Not With A Whimper, But a Growing Roar
There are few here who haven’t heard about Agent Orange. This post may highlight a new aspect for some.
However, there IS a sort of sidebar to the primary discussion. It has to do with the “Blue Water Navy” operating in The Gulf of Tonkin.
There is a growing body of evidence that we were exposed by simply drinking distilled water and showering in the same when our saltwater intakes sucked up the run-off from shore.
I won’t bore you folks with the studies and press clippings about Congressional Bills pending here. But after decades the pendulum is swinging. Considering the current state of of the DVA and the congress inability to do much useful my hopes ain’t high for a resolution, BUT the clamor is growing.
Category: Geezer Alert!
Here’s hoping the government does the right thing and provides the necessary benefits and approval process for anyone injured in the contamination from that special chemistry.
Saw this today. Quite a few “blue water” ships operated in the river deltas and are included on the list of units exposed. Something like 300 ships.
http://www.publichealth.va.gov/exposures/agentorange/shiplist/list.asp
Please call Congressman Jeff Millers office and ask that he sign the discharge petition for HR 543
Ah … The multi-staged seawater distilling process used by the US Navy for many years in my opinion, as a fully qualified EOOW, is not a source for Agent Orange ingestion.
When dealing with run off, dillution and a theroy of subsequent suction into a system designed to separate brine from seawater and then distill (boil in two vacuum stages) the remaining water into pure potable water within a close tolerance of parts per million (ppm), it is highly unlikely that anyone received such contamination in this manner.
But what the hell would I know?
However, I can be swayed if an engineer has weighed in on this.
BTW … Clearly … The contamination and ingestion happened, finding the source is important. But what is more important is treating those with the scientifically and meddically diagnosed symptoms.
Claiming to be on a boat or a ship and claiming to be sick does not work in my Navy. Show me proof of both …
There is one such Phony CPO that comes to mind!
Carry on!
Yes, well, Master Chief, he claims he was ingesting Agent Orange (meaning drinking it?) and jet fuel while he was on that ship of his.
Myself, I never even imagined that AO could get directly into the fresh water system through the ships distillation process (shrug), but jet fuel?
Ever hang around when choppers are taking off and landing? I recall clouds of seemingly half burnt JP5 that certainly coated my glasses and left a taste in my mouth for hours???☺
I got ‘that taste’ in my mouth when I unintentionally sprayed myself with weed killer. I spent two hours rinsing and spitting into the sink.
It’s so simple…if you get into 5 auto accidents in your life, and later on have a bad back…the bad back was caused by the driver with the deepest pockets. And the deeper the pockets, the greater your indignation.
(Well, not you. But, you know, in general.)
Doesn’t even have to be a liar or a faker…people can get themselves worked up into quite a lather, and really mean it, if there’s free money on the other side.
Amen. Akin to the idiots on the GW (?) who were off the Japanese coast a few years back when Fukushima melted down and are suing everyone and everything for radiation poisoning, despite no evidence of any significant exposure.
Sorry guys, but evaporators were normally secured well before entering port due to particulates, and if they shut those down 3-4 hours before entering port, runoff isn’t the issue.
Er, um… I gotta wonder if that was a the policy in the 60’s? Regardless, NHSparky, Tell the Aussies that runoff isn’t the issue. Their VN Blue Water Navy vets were given coverage a few years ago.
MCPO, I wasn’t a snipe myself, and I don’t really have a dog in this fight. However, there appears to be a series of questions that need answering.
It is likely, as you seem to suggest, that there ARE phonies out there trying to get on some gravy train; However, as you also noted, there are also some good men suffering from diseases that may well be linked to AO exposure, but find themselves excluded and asking WHY. There is the only point of my post.
Agreed 100 percent. I was only pointing out the unlikely scenerio of the flash distiller while agreeing symptoms of ingestions and confirmed exposures shouldd be treated and compensated for.
As to to wit et al all other Phony CPO’s at sea and ashore … They can all kMRIA!
My first six weeks in Vietnam, I operated out of a base camp at Phuoc Vinh. I found out a few years ago that agent orange was stored there. Has since entered the ground water there. Many of the Vietnamese are suffering from the contamination.
I know I drank the water while I was there. So far so good no adverse effects. Still I think about it often!
With the turds we have running the show now the money will be forked over to the Vietnamese before our veterans see it.
Anyone near Danang would be directly exposed to agent orange all of the spray booms on spray planes leaked constantly and there were accidental dumps six miles out to sea at 7500 ft altitude so anyone outside on a naval vessel would be more likely to be exposed than military support personnel in building yet they qualify for treatment as well as any lay over flights even if only an hour. Why not test the USS Intrepid for Agent Orange after all it was found on 123 after the war all of these statements are factual