VA to C-123 Vets: We're Denying Benefits Because (fill in the blank)

Form Letter - VA to C-123 Veterans:

Dear Veteran: Thank you for your service.

We are (once again, oh, the joy!) denying Agent Orange exposure benefits for your time aboard the C-123 because (see checked item[s]):

1. The government destroyed your airplanes in 2010 as toxic waste, after being tested as contaminated with dioxin for over 40 years, but aren't available for further testing, so no benefits___
2. You weren't exposed to ENOUGH dioxin (we have redefined toxicology [and defy IOM reports] to require C-123 vets to be exposed to ENOUGH) so no benefits____
3. There aren't enough C-123 veterans to do an epidemiological study, so no benefits____
4. C-123 veterans lack support of an IOM report (we have canceled our promise to order such a report but that doesn't matter) so no benefits____
5. Ranch Hand vets were exposed to more dioxin, and ground troops in Vietnam to less, but you fall in the middle so no benefits____
6. VA already properly approved C-123 vets from Rickenbacker and Hanscom for AO exposure before the issue became more public, so no benefits____
7. Patches was reported contaminated for restoration workers grinding, painting, scraping and repairing, and we're pretending it was not contaminated for military personnel grinding, painting, scraping and repairing, so no benefits____
8. The Joint Services Records Research Center (JSRRC) having been provided official USAF documents regarding C-123 contamination, ignores those documents, so no benefits____
9. The Senior Consultant on Agent Orange to the Office of Secretary of Defense, wrote that you guys are "trash haulers, freeloaders, looking for a tax free dollar," so no benefits____
10. The Senior Consultant on Agent Orange to the Office of Secretary of Defense, wrote that the contaminated C-123s at Davis-Monthan AFB be destroyed before veterans learned of the contamination and sought benefits, so no benefits____
11. Davis-Monthan AFB civilian employees filed an IG complaint about the contaminated C-123s we'd flown decades earlier still being contaminated and were ordered to wear HAZMAT protection thereafter, so no benefits____
12. After a careful review of old and irrelevant literature, and after carefully ignoring current literature, we have decided dioxin cannot harm veterans if it is a special, unique, really unusual kind of dry dioxin not otherwise found in science, so no benefits____
13. The CDC/Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, the federal agency responsible for identifying toxic substances like dioxin on the C-123, says you were exposed, so no benefits____
14. The numerous scientists and physicians are too expert and too well-known to science and medicine internationally, and there are just too many of them and they are too expert in saying C-123 veterans were exposed, so no benefits____
15. It will cost money to provide the care C-123 veterans have earned, so no benefits____
16. Our regional offices, which have the final authority, have recommended approval of C-123 veterans' claims and we have overturned them, so no benefits____
17. We are the VA...it is our football, and if we say you're not exposed, you can just go pound sand, so no benefits____
18. We are the VA, you can apply and nothing says we have to do anything for years as we "consider" your claim for over five years in some regions) so no benefits____
19. Hell, it don't matter. No benefits because we damn say so____
20. The proper toxicological tests performed to confirm C-123 dioxin contamination were used, so no benefits____
21. Skilled PdDs, government employees, qualified toxicologists performed the tests which confirmed C-123 contamination, so no benefits____
22. Skilled PhDs, government employees, provided sworn federal testimony that the C-123s were "a danger to public health," so no benefits____
23. In 1994 the Air Force Judge Advocate General directed "all information be kept in official channels only, so no benefits____
24. We can't say how much you were exposed, only that was not enough because you're still alive, so no benefits____
25. You failed to wear the HAZMAT protection (which we told you wasn't necessary anyway) in 1972-1982 that we required DAF civilians to wear in 2001, and you failed to predict in 1979 that the airplanes would be labeled "contaminated" in 1994 after we told you they weren't contaminated in 1972, so it is all your fault, and they weren't contaminated anyway, so no benefits____
26. You volunteered, stupid, so no benefits____

C-123 Veterans

(enough...this could go on all day...)