Good week in DC for C-123 Veterans (February 16-21)

On Friday February 16  I met with Oregon Senator Merkley's senior staffer and attorney Adrian Snead and Mr Brooks Tucker from VA's Office of Congressional Liaison. Both men have worked to help C-123 veterans for nearly six years. I updated them on our retroactivity efforts.  A good work day for C-123 veterans' issues.

Tuesday morning I met with Pennsylvania Sen. Casey's staff about our 911th veterans. I asked that the senator help get the word out to the veterans community about our benefits by using his website and also his newsletter. They like that idea and also suggested we approach the state veterans affairs organization for their help.

The other issue discussed was the retroactivity due from our exposure claims because VA unjustly limits their look-back to June 2015. I went over what we see as the VA deceptions that prevented any claim succeeding between 2011 and 2015.

At noon I met with Mr. Brooks Tucker, senior advisor from the VA Office of Legislative Liaison and Mr. Scott Blackburn, executive director of MyVA.

MyVA is the VA effort to consolidate the veteran experience, redirect the agency to focus on veterans' needs rather than the departments', and instill ethical values dear to the organization. He generously gave me over an hour to discuss the VA track record and obstacles placed before us. My goal was to gain his understanding of our retroactivity argument and also our disappointment with VA ethics.

We were joined at lunch by Rick Wideman, legislative affairs director for the Vietnam Veterans of America. And VA paid!

Some Checks Just Showed Up! Thanks!

Thank you! We've had support the last several days to help with the expenses of our work in our association. Checks have come in from folks I've never met but who are our comrades in Idaho, Georgia, Massachusetts, Florida, Ohio and elsewhere. The widow of one of our maintainers sent in $10: that might not sound much but it is a lot too many of us and it covers a full day using the metro in Washington when I'm working there. Earlier, checks came in from a DAV post and a Vietnam Veterans of America chapter. Altogether that covers my week working in DC earlier this month.

Shoulders at the wheel now include flight nurses, pilots, navs, loads and maintainers... and a couple MSC officers. All of is appreciated! I understand John Harris (aka "Big John") wrote a few emails – many thanks, John.

More checks are welcome..if you care to help. There are at least two trips remaining to DC to work on our retroactivity issue and to help VA address ethical failures that we've pointed out and (amazing!) that they're willing to discuss. If all goes well, we will have even more trips as we pursue issues about our claims up to the US Court of Appeals for Veterans Claims.

Address: 1233 Town Center Drive, Fort Collins CO 80524

I promise I will spend every dime carefully, and I also promise I will spend more than is sent because there is so much we can do!

Short Video by ProPublica: C-123 Agent Orange Veterans' Quest For VA Benefits vs. Dr. Al Young

 

ProPublica and The Virginia Pilot produced a short video on YouTube covering Dr. Al Young and the C-123 veterans' problems with him, the VA and Agent Orange. A follow-on to their excellent in-depth report on the same subject.

• note: related 2014 Vietnam Veterans of America radio interview
• here is a shorter recording, just the IOM opening statements by Maj. Wes Carter and Dr. Al Young
• note: Full recording of Dr. Al Young and others, June 2014 public hearing held by the Institute of Medicine C-123 Agent Orange committee, Washington DC
• statement by Professor Philip Kahn (Rutgers University) objecting at IOM hearing to VA foot-dragging
• note: brief summary of some of disappointments veterans had over the decades with Dr. Young
• note: C-123 Veterans Association concerns re: Dr. Al Young & VA, submitted to VA 2014

A MESSAGE FROM THE SECRETARY OF VETERANS AFFAIRS: Commemoration of the 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War

         Our Nation’s Vietnam War Commemoration is a long-overdue opportunity for all Americans to recognize, honor, and thank our Vietnam Veterans and their families for their service and sacrifices during one of America’s longest wars.

VA Central Office, along with nearly 9,000 organizations across the country, has joined with the Department of Defense as a commemorative partner to honor our Nation’s Vietnam Veterans.  I have designated March 29, 2016, as a day for our Department to express our tremendous gratitude and support to this generation of Americans through ceremonies across the Nation.   

This commemoration recognizes all men and women who served on active duty in the U.S. Armed Forces during the U.S. involvement in Vietnam—November 1, 1955, to May 15, 1975.  Nine million Americans, approximately 7.2 million living today, served during that period, and the commemoration makes no distinction between Veterans who served in-county, in-theater, or were stationed elsewhere during those 20 years.  All answered the call of duty. 

This commemoration has special significance for those of us at VA because of our honored mission to serve those who have “borne the battle.”  It’s also an opportunity to remember our VA colleagues who served in this generation of Veterans, to extend our heartfelt appreciation to them and to their families who shared the burden of their loved one’s service. 

Please visit http://www.vietnamwar50th.com/ to learn how your organization or facility can become a commemorative partner.  This partnership provides historical media and beautifully-struck lapel pins and other recognition items for presentation to Vietnam Veterans.

Thank you for your continued service to VA and America’s Veterans.

Robert A. McDonald

C-123 Agent Orange Exposure & Breast Cancer

Breast Cancer: I need input on this as we try to convince VA to extend their Agent Orange coverage to include breast cancer. 

Please let me hear from survivors, researchers, epidemiologists...all those with an expert insight to this problem.

Pretty accurate news report covering C-123 exposures, from The Resident.

Vietnam Veterans of America C-123 Press Release, June 18-19, 2015

CALL FOR VOLUNTEERS TO LEAD C-123 VETERANS ASSOCIATION

My time at the stick is over, and crew rest and financial relief desperately sought! I haven't checked but maybe there is even a FAR about too much time on veterans issues by one individual??

Who feels led to offer time and talent for the next year, with our important new objective of working with VA to implement recommendations of the IOM? The worst of the struggle is over – now we find our aircrews and maintenance personnel from all three bases and start getting the word out.

VA will help just in their administrative changes. Web pages, training letters, press releases all will orient claims official, health provider and veteran. The major veterans organizations will all be carrying the news in their magazines and web sites and we on ours. I've asked VA about reaching out through DFAS, ARPC, TREA, ROA, AFA and other authorities and associations. VA's working group, in place since IOM briefed VA on January 8, seems to be their focal point for the many decisions and we need leadership to liaise with them.

I believe we need to stay an informal, funds-free organization welcoming all with a simple request to join us. We do now need to start identifying all who'd like to be members and start a more formal collection of names, their association with the C-123 and how they can document that, illnesses, claims, denials, survivors and whatever else comes to mind in our group's new leadership.

John, Charlie, Andy, Big John, Butler, Arch, Jim, Clancey, Al and Gail, MGB...everyone. Please work this out among yourselves and find us leadership for 2015 and beyond!

Finances. We have nothing in the piggy bank, obviously. I propose we raise voluntary funds of at least $2000 per year for travel expenses, and that really covers only two trips to DC. There will be much work with legislators, VA, military associations and others which will need to keep us busy. Example: my last trip for IOM Jan 6-13 was $1250 and we shouldn't ask our leadership to get soaked for such expenses personally,

The web sites run about $250 a year, and postage maybe $200 now that we don't need to blitz every senator with a $35 350 page 3-ring binder, or solicit interest from reports with one.

Chores, either done by the chairman or delegated to another volunteer:
1. web site and blog entries
2. correspondence with vets, legislators, military associations
3. close contact with VA to insure our needs are met with their program changes
4. PR...keep seeking interest from the press, promoted good coverage about us
5. a couple trips to DC each year; at least one guest appearance at the next annual meeting of the Vietnam Veterans of America and at the American Legion, our two key sponsoring veterans groups
6. I propose a poster display at the 2015 Society of Toxicology and the Association of Military Surgeons of the United States, telling the story of how we were screwed and how things worked out
7. work with the USAF Museum to amend Patches' history to cover our service
8. maintain contact with the Senate minority and majority leaders of the Veterans Affairs Committee
9. consider a more formal, permanent organization structure
10. STRATEGY, STRATEGY, STRATEGY for ongoing "guerrilla" advocacy of our veterans' issues, aka running an effective national campaign on less than pocket change!

Please find us a new chairman! If you want to pass the buck, nominate someone else and we'll crown him/her by popular acclaim!

Good News from the Institute of Medicine

Initial thoughts: the IOM agreed that Reservists were exposed. Their comment:

It is the Committee's opinion that it is quite plausible that, for some Reservists, the exposures received during their work on C-123s exceeded TCDD guidelines for workers in enclosed settings.

Now to read the report more carefully, and just as important, find out the impact of this on the VA's processing of our veterans' exposure claims.

The briefing starts in a few minutes and I'll update further when possible.

Again...good news!

Fort Collins Agent Orange Town Hall Meeting, December 5

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 
Follow on Twitter
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

© 2014 OregonLive.com. All rights reserved.

C-123 Vets Join With Vietnam Vets to Present Fort Collins (CO) Agent Orange Town Hall, 9/12/2014

CANCELED: Conflicted with VA Fort Collins' Open House set for September 18, 2014

DOD Inspector General Immediately Refuses Any Action on C-123 IG Complaint

Acting with unusual speed, but with their usual refusal to get involved, the Department of Defense (DOD) Inspector General Hotline denied the C-123 Veterans Association request for an investigation into the DOD-maintained Agent Orange exposure site list. Typically, investigations of this type can take a month or more but two days was all DOD needed to throw the issue back at the C-123 veterans, unresolved.

By simply stating that there was no reason to proceed, DOD closed out the complaint, despite reams of documents already submitted to the official responsible for the list, Air Force Lieutenant General Judith Fedder. General Fedder earlier denied the veterans' request when put directly to her, insisting there was not enough medical evidence to justify such a decision on her part. The veterans pointed out that the issue is not one of medical impact of the lingering Agent Orange, but the simple historical fact of their contamination.

Both DOD and the Department of Veterans Affairs have resisted acting on veterans' requests for action on the issue of C-123 contamination, despite confirmation of exposure provided by the CDC, National Institutes of Health and the US Public Health Service, and numerous universities and medical schools.

VA has arranged a review of the medical issues involved in the C-123 contamination, a study conducted by the Institute of Medicine, presently meeting in committee in Washington DC. Today's speaker before the committee's public session is Mr. Rick Weidman, Legislative Director for the Vietnam Veterans of America, which has threatened court action if resolution of the veterans' concerns is not forthcoming.

C-123 Veterans Announce Agent Orange Town Hall Meetings

Partnering with the Vietnam Veterans of America. representatives of the C-123 Veterans Association

are now available to present the popular Agent Orange Town Hall meetings throughout the United States. Addressing the full range of Agent Orange concerns and benefits, our Association presents an additional element of exposure topics, including a bit more scientific focus on routes of exposure.


The meetings, free to the public and with light refreshments provided, will also include the latest VA's War Injuries and Illness Study Center, where their poly-exposure expertise has been so important to veterans, especially those with multiple war exposures.

The Agent Orange Town Hall meetings have been organized for nearly two years under the auspices of the Vietnam Veterans of America, the objective being to acquaint veterans and the public with the lingering issues of this Vietnam-war era military herbicide which still causes such grief to America's veterans, as well as allies from South Korea, Australia and the former Republic of South Vietnam.

VVA's web site posts announcements of these talks, presented by many affiliated veterans' organizations in each of the fifty states, and which have proven so popular. The VVA site also posts meeting materials for organizers, and links to vital materials from the Department of Veterans Affairs and the VVA itself, especially the informative VVA Guide to Agent Orange Self Help.

Town Hall Meetings are pointedly non-political...information about Agent Orange and its impact on America's veterans and
their families is the only agenda item. And that information is changing all the time, with new perspectives from the VA, the medical community and veterans themselves.

The C-123 Veterans Association anticipates its next Town Hall Meeting to be July 19 in Cheyenne, Wyoming, in partnership with the city's three Veterans of Foreign Wars posts, and with input from the Wyoming Veterans Commission and the Cheyenne Veterans Affairs Medical Center (note: participation by other agencies such as the VA does not imply their sponsorship or content approval, but only their wish to help inform their veterans and answer questions on any topic of interest.)

Other organizations wishing to conduct Town Hall Meetings under the sponsorship of the Vietnam Veterans of America are asked to coordinate with the VVA through Mokie Porter in the national office. 1-800-882-1316 ext. 146 (mporter@vva.org) For information about the C-123 Veterans Association Town Hall Meeting, please contact W. Carter at wes@c123cancer.org

VA Announces C-123 Institute of Medicine Exposure Study

VA has posted a revision of the C-123 exposures page, which now includes a brief statement of the recent referral of the issue to the Institute of Medicine. Results expected late 2014.

The affected veterans appreciate the concern of the public and the Department of Veterans Affairs in submitting the issue to the Institute of Medicine. We feel, however, the issue is well-addressed in both legal and scientific proofs available to the VA today.

The inevitable delay in fairly considering C-123 veterans' claims which this IOM project involves means eligible veterans will continue to be denied VA medical care. This delay, perhaps as much as two more years, takes from us two years we don't have left to wait for such a decision to gain access to vital medical care.

It has been two years since VA broke their promise of the C-123 IOM project we'd agreed to, and now two more years are proposed mostly as a means of saving money by refusing medical care. That's wrong.

We're eligible now. But regardless, VA denies all claims now, on orders from Compensation and Pension.

Is it not a reasonable interim position that well-qualified C-123 claims be permitted approval? VA could ask for proof of service, proof of diagnosis of an Agent Orange-presumptive illness, and proof of duty aboard a known former Agent Orange spray aircraft such as # 362 (Patches) or one of the other Ranch Hand warplanes.

In our situation of exposure outside Vietnam, VA21-1MR requires VAROs to inquire of C&P as well as JSRRC. Rather than any evaluation at this point, C&P then responds to every referral by ordering denials, and VA has controlled how JSRRC can respond and upon what evidence JSRRC summaries can be based. Post Deployment Health and Compensation and Pension are able to explain better.

We believe that eventually somebody in authority will walk into General Hickey or General Shinseki's office and tell them what's actually being done to the C-123 veterans. The law reads exposure, the rules read exposure, the proofs from science and other federal agencies confirm both exposure and medical impact, but it seems orders still blast out of Washington to "deny, deny, deny. Invent whatever reason, but deny." Once leaders realize, as does the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, that VA procedures are improper, things can change.

Until then, we'll continue to see each and every one of our perfectly valid exposure claims denied on the preferences of a few staffers.

Vietnam Veterans of America Enacts Resolution Supporting C-123 Veterans!

Thanks to the Vietnam Veterans of America. the C-123 Veterans Association has even more

momentum towards gaining recognition of our Agent Orange exposure from the VA. The following national resolution was enacted at their 2013 convention, and extends the resolution supporting us first put forward in 2012.

Also, special thanks are due VVA and their president, John Rowan, for assistance in dealing with the USAF School of Aerospace Medicine and the faulty report that unit issued about C-123 dioxin contamination. When the request  went to VVA for help challenging the Air Force report, VVA leadership immediately responded and the benefits of their assistance are still being felt, and will continue to be felt, as the medical and scientific communities conclude their challenge to USAFSAM's C-123 report. We can't detail too much of this controversy until publication of the various scientific reports this fall.

Issue:

2013 VVA Convention Resolution Proposed by the AGENT ORANGE COMMITTEE ADOPTED by Vietnam Veterans of America

US AIR FORCE RESERVE C123K AIRCREWS EXPOSURE: POST-VIETNAM

AO-17

The United States Air Force (USAF) used its fleets of C-123K transport aircraft in more than 9,100 missions, for aerial application of more than twenty million gallons of toxic herbicides between 1961 and 1971 in Vietnam. The aircraft were returned to the United States for continued use in airlift missions by USAF squadrons at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania; and, Rickenbacker Air Reserve Base, Ohio between 1972-1982 and were then retired from service and placed in storage. Veterans whose duties brought them into intense contact with these aircraft were exposed to military herbicides.
Background:
The United States Air Force (USAF) in 1979, in response to the presence of noxious fumes, conducted scientific tests on unit aircraft and identified and determined that significant levels of military herbicides and insecticides used in Vietnam still contaminated the aircraft; and, additional tests carried out in 1994 by USAF Armstrong Laboratories still showed the presence of herbicides, and in particular, the presence of highly toxic Agent Orange contaminant dioxin. Finding that the contamination was considered sufficient by the USAF, it then required the use of HAZMAT protective equipment when carrying out tests or otherwise entering the aircraft. As late as 2009, further USAF tests conducted at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona demonstrated continued contamination of these aircraft. USAF toxicology staff has testified in federal proceedings that toxic levels of contamination due to the herbicides were a danger to public health; and that the levels observed in the aircraft greatly exceed the Department of Defense’s (DoD) own standards for maximum permissible exposure to any dioxin contaminating interior surfaces. Other federal agencies have reviewed the data and concurred that exposures to personnel at levels exceeding DoD recommendations are likely to have occurred. In response to the State of Arizona and US Environmental Protection Agency environmental concerns, the USAF withdrew the aircraft from commercial resale, quarantined them and, in April 2010, ultimately took extraordinary disposal measures and smelted the remaining fleet. It is estimated that approximately 1,500 service members, including aircrews and maintenance personnel were exposed to military herbicide-contaminated conditions on the C-123 aircraft; with many of these personnel, who now having health problems commonly associated with herbicide exposure and have endured lengthy legal struggles to prove these problems are service-related. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, under Public Law 102-4, has statutory responsibility to accurately designate situations and locations that caused veterans to have been exposed to military herbicides used in Vietnam, as well as their contaminants.

Resolved, That:

Vietnam Veterans of America, in light of the review of the data and scientific information available currently, has confirmed that post-Vietnam service aboard the C-123 led to dioxin exposure at about the same intensity as with ground troops from the Vietnam War. And, having secured expert scientific opinions as to the length and breadth of that exposure; urges the Department of Veterans Affairs to promptly designate the C-123K aircraft, used after the Vietnam War in the United States during 1972 to 1982, as having been Agent Orange exposure sites to permit the approximately 1,500 veterans who were aircrew or maintenance personnel to be eligible for Agent Orange-related benefits.
Further, in light of the inaction by both the United States Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs in ameliorating the present situation encountered by these approximately 1,500 veterans; VVA will also advocate with the United States Congress for the introduction of enabling legislation that would grant presumptive herbicide exposure status to US servicemembers who served in the units cited above.

Adopted by a majority voice vote by Vietnam Veterans of America at its 16th national convention in Jacksonville, Florida on 16 August 2013

Vietnam Vets Announce Legislative Goals for 113th Congress

The Vietnam Veterans of America concluded their annual conference earlier this month, and continue to support C-123 veterans with the following initiative:

•   VVA shall continue to advocate on behalf of the veterans of the crews who flew C-123s contaminated by the Agent Orange they once sprayed over Vietnam and are now suffering some of the same peculiar health ills as are in-country Vietnam veterans. 
  

Veterans win mixed ruling on exposure to chemicals

Veterans win mixed ruling on exposure to chemicals

Bob Egelko

Published 4:33 pm, Thursday, July 25, 2013 Thousands of military veterans who were exposed to chemicals during decades of secret weapons testing are entitled to up-to-date government information about possible health hazards but can't get government-funded health care outside the Department of Veterans Affairs system, a federal judge in Oakland has ruled.

The decision Wednesday by Chief U.S. District Judge Claudia Wilken was a limited victory for veterans' organizations, who had argued that the VA health care system is overburdened and inadequate for the needs of those veterans, and that the government should pay their private medical bills.

Wilken said the government is shielded from such lawsuits because it has established the VA system to treat veterans, along with a special Court of Appeals to hear complaints of substandard or withheld care.

The veterans "have not shown that the care is inadequate or that they are unable to address any inadequacies through the (VA) system," Wilken said.

That's not good enough, said Eugene Illovsky, a lawyer for the plaintiffs, who include Vietnam Veterans of America, Swords to Plowshares, other organizations and individual veterans.

"The VA system is a rationed system," Illovsky said Thursday, noting that those affected by the ruling may be in the tens of thousands. He said no decision has been made on an appeal, but "we're going to try to keep fighting on the issue as best we can."

Testing since WWI

He said he was pleased, though, at Wilken's ruling that the government has an ongoing duty to notify the veterans of new information it learns about the chemicals' potential health effects. The Defense Department and VA had previously denied any such obligation.

The United States began testing chemical weapons on consenting service members at the end of World War I and expanded the practice during World War II, when more than 60,000 veterans were used as subjects. At least 4,000 of them were exposed to mustard gas and a chemical weapon called Lewisite, according to government reports quoted by Wilken.

Cold War-era testing included psychiatric drugs, such as LSD. About 7,800 soldiers were exposed to chemical and biological substances at the Army's laboratories at Edgewood Arsenal, Md., from 1955 to 1975. The Pentagon said it then stopped testing chemical weapons on live subjects.

Must provide updates

The testing agencies said they obtained consent from each participant. But Wilken, in a previous ruling, said government officials had acknowledged that they did not provide full information to all participants about the chemicals and their possible effects.

Under binding government regulations, Wilken said Wednesday, "the Army has an ongoing duty ... to provide test subjects with newly acquired information that may affect their well-being."

Illovsky, the veterans' lawyer, said the ruling would help them obtain health care and "maybe provide peace of mind."

Bob Egelko is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. E-mail: begelko@sfchronicle.com

Vietnam Veterans of America proposes updated resolution of support for C-123 veterans!

(following is the proposed resolution presented for consideration by the 2013 convention of the Vietnam Veerans of America, updating their 2011 resolution which as been so influential...our thanks, VVA!)

US AIR FORCE RESERVE C123K AIRCREWS EXPOSURE POST-VIETNAM

Issue: The United States Air Force (USAF) used its fleets of C-123K transport aircraft in more than 9,100 missions, for aerial application of more than twenty million gallons of toxic herbicides between 1961 and 1971 in Vietnam. The aircraft were returned to the United States for continued use in airlift missions by USAF squadrons at Westover Air Force Base, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania; and, Rickenbacker Air Reserve Base, Ohio between 1972-1982 and were then retired from service and placed in storage. Veterans whose duties brought them into intense contact with these aircraft were exposed to military herbicides.

Background: The United States Air Force (USAF) in 1979, in response to the presence of noxious fumes, conducted scientific tests on unit aircraft and identified and determined that significant levels of military herbicides and insecticides used in Vietnam still contaminated the aircraft; and,

additional tests carried out in 1994 by USAF Armstrong Laboratories still showed the presence of herbicides, and in particular, the presence of highly toxic Agent Orange contaminant dioxin. Finding that the contamination was considered sufficient by the USAF, it then required the use of HAZMAT protective equipment when carrying out tests or otherwise entering the aircraft. As late as 2009, further USAF tests conducted at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona demonstrated continued contamination of these aircraft. USAF toxicology staff has testified in federal proceedings that toxic levels of contamination due to the herbicides were a danger to public health; and that the levels observed in the aircraft greatly exceed the Department of Defense’s (DoD) own standards for maximum permissible exposure to any dioxin contaminating interior surfaces.

 Other federal agencies have reviewed the data and concurred that exposures to personnel at levels exceeding DoD recommendations are likely to have occurred. In response to the State of Arizona and US Environmental Protection Agency environmental concerns, the USAF withdrew the aircraft from commercial resale, quarantined them and, in April 2010, ultimately took extraordinary disposal measures and smelted the remaining fleet. It is estimated that approximately 1,500 service members, including aircrews and maintenance personnel were exposed to military herbicide-contaminated conditions on the C-123 aircraft; with many of these personnel, who now having health problems commonly associated with herbicide exposure and have endured lengthy legal struggles to prove these problems are service-related. The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs, under Public Law 102-4, has statutory responsibility to accurately designate situations and locations that caused veterans to have been exposed to military herbicides used in Vietnam, as well as their contaminants.

Resolved, That: Vietnam Veterans of America, in light of the review of the data and scientific information available currently, has confirmed that post-Vietnam service aboard the C-123 led to dioxin exposure at about the same intensity as with ground troops from the Vietnam War. And, having secured expert scientific opinions as to the length and breadth of that exposure; urges the Department of Veterans Affairs to promptly designate the C-123K aircraft, used after the Vietnam War in the United States during 1972 to 1982, as having been Agent Orange exposure sites to permit the approximately 1,500 veterans who were aircrew or maintenance personnel to be eligible for Agent Orange-related benefits.

Further, in light of the inaction by both the United States Air Force and the Department of Veterans Affairs in ameliorating the present situation encountered by these approximately 1,500 veterans; VVA will also advocate with the United States Congress for the introduction of enabling legislation that would grant presumptive herbicide exposure status to US servicemembers who served in the units cited above. 

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.