During the war, people went back and forth between Laos and Vietnam, he said, depending on which side was being bombed and sprayed at the time. or concerned about one, connect with our caring, qualified responders for confidential help. They denied his claim the first time he submitted it, and I had to resubmit a new one. All these years later, the mountainous border strip in the southern Lao panhandle is still a landscape defined by war and disease. In the U.S. Herbicide tests and storage, Herbicide Tests and Storage Outside Vietnam, Post-Vietnam Dioxin Exposure in Agent Orange-Contaminated C-123 Aircraft, Fort McClellan: Toxic Chemical Waste Dump for 64 years, Atsugi Japan Shinkampo Incinerator (Dioxin), Veterans Descendants Health Questionnaire, Reports link Agent Orange exposure and birth defects, Agent Orange Genetic Testing for Disabled Children of Vietnam Veterans, LOVME IMPORTANT LINKS FOR CHILDREN OF VETERANS EXPOSED TO AGENT ORANGE, Children of Veterans Exposed to Agent Orange Illness List. He was on hospice and the VA paid for his care at first. By the time Chagnon came home in 1970, the defoliation campaign was about to be shut down amid growing controversy over its possible health effects. "VA depends on DoD to provide information regarding in-service environmental exposure for disability claims based on exposure to herbicides outside of Vietnam.". He is writing a book about the long-term human and political legacies of the Vietnam War, in Vietnam and Laos and in the United States. A few months ago it was 102 day average for new claims. I have had Prostate Cancer, Prostate removed after many biopsies and digital exams with only my mentioning that I had been exposed to Agent Orange during these Combat Missions. And much more. For the most part, the old men told their stories dispassionately. Could a veteran veteran contract any of these agents if he didnt actually set foot in Vietnam? To make matters worse, the newly examined Air Force records show that the first intensive period of spraying in Laos used not Agent Orange, but the much more toxic Agent Purple, the use of which was discontinued in Vietnam almost a year earlier. If you continue to use this site we will assume that you are happy with it. Tango underground communications site. them are Veterans themselves. Agent Orange was a powerful herbicide used by U.S. military forces during the Vietnam War to eliminate forest cover and crops for North Vietnamese and Viet Cong troops. In April 1972, the U.S. Air Force began storing Agent Orange on Johnston Island, a small island located off Hawaiis southern shoreline. . R.R. Estimate your 2023 VA Rating & Compensation for FREE! It is a mixture of equal parts of two herbicides, 2,4,5-T and 2,4-D.In addition to its damaging environmental effects, traces of dioxin (mainly TCDD, the most . We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. Veterans who were exposed to Agent Orange or other herbicides during service may be eligible for a variety of VA benefits, including an Agent Orange Registry health exam, health care and disability compensation for diseases associated with exposure. im currently 90 % disabled. Im not positive about this where you live, however in Augusta, Ga. Fort Gordon all you need is your Military ID and your LPN has to have a State Drivers liense .To get in at the Military base. made a new five-year commitment to provide another $65 million in humanitarian aid to Vietnamese people with disabilities in areas sprayed with Agent Orange and otherwise contaminated by dioxin. The funds are channeled through the Leahy War Victims Fund, named for its creator, Senator Patrick Leahy, a Democrat from Hammonds home state, Vermont, who for years has led the effort to help victims of Agent Orange in Vietnam. If you are in crisis or having thoughts of suicide, The rudimentary health care system in rural Laos means that few if any infants even get a diagnosis. I was a teenager. If you were stationed in a location with Agent Orange, you may qualify for VA disability compensation benefits, based on a presumption of exposure. 01/18/2019 08:32 AM EST. Also once during that time he was strapped in the plane preparing to go when there was a hydrazine leak and he was more likely than not exposed. Im not sure what it is now. As a result, many war veterans have developed health problems related to their exposure to the toxic herbicide. The campaign was by far the largest and most comprehensive of the war, using a wide variety of aircraft as well as new smart bombs. Although the full extent of its use is unknown, veterans stationed in Guam or American Samoa during the war were likely exposed to Agent Orange. But he did get Prostate Cancer, Melanoma and Multiple Myeloma, And Lymphoma the last 15 years of his life. Brian isalso the CEOofMilitary Disability Made Easy, which is the worlds largest free searchable database for all things related to DoD disability and VA disability claims and has served more than 4,600,000 military members and veterans since its founding in 2013. Harkins pushed back, arguing that the proximity of the unsecured border was precisely the point. Vietnamese people affected by the chemical spraying get compensation, he complained. 3. A week after the launch of the offensive, Nixon decides to respond with a massive air campaign against the North. How to Get a 100 Percent VA Rating (if deserved)! There were anecdotal accounts of airplanes trailing a fine white spray. Additionally, the PACT Act adds 23 burn pits and toxic exposure-related conditions to the VAs list of service presumptions, including hypertension. The release of the new document comes after a year in which the Navy saw several major clusters of suicides. Hear from fellow Veterans just like you, with many of our Veteran Success Managers having gone through our programs. Kalod, 75, an elder in Lahang, a village three miles from the Vietnamese border on one of the most heavily sprayed sections of the Ho Chi Minh Trail. Within a week, the first wave of B-52s hit the Ho Chi Minh Trail. We werent aware of significant spraying in Laos, Leahy said by email, Nor of people with disabilities in those areas that are consistent with exposure to dioxin. Some of their findings need to be verified by medical experts. It does not store any personal data. (9) With Agent Orange being sprayed so much, adding to herbicides added after the war to try and cancel out Agent Orange . The U.S. program, codenamed . The VA will provide medical care and benefits to veterans who develop these conditions. FAQ a. The Southern defense is thrown into complete chaos. The road that follows the Ho Chi Minh Trail south is a kind of living archive of the conflict, in which its remnants and relics have been absorbed into the fabric of everyday life. Korea 1974. Since 2016, VA Claims Insider has helped thousands of Veterans just like you get the VA rating and compensation they deserve in less time. Was stationed at Anderson and used to go Boonie Stomping to look for WWII artifacts and coconut crabs. Agent Orange Use: Most Commonly Recognized in Service Environmental Exposure During the Vietnam War, VA Releases Updated List of Agent Orange Exposure Locations, Other Benefits From the PACT Act for Veterans, Benefits Eligibility for Agent Orange Exposure. We are making such material available in our efforts to advance understanding of environmental, political, human rights, economic, democracy, scientific, and social justice issues, etc. Coincidence maybe? I need someone to help me find out how I can get my medical records from Miami, FL Veterans Administration Hospital. By this time Chagnon and her husband, Roger Rumpf, a theologian and well-known peace activist, were living in Vientiane and visited remote areas where few outsiders ever ventured. The model has been evaluated twice by the Institute of Medicine, which recommended that the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs use it to evaluate the chemicals' health impact. VA depends on DOD to provide information regarding in-service environmental exposure for disability claims based on exposure to herbicides outside of Vietnam.. This privacy policy tells you how we use personal information, Mark Cashs father, a U.S. Air Force security policeman, was stationed at Andersen Air Force Base in late, 1. Jacquelyn Chagnon, left, and Susan Hammond measuring the head of a 2-year-old boy named Sodsai, who gets severe headaches and has hearing difficulties. Chicago Tribune, 435 N. Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60611. How to Show your Support for Vietnam Veterans on National Vietnam War Veterans Day, Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act Extends Disability Benefits to Thousands of Navy Veterans. There was no proof that dioxin was responsible, and Mirandas ailments were treatable with surgery and medication, but that hardly quelled Chagnons concerns about Agent Orange. visit VeteransCrisisLine.net for more resources. Boivin later calculated that more than half a million gallons of chemicals had been sprayed on Laos, but other declassified Air Force documents show additional amounts not found in those initial records, and several village elders gave persuasive accounts of flights that didnt seem to conform to the official data. One of them was the A Shau valley, and it would be the first mission aimed at destroying crops that might feed the enemy. The town was destroyed during the 1971 invasion of Laos by South Vietnamese forces backed by U.S. airpower. The map below can be used to see defoliant spraying missions by U.S. and South Vietnamese forces over Vietnam, as well as Laos and Cambodia. facilities that might pose an ongoing health risk. But in Laos it was on a smaller scale, and in remote places outside of the political mainstream.. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads. He does not have diabetes, just painful neuropathy that makes any walking very difficult. Once or twice the War Legacies team had to turn back, defeated by roads that were impassable after recent monsoon floods. With this updated information, veterans can get the care and benefits they need and deserve. In Laos, we need support from America, like they receive in Vietnam.. Also, his medical records have vanished. If you live near ag areas or wear cotton that is not organically grown, you are still being exposed to Agent Blue. Since this list is incomplete, it is incomplete for a reason which is money. So did cassava, though it swelled to an outlandish size and became inedible Agent Orange accelerated the growth of plant tissue, killing most foliage. As a fellow disabled Veteran this is shameful and Im on a mission to change it. George Black is a British author and journalist living in New York. We have our work cut out for us in Vietnam, he says, but wed also want to know what was done in Laos, since clearly those who were involved meaning wartime political and military leaders have not made a point of making it widely known. In response to the growing insurgency, U.S. Special Forces set up small camps near the border with Laos, notably at Khe Sanh, which later became a gigantic Marine combat base, and in the A Shau valley, later infamous for the battle of Hamburger Hill and seen by U.S. strategists as the most important war zone in South Vietnam. It was not until around 2000 that the United States was finally forced to acknowledge its obligations, after Hatfield Consultants completed its study of the impact of dioxin and showed U.S. officials incontrovertible evidence of how TCDD moved up the food chain, entered the human body and was transmitted to infants through breast milk. My parents were furious at me for going into a war zone.. Intelligence reports had predicted a Northern attack, but no one had expected it to come across the DMZ. Agent Orange was a tactical herbicide mixture used by the United States military during the Vietnam War era. The purpose of the group is to begin to, My daughter and I have been advocating for the families of veterans exposed to Agent Orange and the, 1. Chagnon took time off from college in 1968 to work with Catholic Relief Services in Saigon, later living in a compound near the Tan Son Nhut air base. His frustration with the8-step VA disability claims processled him to createVA Claims Insider,which provides U.S. military veterans with tips, strategies, and lessons learned for successfully submitting or re-submitting a winning VA disability compensation claim. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. AO was stored there at least during my tour 1968-70. The entire hill top was sprayed while we were guarding the complex. According to the claim process both of these needed to have been identified and treated within a year of retirement. My spouse doesnt provide any assistance. I did not see Naval Radio Station Jim Creek, Oso, WA. This spraying was a part of the United States Secret War in Cambodia, which lasted from 1969 until 1973. I currently have an accumulated VA Disability of one-hundred percent (100%), I am not lookin for a recalculation of my VA Disability, I only wish to bring the VAs attention to other Flight Personnels claims for Agent Orange disability consideration and acknowledgement by the VA Medical and C&P Staff. Quick trip to the hospital showed he looked ok. Were not doctors or geneticists, she says. But as it turned out weve found a lot., Hammonds requests for both the United States and Laos to acknowledge the long-term effects of the spraying have so far been met with bureaucratic rationalizations for inaction: Congress can do nothing without a clear signal from the Lao government; the Lao government has been hesitant to act without hard data; officials of the United States Agency for International Development in Vientiane have been sympathetic, but other senior embassy officials have waved away the problem. If you served on active duty in any of these locations, well automatically assume (or presume) that you had exposure to Agent Orange. The commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam, Gen. Paul D. Harkins, now requested authority to hit six new targets. Memory is haunted, not just by ghostly others but by the horrors we have done, seen, and condoned, or by the unspeakable things from which we have profited.. Agent Orange, mixture of herbicides that U.S. military forces sprayed in Vietnam from 1962 to 1971 during the Vietnam War for the dual purpose of defoliating forest areas that might conceal Viet Cong and North Vietnamese forces and destroying crops that might feed the enemy. It is the only agent still in use. I helped to move leaky barrels around from C-123;s different weekends. VA Releases Updated List of Agent Orange Exposure Locations P.S. (Today, Bien Hoa is an important Vietnamese Air Force base.) on a vessel not exceeding 12 nautical miles from the Vietnam-Cambodia border. Our process takes the guesswork out of filing a VA disability claim and supports you every step of the way in building a fully-developed claim (FDC)so you can increase your rating FAST! This site contains copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. He remembers when the Americans first sprayed Laos. Between 1970 and 1974 I had two hundred-forty-nine, (249) Combat Missions on AC119K and AC130 A,E &H Model Gunships over S. Viet Nam, Laos, Cambodia and one flight into China. There will be a manifest for this as AF policies is to maintain these documents for 50 years after the facility closes. But the veterans formed an angry and influential constituency, and politicians had to assuage a good measure of guilt, both their own and that of the general public, over the trauma of those who had fought in a lost war that most Americans preferred to forget. It seems no records of this were ever written or saved from these events. No nexus needed. Required fields are marked *, Toward an honest commemoration of the American War in Vietnam. The new law includes presumptions for Agent Orange exposure locations in Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Guam, American Samoa, and Johnston Atoll. The term "Agent Orange" also refers to the multiple "rainbow" herbicides used by the U.S. VIETNAM FULL DISCLOSURE / VETERANS FOR PEACE Towards an honest commemoration of the American War in Vietnam, All wars are fought twice, the first time on the battlefield, the second time in memory . A lock ( Thank you. Hatfield joined up the dots, showing how the two were connected and how dioxin could be transmitted from one generation to the next. Call your congressman. You also can zoom in on a particular town or area by entering its name in the search box. do i just drive to the base or is there a web site i cant get this info. 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