C-123 Veterans Association thanks Mr. Wallace and NPR for bringing our concerns to the American public.

Ohio NPR Covers C-123 Exposure Issue

Ohio's NPR reporter, Lewis Wallace, does a complete and fair job reviewing the C-123 post-Vietnam Agent Orange exposures. He details how Patches came to be the lightening rod for veterans' attention, and the difficulties moving VA forward on acknowledging veterans' disability claims. Visit for text and audio.