C-123 Casualties – Deaths With Agent Orange Claims Wrongly Denied

At least 10 C-123 veterans have died after VA denied their Agent Orange claims, groups say

In this May 1966 file photo, a U.S. Air Force C-123 flies low along a South Vietnamese highway spraying defoliants on dense jungle growth beside the road to eliminate ambush sites for the Viet Cong during the Vietnam War. Crews that flew and serviced these aircraft after the war say the VA has unfairly denied their claims of Agent Orange-related illnesses. (Department of Defense photo)

Mike Francis | mfrancis@oregonian.com 
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on June 30, 2014 at 11:05 AM

At least 10 veterans exposed to Agent Orange while serving aboard aircraft contaminated by the Vietnam-era defoliant have died after being denied care by the Department of Veterans Affairs, two veterans groups charged Sunday.

The veterans, who served between 1972 and 1982, flew or maintained the C-123 aircraft that were used to spray Agent Orange on Southeast Asian forests during the Vietnam War. They maintain that the residue from those flights exposed them to deadly toxins – a charge the Air Force has disputed.

While the VA has said it presumes that certain illnesses among Vietnam veterans were caused by exposure to Agent Orange, the veterans groups said they don't extend the same presumption to those postwar veterans who flew in contaminated aircraft. The reason is that the agency has adopted an unscientific notion of the definition of "exposure," the groups said.

"VA continues to deny all claims from post-Vietnam C-123 veterans, while at the same time deceptively assuring Congress that claims are considered 'on a case-by-case basis,'" the Vietnam Veterans of America and the C-123 Veterans Association said in a joint statement. "In fact, VA does not tell Congress that all C-123 claims are refused following a year or two delay."

This argument is playing out in a more restrained way before the Institute of Medicine, which recently took testimony on the question of whether C-123 veterans were exposed to dangerously high levels of toxins from contaminated aircraft. On one side was a VA consultant who has long argued that any exposure to Agent Orange residues by C-123 crews was "negligible." On the other was a C-123 veteran and an array of scientists including Rutgers professor and microbiology researcher Peter Kahn.

"What the government has been doing," he told the panel during his testimony earlier in June, is "putting up the façade of scientific objectivity in order to avoid action. I regard it as a failure of political courage and moral courage."

Instead of stonewalling claims from C-123 veterans, he said, the VA should treat them as it does other veterans who suffer from service-related injuries.

The veterans groups didn't name any of the deceased veterans, except for Lt. Col. Paul Bailey of Bath, N.H., who died of cancer last year after the VA denied his claim, then approved it after he was featured in a Washington Post story and members of Congress raised questions. Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., was among those who asked then-Secretary Eric Shinseki to examine the way the VA was treating claims from C-123 crews.

The Boston Globe focused on the issue Sunday, featuring the case of 70-year-old Richard Matte, a retired Air Force reservist and C-123 crew member who's had a heart transplant, his leg amputated and been treated for bladder cancer, lung cancer and nerve disorders. He is one of about 50 C-123 veterans or their survivors living in Massachusetts, according to the C-123 Veterans Association.

With at least 10 C-123 veterans already dead from diseases associated with Agent Orange exposure, "surviving C-123 veterans do not want more comrades' names added to this list," the joint statement said.

The C-123 Veterans Association is headed by former McMinnville resident Wes Carter who's also being treated for cancer. He now lives in Fort Collins, Colorado. He maintains the C-123 Veteran Agent Orange Exposure website.

-Mike Francis

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More: Congressional Support...or lack of it...for C-123 Veterans. Where is Rep. Neal?

Susanne Bonamici, D-OR

Although Westover Air Reserve Base (Chicopee, Massachusetts) is located in his district, and although most of the Agent Orange-exposed veterans are his own constituents, Congressman Richard Neal has declined to sign his colleague Suzanne Bonamici's letter to VA Secretary Eric Shinseki.

Bonamici led a bipartisan effort in the House urging the VA to acknowledge C-123 veterans' exposure claims, submitting their letter to the Secretary on October 23, 2013.

A parallel Senate effort has been led by Senator Richard Burr (R-NC) and Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR).

A large squadron of the C-123 troop transports was stationed at Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee between 1972-1982. The C-123 was the aircraft used for spraying Agent Orange in Vietnam, and Air Force tests revealed in 1994 that 34 of the warplanes remained contaminated through the decade of use following that conflict. The aircrews, aeromedical evacuation crews and maintenance personnel were exposed to dioxin, the toxin in Agent Orange, by skin contact and inhalation of dioxin-laden dust.

As the Congressional letter noted, the veterans' exposure has been confirmed by numerous other federal agencies, including the CDC and National Institutes of Health, yet the VA declines to provide essential medical care and other benefits. 

VA utilizes their unusual in-house definition of "exposed" (one unique among federal agencies and scientific societies and disputed by EPA, CDC and NIH) to skirt requirements under the Agent Orange Act of 1991. That law requires VA to care for Agent Orange veterans. In the agency's dealing with C-123 veterans, VA has added a requirement for proof of individual exposure to Agent Orange tied to resultant specific illnesses, termed "medical nexus." 

VA's special definition effectively denies all C-123 veterans' claims of exposure because such proofs are not possible for individuals, and only possible for larger groups when evaluated by epidemiological specialists. Congress removed this virtually impossible individual burden of proof for Vietnam veterans by passing the Agent Orange Act. Title 38 and the Federal Register of 8 May 2001, page 23166, detail that VA will care for any veteran exposed to "military herbicide,' thus VA's special definition of "exposed" was created to bar C-123 veterans from care.

Rep. Richie Neal, D-MA

Representatives of The C-123 Veterans Association, visiting with Congressman Neal in his office in March 2013 were personally assured of his support, although no action seems to have been taken by his office in furtherance of that commitment . Neither have local Massachusetts C-123 veterans been successful seeking his assistance, and Neal's absence from the list of Congressional signers to this letter is disconcerting. 

Veterans suffering Agent Orange illnesses, such as prostate cancer, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy, ALS and otherrecognized ailments continue to hope that Congressman Neal, like so many of his colleagues in the House and Senate, eventually notice their situation and lend his support. Given the veterans' severe illnesses and age averaging in the late 60s, Mr. Neal's help would be useful sooner, rather than later.

Why is it left for the able Congresswoman from Oregon to lead this effort which should have had Congressman Neal's early and enthusiastic intervention with the Department of Veterans Affairs? Where is the voice of Westover's Congressman? How serious do our illnesses need to be to warrant his concern?

Then-Mayor Richard Neal with then-Captain Wes Carter, Springfield, 1991

Note: I first met Mr. Neal the night of the Springfield chlorine incident, when I was the first medical officer responding to the city's request for military assistance. Later, Mayor Neal honored all of the 439th Military Airlift Wing personnel who helped that stressful night, and later still, I met him at various city events. Lastly, we spoke in his Washington office where I sought his guidance and assistance for his district's veterans. 

As with the other C-123 veterans who've sought his help, including his constituents, many subsequent letters and requests have been unanswered, although his staff had asked me to detail the situation for them. Apparently, requests for Congressman Neal's comments from Springfield's The Republican newspaper have also been ignored. 

The Congressman is an able legislator so there must be a significant political reason for his avoidance of this issue. But for us as dioxin-exposed veterans, there is no avoidance possible.