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From Jack D. Hook.
"My husband died as a result of Agent Orange. The government
is not doing a good job of telling Vietnam War veterans about
the dangers they will face in their later years."
 Audrea and Isaac Anderson (photo: special to news-press.com) |
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12070384/1005/NEWS0103
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War vets kept in the dark on Agent Orange
By Sam Cook
scook@news-press.com
Audrea Anderson has been a spokeswoman much of her career in higher education, yet she hasn't brought a message more important than now.
"My husband died as a result of Agent Orange,'' she says. "The government is not doing a good job of telling Vietnam War veterans about the dangers they will face in their later years.''
Isaac Anderson, 61, a Fort Myers native who served as county and circuit judge for 26 years, died Dec. 15, 2007, after battling prostate cancer.
"It makes me so sad to know that Isaac did not know what caused his condition,'' says Anderson, 61, associate vice president for community relations and marketing at Florida Gulf Coast University. "It was all a puzzle to him.''
"Any ground personnel during those years when Agent Orange was sprayed were exposed from 1962 to 1971,'' Anderson says. "Our Vietnam veterans need to get screened and see if they are in danger.
"They are eligible for treatment and benefits.''
The military developed herbicide Agent Orange to deny enemy cover by stripping trees and shrubbery in Southeast Asia.
A research paper published in 1970 detailed the dangers of Agent Orange. Its use was discontinued in 1971, but it was too late for many of 1.5 million American soldiers exposed to cancers and diabetes.
Dr. Robert A. Wascher, director of surgical oncology at Newark (N.J.) Beth Israel Medical Center, writes the link between Agent Orange and prostate cancer is strong.
"Agent Orange contains chemical contaminants known as dioxins, which are organic chemicals that tend to persist in the environment, and within exposed humans and animals, for many years.''
These dioxins, Wascher writes, are referred to as "persistent organic pollutants."
"Isaac was fine until March of 2007, when prostate cancer came back,'' she says. "The doctor said the malignant strand was a very different kind of cancer - highly aggressive and highly resistant to treatment.
"It was different from the original cancer.''
Researchers found veterans exposed to Agent Orange have a 48 percent increased risk of prostate cancer recurrence following surgery than their unexposed peers, according to a May 2007 report on the Medical News Today Web site.
Anderson says the judge received treatment at the Moffitt Cancer Center in Tampa and M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston.
Neither arrested the disease.
His fight lasted nine months.
VA SOLVES PUZZLE
The puzzle continued until David Lockhart, veterans service counselor for the Department of Veterans Affairs in Fort Myers, saw that the judge had died.
"I was a juror in Judge Anderson's court in the early 1990s,'' says Lockhart, 62. "The obituary mentioned he was Vietnam veteran and died of prostate cancer.''
Lockhart put one and one together and got Agent Orange.
He contacted Judge James Adams, a friend of the Andersons, and asked him to contact the judge's widow.
"I was totally shocked when I got the phone call,'' Anderson says. "I had no idea his disease could be service-related.''
Lockhart, who served three tours of Vietnam and has Type 2 Diabetes, told Anderson she was probably eligible for death benefits from the government.
Anderson filed a claim for Dependency and Indemnity Compensation in January. The VA granted it in October, retroactive to her husband's death. She also is eligible for Dependents' Educational Assistance, a health-benefits program, Armed Forces Commissary and Exchange privileges.
"As you can see, I learned about the government's responsibility by accident,'' she says. "If Isaac had not been a high-profile person of this community, chances are that I would not have learned about this at all.''
Anderson says the government's method of disseminating Agent Orange information is archaic and inadequate.
"I understand that the government sent notices to the American Legions and other veteran haunts,'' she says. "But many veterans do not frequent those places.''
A document Anderson received from the VA in St. Petersburg confirms her theory.
"We sent a copy of this letter to your representative, American Legion, whom you can also contact if you have any questions or need assistance,'' writes B.C. Gibbard, veterans service center manager.
"Vietnam veterans are not joiners like soldiers were from World War II and the Korean War,'' Lockhart says. "When we came back, participation was not as widespread in veterans service clubs.''
GET THE WORD OUT
Lockhart says VA announcements need more circulation.
"The word does not get out as well as it should,'' he says. "Judge Anderson had prostate cancer in 2000. He should have been receiving benefits with that initial diagnosis.''
Lockhart says the judge's visibility made him newsworthy, which alerted the VA.
"But what about old Snuffy out there in North Fort Myers?'' Lockhart asks. "He's just going to die. And Mrs. Snuffy isn't going to get her dependency and indemnity compensation.
"That's kind of the rub.''
Anderson says enlightening veterans to treatment and benefits would be a start, but the government has a lot of making up to do for Agent Orange.
"Shame on our U.S. government for taking lightly those who risked their lives,'' she says. "For the government to put soldiers at risk is unforgivable.''
Exposed veterans brought a successful class-action lawsuit in 1979. It was settled in 1984.
"Any veterans of the Vietnam War need to go in and be tested,'' Anderson says. "That's the whole point of this story - to get medical care and benefits.''
Her message is clear.
"My husband was such a caring person with strong feelings about personal rights that I know he would feel a sense of satisfaction knowing that he helped others,'' Anderson says.
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posted by Larry Scott
Founder and Editor
VA Watchdog dot Org
http://www.vawatchdog.org/
Please share this article with every Veteran Org, Veteran and their Families today !!
| Comments (7) | |
| | First... click the "expand" button in the upper right corner. This gives you a larger work space. Second, get a spell-checker for your browser. Firefox has one built-in. The tools are there... you gotta hook up to them. Let me know if you need more info.... VA Watchdog 12/7 7:58pm |
| | In 1967 I helped spray this stuff along with the rest of my aviation company flying SOG missions over the border. As the years have passed I have lost many comrades to this killer and have felt a lot of guilt about having sprayed this toxic application. It did kill foilage, it also kills people as we know now. Back then we were assured it would not harm people. Another lie bites the dust! James Davies 12/8 11:39am |
| | This is a sad stroy.It hit me particulary hard.Next Monday I have to be at the Mayo Clinic for test and possible treatment. I have recurred PC and my Dr. here said he could no longer treat it.It is very agressive and my PSA is trippling itself every 3 mos.Is this what I have to look forward to?My Dr. would not give a referral,so I went to my Senator for help.They promised they would help and also get my claim pushed through that has been sitting there for over 2 years.Please all of you vets from Vietnam,get regular check ups for this cancer and don't delay treatment if you are forund to have any Proatate problems. God Bless. Jim 12/8 10:04am |
| | As posted numerous times on this site, the rule-making procedure prescribed by the Agent Orange Act for the Secretary’s exclusive use in determining diseases warranting a presumption of service connection and those diseases that do not warrant that presumption has been abused/ignored by each Secretary/Acting Secretary since Principi. The Secretaries’ failure to publish negative determinations and scientific explanations validating those determinations in the Federal Register, per mandate, is unmistakable confirmation of the VA’s violations. Adjudicators, aware of the absence of the Secretaries’ mandated validation for his determinations, exhibit malicious disregard of the explicitness of 5USC §552, “No person may be adversely affected by a matter that is required to be published in the Federal Register and not so published.” With reference to another story in today’s lineup concerning the comprehension level of VA supervisors, ONE MORE EXAMPLE OF WHY THE VA CLAIM SYSTEM IS BROKEN: a VA supervisor at the Indianapolis Regional Office informed me on Friday that VA/BVA adjudicators are not legally bound to comply with §552 or any other law if not specifically instructed by VACO to do so. If not intended for adjudicators' compliance, does the statute have any reasonable application or meaning? Vietnam veterans have not been kept in the dark about Agent Orange; the VA’s actions/inactions demonstrate an agenda that disregards the Vietnam veteran, violates the law, and falsely adjudicates claims not with consideration of the entirety of available and applicable evidence but rather with the evidence the VA chooses to consider. The perceived darkness can be attributed to the VA’s perpetual evasion of their legal improprieties – there is no rational or compelling legal reason for the VA to escape accountability for their blatant violations. swilliamwalter 12/8 10:05am |
| | It's sad to read articles like this one. In many cases, the spread of the toxin in exposed victims is different for many Vets based upon the status of each Veteran's immune system at the time of his or her exposure to the toxin. In typical fashion, the government's current approach for analyzing each Veteran's exposure is based upon an incorrect assumption that all Vet's immune systems was the same at the time of their exposure to agent orange and other herbicides used by the military in Vietnam. To correctly analyze the problem, the VA and the IOM must study the problem from the perspective of each one of the exposed Veterans (micro) and not from the old, subjective and incomplete spray maps that still are in existence (macro) in an attempt to identify military units that may or may not have been in those locations at the exact time of the spraying and which way the wind was blowing on that day. Besides, the toxins were spread in many ways other than spraying from the air. This is an impossible task for the government to undertake 40+ years later! They should just save the research money and the time by providing the Vietnam Vets with their disability benefits and accepting them into the healthcare system now.Also, while I'm at it, it is obvious that the current list of diseases relating to agent orange exposure is too few, there are many more diseases that should be on that list. The evidence of this is becoming more apparent as we Vietnam Veterans age. (I feel like a guinea pig for the government and medical science!) This approach would be the most just and honorable thing to do for our Vets, but that does not appear to be the government's objective. Why is it that only other governments "get it?" The cost of war does not end when the last soldier boards the plane for home. Ron in Ohio 12/8 6:50am |
| | Sorry to say, usually the guys that need help the most are the ones who get by-passed by the system. dawhite5348 12/7 8:18pm |
| | soyyr to say that the VA will lie, stall, misinform, misfile, shred or any other thing they coan think of to accoimplised their misson fo denying ans many benfits as possibe to as many veterrns as they possible can. It is a good thing gone so worng it is beyond belief. littlejohn 12/7 7:50pm |
| | You know Larry this comment thing is worse than the other no way to edit when you make mistake. Chemo has resulted in my typing look like I am VA employee unless I can spell check.. littlejohn 12/7 7:54pm |
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