VA Secretary Receives C-123 Veterans' Appeal

Forwarded to the Secretary by the VA' Legislative Liaison, the C-123 veterans' appeal (click to download - 46MB PDF) ask the VA to designate the known C-123 Agent Orange spray aircraft (as confirmed by the USAF Historical Records Research Agency) to be "Agent Orange Exposure Sites."

If approved by the Secretary and implemented by the VA, this will allow C-123 veterans to gather whatever proof they can find placing them aboard the toxic C-123s, and apply to the VA for care of Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses such as prostate cancer and heart disease.

This would solve the terrible two year-old impasse which has bared C-123 veterans from VA medical care. Faced with mid-level VA bureaucrats who constantly fielded obstacles to keep the veterans at bay, C-123 veterans feel the Secretary's requested action is the only step available to provide essential medical care while it can still be of importance in their elderly years.

An alternate of another referral to the Institute of Medicine for a special work project (proposed in 2011 by the VA Veterans Health Administration but withdrawn almost immediately after its promise,) veterans and their legislators made clear that time no longer permits such an approach and executive action is called for!

FYI, Lynne Peeples of Huffington Post had a fine article about C-123 veterans, telling a warming story of Paul Bailey. Give it a read! Then, Sunday morning, Google "C-123 Agent Orange" and see what's new out of Washington, D.C.