But first, unending thanks to Dr. Jeanne Stellman who joined us for the meeting in Washington DC. A powerful voice from a gracious lady and esteemed supporter of veterans’ issues!
Senator Burr of North Carolina, ranking member Senate
Veterans Committee
We flew to DC to have our meeting with VA’s Health Benefits Administration in the Hart Senate Office Building, hosted by Sen. Burr’s staff, with the following results: 1. the C-123 aircrew/maintainers dioxin exposure issue will bereferred to the Institute of Medicine for a special report,hopefully ready by the end of 2012. VA will prepare a Statement of Work (SOW) without outside input, but IOM will conduct public meetings soliciting comment 2. VA reassured C-123 veterans our herbicide exposure poses no risk to health 3. VA stated no medical care will be allowed even on a presumptive eligibility basis for AO-presumtive illnesses (unless the veteran is otherwise eligible) 4. benefits claims now in for C-123 aircrews and maintainers will most likely be denied 5. Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry letter of 26 Jan 2012 hasno particular relevance to benefits eligibility of veterans as it was provided outside the realm of the VA itself; apparently, “its the VA’s ball” 6. VA defends their apparent “not enough dioxin to harm” newly created threshold, never before established by any US government agency 7. VA didn’t realize only about 1500 aircrew and maintenance personnel are involved in this issue, expecting the numbers to be higher 8. VA defended their earlier challenges to and dismissal of the 1979 Conway survey of Patches and the 1994 Weisman/Porter survey of Patches, saying use of standard swipe protocol resulted in inaccurate findings and thus no veterans were affected by either inhalation, ingestion or dermal routes of exposure
9. other than the suggested IOM referral, not a single suggestion was made by the VA, whose duty it is to assist veterans in presenting their claims, to help us present our claims; we were struck by the fact not a single note was taken by them of points we felt important to bring to the discussion
10. one VA official likened our exposure during 1972-1982 to her traveling as a 1976 passenger in Army trucks which had been used earlier in Vietnam
11. VA agreed it will be appropriate for IOM to form a retrospective view of Patches prior to the 1979 Conway report, as dioxin contamination levels are likely to be higher in the earlier years
74AES Flight Nurses: “not enough dioxin” to hurt them or their
children–VA
12. VA likened the requirement for employees at Davis-Monthan AFB to wear HAZMAT protection around the quarantined C-123K fleet to the “hysteria” of recent civilian water contamination
13. the expected USAF School of Aerospace Medicine report wasn’t presented, and apparently isn’t quite ready for either discussion or presentation – aircrews certainly hope that USAFSAM will take a hard stand confirming our exposure, and that at the very least since they cannot direct VA to provide care, USAF should declare that the aircraft were unsafe to fly during the years we had them, and would certainly constitute an unsafe to fly designation today
In an outside, casual conversation, our suggestion that our benefits applications are being stalled to prevent appeals progressing to the more public forum offered by BVA and other courts was not challenged… the VA official simply smiled. The oldest claim we can identify among our veterans is one year old, other than those denied years earlier by BVA due to veterans’ inability to identify specific tail numbers of AO-spray aircraft and inability to prove lingering contamination. Note: both such proofs released by the USAF via FOIA in May 2011, but not available to the veterans before their claims were denied in 2007. It is to be expected that claims henceforth will continue to be denied, but with newer reasons created to cite as justification as the old ones are now invalid.
Our thanks to leadership of the American Legion, which hosted us on Wednesday in preparation for the VA meeting. American Legion is solidly behind us and will be presenting a resolution to their Spring conference. Also, thanks to Dr. Jeanne Stellman of Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health, and Dr. Fred Berman of Oregon Health Sciences University who presented expert support during Thursday’s conference. Both experts generously contributed their time and expertise to supporting our presentation.
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I have deemed it important to post these correspondences in their entirety, so as to surface any layered truth and to identify members of the Armed Forces that may have been exposed to Agent Orange by way of association with the C-123 craft. Should you not want to respond at this site, you may email me at “micpatrickbrewer@gmail.com” Or leave a message at 520-540-7000.
Note: we’re looking for names and email addresses of Ranch Hand aircrews and maintainers to help
5 thoughts on “Update for VA Recognition for Agent Orange Exposure of C-123 Veterans”
No Revenues = No Sacrifice = No Support = DeJa-Vu all over again!. Now a decade and counting added to the previous decades of under funding the VA, while the peoples reps Still try and lay blame on the Agency, after rubber stamping wars and costs of and those represented cheer on these wars!
While the wealthy and other investors garner their booty, still, from both and many have the chutz·pa to call themselves more patriotic{?} then others wrapped in those false flags, using false slogans and various cheap symbols of!
USN ’67-’71 All Shore GMG3 Vietnam In Country ’70-’71
MESSAGE TO MIKE: can you please modify your article to place your comments below my signature, rather than above? Also, the American Legion should read ” we hope the American Legion will present a resolution of support at their Spring Convention.”
Thanks…
W.T.C.
Rusty, I will attempt to edit that and place my comments below. For some odd reason the platform used by the Tucson Citizen; Word Press, placed the commentary at the bottom all on its own! So, dear readers know that the last paragraph is the narrative of Mike Brewer, not “RustySilverWings”
Gracias. Now, get Arizona EPA to look into the failure by Davis-Monthan to reveal the toxic C-123K aircraft stored there 1982-2010. These were “heavily contaminated” and “a danger to public health.” Placed in a special quarantined HAZMAT area, why weren’t Arizona inspectors shown these aircraft and given appropriate documents?
No Revenues = No Sacrifice = No Support = DeJa-Vu all over again!. Now a decade and counting added to the previous decades of under funding the VA, while the peoples reps Still try and lay blame on the Agency, after rubber stamping wars and costs of and those represented cheer on these wars!
While the wealthy and other investors garner their booty, still, from both and many have the chutz·pa to call themselves more patriotic{?} then others wrapped in those false flags, using false slogans and various cheap symbols of!
USN ’67-’71 All Shore GMG3 Vietnam In Country ’70-’71
What medical studies does the VA use to bolster their their position?
I agree with the line…”Delay delay delay until they die..”
Vietnam 1968
MESSAGE TO MIKE: can you please modify your article to place your comments below my signature, rather than above? Also, the American Legion should read ” we hope the American Legion will present a resolution of support at their Spring Convention.”
Thanks…
W.T.C.
Rusty, I will attempt to edit that and place my comments below. For some odd reason the platform used by the Tucson Citizen; Word Press, placed the commentary at the bottom all on its own! So, dear readers know that the last paragraph is the narrative of Mike Brewer, not “RustySilverWings”
Gracias. Now, get Arizona EPA to look into the failure by Davis-Monthan to reveal the toxic C-123K aircraft stored there 1982-2010. These were “heavily contaminated” and “a danger to public health.” Placed in a special quarantined HAZMAT area, why weren’t Arizona inspectors shown these aircraft and given appropriate documents?