Tag Archives: Agent Orange at Davis Monthan/ Dioxin at Davis Monthan

Response To July 23rd Posting Regarding Agent Orange And Old Planes at Davis Monthan Air Force Base

I reckon this is one of the key values of a Blog. The truth will surface through a dialectical process that does not really exist elsewhere. Plus these postings are quite frequently revisited unlike much of the daily print media that expires as sunset every day.  One posting from June of 2009  about Vietnam Veterans dying prematurely, has more hits than any of the other 400 posts!  I am sure this one will have a long half life.

 

 

Director
Air Force Public Affairs
The Pentagon
Washington, DC
Dear Sir or Madam,
In April 2010 the 75th ABW, Hill AFB, Utah prepared in advance a press release describing the destruction of the remaining C-123K/UC-123K aircraft at the Davis-Monthan AFB.

Throughout the period 2000-2010, intense concern was raised at different agencies, including the Office of Secretary of Defense, the Air Staff, the Air Force Surgeon General, the Air Force Office of Environmental Law, the Deputy Undersecretary of the Army, HQ Air Force Material Command and more. The concern: dioxin contamination left on the aircraft from their Vietnam War service as Agent Orange spray aircraft in Operation Ranch Hand.

1993 seems to be the first time when tests were ordered on Patches, the Air Force Museum’s famous C-123, was tested before positioning inside the museum. It tested positive for dioxin…in the words of the Air Force test it was “heavily contaminated”.
More tests and correspondence abound during the period 1994-2000 with the only concerns expressed being the disposal of the aircraft, safety of personnel at the Boneyard, whether Walt Disney films should be told that two of the C-123s they purchased for movie production were contaminated, whether foreign governments should be informed that the aircraft transferred to them were contaminated, and similar correspondence.

In 1996 the Air Force Office of Environmental Law recommended the contamination be “kept within official channels”, a recommendation endorsed by the writer’s commander, the Director of the Office of Environmental Law.

In 2000 the Air Force joined with the General Services Administration in a court action to stop the contracted sale of some contaminated C123s. The federal judge took their evidence of the aircraft being “heavily contaminated, extremely dangerous, extremely hazardous, extremely contaminated” and other descriptions, and ordered the sale terminated.

In 2009 the AMARG/AFMC moved towards disposal of the remaining 21 aircraft, but they couldn’t be buried as they were too toxic for a landfill. The recommendation of the Office of Secretary of Defense (Dr Alvin Young, Senior Consultant) was to stop testing the aircraft immediately for toxicity…two of four had tested positive and his suggestion was that that result could be taken two ways.that “only two of the 21 aircraft were toxic”, or that “50% or more of the remaining aircraft were toxic.” As the testing was costly,  Dr Young and base officials, acting on Dr Young’s authority from Office of Secretary of Defense, opted to shred the entire fleet of C-123s, having learned that shredded metal does not fall under EPA guidelines as did the aircraft…and there was a threatened $3,000,000,000 fine.

And there were the comments by Colonel Schneider at DM, who told the 75th ABW “he is concerned with the potential dissemination of information”), and museums which wanted them, and private buyers who wanted them so desperately they unsuccessfully sued in federal court to try to force a sale.
Dr Young also recommended that the public affairs at Hill and Davis-Monthan prepare for media inquiries. He mentioned an article from Orion Magazine, and discussed the worry that a media “storm” that might develop could inform Air Force Reservists who flew the airplanes between 1972-1982 that their dioxin-related illnesses might be brought to the VA for treatment. Various drafts of a press release were offered, and Dr Young along with other officials “corrected” the drafts by eliminating words such as “Agent Orange”, “dioxin”,  “contamination” and replacing them with words less likely to alarm the public…Agent Orange and dioxin and contamination were replaced with “herbicide” and “aged Vietnam-era airplanes no longer flown.” The last part of the statements disregards the other Air Force memos about agencies desperate to purchase the valuable engines and propellers

In conclusion, a press release was crafted by the PA shop at the 75th Air Base Wing. It was not distributed, but held in case of media inquiry. This was a further element of the effort to minimize public awareness of the true story of the event.

No lies were told. Mistruths were constructed, however, to build a story which really had nothing to do with the real news of the event…dioxin contaminated aircraft. Nobody at the PA shop inquired of the managers of the event about the Air Force Reserve aircrews which had been exposed to dioxin on their airplanes for a full decade. Instead, the public affairs officers bent without objection, indeed, apparently with eager willingness, to construct a press release to deceive the media and the public, as well as the Air Force Reservists beginning to wonder why they have cancer, heart disease, acute peripheral neuropathy, ALS, and other dioxin-related illnesses.

While note part of the public affairs activity at either base, I note a possibly inappropriate use of a business title implying official actions within and by the Office of Secretary of Defense. Dr. Alvin Young was cited in several documents from HQ AFMC and the 75th Air Base Wing as Agent Orange “Senior Consultant to the Office of Secretary of Defense.” He used the title himself in memoranda, and his name and title were cited as authority for the decision by AMARG to shred and smelt 21 surplus C123K/UC-123K aircraft in 2010.

Further, his attitudes and reactions to Reserve Component aircrews are a specific concern, as in his position paper regarding the need for speedy destruction of the dioxin-contaminated aircraft, Dr Young mentions the media “storm” which might attend the operation and cause aircrews and maintenance workers with dioxin-related illnesses to seek care at the Department of Veterans Affairs. Concerned with the visibility of this event, which he frequently writes must be low key (and even congratulates base officials on concluding the operation with minimal public attention). There has been an obvious, skillful twisting of words to hide the actual event…destruction of dioxin-contaminated aircraft with a potential $3 billion dollar EPA or State of Arizona fine…by presenting a completely misleading press release. There is an ethical standard in preparation of press releases, but it was ignored here.

Dr. Young, who last week described the dioxin-exposed Air Force Reserve aircrews as “trash haulers, freeloaders looking for a sympathetic Congressman for tax-free dollars” seems an inappropriate person to be editing Air Force press releases especially when he helps direct the misinformation concerning events vital to my health….my friends and I flew those airplanes!

Thanks to various military-oriented editors and reporters, this story has changed quite a bit from what it could have been – the simple “destruction of Agent Orange contaminated aircraft in an environmentally responsible way” to one where the news value is in the early attempts to keep the information in official channels, to one where Air Force public affairs abused the trust of the public and media by misleading them through a poorly-crafted and deceptive press release, and where public affairs at both Hill AFB and Davis-Monthan AFB failed to bring to the attention of leadership their ethical responsibilities, and to alert their leaders as to the negative impact that failing to notify aircrews who’d been exposed to the toxins and the health dangers this press release was designed to conceal from us and our families.
I find this reprehensible.

Respectfully,

Wesley T. Carter, Major USAF
Retired   http://c123kcancer.blogspot.com

One Mans View of Agent Orange Contamination Of Old Planes

This mans name is Wesley Carter. Lets see if any of our readers have some relevant feedback.

 

 

Sir:
The 505th at Hill AFB and AMARG Davis-Monthan AFB, AZ together manage the Air Force’s fleet of stored surplus aircraft. In 2010 their collection of Vietnam-era C-123K/UC-123K were destroyed due to the dioxin contamination which remained ever since their last wartime spray mission.

The 505th Public Affairs staff worked with consultants who were particularly sensitive to the “Agent Orange” and “dioxin” power-packed words and the publicity likely attendant to such an event, the only time the Air Force had ever been forced to destroy surplus aircraft by shredding (because shredded metal does not meet EPA guidelines for contaminated materials, thus avoiding a threatened $3 billion fine) and then smelting to destroy the dioxin.

Along with friends, I flew the C-123K for ten years 1972-1982, and beginning in April 2011 started reading about the aircraft’s history online, and submitting FOIAs to see if this is where so many of my unit’s veterans are getting Agent Orange-presumptive illnesses. I found, in particular, test after test establishing the aircraft remaining “heavily contaminated, extremely dangerous, extremely hazardous, extremely contaminated”…the Air Force laboratories’ words.

But I also found a 1996 recommendation from the Air Force Office of Environmental Law to “keep this information within official channels only”, channels which apparently have never included us as aircrews. Along with other Stan/Eval flight examiners, I was supposed to be one of the most expert, most qualified, most experienced, most reliable flyers in my crew specialty…but I never was informed. The only “conversation” I eve had with the Air Force was about the stink of the airplanes when I first started flying them in 1972 and was told it was left over from Vietnam.

The press releases dealing with the destruction of 21 aircraft were crafted to keep the words in proper English and to discuss an event, but it was “word-smithing” to use true words for telling a lie. In all the AF documents the reason the 21 aircraft were destroyed was because of the dioxin residue – in the press release the aircraft were destroyed because they were aged Vietnam-era airplanes no longer flying, and the words first used in press release drafts “Agent Orange” and “dioxin” were replaced with the less-threatening and less- attention getting “herbicide”. Lies with truthful words. The press, supposed to rely on the basics of a military unit’s press releases, was completely misled.

We have among our flyers started a blog to post all the documents we’ve been piling up from the Freedom of Information Act. Tom Philpott of Gannett did a nice story about us at the end of May but did not touch on the false press releases…at that time we throughout the old airplanes were still sitting in storage at Davis-Monthan’s Bone yard.

Can you help? The VA is denying that we’ve ever had Agent Orange exposure, even though the Air Force’s own lab tests over 30 years say we flew contaminated airplanes. I feel this has both editorial and news value…I want the story driven!