Agent Orange got another
1966/1968.
I know he hauled men, munitions, etc into many places, across An Khe pass, Pleiku, just to name a couple.
He rotated home just days before the Tet offensive began in Jan 68.
He was active in a couple Vietnam veterans groups and was part of an Honor Guard for several years.
He was always proud of his service and his contribution.
He had lost a kidney to AO, ten years ago, and a short 3 weeks ago the cancer came back with a vengeance in multiple places. He was brought home with hospice less than a week ago and had a couple days of clarity to say his goodbyes before crossing the divide yesterday morning. I am told he had an easy crossing, which he deserved.
He was a good man.
RIP Ronnie.
Mule
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Two of my stepbrothers and one of my brothers were over there also. My oldest stepbrother died several years ago from the effects of Agent Orange on his lungs. It was a horrible way to die.Joe
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So sorry for your loss, mule. That damn war just keeps killing. 0 -
In reality, when we were there being exposed to it, we thought that a) it was not dangerous stuff and b) since we were being shot at every day, the prospect of what might happen to us 50 years down the road was pretty moot.
In my area near the Cambodian border they used Agents Orange, Blue, and White (yes, there were more than Orange) and after I returned to the states, I served at Eglin AFB in Florida where they tested AO - and several times I was ankle deep in contaminated sand while escorting "investigative reporters" to the test sites.
(When news crews asked "Where's the worst contamination?" and I pointed down to their own shoes, it made their faces literally turn pale. I loved doing that.)
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I have three friends from high school who were in combat in Vietnam in the Marines, and they have cancer from Agent Orange.
Donnie and Greg have already passed away.0 -
God Bless ALL who Served.
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Some gave all. I’ve lost three friends to agent Orange. Another is fighting bladder and bone cancer due to the exposure. 0 -
Very sad Mule. May your cousin RIP. 
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My dear friend Bill who served in Normandy passed away last fall at 93. We shot together big bore in NY and CT and he was a 03 Springfield guy. His son who served in Nam passed away about three years earlier from Agent Orange. Then Bills wife died. He was very close to his son, Bill Jr. and built his house. I think the death of his son killed him. RIP Ronnie. 0 -
I am saddened to hear of the losses that continue to this very day from the so called Vietnam Police Action politicians started and never let the military finish. 0 -
Why I joined the legion
One of my best friends at work, hell almost my only friend at work, at the roofing company was Steve Anderson who served in Vietnam. He was a dog handler in the military police. The dogs were so hated and feared by the VC that there was a large bounty equal to half a year's wages on the dog's ears or their handler's billet insignia. The rule was that when you got your PCS orders you were not to see your dog again, the relationship was ending and the dog would have to get used to a new handler. Steve got his orders and went straight to the kennel and got his dog out. The sergeant said, "Hey you can't do that!" Steve replied, "OK, you can try to put him back in the kennel then." The Sergeant thought better of it and let Steve and his dog have a few last hours of fun, not work.
Steve was having a problem with dizzy spells, which is very serious for people who work work from ladders and scaffolding. (Steve was in the sheet metal department, not a roofer.) He went to see the doctor who ordered a CAT scan. When they were done with the scan they made him sit in a wheel chair and he knew something serious was up. I went to see him in the hospital and said the stupidest thing, “Tell me they know what’s wrong and how to fix it.” He had 2 tumors in his brain, one on the lungs and one on some other internal organ.I desperately wanted to do something to help. My part time job was working in a gun shop, so I put together raffle for 2 rifles. I had 2000 tickets printed to sell at $5 each. I thought I would be able to leave tickets at the Legion and VFW posts and they would help sell them.
I went to the Legion and the club manager asked me, is he a Legionnaire? I said that he was but had let it lapse. She asked if I was a legionnaire. I said I’m not but I could be. She said they would not take the tickets to sell but if I were a member I could come in to sell them. I said, “Sign me up.”
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I've got two friends that came home, out of dozens, that are still alive after exposure to that crap. Neither one of them is in very good shape from it.
Most don't know, the DEA used it in Northern California on pot grows in Humboldt and Trinity counties back in the 1970's too. The news reports said they were using Paraquat. Those news stories stopped abruptly when the DEA supply container was broken into by some VN vets, and found the AO they were really using. They burned that, and shot the helicopters used to spray it, full of holes.They weren't very discriminate about where they sprayed it either. Cancer and birth defect rates in the people that lived there while they were doing it, were extremely high, and still to this day, never reported on.
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Finally caught up to a friend two yrs ago 0 -
And history repeats itself with a new wave of cancers and morbid disease in the Veterans who did Desert Shield/Desert Storm and OIF/OEF.
Cancers, ALS, systemic shutdown with unknown cause are just some of the new health battles. Fighting the bureaucracy to get an admission of service connection. It was brutal with denial upon denial and repeated requests for paperwork we had submitted multiple times.
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My next door neighbor and childhood friend , Gene Coor , died s few years ago from this . His last couple of years were pretty gruesome. He was one of the lucky ones in that the va was very proactive in his treatments .
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