A Little Vacation - Blog will be off-line for a couple days

Wes

This is sort of a personal entry in our C-123 veterans blog...hope you don't mind the editorial privilege after 226 earlier posts.

We will be off-line for a couple days beginning Monday. I'm in for another round of surgery at Oregon Health Sciences University...great place, great docs, and a great cafeteria. The reason is a problem called Avascular Necrosis (AVN) which will force replacement of my hips, and perhaps my knees also. This will be my 12th surgery since the end of the Gulf War. And AVN is now associated with Agent Orange. Oh, the joy!

OSHU...first university to identify C-123 dioxin exposure!

And my AVN, like our Agent Orange exposure,  also has a VA connection. Last year, in significant pain, I sought care in my local VA emergency room. The ER x-rays showed AVN, and the next month I was seen by a VA orthopedic surgeon. He dismissed the AVN diagnosis made in the ER, according to the notes he entered, because I had no history of being on a specific medicine which causes about a third of AVN cases. Patients who have joint pain, and who have a history of using that medicine, are supposed to have AVN considered during their doctor's examination.

And if this doctor had read a few pages back in my VA medical records...which were right before him on the same computer he was entering his notes with, he'd have seen I had been on that medicine for two years...two years of treatment by the VA.

I didn't learn of his error until later this year at the VA when I was having a procedure guided by fluoroscopic imaging, and the doctor mentioned the AVN that he observed, and mentioned also that my hip was fractured.

Ten months had passed since the ER visit in the same VA facility...ten months of increasing discomfort, and ten months of progress of the AVN disease which might have been halted, or at least slowed, by medicine. Maybe even tomorrow's surgery prevented.

The VA couldn't get me reviewed for the necessary surgery for a couple months which would have meant waiting even more months until the surgery itself. So off to a civilian facility where I was seen and surgery arranged within two weeks by an outstanding professor of medicine. Tomorrow I'll wake up with a new steel hip and a tray of hospital jello for dinner...yuck. Four weeks of rehab - double yuck.

Comrades, we've had a miserable year struggling through this C-123 contamination issue trying to get the VA to care for our Agent Orange illnesses. We're not there yet although a tremendous amount of information has been collected to support our position, and we have also gained the support of outstanding scholars in this field, journalists, legislators and veterans organizations. We'll prevail. But the problem is that there will be fewer of us to prevail than when we began...because the VA continues to refuse recognition that our decade of flying the dioxin-contaminated C-123 exposed us to that dioxin. The VA says "contamination-yes, exposure-no."

Even though the VA sometimes misses the mark as seems to be the case with my AVN disease, the VA are the go-to guys for Agent Orange presumptive illnesses, and the VA is where veterans must go when they lack other insurance. So it is a problem when the VA pretends that we haven't been exposed to dioxin.

Speaking for myself, I wish the VA would spend more time and effort properly caring for me and the guys I flew with than in preventing C-123 aircrews from being eligible for VA care!

I want to shout out my sincere appreciation for my VA dental service, for my primary care provider, for my prostate cancer team, the ER, and the imaging services. I'm blessed with the freedom to bitch and moan about the VA and still turn to the VA for treatment by people who truly care about me.

I wish that all our C-123 maintenance personnel, aerial port guys and aircrew could get the VA care they deserve!

I wish that all our C-123 maintenance personnel, aerial port guys and aircrew would shout at their elected officials, demanding that the VA grant service connection to our Agent Orange veterans! We need people like Senator Patty Murray of Washington to be beating on the VA for us...as has her ranking member Richard Burr.

Why Are We Getting Screwed on C-123 Agent Orange Benefits?

C-123 Veteran

Why? We were exposed - no question among reputable scientists about that. We were good soldiers - in fact, we were the "go-to guys" for decades, fighting in two or three wars along the way, recognized by our service for outstanding achievement. Why have we been shafted on this Agent Orange exposure issue by the Air Force which we love so much?

Disinterest. We've been dumped. There aren't enough C-123 veterans (only about 1500) to interest the average Senator or Congressman - to motivate them to motivate the Air Force.

Mostly, that's because our own members haven't been vocal enough to bring the message to their elected representatives. And partly, there is little "sizzle" left in the Agent Orange story and the public wearies of the issue. After all, who wants to keep hearing about a problem for four decades?

Unfortunately, we as C-123 veterans do indeed keep hearing about the problem of Agent Orange contamination of the C-123. We hear about it from our doctors! We keep seeing the problem evidenced in painful clarity in beloved friends from our flying days in the Dumpster.

SITREP:

 There are 100 United States Senators. Thus far, we have had interest in our cause expressed by only three (from Connecticut, Oregon and North Carolina.) 

There are 435 United States Congressmen. Thus far, we have had interest in our cause expressed by NONE. Not one. Nada. Not even an answer to the hundreds of letters our association has written asking for Congress to help.









We need C-123 veterans, particularly those in New York, North Carolina, California, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New Hampshire and Washington to contact their representative and loudly, loudly, ask for their help!

Get off your tired, old, worn-out butts and get your Congressmen and Senators involved - PLEASE!

A summary:
1. As for veterans' organizations, I count at least eleven of significant size and importance, yet we have only had assistance from the American Legion and the Vietnam Veterans of America. I have personally approached the leadership of the Disabled American Veterans, the Veterans of Foreign Wars of the United States, the Military Officers Association of America, Paralyzed Veterans of America and Air Force Sergeants Association (I'm a member of all) without even the courtesy of a response! Also...the Fleet Reserve Association of which I'm not a member.

2. We did receive tremendous support from Dr. Linda Schwartz, Director of Veterans Affairs of the State of Connecticut, who at the time was National President of the State Directors of Veterans Affairs! Dr, Schwartz is also a retired Air Force flight nurse who flew C-123s!

3. As for professional associations other than Linda's, we have approached the Air Force Association, the Army Aviation Association, the Marine Corps Aviation Association, the Airline Pilots Association, the Society of Toxicology, and perhaps a dozen others...also without a single response even though our group of veterans belong to most of these groups.

4. Regarding government agencies: none has offered any opinions or support other than the tremendously important opinion rendered by Dr. Sinks of CDC's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry - Dr. Sinks came out HARD and FIRM in confirming our dioxin exposure aboard the C-123. Every other agency declined involvement or referred us to another agency which they already knew wouldn't get involved, even if their mission statement did touch on concerns such as ours.

5. The Veterans Administration looked into the issue of C-123 contamination and conducted their investigation with the objective given their representatives of preventing all support regarding aircrew dioxin exposure. "How to keep the veterans from becoming qualified for service connection" was their position from start to finish. No effort was made to find an avenue, an "as likely to as not" possibility of our having been exposed, because that would have left us eligible for VA medical care.

6. The Air Force conducted a more formal investigation, done at the School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM). After five months their report generally stated the AF was unable to determine any degree of aircrew Agent Orange exposure. This was because of the years which have passed since the last spray missions, the years the aircraft were stored in harsh conditions and the methods used when first tests were performed. Somehow, unable to make a determination, they therefore concluded aircrews most likely were NOT exposed. Is that  twist of logic or what? Further, the AF report was cited by the VA as their reason for canceling a promised investigation by the Institute of Medicine's Agent Orange Subcommittee. We've already been told (most privately) by previous members that the IOM would have a hard time NOT finding our aircrews, maintenance and aerial port to have been exposed!

7. We have had good support from the media. The Gannett chain, CBS, PBS, Mr. Bill Kurtis, New England Public Radio, the Springfield Republican, the Hartford Courant, Air Force & Army Times have covered our issue with both accuracy and compassion. Various Internet resources have also given us their backing.

Update: C-123 Agent Orange Exposure

The Army's Public Health Command has been asked to review the April Air Force C-123 Agent Orange report, in particular because of the Air Force disregard for the Army's TG312 publication. Elsewhere, we have been contacted by an independent, university-based toxicologist who is reviewing both the AF and the VA reports which he has already labeled "unscientific". Rumors are that a peer-reviewed article is coming - unlike the AF and VA reports which were internal papers without outside critical review (which they haven't survived!)
Here is an interesting question: the Air Force report dismisses the Army TG312 findings, mentioning that the Army meant TG312 for office workers, yet in that report (Chapter One, Page One), the Army states:

"Although this TG focuses on office worker exposures, the general method used to develop an exposure assessment may be adapted for other exposure scenarios by adjusting exposure fact."

Destruction of Toxic C-123, April 2010

Can you see the problem? Can you see what happens when reports are written with a pre-determined outcome and the researchers cherry-pick materials to reach that pre-determined conclusion? Both the VA and the AF needed to insure C-123 veterans were prevented from successful service-connected claims, and their reports were generated with the objective in mind. OSD must be proud!

Regarding our effort to get justice from the VA, here is where we can use some help:

Michael Turner, Ohio

1. Ohio's Congressional delegation (especially Rep. Mike Turner) should be informed re: the actions of USAFSAM's unscientific report. If the aircraft were indeed safe, why did the AF Museum spend over $50,000 to decontaminate an aircraft (Patches) which didn't need decontamination, and why did the AF spend $120,000 to quarantine the C-123s in Davis-Monthan's Boneyard. And why did the AF destroy the aircraft in 2010 if not contaminated? Answer: the planes were indeed contaminated per many tests, and only veterans' claims for service connection resulted in a political decision that we haven't been exposed!

2. We need more universities where we have our veterans (Harvard, BU, Northeastern, Amherst, Wellesley, Tufts, Dartmouth, Indiana, Carnegie-Mellon) to come on board (some already have) with challenges to the AF/VA reports - they need to decry such unscientific activities. We need our veterans (that means YOU!) to sit in front of the university experts and solicit more support - even their professional opinions in letter form are terrific support

3. We need results of our veterans' medical exams in which physicians, after examining the veteran and the medical record, find Agent Orange exposure "as likely to as not" to have caused the illness

4. We need the American Legion to seek influential experts from Johns Hopkins, NIH, Bethesda, or Howard to review the AF/VA reports

5. We need the American Legion and Vietnam Veterans of America to FOIA the entire AF background on their C-123 report or to seek it as a courtesy from USAFSAM & Colonel Benjamin, in keeping with DOD5400.7-R_AFMAN 33-302 which encourages release of information without the need to involve FOIA

6. We need Senator Patty Murray (WA), Chair of the Senate Veterans Committee, to be as involved as Senator Burr, the ranking member - they together have endorsed the Blue Water Navy so supporting us is possible. Can VVA and American Legion approach her or her staffer?

 7. We need support from the Army Aviation and Marine Corps Aviation Associations, but we won't get it is we can't get the Air Force Association behind us. Can American Legion and VVA help there?

8. We need professional societies such as the Society of Toxicology to weigh in; SOT was "sucker-punched" when T. Irons and W. Dick (VA Public Health) presented their poster display summarizing the VA's report

9. VA and AF have both constructed an argument new to toxicology - for the first time and contrary to earlier IOM reports, a suggestion is made that contamination does not result in exposure. They have dismissed inhalation as an exposure route without scientific justification. They have dismissed ingestion as an exposure route without scientific justification. And finally, by constructing a hypothesis of "dry dioxin transfer", they dismiss the dermal route of exposure. There is no science behind the VA's hypothesis that crews couldn't have been exposed via the dermal route aboard this "heavily contaminated' airplane which was "a danger to public health" (according to AF toxicologists)

10. We need the IOM back on board regarding the VA's proposed special project investigating the C-123 contamination - VA's promised Statement of Work should be submitted and publicly discussed

11. ideas?