Agent Orange, the C-123, and VA: My summary of it all

(article I wrote for the VFW magazine)

For vets concerned with Agent Orange, and vets concerned with how VA will deal with similar hazards going forward.

Why care? Because we got our Westover, Pittsburgh and Rickenbaker veterans between $48M-$240 million in compensation. It is even possible the total may be over a QUARTER BILLION dollars, but even more important is the life-saving VA medical care now provided.

We accomplished something that will affect all veterans from now on, as regards line-of-duty chemical and biological hazards. I am Wes Carter, a third-generation life member of St Cloud MN VFW Post 428, and a St. Cloud native now retired to Fort Collins Colorado. Retirement has meant time with grandchildren, and also time for volunteer service with veterans, in keeping with VFW core values.

Veterans' advocacy projects are dear to me. The first turned out to be the hardest and longest. It was to seek disability benefits for members of the C-123 Veterans Association, an informal group I started that became recognized as the negotiating voice with the VA.

Our folks are mostly the men and women who flew or maintained these former Agent Orange spray aircraft in the years following Vietnam. The project was pure Westover, labor and money, only from the 74th, 905th and 731st. Vets from Westover, Pittsburgh, Rickenbacker, Elgin, Howard (Panama) and Clark (Philippines) Air Bases all benefited.

VA insisted, even though the aircraft repeatedly tested as heavily contaminated with Agent Orange, there was no way the contamination actually exposed us to the deadly toxin in the herbicide. I had to prove VA and its Agent Orange consultant wrong. This involved lots of travel to Washington DC between the years 2011-2015. Postage, websites, FOIA fees, printing and other huge expenses all added up.

It was (is) a good use of my own Air Force retirement and 100% percent VA disability. I was perceived as a more earnest advocate because there was nothing personally to gain since I was already VA disabled...the beneficiaries were my fellow crewmembers and our maintenance troops.

Challenging the VA involved contacting scientists in and out of government but particularly those in the CDC and the National Institutes of Health. Here I found great support from experts who disagreed with the VA and insisted our exposures were very harmful and, in fact, we should have been flying the toxic airplanes wearing full HAZMAT protection.

Dr. Jeannie Stillman of Columbia University acted as corresponding scientist for the Concerned Scientists and Physicians, a group of dozens of experts affirming our veterans exposures to deadly dioxin.

The VA responded by saying these experts’ opinions were unacceptable, and that VA had “an overwhelming preponderance of evidence” against our exposure injuries having been caused by Agent Orange on the aircraft.

Some of VA's so-called evidence was previously discredited information from Dow and Monsanto. Most of the VA position was only its policy against post-Vietnam Agent Orange exposure claims. Internal VA memos even insisted that the department "hold the line" against us. Eventually, it became clear that the VA "scientific studies" didn't exist and certainly weren't credible science.

We countered VA arguments with stacks of evidence and expert opinions from medical schools and other universities as well as independent scientists and several government agencies. Several scientists re-examined all C-123 toxicology tests, concluded that our veterans had been exposed via dermal, inhalation and ingestion routes of exposure. and published their peer-reviewed report in the journal Environmental Research. There was general agreement everywhere that we been exposed... everywhere EXCEPT the VA.

Enough controversy was created, with enough proof of our exposure gathered, that eventually VA submitted the issue to the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Science for its investigation and public hearings.

I testified at four of these hearings and offered input regarding aircraft and aircrew details, Agent Orange and dioxin toxicology, history of the aircraft, relevant United States code, VA's misinformation plus data on the post-Vietnam use of these former Agent Orange spray C-123s. I explained how VA and the Air Force considered the C-123s to be "Agent Orange spray aircraft" until the first veterans' claims surfaced. Our FOIA search uncovered many AF tests establishing severe contamination, disproving VA's insistence on only one test on one airplane. The VA consultant testified to IOM that the aircraft were not contaminated but we then showed that in 2009 he recommended Air Force destruction of all airplanes as toxic waste.

CDC testified our airplanes were so contaminated we should have been flying in full hazmat. CDC explained that our cancer risks are much, much higher.

The Institute of Medicine Committee of distinguished scientists and physicians considered the issue for nearly a year before publishing their conclusion: Yes, C-123 aircrews and maintenance staff were indeed exposed and harmed. Importantly, IOM reported that VA and the military routinely ignored or minimized evidence of Agent Orange illnesses. The VA consultant was found to have manipulated or misstated scientific and historical evidence affirming our exposures.

On January 18 2015 VA Secretary Bob McDonald finally authorized full VA benefits for our veterans if diagnosed with any of the recognized Agent Orange ailments.

This had never been done before by any veterans' organization. Along the way, I found powerful help from leadership in the American Legion, DAV, Jewish War Veterans, VFW, Vietnam Veterans, Air Force Association, Reserve Officers Association. Experts and leaders in NIH and CDC also leaned heavily on VA for us. Yale Law School published an outstanding legal brief, and major law firms provided over $120,000 of pro bono legal help as we fought the VA and USAF to get hidden documents released.

The Vietnam Veterans of America helped with a $3000 grant for travel expenses, and VFW leadership worked with other veterans organizations to press Congress and the VA for a resolution and full benefits for our 2100 men and women aircrew and maintenance veterans. I’m very grateful!

We found a sympathetic media from the very first. The Air Force Times, ProPublica, Virginian-Pilot, Boston Globe, Pittsburgh Gazette, Washington Post, veterans organizations magazines, the Springfield Republican, Gannett newspapers, Tom Philpot military.com, the Portland Oregon Oregonian, NPR, CBS and so many others spoke up for us.

Vietnam Veterans of America is active in presenting townhall meetings about Agent Orange and I've put on several of these. Somehow, there are always Vietnam veterans who don't know that their prostate cancer for diabetes or other ailments entitled them to VA benefits, so these are essential educational programs with great fellowship.

Other veterans’ issues are also a concern. In May the governor of Colorado signed legislation that I initiated to provide partial property tax relief to about 700 totally disabled military retirees. When we first moved to Colorado I read the state constitution which provided for property tax relief to 100% VA AND totally disabled military retirees, BUT noticed the enabling law only mentioned VA. Our law was thus in conflict with our constitution. It only took five months to fix that and it was hugely satisfying to get my free pen from the governor signing the new legislation.

While working on that issue I was shocked to learn that Colorado’s Gold Star Wives are not provided any property tax relief such as offered survivors of VA 100% disabled veterans. I’ve been appointed the Gold Star Wives official adviser, and helping these widows is my next project! They need help...VA provides only an inadequate $1252/month to these women who have sacrificed so much.

We are also still working to get retroactive benefits for our C-123 Agent Orange vets because VA back-dates awards only to June 2015. That is unfair because benefits are usually based on the date a claim is submitted. Some of our folks have claims as old as sixteen years.

We got one other change. VA's Veterans Health Administration has a section called Post-Deployment Public Health, led by retired Army physician Dr. Ralph Erickson. This unit will now be tracking all servicemembers' potential exposures to chemical and biological hazards throughout their careers. The NIH scientists who affirmed our exposures also explained to VA the hazards of multi-toxin experiences... the add-on of toxin upon toxin and biohazard upon biohazard...all brewing up over time into mysterious ailments.

In the spring of 2015, during our final rounds of negotiations with VHA, VA general counsel, veterans organizations and congressional staffers, I identified biohazards that Reserve Component servicemembers will face. Posing a hypothetical, I forced VA to acknowledge present rules might not meet both military readiness and VA's duty to care for exposed personnel. Solutions were found, some proposed by the surgeons general of the departments and others as potential legislative steps.

Summary: my health Is really messed up but this kind of work had the benefit of being immensely satisfying, especially when other vets tell me how much their approved claims have meant to them and their families. At our reunion last month one of the older vets from the 905th came out to the club with his wife, and called me outside to offer his thanks for helping get his claim approved.

Wow... that meant so much to me and my wife, Joan.

There's a great need for ALL of us to keep serving our fellow veterans and our nation. It doesn't take money (although that helps.) It takes imagination and dedication which, as veterans, we've all been demonstrating all our lives

Virginian-Pilot Publishes C-123 Agent Orange vs.VA & Dr. Al Young Report, Part One

This six page newspaper report is the 19th in their series of extraordinary coverage of Agent Orange from the beginning of Vietnam War.

The reporters offer new details on the unique and troubling role of Dr. Alvin Young in guiding the Department of Veterans Affairs for decades in the determined obstruction of veterans' exposure claims.

Dr. Young is named as the "go-to" guy for a predictable negative opinion whenever the VA seeks buttress goods denial of Agent Orange claims. The report offers a tight focus on the role of Dr. Young (and suggests another title of "Dr. Orange") when he and Major Wes Carter appeared before a committee of the Institute of Medicine Investigating veterans' exposure claims.

Veterans won this argument, with the IOM concluding that their exposure aboard their aircraft was harmful. In June 2015 the VA finally yielded, granting presumptive service connection for these veterans for the recognized list of Agent Orange ailments.

The second part of this report publishers on Monday October 31, 2060.

SMSGT DICK HASKINS DIED OCTOBER 26, 2016

Senior Master Sergeant Richard Haskins, USAF Retired, was born on April 8, 1936 and passed away on Wednesday, October 26, 2016.

SMSGT Haskins was a resident of Longmeadow, Massachusetts at the time of his passing.

Richard was a graduate of W. Bridgewater H.S.

Richard served his country proudly with the US Air Force and made a career with the Dept. of Defense for 35 years. He served his country proudly with the US Air Force and made a career as an Air Reserve Technician for 35 years. He served during the Korean, Vietnam, and Desert Storm wars. After active duty he enlisted with the US Air Force Reserves and received numerous medals awards and citations.

Dick was a flight examiner with the 74th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron, Westover AFB, MA and one of the most experienced aeromedical evacuation technicians.

He was married to Barbara.

Relatives and friends may gather with his family during calling hours on Friday Nov. 4 2016 from 11:00 to 1:00 followed by a Memorial Service with Pastor Barry Andrusik officiating at Browne Memorial Funeral Chapels Enfield CT. Interment with military honors will then take place in the Massachusetts Veteran�s Memorial Cemetery in Agawam MA.

In lieu of flowers the family has requested memorial donations in his memory be made to the Dana Farber Cancer Institute P.O. Box 849168 Boston MA 02284-9168.

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

ProPublica Publishes Major C-123 Agent Orange Report

Today, ProPublica, what I call the "NPR of the Internet," together with the Virginian Pilot, published the 19th in the major series on Agent Orange and the problems veterans had over the decades during and since Vietnam. The article is titled "Doctor Orange: The Secret Nemesis of Sick Vets."

It focuses heavily on the role of retired Air Force Col. Dr. Alvin Young. Dr. Young has consistently opposed veterans' claims for Agent Orange illnesses, insisting no serious harm is possible from the toxin. His views are refuted by virtually every government expert outside the VA including those at CDC and the National Institutes of Health and the National Academy of Science-Institute of Medicine.

In one of its most recent reports, the IOM concluded that the Department of Veterans Affairs, which for decades has relied heavily on Young's input, consistently ignored or minimized all evidence supporting veterans claims for Asian orange illnesses.

The veterans paid nothing for the opinions offered my government and industry experts. The VA, despite having evidence from government agencies available up to it paid Dr. Young and his consulting firm $600,000 via a sole source no bid contract. VA got what it paid for, written just the way VA wanted, as Dr. Young even submitted his reports in draft form to ensure they complied with VA policy!

Defying input from other government agencies and dozens of universities in medical schools, VA denied every C-123 vet's claim, insisting since 2011 that it had "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against their exposure claims.

VA was wrong.

Their so-called "evidence" consisted of Young's flawed opinions, the VA web page statement of position, and certain staffers' preferences to, as they told the Associated Press, "hold the line" against further such claims.

Congratulations are due Charles Ornstein and his team at both ProPublica and the Virginian Pilot for this report which joins the other eighteen in this exceptional series.

Patches & the IOM C-123 Agent Orange Report

Visiting the USAF Museum, Wright-Patterson AFB and home of "Patches," our Agent Orange-contaminated C-123.

To all post-Vietnam C-123 Veterans: if you haven't already, contact VA and arrange your Agent Orange Registry physical. This is a free comprehensive exam looking for any possible Agent Orange exposure medical issues and it is vital whether you have any such illnesses or not. The first friend I talk into having the physical was found to have a life-threatening heart problem, and the physical perhaps saved his life. Call VA now!

I'm holding the report from the Institute of Medicine/National Academy of Sciences that convinced the VA our aircraft had been contaminated, we were exposed to Agent Orange, and we were harmed greatly by that exposure. Behind me is Patches, now decontaminated, of course. CDC actually notified VA that Patches and our other aircraft were too contaminated to be flown in American airspace, and the crews all should have been wearing full hazmat!

The report summary can be downloaded free at https://www.google.com/url…

The archives at the museum revealed the evidence of testing back in 1979 and 1994 and 1996, and the evidence that USAF bioenvironmental scientists concluded the airplane was "heavily contaminated with dioxin on all test surfaces, STILL after its last spray missions in 1968 during the Vietnam War.

We started flying Patches in 1972 and were exposed to the Agent Orange residue for the next decade. Although the CDC informed VA and USAF that the aircrews and maintainers had been exposed, officials at VA continued to insist otherwise and stated VA had "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against any harm being done.

In 2014 it became clear, based on the IOM study and the report I'm holding, that VA's position was based solely on its policy decision to block additional Agent Orange claims like ours. Policy, not science. Policy, not law.

The US Senate agreed. Under leadership from Senator Burr of North Carolina and Senator Merkley of Oregon the Senate blocked all VA confirmations until the C-123 issue was resolved. The national commander of the VFW testified to Congress that that full benefits for C-123 vets must be authorized,  All six major veterans organizations insisted VA act, with the Vietnam Veterans of America leading their joint efforts.

The media was behind us all the way. The first press coverage was in early 2011 in the Air Force Times where reporter Patricia Kime detailed our USAF Inspector General complaint wherein the service was asked, but refused, to notify our veterans of their potential exposures. Subsequent articles appeared in the Washington Post, Springfield Republican, American Legion Magazine, the Oregonian, Associated Press, CBS News, Pittsburgh Gazette, NPR All Things Considered, Boston Globe, Air Force Magazine, plus Military.Com and other Internet outlets. Air Force Times and the Springfield Republican both ran editorials insisting VA act in our behalf.

In 2009 Dr. Alvin Young, VA's principal consultant on Agent Orange, had strongly recommended to the USAF the immediate destruction of all C-123s stored in a hazardous material quarantine section of Davis-Mothan Air Force Base because, among other reasons, our already exposed air crews and maintenance veterans might approach the VA seeking care for Agent Orange illnesses. Destruction of the aircraft would help prevent such claims, especially, as it was pointed out, if the aircraft disappeared without public attention. Preventing claims seems to of been awfully important to the VA and so many others. It seemed so important to Dr. Young because in 2011 he denigrated us as "trash haulers, freeloaders looking for a tax-free dollar from a sympathetic congressman." The VA certainly found the right voice to help it oppose our claims – VA had found a man who holds us in contempt to help VA avoid treating our illnesses.

In 2013 Dr. Young was in the middle of his unique VA two year $600,000 no-bid sole source Agent Orange consulting contract. He urged Mr. James Sampsel at the VA Agent Orange desk to "hold the line" (his words) against our claims. For his part, Mr. Sampsel informed his VA colleagues and supervisors that all proof confirming our exposure submitted to VA by independent scientific authorities and other federal agencies (CDC, DOD, USPHS, NIH)  was merely the real "problem" for VA – proof Mr. Sampsel and others in VBA would ignore despite VA regulation VAM21-1MR and despite the Veterans Claims Assistance Act.

Dr. Terry Walters at the VHA Post-Deployment Health Section, told the Associated Press that a line had to be drawn against our claims. Hold the line, indeed!

For too many years the VA "held their line" and denied every single claim submitted by our veterans of the post-Vietnam C-123 spray aircraft. While being paid by VA Dr. Young testified before the Institute of Medicine C-123 committee against our exposure claims. He even attacked the IOM report after its publication in January 2015 using arguments similar to ones used earlier when Dow and Monsanto sponsored him. But the committee saw through that. The committee also criticized VA and USAF for routinely dismissing, ignoring or minimizing  proof of veterans' exposures

In June 2015, the Institute of Medicine report I'm holding in the photo was acted upon by Secretary McDonald. He brought truth, science, law, and compassion into the process at last. The 2100 of us who volunteered to serve our country by flying and maintaining our aircraft willingly accepted the hazards of aviation service and now are acknowledged to have also endured hazardous toxin exposures for which the VA will now care.

As VA Secretary McDonald said to me at the White House, "We won." He meant "We" the veterans and "We" the VA, No longer adversaries.

Let's not let this happen again to other veterans facing toxic exposures.

C-123 Vet Joe Collins Wins VA Agent Orange Claim First Submitted in 2007

Joe Collins, one of the C-123 maintainers from the Hanscom AFB days ('71-'73) whose denied Agent Orange exposure claim and denied appeal I wrote about last month, phoned this morning to say that VA had approved his disability claim! What great news. Joe's exposure claim had been wrongly denied in June by the Boston BVA which cited his service at Hanscom as an air reserve technician as somehow disqualifying him from legal veteran status and thus all Agent Orange benefits.Please...read it yourself at http://www.va.gov/vetapp16/Files3/1622153.txt This was a monster screw up because the denial also discussed his duty as a reservist aircrew member on the C-123. The VA regulations specify that all C-123 veterans claims must be handled only by St. Paul VA regional office which has exclusive jurisdiction. Still, the Boston BVA somehow overlooked that and many other important points, wrongly denying Joe's exposure claim which he first submitted way back in 2007. Joe got great help from the Agawam Town veterans service officer. However, he was poorly served by the Massachusetts Division of Veteran Services which handled his appeal before the BVA on behalf of the American Legion which Joe selected to represent him. VA will award retroactive compensation to Joe but only back to June 2015. Still, it is a worthwhile victory for us, and satisfactory to Joe. In mid-September I happened to spot his denial online in the BVA listing of that month's decisions, without any identification as to who it was about because veterans names are removed for privacy reasons before posting on the Internet. I could see the problem and believed I had a solution but didn't know who try try to help! Our geezers network was able to put different facts together from the claim and appeal, and realized it was about Joe. I tracked him down and with his permission got VA leadership involved – at that point it only took a couple weeks to set the record straight. Joe says this means a lot to him because it will help his wife now and in the future. Other families from the Wing and from the 74th have also benefited, including Paul Bailey, Dick Matte, Bob Ranck, Cliff Turcotte and others from our C-123 days between 1972-1984. The largest retroactive compensation payments have been over $130,000, although most with a total disability rating and claims on or before June 2015 have received around $30,000. Of course, monthly payments from VA continue once the veteran has received "service connection' for whatever Agent Orange ailments exist. Our work to get VA to recognize our Agent Orange exposures began in 2011 and also resulted in these benefits to Pittsburgh Air Force Reserve Station and Rickenbacker Air Force Base C-123 veterans and many active duty troops from Howard Air Base and Clark Air Base. In all, approximately 2100 veterans and our families benefit. Joe's next step? He should apply for Combat Related Special Compensation, disabled veteran property tax exemption, disabled veteran automobile benefits, free VA insurance, and medical care for every medical issue on top of his Agent Orange illnesses. He can get care such as audiology, dental service, optometry and pharmacy. Many vets have full VA coverage for medical issues and yet select there care elsewhere but returned to the VA for these unique benefits.

VA ESTIMATE OF C-123 VETERANS' AGENT ORANGE DISABILITY COMPENSATION? $46,000,000

 $46,000,000

The biggest part of the battle was behind us. Finally, the Institute of Medicine had completed their two year study by a distinguished group of scientists and physicians, and agreed with us that we have been exposed to Agent Orange and harmed by that toxin. Their report was submitted to the Secretary of Veterans Affairs on January 9, 2015.

The IOM had a public hearing to announce their conclusions, and I attended to represent both active-duty and Reserve post-Vietnam C-123 veterans. Several attorneys from the law firm that represented us accompanied me. Observers were there from the US Air Force, the Senate, CDC, the press and the VA. 

Finally, I was to meet Assistant Secretary Linda Schwartz, a medically retired Air Force flight nurse who’d flown with us on occasion "back in the day" and is herself a C-123 veteran. Four years earlier I’d met her on the Internet in her capacity as Connecticut’s Commissioner of Veterans Affairs. She immediately offered the first of many critical suggestions on the conduct of our contest with the US Department of Veterans Affairs.

We’d won. No longer could the VA insist on its imaginary “overwhelming preponderance of evidence” against our disability claims. That evidence had been shown to be a total pretense, a policy sham advanced by the VBA Agent Orange desk and the VHA Post-Deployment Public Health Section. Both of these VA functions had been policy-driven to oppose our claims and this marks their defeat. In addition, the US Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine C-123 report released in 2012 was shown to be both scientifically and medically flawed (Lurker, 2014.) The IOM accused both the VA and the military of deliberately ignoring, disputing or minimizing all proofs of our exposure to prevent our claims.

It was quite a ground-breaking moment. Never before had a single group of veterans successfully argued its case and established the facts surrounding their Agent Orange exposure.  Before, as well as after us, VA always successfully argued against other veterans' claims. We’d won, but as Senator Richard Burr (R-NC),  ranking member of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee, said in his own press release, “it shouldn’t have taken this long or been this hard.”

It remained for VA to finally decide whether and how to implement the conclusions of the IOM. This was a process we were unfamiliar with and one that took VA Secretary McDonald six months to complete and publish in the Federal Register.

Because of requirements built into the 1991 Agent Orange Act regarding how VA treats IOM conclusions, it was likely that VA would acknowledge our exposures. A working group was formed within the department and it submitted its recommendations to the Secretary.

Now the internal machinations began within VA. One of the biggest was to determine how much this was to cost the government.  The White House Office of Management and Budget weighed in with its estimate of $46 million to cover disability compensation. OMB made no estimate of the cost of medical care or survivor benefits each item expected to exceed the cost of disability compensation itself. In 2014, working with the Harvard School of Government, we calculated the total cost to be nearly $250,000,000!

On June 18 2015, I was invited to VA headquarters to hear Secretary McDonald’s decision:

1.   • VA would acknowledge the statutory veteran status per U.S.C. Title 38 of our aircrews, aeromedical evacuation crews and aircraft maintenance technicians, if they had any of the presumptive illnesses associated with Agent Orange. This was legally necessary to permit VA to provide benefits because the law is all specified ”veterans.” Unless activated, Reservists are not considered veterans in the law. The VA decision did not award veteran status to anyone not confirmed to have an Agent Orange illness.

2.    • VA would begin compensation effective June 19, 2015 and would not require claim submitted prior to that date to be resubmitted. Disappointingly, VA also decided against any retroactive compensation. This was disappointing to us because some have had claims in to VA for seven or more years.

3.    • VA would give all claims submitted for the next year and effective date of June 19, 2015 in effect making those claims partially retroactive.

I had always suggested a total number of our C-123 veterans to be about 2100. VA estimates that 25% of the personnel who served in Vietnam now have disability benefits for their exposures. If that same 25% applies to us, it means an average compensation of over $88,000 per veteran. The Harvard estimate of $250 million may yet be correct calculating in survivor benefits and the cost of medical care given our veterans.

That, and the VA medical care plus other benefits were what we had fought for these last four years. One of the most important of these benefits is VA Dependents Indemnity Compensation of $1240/month  for survivors, a benefit particularly important to our veterans who do not have military retirements. Another benefit is “Champ-VA” for families of totally disabled veterans without TriCare. 

We’d won,  and now our objectives became getting the word out to thousands of our folks now scattered throughout the country in the decades after our duty aboard the C-123 transports. We'd won, but were left without the retroactive compensation clearly due us, compensation which was supposed to be based on the date of claim application. That is our remaining objective.

Hanscom AFB C-123 Maintenance Vet Gets Agent Orange Claim Corrected

Problem Solved. I received a message a few minutes ago that Joe Collins' cancer claim, at first denied, was corrected by senior VA leadership.

A few days ago I noticed a decision by the BVA about a veteran claiming C-123 Agent Orange exposure while a mechanic at Hanscom AFB back in the early '1970's – but his claim was denied and his appeal also denied! The vet's name was withheld but we tracked him down though Andy's Old Guys Network...Joe Collins.

VA had lots of text detailing Joe's service as an ART, and explained that such duty didn't convey veteran status for the period of his exposure. The denial also noted his Reserve duty, but still nothing triggered recognition of his benefits per the VA C-123 Interim Final Rule of June 2015. That made all post-Vietnam C-123 aircrews and maintenance folks veterans per the statute if claiming any recognized Agent Orange illnesses.

(Note 23 Sept 2016: VA leadership resolved this thru BVA, and Joe's claim is being expedited! Problem solved, but still a question left unanswered – how could the Boston regional claims office and the Boston BVA have screwed this up so completely?)

Thanks to our community of C-123 veterans, we were able to identify the C-123 vet whose claim was so terribly screwed up. Joe Collins is our guy, and today I had the pleasure of speaking with Joe and his wife.

We got his name and SSAN to authorities in VA to reconsider his claim and June 2016 denial.

Let's hope VA moves on this one: Joe's claim dates from 2007!

Cliff Turcotte's Widow Approved for VA Agent 0range Survivors Benefits! Thank you, VA!

A few minutes ago, Cliff Turcotte's widow Norma phoned to tell me her good news: The VA approved her survivor benefits based on his service aboard our former Agent Orange spray C-123 aircraft.

Earlier this year, on hearing of her loss I suggested she apply for the benefits. His death is now considered by both the Air Force and the VA to be related to his toxic exposures while on duty with the 74th AES.

The VA calls it Dependents Indemnity Compensation (DIC,) awarded survivors of active duty or retired personnel in the amount of $1240. DIC is in lieu of survivors benefit compensation unless DIC is the lesser amount. For all, DIC is tax-free.

Cliff died before applying for any Agent Orange exposure benefits but on my urging his wife contacted the Agawam Town veteran service office and completed the necessary paperwork. VA awarded her the benefit retroactive to the date of her application, and this was just the greatest news I could hope for this morning!

Norma gave me her permission to tell everyone about this, and together we urge all C-123 veterans or their survivors to apply to the Department of Veterans Affairs if they have any of the presumptive illnesses associated with Agent Orange.

This can be done online, or through state or county veterans service officers or through any of the veterans organizations such as Disabled American Veterans and Veterans of Foreign Wars. The veterans organizations provide this as a free service as part of their congressional charters. Their VA-accredited representatives can usually be contacted through VA medical centers.

I don't know the list of our comrades' survivors but I know that Paul Bailey, Cliff Turcotte, Ed Kosakoski, Dick Matte and our other friends now lost to us would all want this benefit to protect their loved ones. Yet, every widow I've spoken with has been reluctant to apply, concerned that it could be unseemly to seek this important financial protection, or the benefits provided by state or local governments such as property tax relief.

Let's put that fear to rest! Serving in the military it's done out of patriotic motivation and also for the opportunity to earn the benefits important to our lives. Our military retirement pensions, TriCare medical coverage and base shopping privileges are some examples we appreciate and have earned.

DIC and other survivor benefits are just as important and every servicemember wants these earned protections for our families. I assured Norma that Cliff probably headed over to get another beer from the refrigerator up in Heaven when he heard the good news!

We must give credit where credit is due and acknowledge the Agawam veterans service officer and also the VA itself for the prompt attention given the claim.

A personal note: Cliff and I joined the 74th AES the same day, and were welcomes aboard by Marv Proctor and Vinny Macrave. Cliff was a prior service Navy corpsman, and I was a prior service medic with the Army and as California Air National Guard, and both of us were staff sergeants. Cliff completed his education and was commissioned as a flight nurse, retiring as a major.

Once again today, Cliff's family told me how much he loved flying and loved the squadron.

Institute of Medicine Criticizes VA & Air Force

In its C-123 Agent Orange Report, published under consulting contract to the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine made a startling accusation. Startling, because of the obvious intrinsic and extrinsic failures of which the IOM was accusing both the Department of Veterans Affairs and the United States Air Force. 

Citing numerous examples, the IOM broadly condemned these authorities for failure to accurately and objectively report, and then utilize, information about military toxic exposures and veterans' illnesses. From page 5:

Reports "from those in the military or associated with the VA tend to minimize the possibility of an increased risk of exposure and adverse health outcomes."

The IOM made clear the fact that veterans' exposures were treated by the VA in a manner calculated to either dismiss altogether or at least minimize the harm done military personnel whose duties presented toxic hazards.

This certainly made clear the VA failure to be pro-veteran and non-adversarial. Get the picture? Our VA doctors and scientists (including its consultant with his $600,000 no-bid sole source VA contract) were saying we were not exposed when they had facts in hand that we were exposed.

An analogy would be your doctor saying your arm isn't broken while both of you look at the x-ray of your broken arm. Plus, other medical experts and federal health agencies had already told your doctor the arm was broken. But the doctor and your insurance company had decided that they don't cover broken arms. Especially from you.

And for four years, our VA doctors in Post Deployment Public Health were determined to send us on our way untreated for our cancers and other illnesses because they had already reached a policy decision not to acknowledge any exposures. Especially from us.

In fact, as we were repeatedly told to our faces by VA officials, no amount of proof from whatever source would ever permit our claims even to come up to the minimum standard of "as likely to us not." And this was after the CDC/ATSDR had already informed the VA that we had a 200 times greater risk of cancer then screening standards. This was after dozens of university scientists and medical experts to Agent Orange aboard our old airplanes. But still, the VA Agent Orange Desk insisted to one and all, both inside and outside the VA, that VA had "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against us... But it didn't!

Remember, a veteran's claim is to be assumed truthful and factual on its face, but in case of a question the claim need only arise to equipoise – a level of "as likely to has not," or a 50-50 balance of the question. In fact, every benefit of the doubt is to be given the veteran in the claim. We know now, however, that no amount of proof would be accepted to support these claims – VA policy, rather than VA regulations and science had already been implemented at both VHA and VBA against the veterans.

Our association made accusations of ethical failures, all supported with documentation, against the Department of Veterans Affairs in our presentation to the Society of Toxicology at its 2014 Phoenix convention. Sponsored by a former president of the society ,we addressed the scheme by the VHA Post-Deployment Public Health Section which used a similar presentation to the SOT in 2012 which attempted to redefine the medical-scientific term "exposure." The VA presenters reinvented their use of the word exposure as "exposure = contamination field +bioavailability."

In fact, their redefinition of exposure by the addition of the word bioavailability as a required part to the concept of exposure made impossible most exposure claims from veterans, especially those like us, exposed years earlier and with illnesses such as prostate cancer or soft tissue sarcoma taking years to evolve after our toxic exposure event.

No expert we could find, insider or out of government, agreed with the VA redefinition. All took exception to it, even the director of the National Toxicology Program who said she had never heard of such a thing. She explained bioavailability is a separate but related term. Inventing its own definition rather than use the standard ATSTR glossary of terms Dorlands Illustrated Medical Dictionary (the VA standard reference,) Post-Deployment Public Health was driven by its unofficial, improper but rigidly applied policy to block C-123 Agent Orange exposure claims.

So one has to ask: Did the medical and scientific errors revealed by the IOM in the VHA Post-Dedeployment Public Health Section ever result in comment or criticism, or did they get their full bonuses? One wonders if questions arose about VHA intrinsic and extrinsic ethical failures as regards veterans health? At least one of the 2012 VA poster team still works in that section of VHA... were there any career implications for her participation in this campaign against C-123 veterans?

Finally one must also ask were these experts more disappointed in their failure to implement VA VHA policy against C-123 vets than in the IOM accusations?

C-123 Veterans Association Comment – VA Proposed Rule for Camp Lejeune Exposure Victims

Submitted today to the Federal Register:

"The C-123 Veterans Association congratulates Secretary McDonald on his decision to propose a new "final rule" for the Camp Lejeune exposure victims. We urge it's prompt enactment to prevent further deaths and suffering of Camp Lejeune victims thus far so unfairly treated. We note the sense of urgency conveyed in the press release concerning gravely ill potential beneficiaries of this rule.

Our own exposures to Agent Orange aboard our aircraft left us contesting with the Department of Veterans Affairs over whether our aircraft were contaminated, then whether we were exposed, and finally whether we were harmed. At each step we found VA opposition, rather than support. VA insisted it had "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against our claims, but in fact all it had was the preference by handful of employees to tolerate no more Agent Orange claims, facts and VA M21-1MR be damned.

It took a review by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences to show the VA and the Air Force that their science and mathematics were mistaken and clearly policy driven. The same IOM report made clear VA had all the science in hand from DoD, other federal agencies and several universities to make the proper decision years before they were moved to final action. Those four years left our aircrew in maintainers denied disability compensation, medical care and other benefits.

Like us, Camp Lejeune victims had confirmation of their situation from ATSDR but faced a hesitant VA monolith. Such hesitation beles the department's oft-stated commitment to be pro-veteran and non-adversarial. Observers of the Camp Lejeune CAP Committee see this quite clearly. VA was most certainly adversarial!

The Secretary's decision to act last week was based on the same science available to VA years ago, so how can VA justify its delay?. The apparent intrinsic and extrinsic ethical failures must be examined on this and all other exposure situations where the VA's action is found hesitant or even downright anti-veteran.

The 2015 Institute of Medicine C-123 Report on our own C-123 veterans' exposures to Agent Orange contained a telling statement just as true for Camp Lejeune victims as for us: Reports "from those in the military or associated with the VA tend to minimize the possibility of an increased risk of exposure and adverse health outcomes." In plain language, the VA lowballs their assessments rather than consider "worst case"  or even typical case appraisals. That's not scientific...that's anti-veteran policy.

Examining how the VA treated our air crews and the Camp Lejeune veterans can only lead a critical observer to conclude that the VA is untrustworthy, deceptive, and comfortable refusing life-saving medical care to veterans eventually shown by the facts of the matter to be fully qualified for the appropriate service-connected disability rating. There is no catch-up for denied family benefits, essential medical care, housing and education benefits and all the other programs designed to help a disabled veteran have the quality of life similar to those who opted against service in the defense of the Nation. 

Post-Deployment Public Health in VHA must carefully re-examine its values relative to those expected of the Department of Veterans Affairs by veterans and the public at large. 

To repeat, we offer our strongest support for this measure by the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of Camp Lejeune personnel and their families. We further urge the Secretary to do the right thing on retroactive compensation for the reserve component servicemembers."

C-123 Veterans Association Comment – VA Proposed Rule for Camp Lejeune Exposure Victims

Submitted today to the Federal Register:

"The C-123 Veterans Association congratulates Secretary McDonald on his decision to implement an interim final rule for the Camp Lejeune exposure victims. We urge it's prompt enactment to prevent further deaths and suffering of Camp Lejeune victims thus far so unfairly treated. We note the sense of urgency conveyed in the press release concerning gravely ill potential beneficiaries of this rule.

Our own exposures to Agent Orange aboard our aircraft left us contesting with the Department of Veterans Affairs over whether our aircraft were contaminated, then whether we were exposed, and finally whether we were harmed. At each step we found VA opposition, rather than support. VA insisted it had "an overwhelming preponderance of evidence" against our claims, but in fact all it had was the preference by handful of employees to tolerate no more Agent Orange claims, facts and VA M21-1MR be damned.

It took a review by the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences to show the VA and the Air Force that their science and mathematics were mistaken and clearly policy driven. The same IOM report made clear VA had all the science in hand from DoD, other federal agencies and several universities to make the proper decision years before they were moved to final action. Those four years left our aircrew in maintainers denied disability compensation, medical care and other benefits.

Like us, Camp Lejeune victims had confirmation of their situation from ATSDR but faced a hesitant VA monolith. Such hesitation beles the department's oft-stated commitment to be pro-veteran and non-adversarial. Observers of the Camp Lejeune CAP Committee see this quite clearly. VA was most certainly adversarial!

The Secretary's decision to act last week was based on the same science available to VA years ago, so how can VA justify its delay?. The apparent intrinsic and extrinsic ethical failures must be examined on this and all other exposure situations where the VA's action is found hesitant or even downright anti-veteran.

The 2015 Institute of Medicine C-123 Report on our own C-123 veterans' exposures to Agent Orange contained a telling statement just as true for Camp Lejeune victims as for us: Reports "from those in the military or associated with the VA tend to minimize the possibility of an increased risk of exposure and adverse health outcomes." In plain language, the VA lowballs their assessments rather than consider "worst case"  or even typical case appraisals. That's not scientific...that's anti-veteran policy.

Examining how the VA treated our air crews and the Camp Lejeune veterans can only lead a critical observer to conclude that the VA is untrustworthy, deceptive, and comfortable refusing life-saving medical care to veterans eventually shown by the facts of the matter to be fully qualified for the appropriate service-connected disability rating. There is no catch-up for denied family benefits, essential medical care, housing and education benefits and all the other programs designed to help a disabled veteran have the quality of life similar to those who opted against service in the defense of the Nation. 

Post-Deployment Public Health in VHA must carefully re-examine its values relative to those expected of the Department of Veterans Affairs by veterans and the public at large. 

To repeat, we offer our strongest support for this measure by the Department of Veterans Affairs on behalf of Camp Lejeune personnel and their families. We further urge the Secretary to do the right thing on retroactive compensation for the reserve component servicemembers."

Specific laws and regulations addressing our C-123 Agent Orange benefits

Sometimes I am asked about the specific laws or regulations that address our post-Vietnam agent orange exposures a board to C-123 and the VA benefits we have earned. You can use Google to find the many VA web pages detailing our issue.

Here they are:

• 38 C.F.R. § 3.307
• 80 Fed. Reg. 35,246, 35,248 (June 19, 2015)
• VA regulation M21-1, Part IV, Subpart ii, 1.H.3.(Feb 5, 2016)

C-123 Vet with Defective BVA Decision: Joe Collins

(Note 23 Sept 2016: VA leadership resolved this thru BVA, and Joe's claim is being expedited! Problem solved, but still a question left unanswered – how could the Boston regional claims office and the Boston BVA have screwed this up so completely?)

Thanks to our community of C-123 veterans, we were able to identify the C-123 vet whose claim was so terribly screwed up. Joe Collins is our guy, and today I had the pleasure of speaking with Joe and jhis wife.

We got his name and SSAN to authorities in VA to reconsider his claim and June 2016 denial.

Let's hope VA moves on this one: Joe's claim dates from 2007!

It needs to be repeated: From the very beginning, VA science and policy were 100% WRONG on C-123 Agent Orange

In fact, VA was wrong and was determined to prevent our disability claims as a matter of policy regardless of the science involved. From the very beginning our search for help, VA ignored it's fundamental obligation to us as veterans.

No other veteran or veterans organization, supported in the scientific claims for harmful Agent Orange exposure by the CDC and other federal agencies as well as dozens of independent positions and university based scientists, has faced such an automatic VA opposition.  Today's perspective, 18 months after the release of the Institute of Medicine C-123 Report, clearly shows VA opposition was policy-based. VA simply had no scientific or legal basis to oppose the claims – yet they did.

Rather than permit us the benefit of the doubt required by law and M21-1MR they immediately took an adversarial position. That was most perfectly expressed by Mr. Thomas Murphy (Director, VBA Pension and Compensation) when on February 28 2013 he insisted no amount of proof from whatever source would be accepted by VA to support our claims.

Mr. Murphy explained that Veterans Health Administration Public Health decided upon our first inquiries back in early 2011 that, no matter what, C-123 vets were not exposed and VA would deny every claim. VA would do this while insisting that every claim would be considered on a case-by-case basis... and then automatically denied.

As regards the requirement to give us benefit of the doubt, VA reserved it for itself and denied it to the veterans. Even after support for our exposures was submitted to the VA by the CDC ATSDR as well as the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, DoD JSRRC and dozens of independent physicians and researchers VA stuck to its illogical and unscientific as well as blatantly anti-veteran position

Nothing illustrates the deception VA used against us better than the simple comparison of the May 2011 VA position statement (below, formulated by Dr. Terry Walters and her colleagues in VHA Public Health) and the final report on us published by the Institute of Medicine in January 2015.

Let's look at VA's five bullet points:
1) Correct, but irrelevant. The 1991 Agent Orange Act requires VA to treat all veterans exposed to Agent Orange if they have relevant illnesses. VA repeatedly assured Congress and the public via the Federal Register that it would do so.
2) Deceptive. There is only the issue of exposure, not the kind of exposure. For the purpose of opposing our claims, VA introduced the idea of remote/secondary exposure and claimed it made proven contamination of our aircraft no different than the theoretical contamination of the equipment used in Vietnam.
3) Ridiculous! VA stated it would ignore all proof of exposure from whatever source such as the CDC. We did not know it for years but VA had unscientifically redefined the word exposure to require bioavailability for exposure to be recognized. VA created its own unique redefinition of exposure to block our exposure claims, and were criticized for doing so by leaders in other federal health agencies. Even under this redefined exposure, VA should have acknowledged the bioavailability of the C-123 Agent Orange contamination when the CDC informed of them that veterans had a 200 times greater risk of cancer. VA uses Dorland's  Illustrated Medical Dictionary as the standard text of definitions... except for the word exposure.
4) Deceptive. The 1991 Agent Orange Act eliminated the requirement that a veteran establish medical nexus of illnesses associated with Agent Orange and instead provided a presumption. The scientific evidence suggested as missing was already established by the Institute of Medicine and it's numerous earlier reports. Further, as with the first point, VA have a legal obligation as well as the duty under its own regulations to treat all veterans with a proven Agent Orange exposure.
5) The last bullet point is perhaps the VA's most blatant policy driven deception. The opinions referenced as supporting our claims came from the CDC ATSDR, National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, and dozens of university scientists and independent physicians. Rather than acknowledging this volume of proof, the VA Agent Orange desk in Veterans Benefits Administration simply asserted that it had "an overwhelming preponderance of proof" against our exposures. In fact there was no such proof against our exposure claims and VA insistence otherwise was merely a policy statement. The IOM C-123 Agent Orange Report relied on the same body of evidence to reach an opposite conclusion – veterans were indeed exposed!

VA Conclusions Rigged Uo To Deny Claims For Five Years:
1) "Even though residual Agent Orange may be detected in C-123 aircraft by laboratory techniques years after Agent Orange use, it must be remembered that there is no bio-availability of TCDD in these aircraft. "

2) "The potential for exposure to Agent Orange and TCDD and subsequent development of any adverse health effects from flying in potentially contaminated C-123 aircraft years after the Vietnam War is essentially zero."

Terry J, Walters, MD MPH: Director, Environmental Health, VHA

BUT, the Institute of Medicine concluded after studying the same data:
1)  Veterans suffered bioavailability of the dioxin aboard the aircraft by all three possible routes (dermal, inhalation, and ingestion.) IOM specifically disproved the VA theory of no bioavailability of dried dioxin advanced by VHA Post-Deployment Public Health. That flawed concept was earlier advanced by Dr. Alvin Young who actually argued against any hazards of Agent Orange in his article "Environmental fate of TCDD and Agent orange and Bioavailability To Troops in Vietnam."  A frequent VA and DoD consultant, Young was beneficiary of a no-bid sole source $600,000 consulting contract most of which focused on our aircraft.
2) "Reservists experienced increases in their risks of adverse health outcomes." In fact, the CDC told VA veterans had a 200 fold greater risk of cancer.