9/11 - Never Forget. Our generation's Pearl Harbor

Hartford CT - article about Tim Olmsted & Our Agent Orange Claims

Reporter Lisa Chedekel did a superb job digging into our Agent Orange situation, publishing an article which is so accurate it serves to be an outline in our own minds of the situation we face with the Air Force and the VA.  Our thanks to her and Commissioner Linda Schartz, Connecticut Commissioner of Veterans Affairs!

Westover Veterans Fight for Agent Orange
Benefits After Discovering Many of their 
Crews Ill or Dead

 Written by Lisa Chedekel  LISTEN TO PBS RADIO ARTICLE

Air Force Lt. Col. Aaron Olmsted of Ellington, in a C-123 plane.

In the years since they flew together out of Westover Air Force Base in Massachusetts in the post-Vietnam War era, Wes Carter and Paul Bailey have stayed in close touch, swapping information about families, jobs, and their former crewmates in the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron.

This year, the conversation took a strange turn: Bailey, who lives in New Hampshire, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in February. Two months later, Carter, a former Massachusetts resident who now lives in Oregon, got the same diagnosis.

Curious about the coincidence, the two men began checking around with members of their Air Force Reserve squadron – particularly those who had flown the C-123 Provider, a plane that was used to spray Agent Orange during the Vietnam War and then was reassigned to domestic missions at Westover and two other U.S. bases.

Carter was stunned: the first five crewmen he called had prostate cancer or heart disease.

The sixth man he tried had died.

Since then, he and Bailey have found dozens more former Westover reservists who are sick – with prostate cancer, diabetes, heart disease, peripheral neuropathy and other illnesses connected to exposure to Agent Orange [AO]. In just a few months, they have compiled a list of close to 40 of their fellow pilots, medical technicians, maintenance workers and flight engineers who are sick or have died of such illnesses, many of them from Connecticut and Massachusetts.

“I’ve had trouble finding guys who don’t have AO-related illnesses,” said Carter, who also suffers from heart disease.

Now, Carter and Bailey are spearheading an effort to get the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs to recognize that the crews who manned the “spray planes” stateside from 1972 to 1982 were exposed to lingering Agent Orange contamination and should receive compensation for their illnesses, as their fellow veterans who served in Vietnam do.

Under current policy, veterans must have set foot in Vietnam to be eligible for compensation for exposure to Agent Orange, a toxic herbicide sprayed in the jungles to destroy foliage and crops. Diseases related to exposure to Agent Orange include prostate cancer, neuropathy, ischemic heart disease, diabetes mellitus and respiratory cancers.

“For years, for many hundreds of hours, we flew that aircraft,” Carter said. “We ate in it. We worked in it. We fixed it. We slept in it… Most of us total thousands of hours inside the fuselage—inside that area the Air Force considers, even 25 years after the aircraft were retired, to be contaminated.”

In recent unanswered complaints to the Air Force Inspector General, the chief of the Air Force Reserve, the Institute of Medicine and other officials, Carter has cited documents showing that the Air Force knew, at least since 1994, of Agent Orange contamination aboard C-123 aircraft flown at Westover and other bases — but failed to warn personnel of the health risks.

Among the documents Carter uncovered was a 1994 Air Force report that found one of the airplanes, known as Patches, was “heavily contaminated” with dioxins. Tests on other planes showed similar contamination, records show. In a 2000 legal brief, the General Services Administration argued that the proposed sale of C-123s to a private buyer should be canceled, dubbing the planes “extremely hazardous” and saying their release would carry “the risk of dioxin contamination to the general public.”

In a 1996 internal memo also uncovered by Carter, an official in the Air Force Office of the Staff Judge Advocate, Directorate of Environmental Law, had expressed similar concerns about the possibly contaminated aircraft being sold to third parties, but said: “I do not believe we should alert anyone outside of official channels of this potential problem until we fully determine its extent.” Carter also located many Air Force tests conducted after 1994...all with the same results.

So far, attempts by Westover reservists to claim veterans’ benefits linked to Agent Orange exposure on C-123s have been stymied.

One of the veterans who tried was Aaron Olmsted of Ellington, CT, a retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel who flew the C-123. Olmsted, 60, was killed in a plane crash in Pennsylvania in May, four years after he had lost a battle with the Board of Veterans Appeals to prove that he was sick from exposure to Agent Orange.

While Olmsted had logged hundreds of hours piloting C-123s at Westover, the veterans’ appeals board in 2007 rejected his claim that his diabetes mellitus was connected to Agent Orange exposure.

“The Board acknowledges that the veteran maintains he was exposed to Agent Orange while flying aircraft from 1979 to 1982 in the Air Force Reserves because the aircraft were used to spray Agent Orange in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 and that he was thus exposed to Agent Orange residue,” Veterans Law Judge Steven L. Cohn wrote in dismissing Olmsted’s claim.

“[But] the veteran has not submitted any evidence substantiating his contention that there was any residual Agent Orange material on the aircraft he served on. His contention, standing alone, is not sufficient to show he had actual exposure to Agent Orange.”

Olmsted’s widow, Diane, said she was frustrated that the VA had denied her husband’s appeal on the grounds that he had not provided specific tail numbers of the C-123s he flew. He flew Patches and other planes that were found to be contaminated with dioxins, flight records and photographs show.

“I don’t understand why they would put him through this, when it was clear he flew contaminated planes,” she said. “Why would they turn their backs on him after he had served his country so long and so well? I feel like it’s such an injustice.”

She said federal aviation officials are now investigating whether her husband had a medical crisis that caused the small plane he was piloting to crash this spring. “We always joked he could have landed a refrigerator with wings,” she said. “The plane was fine, the weather was good – [the crash] makes no sense.”

Odd Smells, Stinging Eyes

A hazmat team at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona.

Records show that some C-123 planes were held in quarantine storage in recent years, and then disposed of by shredding and smelting in 2010. In June 2009, an Agent Orange consultant to the Secretary of Defense had lobbied for the “immediate destruction” of the planes, in part to avoid attracting media attention to the health claims of stateside veterans.

“A whole new class of veterans may claim that their exposure was due to the fact they were members of aircrews or mechanics associated with the contaminated aircraft that returned from Vietnam,” the consultant, Dr. Alvin L. Young, wrote in the June 26, 2009, memo.

Carter, Bailey and their fellow reservists want the Air Force to explain why it never warned former crew members of their exposure and the possible health consequences, even as tests confirmed the presence of dioxins in the planes. Work crews that prepared Patches for display in a museum were instructed in a 1994 memo to wear hazardous material suits and respirators—yet Carter, Olmsted and others had flown in the plane often, without protection.

Carter and Bailey both recall the strange chemical smell of the C-123s and the stinging in their eyes and mouths – at the time, inexplicable sensations.

“I was always pretty sick on the airplanes – I ended up throwing up a lot,” said Bailey, 65, who is undergoing radiation treatment for cancer. “I never knew why. Now it makes sense.”

The VA press office did not respond to an inquiry from C-HIT. In a July letter to Carter, staff members of North Carolina Sen. Richard Burr reported that VA officials “said they have received hundreds, if not thousands, of claims for ‘secondary’ exposure over the years [but] that the available science does not support the link between health issues and flying on an aircraft which was previously exposed to Agent Orange.”

Connecticut state veterans’ affairs Commissioner Linda Schwartz, a former Air Force flight nurse who has studied the effects of Agent Orange on women veterans who served in Vietnam, said she was hopeful that the VA would re-think its stance on stateside Agent Orange exposure.

“It seems to me that there is sufficient evidence to document individual exposure by comparing a crew member’s flight logbook with the tail numbers of the aircraft,” she said. “I am hopeful that when all of the evidence is submitted to Secretary of Veterans Affairs [Eric] Shinseki, he will use the same fairness, clarity and logic that he has exercised in his other decisions.”

She applauded Shinseki’s decision to include three new diseases—Parkinson’s Disease, chronic b-cell leukemia and ischemic heart disease—in the presumptive category for Agent Orange exposure. “We have not heard the final word on this issue,” she said.

Vietnam Veterans of America [VVA], which lobbies for veterans, has begun researching the Westover claims and expects to file a petition with the Secretary of Veterans Affairs, asking that the stateside reservists who flew in contaminated C-123 planes get the same “presumptive exposure” status as their Vietnam-based counterparts, said Rick Weidman, VVA’s executive director for policy and government affairs.

“We’re very supportive of the effort this group of reservists is making to substantiate their claims,” Weidman said. “There are a lot of things we think the government should be doing that they’re not, and full disclosure of the harmful materials our troops were exposed to is one of those things.”

For her part, Diane Olmsted knows that a change in VA policy could take time – and will come too late for her husband.

As she watched her young grandchildren run around her house on a recent day, her thoughts turned away from bureaucratic battles, including the new appeal for VA benefits that she is pursuing.

“He was larger than life,” she said of her husband. “Now, he’s missing out on time with these beautiful grandkids.

That’s the part that is the hardest.”

Deadline for Retroactive Benefits Approaches - August 30!

PLEASE: If you have, or suspect you have any condition associated with Agent Orange exposure, your application for benefits musts be filed with the Department of Veterans Affairs by August 30 to qualify for one year of retroactive benefits.


The VA has been announcing this for quite some time, and those suffering from three specific diseases may qualify for a year of retroactive benefits...that will be determined by their rating officers, but YOU must send in at least a simple letter of application...consider using the following language - a more formal application can follow at any time but you MUST have something submitted.


Your more formal paperwork can follow later, but let's get this started now. If you know of veterans' survivors, please get the word to them as well!


(your name and address)
(your Social Security Number)


To: Department of Veterans Affairs
    address of your VA Regional Office)


I have been exposed to Agent Orange while in the United States Air Force as a crew member aboard our C-123K aircraft, and apply for all appropriate protections and benefits.


Respectfully,




(signature)
-------------- from Air Force Sergeants Association----------------

VETERANS NEWS  Agent Orange Deadline Approaching Vietnam-era veterans take note; an important due date is approaching for those who have medical diagnoses for three presumptive conditions related to exposure to Agent Orange. Veterans who have been diagnosed with ischemic heart disease, hairy cell/B-cell leukemias and Parkinson’s disease have until August 30, 2011, to file their disability claims with VA in order to qualify for up to one year of retroactive benefits. Veterans can file for disability claims online at VA's Agent Orange Fast Track Claims Processing System (https://www.fasttrack.va.gov/AOFastTrack).  ; Veterans who served in the Republic of Vietnam or in-land waterways between January 9, 1962 and May 7, 1975 may use this website to apply for disability benefits for these conditions. (THIS ALSO APPLIES TO ANY PERSON EXPOSED TO AGENT ORANGE UNDER WHATEVER CIRCUMSTANCES.) NOTE: Widows and widowers whose spouses have died from Agent Orange presumptive conditions may also qualify for retroactive benefits and are encouraged to file for dependent indemnity compensation by August 30. Immunization Awareness for Veterans VA health care workers prepare for the upcoming flu season, it’s important for vets to get the right vaccines in the right doses at the right time.  As part of National Immunization Awareness Month activities, VA provides this list (http://www.va.gov/health/NewsFeatures/20110818a.asp) of some of the most important vaccines.

Another Vet Earns Agent Orange Recognition - Outside Vietnam!

Thanks to Paul Sutton who forwarded a Blue Water Navy discovery, we now have another example of the VA awarding service connection for Agent Orange-presumptive illness to a veteran who came into contact with the toxin outside Vietnam...in this case, the Philippines. 

The decision by the Board of Veterans' Appeals is great news to us...it gives precedence which clearly shows our road to getting our own cases decided correctly. In his case, he patrolled the fence line of an air base which had Agent Orange freighted through the base. In our case, we have "boots on the airplane" aboard C-123K aircraft which the Air Force itself certified as "heavily contaminated, extremely dangerous, extremely hazardous" and which led to our exposure.


Many of us have claims before the VA now, and we cannot count on every Rating Officer (RO) knowing of this decision regarding Agent Orange exposure outside Vietnam, so it might be beneficial to your case to submit a copy of the decision as additional evidence.


Here is the decision, so very vital to us. It certainly shows how differently the BVA treats veterans represented by competent attorneys!
---------------------

Citation Nr: 1117698  

Decision Date: 05/09/11    Archive Date: 05/17/11 

DOCKET NO.  09-19 872 )   DATE 

On appeal from the Department of Veterans Affairs Regional Office in St. 

Petersburg, Florida 

THE ISSUES 

1.  Whether there is new and material evidence to reopen a claim for 

service connection for Type II Diabetes Mellitus, including as due to 

herbicide exposure. 

2.  Entitlement to service connection for Type II Diabetes Mellitus, 

including as due to herbicide exposure. 

3.  Entitlement to service connection for peripheral neuropathy of the 

upper extremities, including as secondary to the Type II Diabetes 

Mellitus. 

4.  Entitlement to service connection for peripheral neuropathy of the 

lower extremities, including as secondary to the Type II Diabetes 

Mellitus. 

5.  Entitlement to service connection for a kidney order, including as 

secondary to the Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 

6.  Entitlement to service connection for hypertension, including as 

secondary to the Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 

7.  Entitlement to service connection for a heart disorder, including as 

secondary to the Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 

8.  Entitlement to service connection for a bilateral foot disorder, 

including as secondary to the Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 

9.  Entitlement to service connection for a bilateral eye disorder, 

including as secondary to the Type II Diabetes Mellitus. 

10.  Entitlement to service connection for a lung disorder, including as 

due to herbicide exposure. 

REPRESENTATION 

Appellant represented by: Matthew D. Hill, Attorney 

WITNESS AT HEARING ON APPEAL 

The Veteran 

ATTORNEY FOR THE BOARD 

Rochelle E. Richardson, Associate Counsel 

    INTRODUCTION 

The Veteran had active military service from December 1968 to October 

1971. 

This appeal to the Board of Veterans' Appeals (Board) is from an April 

2008 rating decision of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Regional 

Office (RO) in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

In that April 2008 rating decision, the RO denied the Veteran's petitions 

to reopen his previously denied, unappealed, claims for service 

connection for Type II Diabetes Mellitus and residuals of a head injury - 

concluding there was not new and material evidence concerning these 

claims.  However, the RO reopened his previously denied, unappealed, 

claim for service connection for a left knee disorder, though continued 

to deny this claim on its underlying merits.  The RO also denied his 

claims for service connection for peripheral neuropathy of the upper and 

lower extremities, a kidney condition, high blood pressure, a heart 

condition, a bilateral foot condition, a bilateral eye condition, facial 

skin cancer, a lung condition, depression, and venereal disease.  As 

well, the RO denied his claim for permanent and total disability and 

eligibility for Dependents' Educational Assistance. 

In his July 2008 notice of disagreement (NOD) with that decision, the 

Veteran contested the RO's denials of his claims for Type II Diabetes 

Mellitus, peripheral neuropathy of his upper and lower extremities, a 

kidney condition, high blood pressure, a heart condition, a bilateral 

foot condition, a bilateral eye condition, facial skin cancer, a lung 

condition, depression, the head injury, and a left knee condition.  In 

May 2009, the RO issued a statement of the case (SOC) concerning these 

claims and, in response, he submitted a timely substantive appeal (VA 

Form 9), perfecting his appeal of these claims to the Board.  38 C.F.R. § 

20.200 (2010). 

New Discovery - 1979 Toxins Test on Patches - ACFT 362

Thanks to Prof. Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University, yesterday a newly-found document dating back to 1979 was released dealing with what seems to be the first known testing of Patches for contamination. As everyone knows, Patches was a stinker to fly...summer or winter, the dang thing smelled terrible! Many crew complaints in the period 1972-1979 and the difficulty getting crews to fly the aircraft up to scheduling expectations led AFMC to conduct an in-place examination for Agent Orange and other possible contamination...mostly, though, to simply STOP THE STINK!


Conducted in March of 1979 and written up in September 1979 by Staff Sergeant William Conway and approved by the commander of the Air Force Occupational and Environmental Health Laboratory, Report 79-59 summarized a request by the 439MAW clinic to investigate "Herbicide Orange and Malathion contamination". It reported the contamination present ("a black, viscous, odorous residue") but in amounts low enough not to be considered possible health hazards...and this was in consideration of 1979 levels of what constituted hazardous mounts. It notes the assignment of Patches to the 731st TAS in November 1972 as well as the airplane's use in Vietnam from 1965 until 1972 with the 12th Special Operations Squadron, spraying Malathion and Agent Orange.


The 1979 report also mentions a 1975 examination of residue taken from the airplane completed while the airplane was in depot maintenance at Dothan, AL.


Here's what is confusing: tests done in 1994 did show Agent Orange contamination. In fact, "heavily contaminated" was the summary of the analysis prepared by the Air Force using testing equipment twenty years more sophisticated!


The answer to this seeming contradiction was provided by Professor Stellman, who noted that the report looked for AGENT ORANGE and not dioxin, its poisonous component. Professor Stellman writes us:

The report does not measure TCDD (dioxin) - only the herbicides themselves, which would be expected to be much more volatile and dissipate much more rapidly than the TCDD - so there is no contradiction.

Thus, the 1994 report which examined Patches for dioxin contamination stands as accurate! Heavily contaminated! And so were the aircrews who flew her 1972-1982. Further, in the years after Vietnam it dawned on the scientists and medical professionals that any level of measurable dioxin was unsafe...if it was detectable in any concentration it was too contaminated for safety of those around it, and there is no question, after the decades of testing between 1994 and the final destruction of the fleet in 2010, that the C-123K/UC-123K aircraft were "extremely contaminated, extremely hazardous, extremely dangerous" (in the words of Air Force tests and federal court records!) Now let's hope the VA will finally "man up" and give us recognition for "boots on the airplane"! 

State of Arizona Deceived During Boneyard Inspection

Dioxin-contaminated UC-123 Quarantine Area

In 2010 the State of Arizona Department of Environmental Quality conducted a site inspection of the famous Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base. Prior to the inspection, base officials had been notified of the scope of what needed to be covered. In particular, hazardous materials needed to be identified to the inspectors.

Sign on Dioxin Contaminated UC-1232K

So it came as a bit of a surprise when in July 2011, one of the same officials who conducted the on-site inspection learned about the dioxin-contaminated UC-123K aircraft, all 21 of them stored in a special fenced areas within the already-fenced Boneyard, and with signs restricting entry. Base employees had been required to wear hazmat protection around the stored Agent Orange spray airplanes ever since 1998 to protect themselves from the contamination. Base employees had even filed an IG complaint about the dioxin contamination they'd been exposed to around the airplanes, a complaint which went all the way up to the Surgeon General of the Air Force for resolution.

Davis-Monthan officials conducted the Arizona DEQ officials around the Boneyard, but in July of this year this inspector found it quite surprising (enough to be taking to his boss) that they were never driven past the UC-123K...they were never told about or shown the largest collection of dioxin-contaminated aircraft in the world.


This inspector, careful of his departmental manners, didn't want to say that they'd been deceived or mislead, but in early August 2011 Arizona DEQ officials confirmed that the base was required to reveal the storage of exactly this type of threat to the environment but failed to do so. No note was made of the 21 planes at all in the written materials the base provided nor during the drive through the Boneyard which avoided them...the inspectors never even realized that the special UC-123 "quarantine area" (as the Boneyard officials themselves labeled it) had existed for many years!

Smelting UC-123 Planes - "the Navy Way...the Quiet Way!

Seems the efforts of AFMC, the 75th Air Base Wing and Davis-Monthan were successful over the years in keeping things low-key. All the way up to the dramatic destruction of the airplanes last year via an unrelated Navy disposal contract which, as Mr. Boor described it, was the "Navy way....the quiet way." Was that because of the possibility of a $3.4 billion fine as various AFMC memoranda point out?

731st TAS Has it All Wrong!

John Harris and the other guys with the 731st TAS have it all wrong. They have for years tried to do an engine start the old-fashioned way...the Air Force way! Totally wrong.


Below, brave hearts of the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron show how its REALLY done. Man-up and lend a hand y'all, as the 74th shows you how to push-start a C-123! 'Course, it would have helped it they'd been pushing from behind, and if Arch hadn't had his foot on the brak

AME don't need no stinkin' start cart!

Where's Help When We Need It?

The following agencies have been approached for help of any kind (advise, referrals, data analysis, suggestions, free candy, ideas, medical information, VA claims assistance, understanding the scientific content of the various AF tests, whatever) without response or with only a comment that our needs are not within their area of responsibility. This is buck-passing. At the most, some of these groups offered the sterling advice to go see the VA. Duh.


Buck passing is their job. Glad it wasn't ours.

State of North Carolina Department of Health, many other departments
State of Oregon Department of Health, many other departments
Centers for Disease Control
National Institutes of Health, Institute on Medicine
Disabled Veterans of America -"we don't do single-issues like this"
Surgeon General of the Air Force
School of Aerospace Medicine
Edwards AFB and other bases' Bioenvironmental Engineering Officers
Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States
Military Officers Association of America
Oregon Department of Veterans Affairs
Office of Secretary of the Air Force
Environmental Protection Agency
Smithsonian Air and Space Museum
Paralyzed Veterans of America
Wounded Warrior
County of Yamhill, Oregon
Congressman David Wu, NC (called after 2 months to send request again)
Buncomb County Health Department, North Carolina
Various professional associations involved with law, workplace safety, environmental health

Initial responses were received from the following, without word of any further activity:
Six United States Senators

Open Letter to Chief Air Force Reserve, LtGen Stenner

25 July 2011

Lieutenant General Charles E. Stenner, Jr.
Chief, Air Force Reserve
Robins AFB, GA  31098

Dear General Stenner,

The year you graduated from the College of Wooster, the 731^st Tactical Airlift Squadron and the 74^th (now 439^th) Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron started flying the Fairchild C-123K/UC-123K “Provider”, which until the previous year had been used in the Vietnam War for spraying Agent Orange. Our aircrews were exposed to the dioxin that remained on the airplanes. Please forgive this overly long letter bringing our situation to your attention to resolve for us. 


Please also consider that even the minutes you'd take to read this while seated in one of our dioxin-contaminated aircraft would have been hazardous to your health.

We didn’t know it then, although conversations started circulating among the veterans around 2007, but the planes remained heavily contaminated with Agent Orange and its deadly component, dioxide. Though dioxin is odorless, Agent Orange residue with the poison inside it and the dried stuff mixed in for the proper spray viscosity continued to make our aircraft stink to the point maintenance folks at Westover refused to allow certain former spray aircraft into base hangars, and occasionally missions had to be terminated due to crew illnesses and inability to tolerate the stench.

I watched a former paratrooper and qualified flight instructor (now Lieutenant Colonel) Paul Bailey, USAFR Retired, routinely become sickened from the stench in Patches and our other eleven tainted aircraft. Bailey would vomit within a few minutes of entering the aircraft, then continue his duties. Colonel Bailey now has prostate cancer that has spread to his lymph nodes, detected on his retirement physical. Colonel Bailey did not know he’d been exposed to Agent Orange. Or he'd have paid attention to his rising PSA numbers which he ignored instead.

Official Air Force awareness of our aircraft’s toxicity first began with the Air Force Museum having our plane Patches, Tail #362, checked out in 1994 by the Wright-Patterson bioenvironmental engineering folks before it was moved into the museum. That move halted immediately when the Armstrong Lab at Brooks AFB described the dioxin levels and described Patches as “heavily contaminated”, so Patches stayed outside until $57,000 had been spent by AFMC to decontaminate it enough to allow limited access as LtGen Hudson described to me.

This test was twelve years after we ourselves flew Patches to the museum, twelve years during which the aircraft’s dioxin was less intense due to its half-life on surfaces…dioxin levels which were so much more intense during the decade of our flying Patches and the other aircraft. The 731^st cycled a total of 26 C-123K/UC-123K aircraft through its inventory during that decade, and we know now, from reports by Davis-Monthan and AFMC, that at least eight and more likely eleven of our aircraft remained contaminated with dioxin.

Further tests were done on the stored aircraft at the Boneyard, and every result was positive for presence of dioxin. But the problem for our Reserve aircrews began in 1996 with a memorandum from the Air Force Office of Environmental Law at AFMC recommending that the dioxin contamination “be kept within official channels only” and thus denied to us. While our exposure to the airplane’s dioxin was during the decade 1972-1982 and during a time when little was known about the dangers, the decision in 1996 not to alert us to having been exposed borders on criminal, under an employer’s duty to inform (OSHA, EPA, CDC all refer to it, although DOD is not affected where it opts not to be affected).

In fact, here in Oregon, it is criminal to have an employee exposed to hazardous substances and fail to notify that employee once the danger is identified. EPA, NIH and CDC have some thoughts on that as well.

But Oregon doesn’t have an Air Force Office of Environmental Law. Thus, aircrews like ours in the 731^st continued our service, some retired, some left for other interests when their tours of duty concluded…but none of us were alerted to pay attention to our PSA numbers, or to do anything relative to the toxin we’d been exposed to. I’m grateful to the Toxicity Department of the Oregon Health Sciences University which in May 2011 analyzed the Air Force test data, confirmed their results, and concluded that exposure of the aircrews to dioxin was “most likely.”

We flew these airplanes because it was our voluntary duty to which the Air Force assigned us…and because we loved them, despite their stink, reciprocating P&W R2800 engines busting jugs all the time, significantly sub-sonic airspeed and being out-paced by Cessna 150s, lousy paint job, too hot/too cold climate control, little bitty porta-potty, no MP3 player, no iPad recharger, un-glass cockpit, navigation by wet finger and sextant, E6B guessing and concrete OMNI, no autopilot, a pee-tube way in the back, av-gas shortages, snickering from C-130 crews, etc. Sir, I was a Stan/Eval flight examiner, charged by the United States Air Force with being the most expert, most qualified, most motivated, most dependable, most everything I could possibly be relative to this weapon system relative to my AFSC…but the Air Force Office of Environmental Law decided it was inappropriate to alert me as the responsible expert in my AFSC and this aircraft about such an important safety and health issue, nor did it inform our wing surgeon, the wonderful late Colonel Warner Jones, who died of Agent Orange-related ALS. Nor our squadron commanders, nor the wing vice commander, Lou Paskovitch who also died of ALS. Nobody.

And its actions, or failures to act, insured that the late Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Olmsted, USAFR didn’t have any information either, when he appealed his denial of veterans’ benefits and had his appeal denied in August 2007 (Reference: )

On 23 August 2007 the Board of Veteran’s Appeals denied the appeal of this good man and dedicated Air Force Reservist, Aaron Olmsted, a superb aviator with over 15,000 hours including many in Patches and our other C-123s, who sought service connection for Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses. Judge S. Cohn of the BVA cited Olmsted’s inability to provide evidence that he’d been exposed to Agent Orange while flying as a C-123K/UC-123K pilot assigned to the 731^st Tactical Airlift Squadron, Westover AFB, MA. In particular, Judge Cohn cited:

“While these planes may be of the type that were used in Vietnam to dispense Agent Orange from 1962 to 1971, there is no evidence that any of the planes on which the veteran flew dispenses Agent Orange in Vietnam or that there was any residual Agent Orange on the aircraft the veteran served on.  Further, the veteran has not submitted any evidence substantiating his contention that there was any residual Agent Orange material on the aircraft he served on. His assertion, standing alone, is not sufficient to show he had actual exposure to Agent Orange, years after it was used in Vietnam.”

I had a heart attack, cancer (dioxin illnesses, along with diabetes and peripheral neuropathy for which I’d already had two surgeries in the ‘70s to stop the intense phantom burning pain by severing the nerves to the sides of both my thighs, a symptom so typical of Agent Orange acute peripheral neuropathy which we'd had yet to learn about, just two years into my C-123 crew duties) and heart surgery this April and thus had the time to look into these illnesses and wonder what may have led them to my doorstep. 


Then from Colonel Dee Holiday, USAFR Ret. and ART nurse of the 74^th AES, I learned about their cluster of breast cancers among the nurses and female med-techs. I wondered about the planes which, like Olmsted (whom I don’t believe I met), I myself crewed between 1974-1980. It took ten minutes or so with Google, my laptop and a slow Internet connection to learn that most of these planes were indeed used for spraying Agent Orange, that in particular, Tail Number 362 (Patches) was used for Agent Orange and was tested repeatedly beginning in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2008 with positive results for presence of dioxin on Patches and the rest of the surplus inventory at DM. Just ten minutes with Google provided everything I was concerned with, and FOIAs offered yet more disturbing materials.

I learned that the Air Force in the person first of Major Urula Moul of the Air Force Office of Environmental Law recommended, with her director’s endorsement, keeping this alarming information “within official channels only.” Further, reports and correspondence regarding these tests and many others conducted by the Air Force itself were surfaced at the Office of the Air Force Surgeon, at Headquarters Air Force Material Command, Office of the Undersecretary of the Army, the Air Staff and at the Office of Secretary of Defense.

Department of Toxicology

In May 2011 I forwarded the results of Air Force tests completed in 1994, 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2008 to the Toxicology Department of the Oregon Health Sciences University, asking whether the tests were valid in the Air Force’s conclusion as to the presence of deadly dioxin. The OSHU confirmed that dioxin presence. I also asked whether the C-123K/UC-123K dioxin contamination resulted in aircrew exposure, and they responded “most likely.” The Agent Orange Committee of the Vietnam Veterans of America, made up of scientists and veterans, in June 2011 reached the same conclusion regarding our exposure.

Mine was the profession of arms, not of law nor of government…their rules are confusing and perhaps meant to be so. However, I’m sure every veteran may safely assume that had VA officials known of the withheld documents, no ethical BVA counsel would have failed to provide Judge Cohn that the very documents Olmsted needed to have justice before the BVA...documents kept from him by the service to which he was so dedicated.

Judge Cohn’s reasons cited for denial would have been directly answered with documents withheld by the government, whatever may be the reasons those individual in those government offices had for their actions. No national security was involved at that time. Bad acts and hiding evidence of harmful toxin exposure “within official channels” is certainly an effective way to prevent veterans’ Agent Orange claims, but cannot be an ethical, moral or legal justification for denying Aaron Olmsted a just hearing from Judge Cohn and an effective, ethical and honorable presentation by BVA counsel Stephen Reiss. Perhaps Judge Cohn would have found against Olmsted but it certainly wouldn’t have been for the reasons cited.

Last month I was informed by Colonel Joseph Curley, USAFR Retired, who knew us both from service in the same wing, that Lieutenant Colonel Olmsted, an extremely skilled and experienced aviator with over 15,000 flying hours, recently died in an unexplained, single-person aircraft accident.

Olmsted was a Vietnam-era veteran who also served during the Persian Gulf War, Somalia, Grenada and Panama. He died before becoming eligible for TriCare, and though a combat veteran, was denied VA benefits for Agent Orange illnesses as well.

General Stenner, may I trust that it continues to be of interest to you, our service, and to the Board of Veteran’s Appeals, that veterans such as Aaron Olmsted benefit from the necessity for everyone’s commitment to accuracy and truth in presentation before the Board of Veteran’s Appeals? And that if facts such as these are withheld from you and the BVA by other government agencies, you will make right those wrongs dealt him.

Today we learned about Colonel Paul Huffman, our wing vice commander. His wife is respecting his wishes to leave their Connecticut hospital ICU to go home to Florida and die. Colonel Huffman had many C-123 hours in his AFRES career.

General, there are other veterans, such as myself and a too great a number of others crew, maintainers and airevac folks from our units, ill from Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses, and all denied service connection from the VA. This is because, although the Air Force and the General Services Administration tested these airplanes two decades after we flew them and found them still “extremely hazardous, extremely dangerous, extremely contaminated” with dioxin. Somehow our flying them for a decade, spending hundreds of hours aloft and thousands more on the ground with intense exposure to the Agent Orange residue, their policy is that this exposure doesn’t equal VA exposure. Or some such double-speak as that.

I point out that once the stored C-123K/UC-123K contamination was known at Davis-Monthan and at the Museum on Patches, base personnel immediately had to observe protective measures, including full-face respirators, Tyvek coveralls and decontamination after work. Civilian staff which had worked on the C-123K/UC-123K at DM before it was announced that the fleet was contaminated filed an IG complaint which surfaced at the office of the Air Force Surgeon General.

But we flew the Provider in our issue Nomex flight suits. If we were good aviators, we had our gloves on and sleeves rolled down and we wore issue boots...no more hazmat protection than that! We worked on that Dumpster (aka Thunder Pig or Ponderous Polly or Patches), repaired it, loaded it, configured it, took it to air shows, ate our flight lunches, cared for patients, did all our airlift functions throughout the Americas and Europe. We even slept in it overnight on many tactical deployments. Right on the floor, right down where the Agent Orange residue dried after it sloshed around during the Vietnam years.

In late 2010, unable to dispose of the aircraft in any other way due to contamination and the various laws involving hazardous waste, the remaining UC-123s were shredded and smelted.  Shredding was selected because an oblique clause was found in EPA regulations that shredded metal might technically not be considered hazardous…if such waste was “described one way and not another”. On the last reported test, 50% of the aircraft tested bordered on “unsafe” levels of dioxin, and the remaining 50% also showed significant traces…EPA says any measurable amount of dioxin is unsafe, and certainly makes a dangerous work site. Speed was of the essence in disposal of the remaining aircraft due to a looming $3,300,000,000 EPA fine regarding hazardous waste…the plane we flew for ten years was “hazardous waste”.

A “hazardous waste” work site being the weapon system we volunteered to serve aboard, but we didn’t know of the poison at the time. We should have been told once the tests started revealing the danger…why weren’t we? Testing in 2009/2010 was ordered stopped just before the final destruction because it was expensive, because initial testing had proved 100% positive for dioxin, because testing was cited as certain to increase public awareness, and because leadership directed that the entire fleet be treated as dioxin-contaminated.

Like other officers (I was commissioned in 1980 after thirteen years enlisted service in the Army and Air Force) I was selected by the President of the United States who held special trust in my valor, patriotism, abilities and fidelity and who later commended me to the Senate of the United States for promotion to the rank and public office of Major, United States Air Force. The country entrusted me with the lives of the enlisted personnel I led during the Persian Gulf War. I had a security clearance, I earned many rows of ribbons and I earned silver wings with a toilet lid over them. I was a Stan/Eval flight examiner. 


So why the heck wasn’t I “official channels” enough to help keep my aircrews from becoming sick? Why did even our flight surgeon die of ALS without knowing he’d been exposed to Agent Orange while flying on our planes? Why didn’t our squadron commanders know? Why didn’t our Air Force Advisor know?

731st Reunion - demo videos of C-123K at DM Boneyard

They had to borrow a bird from Dickie-Goober which is why there's no cammmo paint. Presented for your amusement...the 731st reunion shot from 1982!

Heartbreaker, ain't it? Part of the demo derby at Davis-Monthan, smashing up the last of the C-123s, Fall 2010 Click for Video download


"Air Truck"? Like that better than "Dumpster," Andy?


On a more formal note, on Friday a complaint was filed with HQ USAF Public Affairs regarding the twisted wording used for the final obituary of the C-123K, prepared as a press release at the 75 Air Base Wing. Although literally decades of hand-wringing oner the dioxin contamination had led to the unique method of smelting to dispose of the fleet, 75ABW simply mentioned that the "herbicide" spray aircraft, being from the "Vietnam era", "were no longer flown" and thus being demolished. True enough, but a complete mistruth, evasion of the facts of the matter and a deception. Read more....

VA Denies C-123 Agent Orange Exposure Argument

letter rec'd 17 July 2011)
Mr. Carter: Senator's staff met with VA staff last week to gather information on the status of veterans who claim exposure from service in C-123s. VA acknowledged that C-123 crews flew missions in Vietnam where they sprayed Agent Orange. All crewmembers involved in what was termed “Operation Ranch Hand” have presumptive exposure to Agent Orange, not only because of their duties spraying Agent Orange, but rather, because they were all based out of Vietnam for spraying missions.  

As you may know, anyone who ever set foot in Vietnam during the conflict has presumptive exposure to Agent Orange and in the case of these crewmen, I would surmise that a former crewman’s claim would be viewed as stronger than that of someone with far less proximity to the chemical.  VA experts said they have received hundreds, if not thousands, of claims for “secondary” exposure over the years and that the available science does not support the link between health issues and flying on an aircraft which was previously exposed to Agent Orange.  

They stated that Agent Orange “sticks” to soil and organic material very well, but on metallic surfaces in an aircraft, the Dioxin (ingredient of primary concern) evaporates very quickly posing no discernible health risks to those who flew the aircraft later. The VA has issued “many training letters” to their field staff regarding this issue. VA experts said VA has awarded disability ratings to crewmen who flew the “Ranch Hand” missions over Vietnam during the conflict, but has no scientifically based criteria for “secondary” exposure. 

According to the VA, they will help any others who flew on wartime missions with their particular claims. I understand your concerns are specifically related to post-war exposure and the Air Force documents regarding an aircraft that was also used during the war, so please contact me so we can discuss this matter further.

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TO MY AIR FORCE FRIENDS READING THIS: The VA wonks met with my Super Southern Senator's Senior Superb Staff which went to bat for us. VA took the position that none of the Air Force's tests, and none of the AF-contracted commercial testing labs' tests which the Air Force arranged, all scientifically proving the C-123K aircraft's toxicity, are acceptable to the VA. Let's pretend...Never happened.

 Instead, for reasons of budget and policy, the VA will pretend that the C-123K were not contaminated and the Air Force and all those testing labs and all those universities and all those generals and all those major commands and all those bioenvironmental engineers and all those medical experts simply must have been mistaken! As well as the infrequent decisions where they have awarded service connection to some of our personnel due to their C-123 dioxin exposure.


The AF must not have been in the last VA policy meeting where all the heads nodded in agreement..."yup, let's pretend all tests and evidence are inadequate and the AF was mistaken, or [apply preferred raison d'etre], and the AF had its head up its cargo bay. Those silly Air Force generals (two brigadier generals, one major general, one lieutenant general...seven stars right there, plus the AFMC/CC and the Air Force Surgeon General...maybe fourteen stars altogether)...what were they thinking to be writing foolish memos (AF Surgeon General, HQ AFMC, Deputy Assistant Secretary of the Army, Secretary of Defense, AF Office of Environmental Law) about those contaminated Providers? Those generals must have missed the memo from the Air Force Office of Environmental Law, which told them to keep the dioxin information within 
"official channels only". Guys...I think we read the reports the same way...DIOXIN CONTAMINATION, despite what the VA says.

It seems the VA has taken a position somewhat outside their published rules and guidelines so that in our case, a new implied position applies, to wit: Even if the VA rules state a veteran outside Vietnam must prove and does prove actual physical exposure to Agent Orange to be considered for AO-presumptive illnesses, in the case of our C-123 crews, additional proof will be required (beyond proving our actual laboratory test results and beyond the recommendations of the National Institute on Medicine) that establishes links between dioxin in the Agent Orange residue of the "extremely hazardous, extremely dangerous" airplanes we flew, and the illnesses recognized by the VA as AO-presumptive. Although Air Force labs have proven for 30 years that dioxin has been present, there is no "VA" scientific proof (just stuff from AF scientists, state toxicology labs, state health departments and guys like that) that nice, tasty dioxin on airplanes impacts C-123 crew health. That's not why we're dying, perhaps? Musta been those lousy flight lunches from Patrick AFB!

Ever catch that weird movie "Snakes on an Airplane"? Neither did I. However the title sorta suggests snakes crawling around an airplane, right? Well, if the VA were to evaluate the rattlesnakes you found slithering your cockpit and you're holding up for them to see while snake fangs stick through your arm, the VA would tell you (1) that's not a snake and (2) even if it is, its still not a snake and it evaporated much earlier and (3) once again, that rattlesnake you just had examined by a university as well as a government lab all of which certified it as a snake, is not a snake (aren't you listening?? Get with the program), plus where's the proof that rattlesnake venom is bad for you and (4) we don't got no rattlesnake budget for guys in flight suits like you (5) please don't leave that damn poisonous 8-foot rattlesnake (which its not!) monster here! Thank  you for your service.

Smelting Dioxin-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft

So the conclusion to my disappointment and sarcasm is that the contaminated C-123K will not soon be recognized as contaminated with the Agent Orange with which the planes were contaminated. That's "VA-speak". That's VA policy, regardless of the well-proven fact of the contamination. For budget reasons, the VA has reached this conclusion in opposition to the Air Force's own view (and without bothering to examine the aircraft or even read the AF test results...but hey...our planes were already destroyed because of the dioxin contamination). All because the VA field training memos specifies Agent Orange claims are to be denied except for Vietnam "boots on the ground".

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My note to my patient Senator's patient and dedicated staff:

Sorry for the sarcasm...nothing personal and I imagine on some days of the year those VA wonks you met with are decent types, but only with great effort and while nobody from the VA itself is watching.


Swinging back in print is my only outlet as those VA wonks are too far away to shake some sense into. You tried and I know you'll keep trying. Thank you for your folks' meeting with the VA. As expected, regardless of toxicology reports from the Air Force and the toxicology analysis by Oregon Health Sciences University, the VA reps maintained, without reviewing the documents but required by VA pretend policy, there was no dioxin remaining on the C-123 fleet. Foolish of the Air Force to simply not correct their reports in the first place so that the VA and AF would agree. Somehow, beginning in 1994 but also in 1996, 1998, 2000 and 2008, as per the Air Force reports I sent you, the Air Force Material Command has tested the C-123s and found them "heavily contaminated, extremely contaminated, extremely dangerous" and "extremely hazardous." That's why the silly photos of the base employees in their cute hazmat suits (as required by base safety officials, due to the "extremely hazardous" toxicity) to keep them from being exposed in 2010, almost 30 years after our last missions.

Dioxin does not "evaporate"...the carrier such as diesel fuel will. In fact it does linger very long in moist soil, but its half-life on dry surfaces is significant and was still present when the Air Force smelted the last such aircraft in 2010 due specifically to the remaining dioxin. Dioxin failed to evaporate (which it doesn't do...wrong term) in "Patches" at the Air Force Museum, so $53,000 had to be spent to decontaminate it enough to allow at least very restricted, very brief entrances. The VA suggests that the aircraft were toxic enough to be shredded and smelted due to their dioxin contamination but we'll all pretend that the aircrews were isolated from such contamination.

I suggest a mind game, similar to Einstein's famous day-dreaming as he developed both the Special and the General Theories of Relativity: Imagine working in an airplane with all its vibrations and imagine the airplane flying flower cargos full of pollen. You fly the airplane for ten years. You sleep in it overnight. Eat your meals, work your sorry butt off for years. Do you think you'll have pollen on you? In your hair? In your lungs? In your body fat? The VA says "no." Not if it is dioxin pollen!

My points again:

-we flew Patches and numerous other C-123s identified by AF as Agent Orange spray aircraft

-Patches and other C-123s always tested positive for dioxin to the point of the labs calling the spray fleet "heavily contaminated". "Extremely dangerous, extremely hazardous" characterization of the dioxin contamination reports does not equate to questionable VA double-speak as "secondary exposure"!

- Oregon Health Sciences University's Toxicology Department director's analysis of the Air Force tests showed aircrews would have "most likely" been exposed, especially so recently after Vietnam and for such an intense period of aircrew duties (thousands of hours aloft and on the ground as well). State of Oregon Health Department concurs with results of OHSU's toxicology report

-tests even up to 2008 reported the fleet contaminated to the point of requiring hazmat protection for workers at Davis-Monthan

-Office of Secretary of Defense, reporting to HQ AFMC and other Air Force organizations and describing the aircraft as "Agent Orange" "Contaminated" and other phrases, directed decontamination by destruction, the only time such a thing has been done in the history of the Air Force. This is because the aircraft were contaminated with dioxin. Full DVDs of FOIA information released from Hill, Brooks, and other facilities detail the "dioxin C-123s".  Poor Charles Serafini of the 649AESS was tasked with coming up with the plan to address the decontamination of the remaining aircraft, with Major Carold McGrady, and their sole focus was the dioxin problem presented by the aircraft's contamination...and keeping visibility very, very low.

-numerous general officers, JAG officers, medical officers and representatives from the General Services Administration in their reports and memoranda agree that the C-123K/UC-123K fleet was contaminated with dioxin, and have insisted as to this contamination before federal judges to prevent sale of toxic airplanes

Obviously, thanks to President Rowan at the Vietnam Veterans of America and his Agent Chairman, Mr. Oates, the issue will continue to be addressed. Certainly, with their meeting with the VA Secretary during the meeting at the end of this month in Reno.

It would be sarcastic to suggest, but it actually seems the VA thought process, their people should contact the Air Force Surgeon and the Air Force Material Command, as well as Armstrong Labs at Brooks AFB as well as the various contracted certified commercial testing labs which also offered reports, to suggest that their twenty year collection of positive dioxin tests on the C-123K fleet be changed to properly reflect approved current VA policy and doctrine. Those military testing labs must have been wrong. The Toxicology Department of the Oregon Health Sciences University must have been wrong. State of Oregon Department of Health was wrong. The Air Force Health Institute Armstrong Labs was wrong. Even the Agent Orange Senior Consultant to the Office of Secretary of Defense must have been wrong in all his reports and memos discussing the need to destroy the "contaminated", "dioxin", "Agent Orange" aircraft that we flew for ten years. And yes, all those generals, too!

Dear VA: You're not our enemy...there is no conspiracy against us, just rules which are senseless and unjust. Our concerns are post-Vietnam. Ours were other wars, other times, but amazing how 50-year old problems linger. Our claim is not for secondary, but for primary exposure to dioxin residue proven to be throughout the C-123K/UC-123K fleet in such a high degree of contamination that the entire fleet was destroyed because it was too toxic even for a land fill. We had "boots on the airplane"...the airplane the Air Force Surgeon General directed workers at Davis-Monthan AFB's Boneyard to work in hazmat clothing with full face filter masks, followed by decontamination. That is because AFMC's tests were POSITIVE and deadly for dioxin, and still positive after decades of degrading in the desert.

Please tell the bigwigs at VA that our crews started flying this toxic airplane the year after its last spray mission. Don't measure us by the test results 30 to 40 years after...our exposure from 1972-1982 was far more intense as the dioxin hadn't "evaporated" (to use the wording of one VA staffer). And neither had its half-life had time to affect its deadliness.

VA folks mentioned "training letters" sent to the field to help guide rating officers in denying Agent Orange claims effectively. Those VA letters work. An appeal I was made aware of recently involved the late Lieutenant Colonel Aaron Olmsted of Hartford, Connecticut. Judge S. Cohn of the BVA denied Aaron's claim because Olmsted offered no proof that the C-123s he flew had been used for Operation Ranch Hand, and Olmsted offered no proof that the aircraft remained contaminated. That proof was kept from Olmsted, from Stephen Reiss who represented the BVA in opposing Olmsted's claim, and from Judge Cohn.

The missing proofs were the two reasons cited in Judge Cohn's denial yet these proofs were readily available from the Air Force. Multiple professional Air Force lab tests, conducted by commercial testing firms as well as the respected Armstrong Labs at Brooks, confirmed (not speculated, or other such vague term) the presence of dioxin in exactly the words any normal person would find convincing..."heavily contaminated" reads the test report signed by the Air Force's own bioenvironmental engineer endorsing the lab's results. But until recently, the Air Force Office of Environmental Law recommended these reports be kept "in official channels only", the better to aid the VA in denying veterans' claims.

I'm sure the VA doesn't expect us to be passive about this. Even old warriors are still warriors, and we persist, however we are kicking the bucket, one after the other. Eventually VA wins. Especially here when the opposing pretense of "no dioxin" is established for VA policy and not scientific reasons. Amazing how we have located volumes establishing the dioxin contamination of the entire fleet of aircraft, yet the VA says the airplanes have no dioxin...without even testing them or evaluating the military's own reports. Just relying on their field memos which offer effective excuses for rejecting veterans claims...even when we've had ten years exposure to the stuff.

Dear Senator...may I have the names of the representatives from the Department of Veterans Affairs with whom you met in order to provide my collection of materials for their consideration.? At least, they'll want to prepare reasons for each of these reports to be disqualified and termed inappropriate, and to arrange to have the conclusions changed to ones the VA will support. 

The VA reports to you that for reasons of policy, their field training memos trump the Air Force tests, the Air Force Surgeon General, the Air Force Material Command civil engineer, the Air Force Material Command Surgeon, the base safety office at Davis-Monthan AFB, the base biomedical engineer, Air Force maintenance officers expert on the C-123K and familiar with its use for Ranch Hand, general officer's memos, JAG officers memos, commercial testing labs and the Office of Secretary of Defense's expert on Agent Orange. What a powerful field training memo.

And my ranting aside, please know how completely I appreciate your assistance. Numerous written and telephone attempts to seek help from other members of the Senate and House simply went unanswered...totally ignored by every single official other than you. Your kindness is noted. How do we proceed to correct this situation?


Hang in there, please! 

Sincerely,

Wesley T. Carter, Major, USAF

Retired

Here is the three-page chronology of documentation dismissed by the VA without even considering it. Test results, reviews by universities, Air Force documents...all trumped by the handy field VA training memo showing how to ignore valid proofs.