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Rachel Denny Clow/Caller-Times file Steve Maher (left) and his mother, Lydia Maher, hold a photo of Bill Maher, who died in early 2011. Bill Maher fought to convince officials that he was exposed to Agent Orange while working at the Corpus Christi Army Depot during the Vietnam War. Steve Maher has continued his fathers quest. CORPUS CHRISTI A state Senate committee will hear testimony Wednesday concerning a resolution calling on Congress to consider extending certain benefits to civilian workers who claim exposure to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War. State Sen. Juan Chuy Hinojosa, D-McAllen, authored the symbolic legislation that calls for a change in federal policy concerning exposure to herbicides to include certain veterans and civilian defense workers. The United States Congress must reaffirm our nations commitment to the well-being of all veterans and administer the Agent Orange Act to apply to all Americans exposed, be it on Vietnamese soil, waterways, airspace or stateside at military repair shops, said Hinojosa, a Marine who served two tours in Vietnam. For Steve Maher, Hinojosas willingness to take on the issue may represent the fact that finally someone may be listening. Maher has for years been fighting for recognition that workers, including his late father, were exposed to dangerous chemicals while repairing helicopters at the Corpus Christi Army Depot during the Vietnam War. Maher, who has unsuccessfully pleaded his fathers case with federal lawmakers and the U.S. Department of Labor, said he plans to attend the hearing in Austin and hopes to testify. The hearing is set to begin at 1:30 p.m.. Scripps Texas Legislative Reporter Matthew Waller will be covering for Caller.com. Follow live on Caller.com and onTwitter @waller_matthew. 2013 Corpus Christi Caller Times. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
Air Force Admits Agent Orange Spraying In Florida In 1962-70 (I Was at Eglin
By Barbara T. Dreyfuss In the 1960s, Ernie Rivers taught Navy flight students at the Pensacola Naval Air Station how t charge of the survival unit, overseeing 30 to 35 instructors, who taught more than 100 men a w Every week groups of students would camp for three days, using different sites on Eglin Air Fo right, Rivers and his men would watch planes pass overhead, clouds of spray coming from the dont have to use bug repellant, he noted, laughing, during an interview. That was a big plus, out in the bayous of the Florida panhandle, where mosquitoes and other bugs could make life m
Rivers and the students thought they were watching the Air Force spray DDT to kill mosquitoes Documents show that gallons of the defoliants Agent Orange, Agent Purple, and Agent White w program, the Air Force sprayed a test area on the base with more dioxin than any similar area years was not widely known then or even today. Only in the last several years has the docume Air Force scientist for more than 15 years at Eglin. Young oversaw a huge research project eva base affected its soil, water, plants, fish, and animals.
In Vietnam during the war, a typical mission disseminated 14.8 kg of Agent Orange per hectare intercepted by forest canopy, and some of it was destroyed by the sunlight. But at Eglin, where had been removed from the spray area. Young recently wrote that each hectare at Eglin receiv The spraying went on from 1962 to 1970. The test area was three kilometers square.
Eglin was one of several key military installations involved with Operation Ranch Hand and pos Bear, the unofficial Operation Ranch Hand mascot, proclaimed, Only you can prevent a forest spray equipment, and testing the spray systems and spray patterns.
Spray systems were tested in an area divided into four grids. From June 1962 through June 19 amounts of defoliants on the area. During that time 75,000 liters of Agent Orange, 61,200 liters Agent Blue rained onto the base. There were 155,000 kg sprayed of the active ingredients in t sprayed was between 5.6 and eight pounds, an enormous amount since it is one of the more to generally measured in parts per trillion.
In the late 1960s, Air Force officials became concerned about the ramifications of spraying diox personnel involved with the test program expressed concern about potential ecological and en test programs, Young wrote later in an Air Force technical report. Officials overseeing the tes
so long as it was used in Vietnam. James Clary, who worked at Eglin and helped design the sp Daschle: When we [military scientists] initiated the herbicide program in the 1960s, we were a herbicide. We were even aware that the military formulation had a higher dioxin concentration manufacture. However, because the material was to be used on the enemy, none of us were
But when it started to be sprayed in enormous quantities on an American base, some Air Force spraying. Their concern doesnt seem to have been motivated only by worry about ecological a by worry that the government could be liable for damages caused by the spraying. Internal Air who believed their crops had been decimated by the spraying. The military was interested in di air when sprayed and how it affected area plants and animals.
A memo from an Air Force chemical engineer in June 1968 explained that personnel were inve defoliants traveled when sprayed and, if so, where they went. The Air Force is vitally concerne and off the Eglin Reservation that might be created by defoliant testing, he wrote. This conce by cotton farmers of a surrounding county claiming damage to their cotton fields due to previou
To study the ramifications of the spraying, the Air Force in 1968 created a research unit at Egli areas as chemistry, microbiology, plant science, and zoology. They worked for at least four yea investigator, stayed at Eglin for the entire 15 years of the study. In what would be considered Chemical Company, one of the manufacturers of the herbicides. Dow, which was ultimately su chemicals were found to cause serious harm to plants, animals, or people. A U.S. Air Force Ac claiming they were the best qualified to recognize and access the ecological effects caused by
The first study of the impact of Agent Orange at Eglin began in late summer of 1969, when six indicated significant concentrations of herbicides and scientists found toxins leaching up to th dioxin, 1,500 parts per trillion, were found in the test area. An ecological survey, conducted fro including mice, rats, three types of birds, and three types of fish. Spiders, crickets, and grubs a found in about one-third of the different species studied. The levels of the toxin were about the
In 1984, fourteen years after Agent Orange was last sprayed at Eglin, Youngs team concluded some of it was destroyed by sunlight, Young acknowledged that wind and water erosion also might have traveled to in the surrounding area. The spray area was not the only place at Eglin sites as well, and the Air Force concluded in 1992 there were nine locations associated with Ag the Mullet Creek Drum Disposal Site, the Hardstand 7 disposal area, Receiver Landfill, Upper M Drum Disposal, and Field No. 2 Helicopter Loading Area.
Mullet Creek Drum Disposal Site had more than 660 drums in it when the Air Force removed th Another disposal site, Upper Memorial Lake Landfill, which is about half a mile from the Eglin M mile south of the runways, had an estimated 150 drums used for herbicides buried there. On Hardstand 7, which also was a 40-meter circular concrete and asphalt aircraft parking and load pad where herbicide drums were stored and transferred to aircraft. In 1980, dioxin-contaminate Receiver Area Landfill, and then was spread over the spray area. At least as late as 1992, the
An additional 260 feet of contaminated soil also was stored, briefly, at Hardfill 01. And there wa helicopters were loaded with herbicides at Field No. 2.
Eglin Air Force Base is huge and largely undeveloped, and the test and storage areas are in a exist in a vacuum. Creeks flow through the area, ponds are nearby, residential areas abut som Bay and eight miles east of Niceville, Florida.
Eglin Main Base employs about 15,000 workers today and the airfield an additional 6,000. Muc the disposal and spray areas drain into creeks that flow into nearby bayous. Mullet, Trout, and disposal sites and drain into Choctawhatchee Bay.
For many years, the Air Force did little to contain wind and water erosion of the contaminated s had to follow minimal recommendations to prevent erosion, even in the southern half of the s advised mainly to limit off-road vehicles.
I feel that when these minimal recommendations are placed into effect, the Air Force will have future movement of TCCD-contaminated soil, particularly the movement toward Choctawhatch Systems Commands Aerospace Medical Division at Brooks Air Force Base, wrote.
But in fact, dioxin traveled into ponds and streams, was carried by the wind, was absorb fishing and swimming. In 1978, Youngs group studied dioxin levels at Hardstand 7 and contamination up to a third of that down into the dirt one meter deep. They found it had of the contamination occurred before a dike was built. Still, it took until 1985 for the site signs posted to prevent trespassing and fishing.
And it took four more years after the Air Forces 1992 assessment that there was still contamin excavation, and drain pit excavation. In 2001, the Air Force installed three erosion control struc water run-off into Hardstand Pond. In addition, an asphalt cap was installed over contaminated for blockage. Similarly, at Upper Memorial Lake Landfill, soil samples taken in 1992 indicated trace levels of lake itself and found evidence of dioxin in it, as well as in fish caught there. But it was not until
Because water from the spray areas and drum disposal site flows into Mullet, Trout, and Basin dioxins, furans, and other contaminants in the creeks in the 1990s and found them in the surfa
By 1998 enough concern had been raised about the health impact of the Agent Orange sprayin Registry agreed to do a public-health assessment of Eglin Air Force Base. They concluded, in and water areas in the Eglin spray areas, the amount of contamination was very low and the us the public.
But, what the study didnt assess was the health risk to the Air Force personnel who flew the p
or later removed them. And it didnt look at whether any of Ernie Rivers flight students or the A sleeping on earth dampened by Agent Orange were put at risk.
2006 - 2013, Vietnam Veterans of America. All Rights Reserved. 8719 Colesville Road, Suite 100, Silver Spring, MD 20910
From: kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com [mailto:kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com] Sent: Thursday, October 24, 2013 9:17 AM To: Michael Eckstein Cc: 'Helene Van%20Clief'; 'Placido Salazar'; RetAirForceman@aol.com; 'Charles Kelley'; rstanton@stjoelive.com Subject: Re: pressreleasetownhall[2]
The Town Hall meeting in Manville will provide the latest information on Agent Orange s use in Vietnam , the health problems that have followed and the ways that veterans, their children and their families can cope and get aid.
I guess the only meetings anyone (VETERAN ORGANIZATIONS) will ever have and expose, DISCUSS is only AGENT ORANGE USED IN VIETNAM AND NO OTHER PLACE WHERE VETERANS WERE EXPOSED, INCLUDING GUAM, FT. MCCLELLAN, BLUEWATER, AND ALL OTHER US MILITARY BASIS WHILE IN SERVICE.???????????????????? AGENT ORANGE DEATHS ARE ONLY SELECTIVE TO THOSE WHO HAD BOOTS ON THE GROUND????? CARLO The Town Hall meeting will be held at VFW Post 2290, 600 Washington Avenue , Manville , NJ , from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., October 27, 2013.
From: Michae Eckstein <me1065@verizon.net> To: kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com Cc: 'Helene Van%20Clief' <wvets@westnet.com>; 'Placido Salazar' <psalazar9@satx.rr.com>; RetAirForceman@aol.com; 'Charles Kelley' <Sp5kelley2nd94th@aol.com> Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 9:42 PM Subject: RE: pressreleasetownhall[2]
Carlo, Oh, Oh youre shouting. Ill respond to each point you noted. Plus, as I told you I am not the MC. Mike
From: kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com [mailto: kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com ] Sent: Saturday, October 19, 2013 10:43 PM To: Michael Eckstein Cc: Helene Van%20Clief; Placido Salazar; RetAirForceman@aol.com; Charles Kelley Subject: Re: pressreleasetownhall[2]
QUESTIONS NOT ANSWERED ??? 1 - Is it open fro public speaking? The four Panel members will speak first. We also have two speakers who will talk of the AO effects on their children. After that, family members who have children/grandchildren with illnesses and who wish to speak can tell their stories. Remember this whole session is three hours. 2 - QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS?????? Yes, there will be a Q&A session. I am not sure how long it will last. 3 - If so can I have the opportunity to talk about our Agent Orange Group to the IOM in 2012, and what we accomplished. That is where we differ. Of course what all of you did in D.C. was incredible and deserves a venue for discussion. However, this Town Hall Meeting is mainly for our children and grandchildren and some information for veterans and the chance to set up private appointments with a VSO. Leroy,Ralph, Placido, Helene, and Leroy's getting on the map autoammune related AO illness, Carlo, just one correction to your auto-immune related illnesses getting on the map. Look, I am not taking anything away from what was done by all of you who went to D.C. It was a valiant endeavor. But, The Oklahoma Agent Orange Foundation (Mike Sovick, David Carter plus others) have been at the forefront of auto-immune illnesses research for decades. They presented papers to the NAS/IOM in September, 1992 and June,1997. Mike is a friend of mine and his knowledge of auto-immune issues is absolutely amazing. I have their submissions to NAS/IOM.
AND LEROY'S GRAND-CHILD BORN WITH BIRTH DEFECTS? this Town Hall Meeting is mainly for our children and grandchildren SO U DON'T THINK IT WOULD INTEREST ME? WHY BECAUSE I'M NOT CONTAMINATED OR WITH AO CONTAMINATED BORN BIRTH DEFECT CHILDREN? No, I only said that because of what you wrote in an Email to LeRoy.
The only reason to attend any AO meeting from my personal perspective and now 6 years of work, research, documentation and needles to say many, many thousands of personal dollars is to continue to expose the facts, truths, and reveal the AO exposure of the "LEFT OUT AGENT ORANGE VETS, STATE-SIDE "NON BOOTS ON THE GROUND" "NON IN COUNTRY" AND THE INEQUITY OF THE 1991 AGENT-ORANGE ACT 102-4 EXCLUDING THOSE VETS THAT SERVED, WERE EXPOSED, FORGOTTEN, NEVER INCLUDED IN ANY VETERANS ORGANIZATION, VA, OR CONGRESSIONAL DISCUSSION FOR AO IN SERVICE MEDICAL DISABILITY HEALTH CARE COVERAGE AND CARE.
BEING SELECTIVE ON THE POST RELATED AO ASSOCIATED ILLNESSES MAY NOT INTEREST ME? REALLY???? Maybe you got me on that one. JUST CURIOUS TO KNOW HOW THE VVA CAN HOLD AN AGENT ORANGE TOWN MEETING AND ONLY ISOLATE IT TO A DISCUSSION ON BIRTH DEFECTS???? The crux of this meeting is the children and grandchildren. SELECTIVE ASSOCIATION AO VVA MEETINGS??????????? I am not denying that. To do what you wish would be at least a full day, maybe more. WE SHOULD TALK ABOUT IT, Anytime.
Hi Carlo, I thought, rather than call, I would send this reply to everyone cc'd on your message to me. Yes, it is a real live meeting. Will it interest you? I don't think so. The whole theme behind this Meeting is the legacy of birth defects in our children and grandchildren. As you know, I had chosen to concentrate on birth defects and neurological disorders due to AO exposure through the 25 or so years of my involvement in this issue. This Town Hall Meeting advances what I do. I do not speak for others. As this Meeting is a State Council run affair, I am a participant. Unlike Atlantic City , where I ran the two day AO seminar the way I wanted it run. I would never kiss your ass, but without you and what you did, it would never have been as successful as it was. All I'm saying for the 27th, the concentration will be mainly about the children. Your dedication to the issue that you have settled on is a positive endeavor. I will help whenever I can. Sincerely, Mike P.S. - There is no way that I can do western PA on Saturday, the 26th. As it is, right now, I can barely walk or stand. Don't cry just yet. Sent from my Verizon Wireless 4G LTE DROID
kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com wrote: OK, it's a real meeting. OK, How are you going to interest me?
Is it open fro public speaking? If so can I have the opportunity to talk about our Agent Orange Group to the IOM in 2012, and what we accomplished. Leroy,Ralph, Placido, Helene, and Leroy's getting on the map auto- ammune related AO illness, STATE-SIDE EXPOSURE ON GUAM AND OTHER US MILITARY BASES, AO CASES WON ON FT, McCLELLAN? -------------------------------------------On Thu, 10/17/13, Michael Eckstein <me1065@verizon.net> wrote: Subject: pressreleasetownhall[2] To: "'Carlo Albanese'" < kristofflukasproductions@yahoo.com > Date: Thursday, October 17, 2013, 7:28 PM
The Faces of
October is Agent Orange Awareness Month, and the New Jersey State Council of the Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) will hold a town hall meeting on Sunday , Oct.27, 2013 at the Manville, NJ VFW Hall to educate veterans and the public on the many faces of the toxic defoliant and its lasting legacy of illness and health problems.
Millions of American soldiers were exposed to Agent Orange during the Vietnam War, and many have suffered and continue to suffer from cancer, neurological diseases and other maladies because of the dioxin-containing compound. But Agent Orange also has taken a terrible toll on the children and grandchildren of our veterans.
Today, more than five decades after the spraying began in the war, birth defects, cancer and other illnesses are still appearing in the descendants of veterans, said Dennis Beauregard , New Jersey State Council President. These are innocent victims. Veterans, their families and the public need to know the Agent Orange facts so that we can get victims the help they deserve.
The Town Hall meeting in Manville will provide the latest information on Agent Orange s use in Vietnam , the health problems that have followed and the ways that veterans, their children and their families can cope and get aid.
The Town Hall meeting will be held at VFW Post 2290, 600 Washington Avenue , Manville , NJ , from 2:00 to 5:00 p.m., October 27, 2013.
Contact: Mike Eckstein, Chair, Agent Orange/Dioxin Committee NJSC VVA at: Phone 201-803-2943
me1065@verizon.net
More information on Agent Orange and its toxic consequences can also be found at the special Agent Orange section of the VVAs website, http://www.vva.org/Committees/AgentOrange/
The Vietnam Veterans of America has been a leading advocate for the fair treatment for affected veterans and their families. The VVA is the only national Vietnam veterans organization congressionally chartered and exclusively dedicated to Vietnam-era veterans and their families. VVA is organized as a not-for-profit corporation and is tax exempt under Section 501( C) (19) of the Internal Revenue Service Code.