Tag Archives: Uunited States Air Force C-123 K Transport/ Agent Orange Exposure Site

C-123 Agent Orange Exposure

It is through the process of diligence and patience of one Veterans Benefits Counselor named Maude DeVictor, an employee of the Chicago VA in the 1980’s,that brought Agent Orange exposure and the consequent medical symptoms to the forground. Her saga was depicted in the 1986 movie titled, “Un-Natural Causes,” staring the late John Ritter. It is must viewing for the veterans who have been exposed, and the families of the now thousands who have died.

Major Carter, may well be caring that baton for the veterans who have yet to be included in the claim process.

I declared from the outset,when posting the first narrative that Major Carter wrote, that the extensive nature of blogging and its broad reach, may well be part of the vetting process. Advocacy for veterans has an exploratory aspect in the search for the truth. Chemical exposure experienced by Desert Storm troops is evidence of that process.. If the advocacy stumbles upon truth that negates the assertions of Major Carter, then Veteran Veritas will report those negations. For the present, discovery continues.

Our C-123 Veterans’ YouTube video posted this evening (purpose of the video is to explain away VA’s new term of “bioavailability” aiming message to our members, supporters and the VA itself)

[tnivideo caption=”” credit=””]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQKIQDj2dP4[/tnivideo]

The 1991 Agent Orange Law took away VA’s ability to deny Agent Orange-exposed veterans claims by requiring medical nexus, a nearly-impossible threshold Oof proof for any veteran to achieve, and instead gave the VA’s authority over medical nexus to the Institute of Medicine, of the National Academies of Science. The IOM determines which diseases seem to have a medical nexus with dioxin exposure, and recommends inclusion by the Secretary of Veterans Affairs in the VA’s list of presumptive illnesses.

But with the C-123 Agent Orange exposed veterans, VA has tried to recapture their control over determination of medical nexus by insisting upon bioavailability as necessary element of exposure. No bioavailability equals no exposure, in the VA’s twisted thought process. In fact, however, bioavailability flows from exposure and is not an element of it. We’re protesting this double-think on the VA’s part, which unfairly bars us from protections of the Agent Orange Act by pretending we were not exposed because we cannot establish, at least on an individual veteran’s basis, bioavailability.

I have run this thesis past toxicologists and it seems to hold up… the VA is trying to snooker us and, with the help we’re blessed with from Congress, the media and other veterans organizations it will not succeed.

We’re not paranoid about the VA. They have reasons for obstructing our claims which perhaps seem valid to them, and which might include:

  1.  budget restrictions
  2. genuine disagreement with the technical aspects of our claims
  3. confusing us with “Blue Water Navy” – both groups claim exposure but with wholly different scientific basis
  4. Agent Orange “fatigue” – general effort to “draw the line somewhere with Agent Orange claims…it has to stop somewhere.”
  5. inappropriate disagreement with the legal basis for our exposure claims (Agent Orange Act, etc)
  6. don’t like airplanes or airplane people?? Or other reasons important to them but unknown to us

May I remind everyone of how helpful each veteran can be? We have contacted so very few New England senators and congressional representatives to join forces with Senator Richard Burr…please urge your own delegation to join forces and help. Perhaps you have seen the long list of supporting documents on the right side of our blog…I got most of those by writing or calling names off the internet and finding nice folks who want to help. Looking into our situation, many universities and individual experts have weighed in to help by providing expert findings…you can get the same from physicians and scientists at your own state universities. Please give an hour or so if you can.
Wes Carter


Resolution To Designate USAF C-123 K Transport As Agent Orange Exposure Site

NATIONAL EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE
OF
THE AMERICAN LEGION
INDIANAPOLIS, INDIANA
MAY 9 – 10, 2012
Resolution No. 20: Designate United States Air Force C-123 K Transport Aircraft as Agent
Orange Exposure Sites
Origin: Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission
Submitted by: Veterans Affairs and Rehabilitation Commission
WHEREAS, The American Legion has long been at the forefront of advocacy for veterans exposed to the military herbicides used in Vietnam, as well as those veterans with exposures in locations outside Vietnam itself during and after the Vietnam era; and
WHEREAS, The United States Air Force (USAF) used its fleets of C-123K transport aircraft in more than 9,100 missions, for aerial application of nearly twenty million gallons of toxic herbicides between 1961 and 1971 in Vietnam; and
WHEREAS, The aircraft were returned to the United States for continued use in airlift missions by USAF squadrons at Westover Air Force Base (AFB), Massachusetts, Pittsburgh Air Reserve Station, Pennsylvania and Rickenbacker Air Reserve Base, Ohio between 1972-1982 and were then retired from service and placed in storage; and
WHEREAS, The United States Air Force (USAF) in 1979, in response to the presence of noxious fumes, conducted scientific tests on unit aircraft and identified and determined that significant levels of military herbicides and insecticides used in Vietnam still contaminated the aircraft; and
WHEREAS, Additional tests carried out again in 1994 by USAF Armstrong Laboratories still showed the presence of herbicides, and in particular, the presence of highly toxic Agent Orange contaminant dioxin; and
WHEREAS, The contamination was consideration sufficient by the USAF to require the use of HAZMAT protective equipment when carrying out tests or otherwise entering the aircraft; and
WHEREAS, As late as 2009, further USAF tests conducted at Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona demonstrated continued contamination of aircraft; and
WHEREAS, USAF toxicology staff has testified in federal proceedings that toxic levels of contamination due to the herbicides were a danger to public health; and
WHEREAS, The levels observed in the aircraft greatly exceed the Department of Defense’s (DoD) own standards for maximum permissible exposure to any dioxin contaminating interior surfaces; and
WHEREAS, Other federal agencies have reviewed the data and concurred that exposures to personnel at levels exceeding DoD recommendations are likely to have occurred; and
WHEREAS, In response to the State of Arizona and US Environmental Protection Agency environmental concerns, the USAF withdrew the aircraft from commercial resale, quarantined them and, in April 2010, ultimately took extraordinary disposal measures and smelted the remaining fleet; and
2
WHEREAS, It is estimated that approximately 1,500 service members, including aircrews and maintenance personnel were exposed to military herbicide-contaminated conditions on the C-123 aircraft; and
WHEREAS, Many of these personnel, still surviving, now have health problems commonly associated with herbicide exposure and have endured lengthy legal struggles to prove these problems are service-related; and
WHEREAS, The Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs has statutory responsibility to accurately designate situations and locations that caused veterans to have been exposed to military herbicides used in Vietnam, as well as their contaminants; now, therefore, be it
RESOLVED, By the National Executive Committee of The American Legion in regular meeting assembled in Indianapolis, Indiana, on May 9-10, 2012, That The American Legion urges the Department of Veterans Affairs to promptly designate the C-123K aircraft, used after the Vietnam War in the United States during 1972 to 1982, as having been Agent Orange exposure sites to permit veterans who were aircrew or maintenance personnel to be eligible for Agent Orange-related benefits.